Home >
Date(s)： 2022/01/06
Time： 10:00~12:00
Venue： Archives 1st Conference Hall＋Virtual Meeting
Speaker：Dr. Peter Kwok-Fai Law (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica)
Disscussant： Prof. Albert Wu (Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica)
Organizer： IMH
視訊會議連結：https://asmeet.webex.com/asmeet/j.php?MTID=mbde0da10e33ab2f13e14e6c1066eb85c 會議號：2519 083 9102 密碼：3MAu2rg5 Webex Meetings 操作說明及FAQ Abstract: This article, which highlights the religious origin of early Chinese scouting, scrutinises the connections between scouting, Christianity, and cultural imperialism in early twentieth-century China. It provides insight into the history of Chinese youth by examining how British missionary scoutmasters, who had strong criticism of Chinese parenting, introduced an alternate model of adolescence with a “civilising” mission at Griffith John College—a mission school founded by the London Missionary Society in Hankou for Chinese male teenagers. This article not only contends that Chinese scouting was initially designed as an effective means to practice Christianity in evangelical ministries, but also argues that from the missionaries’ “civilising” perspectives many Chinese boy scouts were equipped with “fine virtues” which led them to become “good citizens” and often helped them “overcome” Chinese social customs and conventions. These expatriate Christian workers sought to cultivate the “good character” of Chinese youths and trained them to be “good citizens” as evident in how they promoted scouting. Finally, it reveals that some missionary scoutmasters, who were caught in classic colonial contradictions and in a Euro-centric cosmopolitan worldview, attempted to sidestep or downplay Chinese nationalism when educating Chinese male adolescents.