Academic Self-Colonization and the Crisis of Higher Education in Taiwan and Mainland China
The phenomenon of academic self-colonization prevailing in the contemporary scientific communities of both Taiwan and mainland China can be traced to the three ideologies popular among Chinese intellectuals since the May Fourth Movement in the early twent
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Academic Self-Colonization and the Crisis of Higher Education in Taiwan and Mainland China Kwang-Kuo Hwang
Abstract The phenomenon of academic self-colonization prevailing in the contemporary scientific communities of both Taiwan and mainland China can be traced to the three ideologies popular among Chinese intellectuals since the May Fourth Movement in the early twentieth century, namely, social Darwinism, scientism, and anti-traditionalism. Under the ideology of scientism, Chinese scientific communities concentrated on the indoctrination of various research methodologies in graduate education, while the neglect of the Western philosophy of science led them to ignore issues related to ontology and epistemology. As a consequence, most Chinese researchers tend to follow Western paradigms of research without significant contribution to theoretical construction.
6.1
Cultural Origin of Academic Self-Colonization
The cultural and historical origin of academic self-colonization, common in both Taiwan and mainland China, can be traced to the prevailing scientism in the era before and after the May Fourth Movement (Kwok 1965). Due to political chaos caused by civil wars among war loads in the early years of the Republic of China after the death of President Yuan Shikai in 1916, three popular ideologies prevailed among Chinese intellectuals, namely, social Darwinism, scientism and antitraditionalism. A radical leader of the New Cultural Movement, Chen Duxiu (1917), argued that only democracy and science could save China from the crisis of dissolution. It seemed to him that traditional Chinese culture was essentially different from Western culture and they were absolutely incommensurable. Therefore, Chen (1919) advocated that “Mr. Confucius” must be replaced by two foreign Bodhisattvas, “Mr. Science” and “Mr. Democracy.” For him, democracy was a vital weapon for frustrated youths to criticize the political chaos of China, whereas science was a
K.-K. Hwang (*) Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 C.P. Chou, J. Spangler (eds.), Chinese Education Models in a Global Age, Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects 31, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0330-1_6
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crucial instrument to discard all the “darkness of ignorance and superstition.” As a consequence, Westernization implied an ideology of radical anti-traditionalism (Lin 1979).
6.1.1
The Ideology of Scientism
“Ideology” in sociology means a set of conscious and/or unconscious holistic and systematic ideas and beliefs regarding power, society and their relationships with the universe. It attempts to integrate and to subsume all components within the system under one or a few core values. Nevertheless, it is unnecessary for such a system to be examined for its truth or falsehood; the formation and acceptance of ideologies has nothing to do with their factual accuracy. A belief system of ideology is usually closed and exclusiv
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