Hierarchical Modernization: Tianjin's Gong Shang College as a Model for Catholic Community in North China

This chapter focuses on the role of the Gong Shang College in Tianjin as a model for Catholic community in north China. It suggests that the French Catholic founders of the college had the twin goals of training French-speaking Chinese managers and engineers for French businesses in China and serving as the best agent of French propaganda in China. It discusses the observation that the students who studied at the college during the 1930s were those willing to submit to hierarchical Jesuit attitudes and argues that this produced an apolitical school atmosphere.

This chapter focuses on the role of the Gong Shang College in Tianjin as a model for Catholic community in north China. It suggests that the French Catholic founders of the college had the twin goals of training French-speaking Chinese managers and engineers for French businesses in China and serving as the best agent of French propaganda in China. It discusses the observation that the students who studied at the college during the 1930s were those willing to submit to hierarchical Jesuit attitudes and argues that this produced an apolitical school atmosphere.