“Seeking Truth”? True and Not True—On the Equivocal Position of Hangchow Christian College in the History of Zhejiang University

Shen Hong (Professor of English, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University; HYI Visiting Scholar 2018-19)
Chair/discussant: David Wang (Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University)

Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Hangchow Christian College used to be one of the thirteen Protestant missionary colleges and university in China that were abolished in 1952. As the earliest institute of higher learning in Zhejiang Province, it once helped the local government in founding Qiushi Academy—the predecessor of Zhejiang University. Since 1952, a large part of the former Hangchow Christian College was also merged into Zhejiang University. Today the university authorities have a mixed feeling towards this former missionary college. On the one hand, Zhejiang University enjoys the tremendous material advantages brought about by Hangchow Christian College, but on the other hand, it refuses to acknowledge the latter’s contributions and help in its early history. The present talk aims to make an assessment of the equivocal position of Hangchow Christian College in the history of Zhejiang University.