5 The Transformation of Chinese University Culture: History, Present, and Path

People today invest and place their hopes in universities, because university is where the next generation is cultivated, and it represents the future of every country and region. This chapter conducts a simple comparison of the historical tradition of Chinese higher education culture with the historical tradition of Western higher education culture, to see what particular characteristics the former has, to see what its mutual relationship is to the entirety of traditional Chinese culture, and to see what its influence is on contemporary Chinese university culture. It clarifies the circumstances behind the worsening of the current Chinese university culture. The chapter explores what strategies we should adopt to fix the drawbacks of current Chinese university culture and realize a beneficial interaction between the transformation of university culture and the transformation of the social culture as a whole. It argues that the university management system is the key to university culture. Keywords: Chinese university culture; traditional Chinese culture; university management system