To Educate the Chinese Youth: Japanese and Taiwanese Teachers in Late Qing China, 1901–1911

Abstract: Educational reforms in early twentieth-century East Asia reshaped the transregional movement of people and ideas, as political shifts and colonial policies redefined opportunities for teachers and students. Following the Boxer Uprising, the Qing leadership prioritized education as a means of strengthening the dynasty against Western military and diplomatic pressures. Limited resources and the urgency of modernization led to the strategic recruitment of foreign teachers, particularly from Japan. This initiative brought hundreds of Japanese educators—known as Riben jiaoxi or Nihon kyōshū —into the Qing education system. With the Meiji government eager to expand its influence in China, the appointment of Japanese teachers, such as Hattori Unokichi at the Imperial University's Teachers' College in Beijing, reflected the shared priorities of both Qing and Meiji policymakers. Existing scholarship has largely focused on the role of these Japanese educators within a bilateral framework, highlighting their impact on the shifting cultural dynamics between Qing China and Meiji Japan. However, this study shifts attention to the underexplored contributions of Taiwanese teachers who received Japanese colonial education after 1895. Although far fewer in number than their Japanese counterparts, Taiwanese teachers such as Guo Tingxian and Xie Jieshi secured teaching positions in newly established Qing schools in the first decade of the twentieth century. Their careers and experiences across Taiwan, Japan, and China demonstrate how Qing educational reforms, Japanese colonial policies, and individual aspirations converged to create new professional pathways for educators in early twentieth-century East Asia.