Book Talk: ๐๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ-๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ช๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ
Author: Shiuon Chu is an Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
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About the book: After the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905, what made examinations a trusted method of selection in China and Taiwan? Reinventing Examination and the State traces the ideological evolution of civil service and state-organized educational examinations in twentieth-century China and Taiwan. In the making of the modern Chinese civil service, the concept of examination as a basic power of government was institutionalized as the Examination Yuan in the 1930s and was written into the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, which remains in effect in Taiwan today. Meanwhile, two models of educational examination, one of gatekeeping school graduates and the other of mobilizing human resources, emerged during WWII and constituted a repertoire of educational policies shared by the Republic of China and the Peopleโs Republic of China after the 1949 divide. The authority of examination, Shiuon Chu argues, was by no means a natural development from the long history of imperial China but was in fact contingent on specific political maneuverings over the course of the twentieth century. Unlike the imperial examinations, which heavily rewarded participants with titles and fame, modern examinations shaped new concepts about the responsibility of the individual vis-ร -vis the state, and this shift contributed to the resilience of the state during times of significant political and social change.