“A hundred years ago, Dewey came to China. His visit brought provocative ideas to Chinese academia then and made significant contribution to China’s intellectual enlightenment. However, it was true that Chinese people in radical change were attracted by a more revolutionary program of social change, rather than the ameliorate pragmatism. Therefore, Deweyan fever soon vanished. Until the period of the 1980s and the 1990s, Chinese academia showed new interests in Dewey. Then, Chinese scholars realized that Dewey was not only a world-class philosopher and educator, but also Dewey’s pragmatism shared many commonalities with Chinese traditional thoughts. More studies emerged on the dialogues between Deweyan philosophy, his philosophy of education and Chinese traditional thoughts. This book is a most updated and outstanding collection responding to this recent trend of Deweyan study. It includes works of the most excellent scholars in the related fields. The themes are about Dewey and China, Deweyan philosophy and its relation to education, etc. This is a must-read scholarly book with great value for readers who are concerned with these topics.”
– CHEN Yajun, Director of Dewey Center at Fudan University, Professor of Philosophy at Zhejiang University, China
“In recent decades, an increasing amount and depth of dialogues between Western and Eastern traditions and perspectives has immensely enriched and advanced the field of international Dewey and pragmatism studies. As the director of the Dewey Center at the University of Cologne, Germany, I have had the pleasure of participating in numerous such conversations through cooperation with the Chinese Dewey Center at Fudan University in Shanghai, the US-American Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and many others. The scope of how productive and challenging these dialogues are and how much they invite to a mutual reconsideration, reinterpretation and reconstruction of one’s own philosophical and educational perspectives and backgrounds has deeply impressed me. The present book is a perfect example for the inspiring results of such intellectual exchanges. One hundred years after John Dewey’s two years long stay in China, the contributions gathered here explore his historical impact on Chinese thought and education as well as the immense potentialities of dialogues between Western and Eastern traditions like pragmatism, Confucianism and Buddhism. They thereby highlight many important philosophical, educational, social, cultural, political, technological and ecological implications for more sustainable ways into a common global future.”
– Stefan NEUBERT, Professor of Education, Director of the Dewey Center, University of Cologne, Germany
“This volume constitutes an absorbing study of the synergies, and differences, between John Dewey’s philosophical outlook and Chinese philosophical traditions, particularly as they bear on contemporary educational thought and practice. The contributors are leading scholars of Dewey and of Chinese philosophy of education. They provide an enlightening comparative perspective that is informed by wide-ranging historical and philosophical analysis. They show why the interaction between Deweyan and Chinese ideas can become a transaction in which all such ideas are transformed in a truly generative manner. The book is a goldmine of insights and the contributors raise numerous questions for further research. It is a timely text in the scholarly world’s promising efforts to bring Chinese and Western educational thought into a deeper dialogue.”
– David T. HANSEN, Past-President of the John Dewey Society and Weinberg Professor of Philosophy and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
“This book on John Dewey’s contribution to education in China embodies significant works by scholars in multiple disciplines from both China and the United States. Its publication on the centennial anniversary of his departure from China is to be celebrated for its timeliness. It surely marks a huge milestone in the research on this topic.”
– ZHANG Binxian, Professor of History of Education at Beijing Normal University, China