How much did it cost for students to study abroad during the Republic of China?

With the opening up of society and the emphasis on education, the number of Chinese people studying abroad has expanded rapidly in recent years. However, the cost of studying abroad is huge, and it is not an easy burden even for wealthier urban families. So I wanted to look back and see what the cost was like when Chinese people studied abroad in the early years. This is an interesting topic that is close to people's real life.

In the past, it was extremely rare for Chinese people to study abroad. China's culture and science and technology used to stand out among the rest, and others have always come to learn from us. It is absolutely rare for someone like Tang Sanzang to go west to obtain scriptures (and he is a government official at public expense). It was only after the Opium War, after China suffered a series of failures in resisting foreign powers, that patriots began to go abroad to study in search of strategies to strengthen the country. The direction and methods of studying abroad back then were similar to those today: studying in Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries; government-sponsored, self-financed, and work-study programs.

Studying abroad at that time was not troublesome with financial guarantee, and it was not difficult to get a visa (Chinese people didn’t even need a visa to go to Japan at that time!). As long as you are ready, you can go. The level of "preparation" varies. Some are working-study students and have little money to go on the road. All they prepare is a "red heart"; others are like Fang Hongjian in Qian Zhongshu's novel "The Besieged City", who raised 20,000 yuan. The amount is equivalent to 1,300 pounds in foreign exchange. This is sufficient material preparation.

It’s just that Fang Hongjian changed three universities in four years overseas, London, Paris, and Berlin. Because of his wide range of interests, lack of experience, and especially lazy life, in the spring of the fourth year, only four universities were left. One hundred pounds, and when he returned home, he spent forty dollars to get a fake doctorate degree from Clayton University. This sounds like a joke, but there are many examples in life. For example, the well-known scholar Chen Yinke attended classes in more than 20 universities in Europe and the United States, but did not receive a diploma. But after he returned to China, he was recruited as a mentor by Tsinghua University, which was famous at that time. He was not as unlucky as Mr. Fang.

Fang Hongjian spent 20,000 yuan to study abroad, which was not a small amount. The purchasing power of one dollar of silver in the 1930s was about RMB 80 today. The 20,000 yuan here can be equivalent to about 1.6 million yuan today.

If the above figures are taken from novels, the authenticity will be questioned. You may wish to check the relevant historical materials below. According to the authoritative "Cambridge History of China": "The Gengzi Indemnity was an exorbitant compensation that brought the Chinese government to its knees." From any perspective, this amount can be regarded as a shameful sign of the peak of imperialist plunder.

So in 1908, the U.S. Congress reduced or reduced the compensation fee to China. The portion of the compensation fee that exceeded the actual losses of the United States was used to cover the cost of educating Chinese people in the United States. The total is $11,961,121.76. From 1909 to 1929, 1,268 people went to the United States to study on this scholarship. The average of $11,961,121.76 here is $9,433.06 for 1,268 people. (Note: This account calculation is accurate to two decimal places and should be more serious.)

The question now is how much was the US$9,433 worth that year? Here we use the current and past gold and US dollar prices as a reference. From 1909-29, gold was about $20 per ounce. Today (2015) the exchange rate of gold against the US dollar is around US$1,100 per ounce.

In this way, there is more sufficient basis to say that the Geng Geng money to stay in the United States cost about 471.65 ounces of gold per person, which is approximately equivalent to today’s US$518,815. Of course, such a calculation method is certainly unscientific, because the wealth accumulated by society back then was far less rich than it is today. But it can be seen from this that studying in the United States with the Geng Geng Scholarship was definitely a high-consumption education program at that time. For example, Fang Hongjian's self-funded study in Europe was much more expensive. The Geng Fund is a unilateral bidding operation by Americans, so it is inevitable that it will be expensive.

Picture description: This is an old photo of a Chinese student who was admitted to study in the United States with Geng Geng Scholarship in his early years.

To say that it is more expensive to study in the United States with Geng Geng money is not a subjective assumption without any basis. For example, compare studying in Germany with studying in Japan. In 1906, as a Jinshi, Cai Yuanpei was sent by the Hanlin Academy in Beijing to study in Germany (a bit like a visiting scholar). The Chinese Minister in Germany gave him a monthly fee of 42 silver dollars to cover educational expenses.

Later, Cai Yuanpei earned his own royalties, working part-time and studying part-time. This is a different story. In 1919, after inspecting Berlin, Liang Qichao told a friend: "I think the tuition is surprisingly cheap. If each student has 30 or 40 yuan, they can live as leisurely as possible." Therefore, he suggested mobilizing large domestic companies to contribute 5,000 yuan in capital every year. Or 20,000 yuan, can we send ten or twenty students?

Picture description: This photo is of Mr. Cai Yuanpei and his family in Germany in 1912.

It is cheaper to study in Japan than in Germany. For example, in 1902, Mr. Lu Xun went to Japan to study as a government-sponsored student. His monthly official fee is 36 silver dollars. According to the memories of students who studied in Japan at that time, it was enough to cover tuition fees, rent and other living expenses. This reflects from one aspect that there was not much difference in the national productivity levels between China and Japan. At that time, 36 silver dollars was the monthly salary of an average employee in a major city in China.

Due to the low cost of studying in Japan, there are more Chinese students studying in Japan. So Japan also opened many schools to make money from Chinese students, just like language schools are opened today. At that time, Chinese people did not bother to learn Japanese culture and language, because Japan learned the culture from China; they were not as snobbish as they are now when they take vacations to study and work hard to earn hard-earned money. Everyone should learn more about science and technology and military affairs.

So Japan opened preparatory schools such as "Zhenwu". The military students had to enter such schools first, select the best from them to train with the Japanese army, and then select the best to enter the cadet school, that is, the formal military school. It is said that Chiang Kai-shek attended the Zhenwu School, but later became the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy and the Central Army University, which really dissatisfied those with only academic qualifications.

In short, studying in Japan and Germany was an "economical" choice at that time. The cost for one person for four years was about 7,000 yuan; Fang Hongjian's trip to Europe was a "luxury version" (Mr. Fang took a ride back to China) The second-class cabin of the ocean liner (as can be seen from the fact that most of the Chinese traveling with us have third-class cabins) can cover the expenses of three or four people in the economy class; while the "Gang Geng Fund" to study in the United States is a "super luxury" made in the United States for educational consumption. .

The topics discussed in this short article are numerous and complex, and cannot be fully discussed due to space limitations