Symposium Description
Dr. Y.C. James Yen (晏阳初) is widely recognized as one of the most influential Chinese social activists and educators of the 20th century. Dr. Yen’s far-reaching impact on education and social reforms worldwide is best exemplified by his significant contribution to the mass education movement and rural reconstruction in China and beyond, which he exerted through extensive fieldwork, social experiments, mass campaigns, public lectures, and charity work spanning over seven decades. In 1923, Yen and other Chinese pioneers, including Zhu Qihui and Tao Xingzhi, founded the Mass Education Movement (MEM), which supported literacy programs for sixty million Chinese people. In 1926, Dr. Yen and his colleagues mobilized the local villagers in Ting Hsien (aka Dingxian), Hebei province, and developed the “Ting Hsien Experiment” to combat four interrelated social problems: poverty, disease, ignorance, and misgovernance. The Ting Hsien Experiment and the people-centered strategy have received worldwide recognition and have been adopted by the United Nations and implemented throughout many developing countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South Americas.
To honor and celebrate the profound legacy of Dr. Y.C. James Yen and the international mass education movement, the Center on Chinese Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Center’s long-time international partners organize this symposium and subsequent events to shed light on Dr. Yen’s groundbreaking efforts to collaborate with prominent Chinese and American educators, political and religious leaders, and philanthropists to improve education and social development. Important connections are drawn between the revolutionary Mass Education Movement (MEM) founded by James Yen and his colleagues in 1923, the subsequent Ting Hsien Experiment between 1926 and 1936, Yen’s efforts to persuade the U.S. Government to fund postwar rural reconstruction through the 1948 China Aid Act, and his lifelong commitment in promoting social justice and international cooperation.
In addition, this symposium will also introduce the ongoing archival research on Dr. Yen by the Center on Chinese Education. Based primarily on the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction records, 1914-2018, housed in Columbia University’s Rare Books & Manuscript Library, and complemented by archives at Yale University, the Library of Congress, and others, the research deeply explored Dr. Yen’s collaborations and contributions with prominent international educators, politicians, and social activists, including Pearl S. Buck, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Rockefeller family, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and DeWitt Wallace, highlighting their collective achievements in advancing education and driving social reform in China and other developing countries.
Time
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST), Jan. 16th (Thursday), 2025
Location
Milbank Chapel, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West, 120th St, New York, NY
Registration
Please scan the code below for either in-person or online participation.
*Online participants: Please scan the code and enter your email address. We will send you the Zoom link before the event.
