History: Canton Christian College and Its Development
During the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, the education system in China underwent drastic changes, and that of Guangdong was no exception. By the time of the Qing Dynasty, traditional government schools and most old-style academies had been reduced to nothing but a stepping platform to the civil service examination system. After the Opium War, traditional economic and cultural institutions in China had been greatly undermined. Chinese people witnessed the power and prosperity of the West and began to doubt the traditional Chinese education system.
In 1888, a group of American missionaries established Canton Christian College in Guangzhou (Canton), China. At the request of the American Presbyterian Mission in Canton, Andrew Happer (1818-1894), a Presbyterian missionary and the first president of the college, aimed to open a non-denominational institution, while integrating Presbyterian values within the college.
In its early phase, Canton Christian College was very small, with less than a score of students. The courses offered were English, the Bible, and natural sciences. The College offered only a four-year preparatory school system (became the middle-school program later) and first- and second-year university courses.
When an anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising, known as the Boxer Rebellion, broke out in North China between 1899 and 1901, the College moved to Macau, then a Portuguese colony, in 1900 to escape the repressive measures implemented by the ruling Qing Dynasty. In 1903, the Chinese name was changed to 嶺南學堂 (Lingnan School, literally) in Macau, while maintaining the English name, the Canton Christian College. The college moved back to Canton in 1904.
In the early twentieth century, the College had expanded dramatically, with hundreds of students, and more courses such as Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, History, Geography, and Christianity were included into the school curriculum. In particular, the English textbook compiled by its teachers became very popular in China and was widely used in middle schools across the nation. In the early years of the Republic, Canton Christian College surpassed all other higher education institutions in Guangdong in scale, expertise, facilities, and quality of teaching.
The history of Canton Christian College, later renamed Lingnan University, as well as activites of Trustees of Lingnan University in New York is well documented by a series of publications by the Lingnan alumni and faculty members.