Utopia in the Revival of Confucian Education

Sandra Gilgan’s Utopia in the Revival of Confucian Education examines the classics-reading movement in contemporary China as not only driven by attraction to certain elements of tradition, but even more by caesuras in the past that caused people to detach from their cultural roots. The author argues that activism in the classics-reading movement arises from an entanglement of past, present, and future. Social and political upheaval in the near past of the twentieth century caused people to disconnect from their traditional culture and ways of living, resulting in the present need to reconnect with perceived “original” culture and tradition from the more distant past. Through peoples’ imaginaries of a better future that are informed by past traditions, new ways of the past find entrance into life and education in study halls and academies. This new study draws on multi-sited ethnographic field research in ten Chinese cities, with the broadest database currently available. It combines theoretical elements from anthropology, history, sociology and sinology in a grounded theory approach. As an interdisciplinary study, the book is of interest for academics in Asian and Chinese studies, heritage and memory studies, religious studies, educational sciences, history, and cultural anthropology, as well as social and political sciences.

Sandra Gilgan, Ph.D. (2020), University of Bonn, is Managing Director of the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research. Her research interests include modern and contemporary Confucian thought and practice, cultural identity and social change in China, and Chinese perspectives on sustainability.

"This volume is very much at its strongest when directly drawing upon the ethnographic data: the direct quotes especially grant the reader a rare insight into the classics-reading movement from the inside... Given that there are very few studies of the classics-reading movement in English, this volume would be of great interest to those with an interest in contemporary Confucianism. Indeed, by combining a general introduction to the movement itself, including the key teachings of Wáng Cáiguì 王财贵 (the founder of the movement), with ethnographic data from the ground level, this volume grants the reader a rare insight into an understudied field within Confucianism."
- Joseph Chadwin, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 48, No. 4, Dec. 2022