About the Images of the Great Wall and Niagara Falls

       A combination of great national symbols of Canada and China stands for friendship and collaboration not only between the two countries but in global dialogue among civilizations. In addition, the image frame visualizes a flowing down towards mass participation in higher education and civil society, with the Great Wall meandering down the mountainside and the waters of Niagara Falls pouring downwards towards a dizzy bottom.

       About the Traditional Chinese Seal Characters (on the left side of the webpages)

       These are the first sixteen characters of one of The Four Books of the Confucian Classics, The Great Learning (Daxue), written well over 2000 years ago. The term daxue is actually the exact word still used for universities in modern Chinese. Three guiding principles of higher learning are expressed here: "to let one's innate virtue shine forth, to renew the people, and to rest in the highest good." The tone set by The Great Learning has laid an important foundation for the ethos of Chinese higher education, as well as for the development of Chinese civilization.

 

       About the Webpage Background

       The background of our webpages, if you look at them carefully, is composed of shallowed but solid marbles engraved with the three guiding principles of The Great Learning in Chinese seal characters. This whole website has been designed to express the deep meaning of our SSHRCC project which looks at the expansion of higher education in contemporary China, and its implications for civil society and global cultural dialogue. We believe this historic process will bring about profound changes in Chinese society, as well as bringing many dimensions of China's rich cultural heritage into the wider global community. Through the case studies of 12 universities, public and private, representing different disciplinary areas and located in diverse regions of China, we hope to interpret various facets of Chinese culture and civilization in ways that contribute to a deeper and more informed dialogue among universities around the world.

 

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