From the 1920s until 1949, foreign adult educators (mostly women) in the Shanghai YWCA worked to foster labor unrest and build a better world. Many started out as liberal Christians but ended up supporting Chairman Mao. They used street theater, mass singing, games, pageants, structured exercises, and “bible classes,” where learners read Communist literature. Their extraordinary efforts are largely unrecognized because many self-identified as homosexual and Communist. This study involved interviews and a close reading of English- and Chinese-language materials. Its purpose was to document revolutionary adult education (mostly for young women) in the Shanghai silk filatures (1920 to 1949) and to create an understanding of the work of foreigners such as Rewi Alley and Maud Russell and visiting luminaries such as John Dewey and R. H. Tawney. In China, there is a tendency to ignore the past. Yet 21st century adult education could be improved by understanding adult education in 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s Shanghai.
Airey, W. (1970). A learner in China: A life of Rewi Alley. Christchurch, New Zealand: Caxton.
2.
Aldrich, R. (2003). Colonialism and homosexuality. London: Routledge.
3.
Alley, R. (1976). Yo ban fa!Auckland, New Zealand: Progressive Books/New Zealand—China Society .
4.
Alley, R. (1987). Rewi Alley: An autobiography. Beijing, People's Republic of China: New World.
5.
Boshier, R.W. (1980). John Bell Condliffe, M.A., D.Sc., Litt.D. KCMG.: A brief biography. Continuing Education in New Zealand, 13(2), 68-80.
6.
Boshier, R.W. (1982). John Condliffe confronts Captain Kirk: A New Zealand perspective on mandatory adult education during World War I. Studies in Adult Education, 14, 16-22.
7.
Boshier, R.W. (2006) Rewi Alley of China: Adult educator ahead of his time. New Zealand Journal ofAdult Learning, 34(1), 29-47.
8.
Boshier, R.W., & Huang, Y. (2005). The Shanghai-Seven: Reflections 21 years after the ICAE meeting in Shanghai. Convergence, 38(2), 5-27.
9.
Boshier, R.W. & Huang, Y. (2006). Is the Chinese learning initiative the long-awaited 5th modernization? Planning and Changing: An Educational Policy and Leadership Journal, 37(1/2), 56-70.
10.
Brady, A.M. (1995). West meets East: Rewi Alley and changing attitudes towards homosexuality in China. East AsianHistory, 9, 97-120.
11.
Brady, A.M. (2003). Friend of China: The myth of Rewi Alley. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
12.
Bush, R.C. (1982). The politics of cotton textiles in Kuomintang China, 1927-1937. New York: Garland .
13.
Chang, J., & Halliday, J. (2005). Mao: The untold story. New York: Knopf.
14.
Chinese People's Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries & China Reconstructs. (1989). Rewi Alley . Beijing, People's Republic of China: China Reconstructs.
15.
Economy, E. (2004). The river runs black: The environmental challenge to China's future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
16.
Evans, H. (1997). Women and sexuality in China: Dominant discourses of female sexuality and gender since 1949. New York: Continuum.
17.
Fairbank, J.K. (1982). Chinabound: A fifty year memoir. New York: Harper & Row.
18.
Fairbank, J.K., & Goldman, M. (2006). China: A new history. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
19.
Faderman, L. (1981). Surpassing the love of men: Romantic friendship and love between women from the renaissance to the present. New York: William Morrow.
20.
Faure, E. (1972). Learning to be. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
21.
Final report of the Adult Education Committee. (1919). London: Ministry of Reconstruction.
22.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
23.
Feuerwerker, A. (1982). The foreign presence in China. In J. K. Fairbank (Ed.), The Cambridge history of China: Vol. 12. Republican China 1912-1949 (Part 1, pp. 128-207). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
24.
Garner, K. (2003). Precious fire: Maud Russell and the Chinese revolution . Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.
25.
Garrett, S. (1970). Social reformers in urban China: The Chinese YMCA 1895-1926. Taipei, Republic of China: Rainbow-Bridge.
26.
Geyer, R. (2002). In love and gay. In P. Link, R. Madsen, & P. G. Pickowicz (Eds.), Popular China: Unofficial culture in a globalizing society (pp. 251-276). Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield.
27.
Gu, M.Y. (2001). Education in China and abroad: Perspectives from a lifetime in comparative education. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre.
28.
Hamilton, J.M. (1988). Edgar Snow: A biography. Bloomington : Indiana University Press.
29.
Hinder, E.M. (1944). Life and labor in Shanghai: A decade of labor and social administration in the international settlement. New York: Institute of Pacific Relations.
30.
Hinsch, B. (1990). Passions of the cut sleeve: The male homosexual tradition in China. Berkeley: University of California Press.
31.
Honig, E. (1986). Sisters and strangers: Women in the Shanghai cotton mills, 1919-1949. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
32.
Jiang, Z.M. (2001, May). Strengthen human capacity building and jointly promote the development and prosperity of Asia-Pacific region. Speech delivered at the 2001 APEC High Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building, Beijing. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://english.people.com.cn/english/200105/15/eng20010515_69996.html
33.
Jiang, Z.M. (2002, November). Build a well-off society in an all-round way and create a new situation in building socialism with Chinese characteristics . Report delivered at the 16th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Beijing. Retrieved November 14, 2005, from http://English.people.com.cn/200211/18/eng20021118_106984.shtml
34.
Kingwell, M. (2005, February). The city of tomorrow: Searching for the future of architecture in Shanghai. Harpers, 310(1857), 62-71.
35.
Koll, E. (2003). From cotton mill to business empire: The emergence of regional enterprises in modern China. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Asia Center.
36.
League of Nations Mission of Educational Experts. (1932). The reorganization of education in China. Geneva, Switzerland: League of Nations.
37.
MacKinnon, J.R., & MacKinnon, S.R. (1988). Agnes Smedley: The life and times of an American radical. Berkeley: University of California Press.
38.
Mitter, D. (2004). Bitter revolution. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
39.
Paddle, S. (2001). For the China of the future. Western feminists, colonisation and international citizenship in China in the inter-war years . Australian Feminist Studies,16(36), 325-341.
40.
Perry, E. (1993). Shanghai on strike: The politics of Chinese labour . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
41.
Sang, T.I.D. (2003). The emerging lesbian: Female same-sex desire in modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
42.
Schwartz, B.I. (1983). Themes in intellectual history. In J. K. Fairbank (Ed.), The Cambridge history of China: Vol. 12. Republican China 1912-1949 (Part 1, pp. 406-450). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
43.
So, A.Y. (1986). The South China silk district: Local historical transformation and world-system theory. New York: State University of New York Press.
44.
Smedley, A. (1944). Battle hymn of China. London : Victor Gollancz.
45.
Snow, E. (1938). Red star over China. New York : Random House.
46.
Snow, E. (1941). Scorched earth (Book 2)London : Victor Gollancz.
47.
Tawney, R.H. (1932). Land and labour in China. London: Allen & Unwin.
48.
Terrill, R. (1973). R. H. Tawney and his times: Socialism as fellowship . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
49.
Wang, X.Z. (2006). Explanation on 2006 assessment target of national work safety control. Retrieved March 31, 2006, from http://www.chinasafety.gov.cn/zhengwugongkai/2006-01/25/content_153395.htm
50.
Wang, Y.X., Li, L., & Fang, J. (1991). History of Shanghai adult education 1949-1989 . Shanghai, People's Republic of China: Shanghai Social Sciences Academic Publishing House.
