PhD Candidate in the Department of History

(Spring 2026)

My dissertation draws on a variety of historical sources, including periodicals and palm-sized storybooks known as lianhuanhua, to examine extracurricular education for children and youth in the Republic of China (ROC) and the People’s Republic (PRC). Particularly in the twentieth century, Chinese extracurricular education received state support and encompassed much more than the subjects that American students typically pursue, like music or sports. The state employed multiple forms of extracurricular education to reinforce, and sometimes supersede, students’ academic lessons, promoting strong patriotic and collective bonds. Each of my four chapters thus highlights a specific extracurricular or off-campus pursuit: family education, lianhuanhua and reading, youth organizations, and work-study programs.

By exploring different activities, my project aims to contextualize the wide-ranging sociopolitical nature of extracurricular education in modern Chinese society. Finally, bridging the 1949 divide between the nationalist ROC and the communist PRC allows me to consider commonalities that early extracurricular activities shared with later initiatives. I not only seek to show how twentieth-century Chinese extracurricular education influenced generations of young people but to understand how it still affects contemporary PRC government policies.