Page 40 - 香港浸會大學16-17

4. Funded Research Projects

4.10 The Glocalization of the Catholic Church in the Context
of Higher Education in China in the First Half of the 20th

Century (on-going project)

Principal Investigator: Prof. Cindy Yik-yi Chu
Associate Director of LEWI, Convenor of Cross-
Cultural Studies Working Group of LEWI and

Professor of History
First Source of Funding:: GRF, RGC, HK

Amount Awarded: HKD236,464
Second Source of Funding: Faculty Research Grant, HKBU

Amount Awarded: HKD50,000

Brief Introduction:

This project will investigate the glocalisation of the Catholic Church in the context
of higher education in China in the first half of the 20th century. The research

objective is to gain insight into the possibility of future Chinese-Western ventures
in elite higher education in Chinese society. Although glocalisation is a modern
neologism, which refers to the enactment of global concerns in a local context,

the term applies equally to the adaptation of foreign missionaries in China, the
indigenisation of the Chinese Catholic Church and the cultivation of the Chinese

Christian elite in the first half of the 20th century. The proposed project will
address the expansion of the Catholic Church through the dispersal of foreign

missionaries worldwide, especially in China in the early 20th century. It will
investigate the very significant contribution of the Catholic Church to China’s

development, specifically in founding two institutions of elite higher education,
namely Zhendan University (Aurora University, 震旦大學 , 1903-1952) in
Shanghai and Furen University (輔仁大學, 1925-1952) in Beijing.

35 HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY | David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies