Glocalization: A New Legacy of China’s Christian Universities, with Special Reference to Nanjing Normal University in China

The term “Glocalizationglocalization” was chosen to embrace intentionally the vivid interplay between the global and the local processes in the development of Christian higher educationChristian higher education in China. It’s original root, ‘Globalization’ was formerly used in referring to the missionaries’ effort at evangelizing through the introduction of Christian higher education into China, whereas the local aspect referred to the Chinese impact and response which brought about the further development of Christian higher education in ChinaChina. Globalization tends to view any changes from a one-way direction, hence becomes normative and imperialistic, whereas Glocalization looks more at the interplay between the global and local aspects and emphasizes mutually interactive relations. As a result, it is found that during the interplay between the global and local processes, Christian higher education in China went through a process of contextualization and SinificationSinification on Chinese soil. On June 10, 2022, this author was invited to give a zoom lecture for Nanjing Normal UniversityNanjing Normal University, NanjingNanjing, China. The topic was “Nurture of Human Persons: An Historical Exploration of Liberal Arts Educationalliberal arts educational ideals at Nanjing Normal University.” It was taken as a further exploration of the legacy of Christian higher education with regard to the LAE ideals in the University of NankingUniversity of Nanking and Ginling CollegeGinling College which continued their development into Nanjing Normal University throughout the twentieth century China. Hence, the two papers are now combined to form this present chapter.