Private challenges to public dominance: The resurgence of private education in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

The principal goal of this article is to examine the policy context in which private education has emerged in the post-Mao period, with particular attention paid to exploring the strategies adopted by educationalists and professionals in the Pearl River Delta to expand their control over the educational realm. This paper is based upon recent field visits to various private schools and colleges in the delta. The author observes that Chinese scholars in the delta have persevered in their attempts to assert their academic independence, trying consistently to expand their influence over the public domain, with the result that such a struggle may eventually lead to a redefinition of the 'private-public' distinction in the post-Mao Chinese society. The core section of the article examines the current development of private education in China, analyzing how Chinese intellectuals and educationalists in the delta have struggled to offer a new agenda for the educational realm by the establishment of private education.