East-West? Tradition and the Development of Hybrid Higher Education in Asia

Abstract

As was noted in the introductory chapter, we are examining four contestable hypotheses to explore the degree to which each may contain elements that we know are “true” in certain contexts. It is not likely that we will find pure examples of any of the four we have identified and in fact, we could have listed five, six, or more. In this chapter, however, I am interested in looking more carefully at the interplay between what has arguably become a Western dominant higher education (hereafter, HE) paradigm complete with a recognizable architecture (Hawkins 2008) and elements of traditional HE forms, behaviors, and values that are arguably part and parcel of how some Asian settings, most notably the Confucian, Sinified nations (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) have syncretically merged indigenous and external forms to create hybrid “types” of HE. The focus will be largely on China but the implications of this process are relevant for other settings within the China zone of influence, or what has been called, “Greater China.” This argument is largely presented as a hypothesis meant to provoke discussion and prompt more balanced research into such broad topics as “Chinese education.”