It goes without doubt that the ultimate goal for the transformation of the Chinese system and the integration of China into the orbit of world civilization is for the people. Only education can help raise the quality of people, which will, in return, guarantee the realization of such a goal.

The economic boom of mainland China over the past two decades is quite often compared with that of the four Asian ¡°dragons¡± three decades ago. There are, nevertheless, two marked differences. First of all, China is still much burdened by its ideology, which has never been an issue for the four ¡°dragons¡±. As a result, it becomes an evident problem when the issue of protecting private property comes up. Secondly, while the emphasis given to education by the ¡°dragons¡± leads to high investments in education and high rate in universal education, China is lagging much behind, despite its economic development, in acquisition in education, investment in education as well as the allocation of resources in general, both in compulsory education and the higher education. There is a huge gap between China and developed industrial countries. The fact that China ranks 110 th among 137 countries in the world is striking.

From 1949 to1978, the educational field in China fell into the endless abyss of ¡° experimental plots¡± based on extremely fanatic concepts, thus making two generations victims of such madness. It is not at all an overstatement to label education as the most severely hit field under Maoism. China 's education has experienced some improvements and reforms with the elapse of Maoism only to fall, once again, into new dilemmas, the most conspicuous of which is shown in ¡° commercialization of education¡±.

In terms of other developing countries, China does share some similarities with them:

1. Regimes set up after a revolution tend to aim at achieving short-term results, so as to cater to people in general, thus achieving stability. Education is a long-term cause, which takes hundred years to educate generation after generation. Therefore, it is always put off for years to come.
2. It is a general practice for these countries to focus their resources on elite education, thus fostering the competence of those elite who make up for the future successors to the ruling groups. The success in the elite education is accomplished at the expense of compulsory education, which, in general, takes much, much longer to be developed. Neglect of compulsory education in these countries makes it even more difficult to sustain political stability. It fails to bring up high-quality professionals for economic construction, too.

Apart from the similarities shared with other developing countries, China has some issues of itself, among them the Communist ideology ranking the no.1.

1. First of all, as the highest ruler of the Chinese Communist regime, Mao Zedong was a man who held a strong sense of peasant's utopianism which adhered to anti-intellectualism and populism. His statement of ¡° the educated are ignorant, the illiterate are wise¡± reflected the humiliation he claimed to have experienced in his early years. This explains why he adopted such a hostile attitude towards modern educational system and the intellectuals in general.
2. Such innate characteristics of Communist ideology reflected in education as integration of education and politics, the Party's domination of education and the exclusive way of running school system by the Party and the State, has made a deep ideological impact on education on mainland China .
3. Deep-rooted practice of obscurantist policy in a closed-society and alienation from international educational system.

Due to the above mentioned similarities with other developing countries and unique issues of China itself, education in China , ever since 1949, deviated from the track of the development of the world over the first half of the 20 th century, experienced serious setbacks, causing great loss in two generations.

Education on mainland China , since 1949, can be chronicled as 8 stages

1. 1952 Reorganizing the institutions of higher education;
2. 1957 Impact from the Anti-Rightest Movement ;
3. 1958-1961 Revolution in education;
4. 1962-1964 Readjusting to focusing on both red and expert;
5. 1964-1966 Prelude to the forthcoming Cultural Revolution: carrying out the class line in depth;
6. 1966-1976 the Cultural Revolution
7. 1977-1989 Re-linking China 's education to the international track;
8. 1989-1992 Closing to the outside world again;
9. 1992-Present Re-opening to the outside world again and the burgeoning commercialization of education.

I try to tackle the following issues: What were the causes which affected China 's education historically and currently? What is the impact of education on the quality of Chinese people ? What a ratio should the investment in education get in the national financial expenses? What should the relationship between China 's education and political culture be? How should the tendency of emphasizing ideology in teaching be solved? How do we handle civil education in teaching ? What is the relationship between educational system and students' movements? How can we keep education system independent of political system? What impact did missionary schools in modern history have on modern China 's education ? Can pluralism be exercised in education investment¡ªmultiple ways of running schools by co-operations between private and public sources? How do we conduct the exchange and interaction between mainland China and Hong Kang , Macao and Taiwan ? How does studying abroad boom interact with China 's education? How can China 's education be linked to the international community?

All these issues pose significant challenges to us, especially people working in the educational field. Discussion of these issues will help us understand China 's education more deeply, help us focus more on the direction of reforms in China 's education. Turning China 's education into a basic driving force for the transformation of China 's system will uplift the fundamental way of existence of the Chinese people, both spiritually and physically.