This work is a dialogue on alternative approaches to knowledge and higher education characteristic of the Western University. Western scholars approach these issues from the viewpoint of the challenges facing the university and Eastern contributors explore parallel issues in their societies.

This book introduces four influential Chinese educators of the later 20th century whose writings had enormous influence on many dimensions of the educational reforms which underly China's remarkable transformation into a global superpower. None of them published in English and only Li Bingde, a leader in educational experimentation, had studied abroad. Huang Ji at Beijing Normal University was an educational philosopher who interpreted Chinese classical texts as well as arts such as calligraphy and painting in ways that brought new life to Chinese pedagogy. Lu Jie at Nanjing Normal University and Wang Fengxian at Northeast Normal University were leaders in developing a whole new approach to moral education that highlighted subjectivity and self awakening as China became a socialist market economy.