In March of 1903, Ma Xiangbo, a well-known Catholic scholar, established Zhen Dan (Aurora) University in Xu Jiahui with the intention of revitalizing Chinese culture via higher edu-
cation. Because of the interference of a French Jesuit priest NanCongzhou, Ma Xiangbo left the university. With the help of some other patriotic scholars, however, he founded Fu Dan Gong Xu in Li Gongsi, Xu Jiahui in 1905. In 1908, Zhen Dan University moved to the French section and the Jesuit priest Nan Congzhou became its president. This school used French to teach the courses in literature, law, natural sciences and engineering, as well as medicine. Most of the professors were Jesuit priests. Moreover, this was a boys‘ school. Zhen Dan was a pontifical university under the supervision of the Congregation of Faith in Rome. In1932, it officially registered as Zhen Dan University. In 1935, ithad a law, medical and business school. It offered a four-year program, except for the medical school, which was six years. By1936, Zhen Dan had 300 undergraduates, and a preparatory school had another 300 students. A women"s college was established in1938. In 1922, the Jesuits established another university in Tianjin, which was called Jin Gu Da Xue. This had schools of business and commerce. The university then began to recruit the preparatory students. In March 1923, they recruited 50 students and in 1933, it changed its name to Tian Jing Gong Shang Xueyuan.
In November of 1917, Ying Lianzhi (1867-1926), a Chi- nese Catholic, and Ma Xiangbo wrote a joint letter to Pope Pius X asking for permission to establish a university, and gained his approval along with some funding. The Pope asked Dr. O"Toole, an American Benedictine who held doctoral degrees in theology and philosophy, to travel to China to discuss the matter. In 1922, the Pope personally donated 100,000 Lira to start with. The American Benedictines were asked to take charge of the univer- sity and Mr. McManus provided 100,000 as foundation capital. On October 1, 1925, Fu Ren University was officially estab- lished with a School of Arts and Letters, School of Natural Sci- ences and School of Education with an enrollment of about 500
students. In the overworking second year of its establishment, Ying Lianzhi died of overworking. After that, Chen Yuan, a well- known historian, became the president.
F. Media expansion
By 1920, the Catholic Church had 13 printing presses, such as those in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Hebei Province. They printed many Catholic and non-Catholic works in many languages. There were 15 Catholic periodicals, the most famous being Sheng Jiao Magazine, printed in Shanghai; Yi Shi Bo, founded by the Belgium priest Lebbe in October 1915 in Tianjin. Sheng Jiao Magazine was very religious and the articles tended to be in a series. The 12th generation descendent of Xu Guangqi,Xu Zongze became its editor in 1923 and the magazine began todiscuss social issues.
Yi Shi Bo, however, was rather politicalfrom the beginning. Since Japan has forced China to sign the 21Demands, the magazine began to inspire people"s sense of na- tionalism in order to save the country. It had tremendous influ- ence. Lebbe was praised and honored by the government.
There were 14 Catholic printing presses in 1926 publishing15 journals of which nine were in French, three in Chinese, one in Portuguese, one in English and one in Latin. In 1930, therewere 20 printing presses with 30 journals of various types. In1928, the Zhong Huo Gongjiao Jiaoyu Lianhehui (Chi- nese Catholic Education Association) was founded in Beijing to oversee all the publications. This association was headed by the Apostolic delegate with a monthly publication Zhonghua Gongjiao Jiaoyu Lianhehuai Congkan (Chinese Catholic Education Association Series)? It was published in Chinese, Latin,English and French.