Тяньцзиньская средняя школа Нанькай: История и современность

Tianjin Nankai High School is a college preparatory high school in Tianjin, China. This is the original Nankai High School, and it is often referred to as Nankai High School in Tianjin to differentiate it from Chongqing Nankai Middle School, its sister school in Chongqing. Nankai is notable as one of the first modern secondary schools in China, and boasts several of the most notable men in modern Chinese history as its alumni. The main campus is located at 22 Nankai 4th Rd in Nankai District. The other two campuses are in Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco city and Haihe Jiaoyu Yuanqu, Tianjin.

Nankai High School was founded in 1904 by Yan Xiu (also known as Yan Fansun). Nankai was originally a private school, featuring a western style college preparatory curricula instead of a traditional Confucian curriculum. It was the first school in the Nankai Family of Schools. This system would latter be expanded to include Nankai University in 1919. Nankai University would become one of China's most prestigious universities.

Before his work at Nankai, Yan Xiu was an intellectual with a strong understanding of traditional Chinese culture who had held positions at the prestigious Hanlin Academy earlier in his career, and in both China's provincial and central governments. The difficulties that confronted China in the late nineteenth century led Yan to become interested in Western and Japanese models of education, to which he attributed the contemporary strength of the West and Japan. Yan's experiences working within the Chinese bureaucracy led him to believe that only the most progressive reforms could save China from further decline. Yan Xiu belonged to a group of reform minded intellectuals who, in 1905, presented a memorial that suggested abolishing the traditional examination system, focused on knowledge of the Confucian classics, to a system of education focused on practical knowledge. Yan's memorial was well received by the Qing government, which was by then interested in reform as a way to preventing the dynasty from destruction. After he had received a mandate for reform, Yan took part in a large scale educational reform aimed at modernizing the educational institutions throughout China. After the Qing dynasty was abolished in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, Yan was offered several high level government positions, but refused them all in preference to devoting his time and energy to the establishment of Nankai. Nankai was a boarding school with strict schedules, discipline, and moral codes, and promoted a strict daily schedule of student activities, similar to contemporary British schools. Zhang placed great importance on physical activity, and worked hard to break down traditional Chinese attitudes of contempt for physical exercise and manual labour. Zhang considered himself as both a teacher and a role model to his students, attempting to personally instruct them in basic principles of hygiene, eating with students, and participating in their exercises. Zhang's close association with his students was unusual in China (and elsewhere), but contributed to the admiration that most of his students reportedly felt for him throughout their lives.

Today, Nankai High School is a public school best known for its success in preparing students for the National College Entrance Examination 高考 (Gāokǎo). The graduates of the school are typically admitted to the best universities in China and around the world. Its college preparatory curricula covers a wide range of subjects in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The school also encourages its students to take part in various academic extracurricular activities, including the International Science Olympiad. Between 1998 and 2005, four Nankai students became IPhO gold medal winners. Nankai students also received gold medals in IMO, IChO, IBO, and IOI.