Poling was sixteen years Chang’s senior and thus became a kind of a father figure to him after the death of their father in 1909. Poling had evidently inherited his father’s severe attitude toward child-raising and began regularly thrashing Chang, something that was to affect his life profoundly. Despite his severe parenting style and the large age difference, Poling influenced Chang’s life in several regards, positive as well as negative, and inspired him in his studies and choice of career. According to Stanley Chang, it seemed as though his father perpetually sought his brother’s approval and in certain situations was highly dependent upon his brother’s advice on different matters. The problematic nature of Chang’s relationship with his brother was to express itself in different ways, among them Chang’s continual traveling.
Chang’s deep and lifelong interest in art, theater, literature, music, philosophy, diplomacy, and politics may even have been a way for him to break loose from his older brother, rather than merely emulating Poling’s interests in school, sport, and education in a wider sense. Involvement in his many other activities was likely a way for Chang to dispel any suspicions that he might be clinging to his elder brother’s coattails.12 However, it is obvious that Chang had a genuine interest in many fields and activities in which he also excelled.
The Nankai Schools
Poling’s interest in educational issues was to affect Chang visibly throughout his life. In 1904, Chang entered the Nankai School, which his brother had been involved in establishing and subsequently administered. After a while there were several Nankai schools. In addition to the school in Tientsin there was also a school in Chunking. After 1919 it was also the Nankai University in Tientsin. Among his classmates was Mei Yiqi (1889–1962), who later became a famous educator in China. (He became the president of Tsinghua University in 1931, and during the years of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was president of South West United University in Kunming.) Chang concluded his school years in China at Zhili (Chihli) provincial college in 1910.
Together with the educationalist Yan Xin, Poling had founded Nankai School in 1904 with the help of donations during a climate of rising discontent with China’s old educational system and the political situation.13 The original cohort of students consisted primarily of the children of friends, neighbors, and relatives. The school was located on the south side of Tientsin in an area known as Nan-Kai (“the open space in the south”). Thereafter it expanded in its number of buildings, students, and levels, and in 1919, as was mentioned before, a university under Poling’s direction was established.14 In 2017, Nankai University consists of two campuses—the older one in the city of Tianjin (Tientsin) and a newer one in a suburb. In a speech given in 1956, Chang recalled his early experiences of the school:
The school (which started in 1904) began with an enrolment of 73 students. It carried on its work in the courtyard of a private residence and had at its disposal only three large rooms for classrooms, one small room for the use of teachers, and a hall for schools assemblies. It would be natural to ask how so humble an establishment could have been the starting place for any story worth relating. Yet the growth of this institution in the first twenty-five years of its life is perhaps one of the most phenomenal chapters in educational history anywhere. By the beginning of the second year, the school enrolment had swelled to burst the confines of the old courtyard. Something had to be done, and quickly, to find new quarters. After persistent searching and pleading, a piece of land was located; and it was donated to the school. It was situated to the south of the city of Tientsin in an area called “Nan-Kai,” meaning “South Open-Space.” New buildings were speedily erected. And we moved into our new compound in 1907. The name of the school was changed to “Private Nankai Middle School.” From that day on, the name “Nankai” became increasingly famous, eventually reaching far and wide.15
In addition to their emphasis on sport, art, and theater, the Nankai Schools were permeated by the creed of strict discipline, healthy living, and a strong spirit of nationalism. Poling had served in the navy, where he had been trained by English officers. His experiences there had led him to become increasingly involved in the struggle for Chinese independence.
In the late 1800s, Poling witnessed an event in the port of Weihaiwei that acquired a profoundly symbolic importance for him. He watched as the Japanese flag was lowered to signal the transfer of authority over the port to China. The Chinese flag was raised, but only for a moment before the British flag was raised—and left flying. After this painful and humiliating experience, Poling resigned his commission in the navy and at the age of twenty-three dedicated his life to sport and teaching.16
A characteristic saying of Poling’s was that a good teacher must also be a good athlete. As he saw it, the dire state of affairs that the schools needed to remedy comprised: (1) physical weakness and poor health; (2) superstition and ignorance; (3) economic poverty; (4) insufficient community spirit; and (5) egoism. When it came to childrearing, Poling’s watchwords were “ability” and “social responsibility.”17
Poling was also a driving force with regard to China’s participation at an early stage in the Olympic Games. Poling’s efforts to promote sport in China in the 1900s were publicly acknowledged when China hosted the Olympics in 2008. In a book published to coincide with the games, Poling was described as the father of Chinese Olympic sport by Jacques Rogge, then president of the International Olympic Committee. Poling’s contributions to sport have also greatly enhanced the prestige of the Chang family name in China today.18 While Poling is fairly well known in those circles in Chinese society who are familiar with Nankai, his younger brother Peng Chun is not. The same is clearly also true in the Chinese university world.
Although the old school system was not entirely without merits—such as the forms for reciting the classics mentioned by Chang—it became increasingly apparent with the passage of time that a more modern educational system was required. It was in the shadow of these circumstances that Poling became involved in creating a new educational model. Initially influenced by the Japanese educational system, he became increasingly inspired by American educational ideas after making a study visit in 1908–1909 to the United States, where he visited seats of learning such as Princeton and Harvard Universities and Wellesley College. Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, proved a particularly strong source of inspiration by virtue of its emphasis upon the notion that students and the entire staff should collectively form a kind of educational family.
The Nankai School system was on several accounts a runaway success during the republic, with Chang’s brother playing a decisive role. According to Chang, the rapid expansion of this school system was probably one of the most astonishing occurrences ever to take place in the history of secondary education in China. From this point on, Chang himself became highly involved in helping his brother to expand and run the Nankai Schools. As mentioned earlier, further expansion resulted in the creation of a university—Nankai University—which in 1919 opened its doors to both female and male students. At first, the university was situated near the Nankai Schools, but with time it became necessary to find new premises. Land was purchased twenty kilometers south of Nankai in an area known as Pai-Li-Tai, and the university relocated there in 1922. The university nevertheless retained the old name Nankai since it had become nationally famous.19 On Peng Chun Chang’s advice, another school was founded in Chungking in 1935, something we will return to later. After Poling demonstrated his loyalty toward Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the republic, during the war, Nankai University was upgraded to the status of a nationally supported university in 1945. Poling served as its chancellor from 1919 to 1948.
Pupils and students from the Nankai Schools and University went on to develop a strong identity, forming, among other things, alumni associations in different