China

Intellectual movements

A new intelligentsia had also emerged. The educational reforms and the ending of the governmental examination system during the final Qing years enabled thousands of young people to study sciences, engineering, medicine, law, economics, education, and military skills in Japan. Others went to Europe and the United States. Upon their return they took important positions and were a modernizing force in society. Their writing and teaching became a powerful influence on upcoming generations of students. In 1915–16 there were said to be nearly 130,000 new-style schools in China with more than four million students. This was mainly an urban phenomenon, however; rural life was barely affected except for what may have been gradually increasing tenancy and a slow impoverishment that sent rural unemployed into cities and armies or into banditry.