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March 15, 2013

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HomeDistrictSongjiang

Esteemed educator a visionary and patriot

MA Xiangbo (1840-1939) is revered as a progressive educator and founder of Fudan University, a prestigious university in China.

His illustrious students included Cai Yuanpei, who later became head of Peking University, and Yu Youren, a high-ranking official in the Republic of China (1912-49).

Ma was a child prodigy. He started studying astronomy at the age of five and was studying French, Latin, Greek, math, physics and philosophy by the age of 12.

In 1870, he graduated as a doctor of theology and became headmaster of Xuhui School in Shanghai.

He is remembered as a man of great compassion and patriotism. In 1876, he collected 2,000 silver ingots to help victims of a famine.

The young Ma studied in Japan, the US, France and Italy. He was greatly influenced by Western culture and ideas, and developed the conviction that only education could save China.

In 1900, he returned to China and devoted 200 hectares of Songjiang farmland he inherited from his family as the site for what would become Fudan University.

His one-time residence in Sijing Town, Songjiang was opened to the public last September after extensive renovation work. The residence is located at the end of a lane off Kaijiang Road M.

The house before renovation had been used as a warehouse, a village activity center and a much partitioned residence.

Visitor to the restored home, which is free of admission, can see an inscription written by China's revolutionary forerunner Sun Yat-sen and numerous exhibits, documents and photographs tracing Ma's life and accomplishments.



The old residence of Ma Xiangbo

Address: Kaijiang Rd M., Sijing Town, Songjiang District

Admission: Free


 

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