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Abstract In modern times China made no big technological inventions or innovations. Among the various social, economic, political and historical reasons that created this phenomenon, this paper thinks some cultural factors may have been its deepest reasons. The Chinese people's attitude towards progress and inventions has been affected by China's highly unified political regime, governmental control of education, imperial civil examination system, schooling based on utilitarian tests, and reluctance to be spiritually independent on the part of Chinese intellectuals. Education both preserves its culture and innovates it. In the past several hundred years, however, education in China played a much bigger role in preserving the Chinese cultural tradition rather than changing and innovating it to meet the challenges of the new industrial times. As a result, education in modern China made no contribution to China's social progress and technological inventions. Based on this observation, this paper calls for serious efforts to improve the Chinese cultural soil for the sake of progress in thinking and innovations in technology.
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Received: 25 January 2002
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