Aurora College for Women in Shanghai 1937-1951

Abstract

This paper discusses Aurora College for Women, which was under the management of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Shanghai from 1937 to 1951. It was an American-style university-college like other Sacred Heart colleges in the United States.This paper is crucial to understanding the Chinese Catholic Church in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines the only Catholic university for Chinese women, which has barely been studied. By focusing on Chinese women students, it contributes tremendously to the neglected area of Chinese women (particularly lay women) in the history of the Catholic Church in China before the 1950s. While historians have identified Chinese male elites in the Church, highly educated Chinese women have been ignored in scholarly studies. Thus, this paper is the first of its kind in the study of the Chinese Catholic Church, and attempts to offset the gender bias in the traditional approach to its history.