Student governments exist in almost every higher education system, but they rarely look the same. Their structures and activities reflect the histories of the universities and societies in which they develop. Chinese student governments are often perceived as an unusual case, difficult to understand through the lens of student organizations elsewhere. However, their history tells a more complicated story, because they began with many of the same goals as student organizations around the world, before evolving in response to China’s changing educational and social environment. Chinese student governments today may appear familiar to international readers as campus organizations responsible for student activities and communication. But their role nowadays is the result of a much longer historical evolution shaped by changing relationships among students, universities, and society.
When did it start?
The origins of Chinese student governments are difficult to identify through a single founding moment. Early organizations emerged among overseas Chinese students, such as the Chinese Students’ Alliance of America [美国中国留学生会] founded in 1902, which primarily served functions of mutual support and intellectual exchange. Later, organizations such as the World Chinese Students’ Federation [寰球中国学生会] founded in Shanghai in 1905 connected students across regions. University-based student governments, such as the Tsinghua Student Association [清华学生会] founded in 1919, introduced a new model centered on campus representation and student participation in university affairs.
How did the first local student association emerge at a Chinese university?
In 1919, the founding of the Tsinghua Student Association took place against the backdrop of the May Fourth Movement [五四运动], a nationwide student movement triggered by the controversy over the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War. After China’s expectations that its wartime contributions would restore its sovereignty over Shandong were disappointed by the decision to transfer German concessions in the region to Japan, Chinese students expressed widespread anger and patriotic sentiment. Universities became important spaces where new ideas about citizenship, democracy, and social responsibility were debated. It was within this atmosphere that Tsinghua students sought to establish their own student government. However, the founding meeting in December 1919 was far from a routine organizational event. The university administration opposed the initiative and attempted to interrupt the meeting. After the electricity was cut off and authorities attempted to prevent the gathering, students continued the meeting by candlelight and formally established the Tsinghua Student Association. The conflict between students and university leaders ultimately led to the principal’s resignation. The dramatic birth of the association reflected a broader transformation in Chinese higher education. It represented a tension between traditional hierarchical models of educational governance and emerging ideas of student participation in the modern university.
Tsinghua University students created representative bodies, elected executive committees for their new student government. In 1922, they added a student court to resolve disputes within the student community. Students elected judges and prosecutors, and the court heard disputes among students as well as cases involving violations of student regulations. They even allocated funds specifically to prepare formal judge robes for the student judges. However, this student court existed for only three years.
The experiment was far from smooth. The first case judged by the student court involved a student who did not return to campus on time. Students showed great enthusiasm, and many gathered in the gallery to watch the student court in session. But this experience also exposed procedural problems, unclear responsibilities, and uncertainty over the court’s jurisdiction. The system was repeatedly revised, and as student enthusiasm declined, the court gradually disappeared and was eventually abolished. Some memoirs refer to it as a dismal failure. But the failure of the student court did not represent a failure of democratic experimentation; rather, students’ enthusiasm for self-governance in the student government was diverted toward larger national political events of that time.
Why was self-governance no longer attractive to students?
Between 1922 and 1925, while the student court was in operation, Beijing endured two warlord wars and an internal coup within the warlord government, accompanied by many huge strikes by textile workers, miners, and railway workers in places such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Students consistently stood in solidarity with these workers, both of whom faced brutal violence from the authoritarian government and colonial troops. These events prompted university students in China to shift their experiments with democracy and their political ideals from campus to the outside world. Specifically, students were no longer satisfied with focusing merely on student affairs like campus management; they began paying more attention to issues such as tariff autonomy and the abolition of unequal treaties. They also supported workers’ strikes through methods like boycotts and alliances with other social groups, and opposed authoritarian governments and colonial powers through the creation and circulation of cultural media.
A strong student government did not operate only at Tsinghua University but also nationwide, since the All-China Students’ Federation (ACSF) [中华全国学生联合会], the national student government in China that exists to the time of writing, was also founded in 1919. The ACSF initially engaged in diplomatic advocacy, but shifted its focus to domestic policy in 1923. From that year on, this active and strong student government gradually became a progressive and substantial political force. The ACSF showed remarkable success in mobilizing young people to participate in the national revolution. Their discussions were no longer limited to abstract clauses or questions of political systems. What is more, they could independently support political proposals and direct subordinate student governments in various regions to carry out political mobilization. The clearest example of this is the May Thirtieth Massacre [五卅惨案], which broke out in 1925. After the workers’ representative was shot and killed, students across China immediately organized a nationwide protest led by the ACSF. Moreover, this nationwide protest went beyond the scope of students, gradually evolving into a nationwide strike, class boycott, and business boycott. Workers, business owners, and even Chinese colonial police joined in. The student government’s efforts sparked enthusiasm beyond China’s borders. Chinese communities in nearly a hundred countries donated to the movement. Japanese workers protested against their own government in support of China, and British workers tried to stop the shipment of arms to China. It can be said that, under a strong student government, the student movement successfully expanded into a nationwide political movement, demonstrating that student governments can unite other social groups beyond students to advance major political issues.
1919-1925 was a formative period for Chinese student governments. Students experimented with elected representation and even a student court, while political upheaval increasingly drew student organizations beyond campus affairs. Their early history was not a linear adoption of the American model, but an evolving process shaped by both institutional experimentation and a rapidly changing society. The early history of Chinese student government is closely tied to political movements, even revolution, and it reveals a possibility: a strong student government can not only carry out student self-governance but also assume greater social responsibilities and even become a powerful force in promoting social progress.
