Abstract��This paper represents an initial and exploratory effort to understand the development of education in China over this century from an insider’s perspective. Through the narratives of six influential educators, beginning from their family and early schooling through the development of their careers, it provides insights into major developments in education over an 80 year period. The paper begins with some reflections on the character of comparative education as a field of study, and the use of narrative as an approach to educational research. It then turns to the six narratives, presenting them in four main sections – a brief depiction of each educator’s present situation and standing, the influences of family and schooling before 1949, their careers under socialism, and their perspectives on the period after the reform and opening up of 1978. Some attention is also given to the university where they spent their careers, and the diverse regions where these are situated. There is an attempt to identify and understand the threads of continuity that held together lives lived through momentous change.
2001, Vol. 1 
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