Wang Chengxu was born in 1912 in the city of Zhangjiagang, in southern Jiangsu province, a coastal province stretching north from the city of Shanghai.

Wang was awarded Asia Pacific Education Innovation Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2003.  

He has been one of the most influential figures in comparative education in China, and it is fascinating to note that the other outstanding scholar of comparative education, Gu Mingyuan, was born in the same county 17 years later in 1929.1 They were not destined to meet each other, however, until 1978.

In their early education, both benefited from the progressive educational ethos that had marked this province as a leading center for educational reform from the beginning of the century. This becomes evident as Wang Chengxu tells the story of his early life and school experiences later in this chapter.