Two broad areas are covered within this resource on the theme of education. The first relates to learning about and teaching foreign cultures and languages. The second documents the education that people alive during this period received as children and young adults. 

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, teaching Chinese to foreigners was prohibited and Chinese nationals were discouraged from learning foreign languages. Later, however, obtaining a mutual understanding of each others’ languages became more common, as shown by educational aids such as Easy Phrases in the Canton Dialect of the Chinese Language, which was designed to be used by pupils learning with a tutor. Early inroads into such education were often made by Christian missionaries. A Translation of the Hymn "While shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night" Made by He Ding, a Pupil of the Episcopal Mission School, Shanghai, China is a good example of a product of a mission school.