This article aims to trace back the history of how Chinese Government attempted to strengthen its national power by learning from the USA, Western Europe and Japan since the mid-nineteenth century, as well as to analyse the influences Westernisation had on the development of China’s modern education. In this process, the Chinese Government overseas-study scholarships played a key role in speeding up China’s learning from the West, and assisted numerous students in experiencing Western modernisation while they studied abroad. By examining (...) this historical retrospect, some findings are concluded from this research. First, several significant conflicts between China and foreign countries stimulated Chinese officials deeply to learn the knowledge and skills of Western navy, military, sciences, technologies and philosophies. Second, Chinese scholars also began to reflect and criticise the influence of these Westernised reforms on Chinese traditional culture and values. (shrink)