Abstract School health education and health promotion have been the focus of China s school health work since the reform and opening up, and have been emphasized at different stages. By reviewing the problems at three different stages, namely, transformation stage of school education into the school health education stage, the institutionalization stage of school health education, and the new concept stage of school health education, the paper traces the development process of school health education in China since the reform and opening up, and summarizes the experience and reflections, so as to provide implications and suggestions for the development of school health education in China.

Abstract Chinese school health education began in the late Qing Dynasty. While both local schools and western missionary schools were involved, each had different characteristics. With the goal of strengthening the country, local schools taught both Chinese and western educational content, and gradually embarked on the road of independent research and development. Missionary schools aimed to spread doctrines and western health concepts, and simultaneously introduced the western school health system. By comparing the development of two kinds of school health education in the late Qing government, this study analyzes the differences between them in terms of their educational objectives, approaches and content. The differences between Chinese and western ideas on education, body and health are summarized and regarded as fundamental factors for their differences.