This thesis discusses the political, cultural, and management roles played by the three Fuzhou’s gentries -Yan Fu, Lin Shu, and Chen Baochen in the process of introdcing Western knowledge and establishing a new forms of school in the late Qing Dynasty. This study utilized the framework of roles theory to explore role perception, role expectation, role performance, and role’s functions of the three Fuzhou’s gentries. This thesis discovers five viewpoints:
1. The three gentries in Fuzhou Three Gentries tried their best to fulfill their subjective responsibilities as gentry, as same time, endeavored to meet the objective demands steming from governments and the public, to restore the ruined society during that times.
2. Refering to the political role’s performance, the Fuzhou Three Gentries strengthened patriotic awareness of the public, and teached them to possess professional knowledge and skills in order to stabilize the society.
3. Refering to the cultural role’s performance, the Fuzhou Three Gentries translated a great volumes of Western novels, novelettes, dramas and books in social science.
4. Refering to the managerial role’s performance, the Fuzhou Three Gentries established a series of management processes to run a school, including raising money, recruiting teachers, gathering students, and so on.
5. With respect to the role’s functions, the Fuzhou Three Gentries generated so many good influences for future China, including promoting patriotic awarence in society, building the necessary professional knowledge and skills for the development of future era, making people to appreciate the Western literature, and setting a managerial system to operate a school.