The “Two Ways” of Citizenship Education in China

Handbook of Research on Education for Participative Citizenship and Global Prosperity, 2018

This chapter aims to analyze the "Chinese way" of citizenship education as a meeting place between the historical lessons of Confucianism, Marxist-Leninist socialist ideology, and newer concepts of global citizenship. Furthermore, this project seeks to understand how the model of education for "global" citizenship fits within the established system of ideological and moral education. To this end, research was carried out at three different levels. Firstly, a review of the most recent and "global" literature on education for citizenship was conducted. Secondly, public government documents were studied and compared, in particular, those from the Ministry of Education and the Association for Higher Education, which is supervised by the Chinese communist party and its General Secretary, President Xi Jinping. Thirdly, surveys were conducted to gauge the degree of involvement of students in their own citizenship education at high school and university level. Finally, a field study was conducted at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong province (Zhuhai campus).

2013

In the case of China, political education has been viewed as fundamental to the socialisation of young people into the core doctrines of the People's Republic since its foundation. Yet it must now address a generation of young people experiencing capitalist individualism, alongside paternalistic collectivism. In Citizenship Education in China: Preparing Citizens for the "Chinese Century", Kerry Kennedy brings together mainland Chinese scholars who do not normally publish in English with those from Hong Kong and the West to provide a compendious overview of the state of the field. The volume begins with two contrasting entries. Fairbrother presents a story of remarkable continuity in the Chinese state's concern with the people's moral education. Good governance in China has meant stability and social order, and this is maintained by a paternalistic state. Imperial Confucianism established an ideological orthodoxy that ever since has seen the Chinese state intervene to instil in people the values and legitimacy of a system of political-cultural paternalistic governance and the system of duties, obligations, and mores that this lays down. This 'rule by morality' continues to be seen in state directives on strengthening and improving 'political, ideological, moral, patriotic, and legal education' (p.25). Conversely, Xu argues that what has come to be understood as civic education was a response to the threat from the West in the early modern period, and the desire to forge a national character that could resist Western domination. In effect, it was part of a process of modernisation and nation-building that meant incorporating Western concepts of 'the people', 'the nation' and 'the citizen'. Modern state sponsored civic education particularly developed during the May 4 th Movement and the rise of a forthright and distinctive Chinese nationalism. For Xu, the modern period has meant a transformation from subjects to citizens, yet drawing on national cultural traditions to foster a distinctive Chinese civic personality (p. 39). Qin outlines a comprehensive programme for civic education reform in China drawing on tradition, ideological education and the practices of other countries. This is a conservative agenda focused on 'developing civic qualities, and shaping modern citizens who have virtues and are aware of their responsibilities and obligations' (p.51). Its central tenets are national socialist unity, civilised behaviour, Chinese culture and servicing society. Nevertheless Qin rejects 'traditional force-feeding pedagogy' in favour of more heuristic approaches that can connect with pupils. This seems particularly pertinent considering that by the time they are in college and universities, according to Jiang and Xu, students have disengaged from political and ideological education. While Qin wishes to distinguish civic education from political and ideological education, Jiang and Xu argue that these differences are meaningless as the curriculum has been dominated by the latter. Their aim is to recover the independence of moral education 'with a focus on practice and connecting to the daily

This chapter examines a Confucian conception of citizenship education by focusing on Confucius' teachings and actions as recorded in the Analects (Lunyu). Confucius' belief in the historicity and potential of human beings motivates him to emphasise the inheritance, acquisition, critical reflection and appropriation of traditional knowledge for citizenship education. He balances teacher directiveness and student autonomy by foregrounding human beings as both recipients and creators of their own culture. Three main characteristics of a Confucian worldview of citizenship education are highlighted in this chapter. First, that the goal of citizenship education is to nurture junzi (exemplary persons) who perform their social roles and participate actively in their communities in accordance with zhengming (rectification of names). Second, that a Confucian citizenship education curriculum reflects a 'thick' conception of human good through a substantive framework of beliefs and values that centres on dao (Way). Third, that a recommended pedagogical approach, as demonstrated by Confucius, is dialogue to foster reflective citizens. A Confucian conception of citizenship education as outlined in this chapter debunks the perception that Confucius and Confucianism necessarily promote authoritarian leadership, unquestioning obedience to authority, passive citizenship and political indoctrination.

Frontiers of Education in China, 2011

The authors, one from China and one from the United States, present a theoretical framework for understanding the discursive fields of citizenship education as composed, in large part, of the discourses of nationalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism. The framework is illustrated by examples from citizenship education in China and the United States. Citizenship education in these examples is largely influenced by the discourse of nationalism. The discursive fields are fractured, context-specific, and dynamic. In conclusion, the authors call for awareness of how these discourses operate, and propose that the discourses of globalization and cosmopolitanism merge and strengthen within citizenship education. The effect could be a new citizenship education that is responsive to the current needs of local and global democratic communities.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Citizenship education has been an explicit part of the universal education system in contemporary China. Using data from an original nationwide survey conducted in 2018, this study tests the hypothesis that the longer the intensity of exposure to citizenship education, the more citizens are influenced by a state-led conception of citizenship characterized by passive obedience and loyalty to the state. The study finds mixed results in that citizenship education is effective at lower educational levels, but at higher levels it is not only less effective, but instead may foster (or at minimum, does not deter) more active conceptions of citizenship.

Citizenship Studies, 2015

To better cultivate their world citizenship awareness better in the future, the Chinese citizens today need to inherit the fine Chinese traditional world citizenship thoughts. The Chinese traditional world citizenship thoughts, with ideas such as ‘Datong shijie’ (‘a world of grand unity’), ‘Tianren heyi’ (‘unity of heaven and human’), ‘Rendao zhuyi’ (humanitarianism), and ‘Heping zhuyi’ (pacifism), contained the seeds of a concept of world citizenship. In comparison with the Western counterpart, the citizen consciousness in China's traditional society was very weak, China's traditional minzhong (people) concepts were based on its state concept of ‘Tian Xia’ (All-under-Heaven), and a sense of citizenship in the late Qing was built by using the cultural resources of both Confucianism and Western philosophy. For the transcendence of Chinese citizenship toward world citizenship, the first thing to do is to foster a civil spirit in China, the second, to promote the growth of Chin...

Offering an ethical foundation for the concept of global citizenship education, this paper draws upon the ideas of neo-Confucian thinker Wang Yangming. Focussing on UNESCO's goal to help learners acquire a sense of belonging to a broader community and humanity, this paper elucidates Wang's concept of innate knowledge (liangzhi). The article explains how Wang posits a shared humanity that is premised on moral knowledge inherent in all human beings. He further argues for the extension of innate knowledge by eliminating our selfish tendencies and manifestations that alienate us from other people. Two major implications for global citizenship arising from Wang's ideas are highlighted. First, Wang's notion of innate knowledge, by affirming human dignity, equality and potential, underpins and constitutes the vision of shared humanity in global citizenship. Secondly, Wang's recommended pedagogical approaches promote global citizenship by foregrounding the moral cultivation of learners.

Taiwan journal of democracy, 2015

This essay addresses a research vacuum in comparative political studies by comparing the evolution and current status of citizenship education in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Each of the three Chinese-speaking societies represents a different stage of development and democratization in global politics. What do middle-school students socialized in these societies think about democracy, citizenship, and minority rights in the early part of the twenty-first century? What elements separate and unite them? After providing an overview of the major shifts in the paradigms of contemporary citizenship education in the respective societies, the essay employs both primary and secondary survey data associated with a leading survey on international civic and citizenship education to provide empirical answers to the research questions.

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Citizenship, 2021

This chapter has sorted out the complicated relationships between Confucianism and citizenship in terms of three aspects. First, based on the philosophical literature, I have unpacked the relational diversities of Confucianism and citizenship. By classifying Confucianism into the illiberal and liberal types, and citizenship into the thin and thick ones, this chapter has problematized the oversimplified dual framework that dominates the understanding of Confucianism and its relevance to citizenship. By examining each of the types, I have clarified three theoretical camps of their relationships: incompatibility, compatibility and reconstruction. The second aspect involves the comparison of two subjects— junzi that is the Confucian ideal personality, and citizen that plays the fundamental role in modern politics. While I follow the aforementioned classification of thin and thick citizens, I continue to categorize junzi into two types— one as the moral subject and one as the governing subject. Following the framework established by two axes— the political/ legal and the moral/ ethical, I compare the pairs of junzi and citizen. It is found that, despite the moral compatibility for junzi and citizen, the two subjects lack consistency in terms of status equality and individual rights. Finally, this chapter has discussed the possibility and feasibility to construct a new subject of gentle citizen in present- day China. To cultivate a gentle citizen requires making the core elements of citizenship the subjective foundation, also supplemented by the Confucian attributes of junzi, so as to transform the individual to someone featured with both Confucian virtues and civic ethics. I propose that this is a realistic approach in terms of combining the two subject attributes, considering that contemporary China has established a citizenship regime for all entitled individuals, that the awareness of citizenship rights has been intensified, and that the moral landscape shift has caused spiritual and ethical contradictions in Chinese people’s subjective domain and public life. Establishing a Confucian- style citizenship education would be a meaningful project for China today.