Citizenship education in Chinese schools

Research in Education, May 2002 by Chen, Yangguang, Reid, Ivan

Up to 1965, through years of effort, China accomplished its social transition and established its own concept of socialist citizenship, which emphasised loyalty rather than initiative, obligations rather than rights, commitments rather than freedom, and community rather than individualism. There were perhaps strong influences not only from Soviet socialism but also from the British ideology of `God, king and country' which derived from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and the republican tradition, emphasising the importance of a sense of community, love of country, zealous engagement in civic duties and selfless devotion to the defence of the State.

The `Cultural Revolution' lasted for ten years, from 1966 to1976. It was not so much a revolution as a power struggle between groups of representatives of the Chinese Communist Party. Most schools suspended classes for periods during the revolution, so there was little curriculum improvement. Even when schools reopened, classrooms became a battlefield of ideological controversy or 'brainwashing' machines. They strongly reflected the political struggle within the party and the preferences of Mao's dictatorship. In effect no teaching or learning could exist if they were not subject to the State politics of the time. It was scarcely surprising that Citizenship Education was replaced with political study of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong. However, only after the death of Mao and the removal of the `Gang of Four' (the group consisting of Qing Jian, Mao's wife, Chun Qiao Zhang, Wen Yuan Yao, then members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, and Hong Wen Wang, the Vice-chairman of the Central Party Committee) did the majority of Chinese people realise that the Cultural Revolution had been a great disaster for them. It was well accepted afterwards that this period was really a nightmare and a historical regression from the realisation of socialist modernisation.

Present development of Citizenship Education

Things began to change after the late 1970s when China emerged from the Cultural Revolution. The Central Party Committee decided to transfer its working emphasis from ideological struggle to economic development. At the same time the reforms set out to make education a strategic focal point of socialist modernisation. Educationalists looked for ways to update the content of school education. In 1978 CMOE issued A Draft Teaching Plan for Ten Year Full-time Primary and Secondary Schools, which reinstated the importance of implementing Citizenship Education in schools, with the emphasis on the more public aspects of morality. It was from this time that Citizenship Education began to identify itself as about promoting the spiritual and moral development of youngsters and preparing them to be moral and cultured citizens with self-discipline and a sense of responsibility, with knowledge, good mental and physical health and motivated by the noble ideals of socialism. This development has undergone three phases, each with its own characteristics.