Education, Nationalism, and Identity Construction among China's Youth

The China Quarterly , 2021

Since the 1990s, the Chinese Party-state has attempted to teach youth how to think and speak about the nation through a "Patriotic Education" campaign waged in schools, media, and public sites. The reception of these messages by youth of different social backgrounds remain a disputed issue, however. Drawing on a multi-sited field study conducted among rural and urban Han Chinese youth attending different types of schools, this article explores the effects of the "Patriotic Education" campaign on youth conceptions of the nation by examining the rhetoric high-school students employ when asked to reflect upon their nation. The study reveals that a majority of youth statements conforms to the rhetoric and contents of the “Patriotic Education” campaign. However, there are significant differences in the discursive stances of youth in the city and in the countryside and of those attending academic and non-academic vocational schools. These findings highlight the existence of variances in youth sense of collective belonging and national identity in contemporary China, while underscoring the importance of social positioning and perceived life chances in producing these variances. They further call into question the Party-state's current vision of China as a “unified” national collectivity.

2012

The youth of China seems poised to put their mark on our world no matter our projection of the future. They find themselves bridging two civilizations, having their thoughts shaped by a society in which, due to a transformation of unprecedented speed, past and future value systems exist simultaneously, and they know that as China grows stronger in the economic and military sphere, it could be a question of time before it starts wielding some cultural and normative power, making these youths an important force. Surveys on them report of increases in nationalism and individualism as well as a large divide between the 80s-90s generations and their elders, but there is a lack of a more in-depth study of what lies beyond the –isms and these surface statements. In order to fill that gap, this paper presents and discusses data from interviews with Chinese elite students, revealing the heterogeneity and the diverse origins of the ideals they express. At first glance there is much contradict...

China Information , 2017

China's relations with communities of Chinese overseas and its attempts to improve these relations are challenged by the weakening ties between younger generations of Chinese overseas and China. This article examines Chinese government-sponsored camps which were developed to counteract the estrangement of Chinese overseas youth through exposure to Chinese culture, language, history and society. Drawing on a historical account of the programme and fieldwork performed among Chinese-Filipino youth in Xiamen, it argues that China's youth camps programme is more than a top-down, transnational initiative aimed at influencing the ethnic and cultural identities of these youths. Instead, these camps embody a convergence of national, institutional and personal agendas (e.g. the long-standing Beijing-Taipei rivalry, the self-defined agendas of Chinese overseas, and local officials' desires to garner political credit from upper-level authorities). This study also argues that the programme has made substantial contributions to Chinese language learning and to a relatively positive image of China among Chinese-Filipino participants and that its influence on the cultural and ethnic orientations of Chinese-Filipino youth has been stronger than its impact on their political identity.

Oxford Review of Education, 2016

American Quarterly, 2017

This article examines China’s strategies for and constraints on protecting and implementing children’s and young people’s rights to education, employment and social and political participation. It shows that the 1978 policy of reform and opening to the world brought forth significant domestic economic and social changes and exposed China and its people to the world. All this, in turn, created new demands and concerns for the development of youth education, work and citizenship. The article further shows that in China, these three domains of youth have been influenced by changing domestic and global contexts, and the state has played a vital role in facilitating these changes in three major spheres of youth. China, however, has also been confronted with equity issues arising from new developments in these domains.

Reading the China Dream, 2021

Social science research in China in the 2000s is much better funded, more professionally organized, but also narrower and less lively than in the 1980s. This essay, originally published in Chinese in 2015, traces these changes to the life experiences of the "educated youth"-- the 20 million urban youth who were sent to the countryside for extended periods in the 1960s and 1970s and returned to cities in the 1980s. Some of them played a leading role in the development of social research in China after the Cultural Revolution. Their life trajectories are deeply intertwined with contemporary Chinese politics, economy and thought. This English version is translated and introduced by David Ownby.

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 2008

Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 2020

China: An International Journal, 2020

In contrast to the plenitude of studies which use speeches, newspaper articles and books in presenting the Chinese state’s crafting of nationalist narratives, there are few studies that use texts specifically designed for mass education. The authors conducted a content analysis of children’s textbooks published by the education arm of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to reveal the narratives used to bolster its nationalism. While some of the findings are consistent with existing theories, such as portrayals of China’s glorious history, claims to territory, forms of government, a foreign “other” as an enemy and economic development, key nuances emerge. The textbooks claim only Taiwan, but not other contentious areas such as Tibet, as part of China; the CPC government is described as a democracy much more than a communist state; the foreign “other” is not only an enemy, but also an endorser; and development refers not only to the country’s economic gains but also to an intimate sphere created around an urban and middle-class norm.