Confucianism in multicultural China: ‘official knowledge’ vs marginalised views

ABSTRACT

In this study, we discuss the Confucian tradition in today’s multicultural China from two perspectives: that of the mandatory school curriculum, which represents ‘official knowledge’, and that of students from ethnic minority and/or religious backgrounds who are located on the cultural margins in China. The analysis draws on curricular narratives of the Confucian tradition for six major school subjects and semi-structured interviews with a group of university students from non-Han ethnic minority and/or religious backgrounds, whose lived experiences are rarely included in the national curriculum narrative. The analysis suggests that the interpretation of the Confucian tradition is a monopolising and dominant discourse that reinforces the cultural hierarchy between different cultural groups. However, the students appear to regard the Confucian tradition as only one culture and worldview in China, which can benefit from the critical reflexivity of other cultures.

在这项研究中，我们从两个角度讨论当今多元文化中国的儒家传统的教育传承问题：其一是代表‘官方知识’的学校课程的解读，以及处在中国文化边缘地带的少数民族和/或有宗教信仰背景的学生的视角。数据来源主要包括六门主要学校科目的教材分析，以及对来自少数民族背景和/或宗教背景的大学生进行的半结构化访谈。已有研究证明他们的生活和文化经历会较少呈现在国家课程的叙述中。课程分析表明官方对儒家传统的阐释呈现出一种文化主导的强势话语，趋向于强化不同文化群体之间的地位差异。而学生们更倾向于把儒家传统解释为中国众多文化及世界观的一种，且认为跨文化的批判性反思会促进其发展。

KEYWORDS:

• Confucianism
• Confucian tradition
• school curriculum
• student narratives
• ‘official knowledge’
• nationalism
• multicultural education

关键词:

• 儒家传统
• 学校课程
• 学生话语
• 官方知识
• 民族主义
• 多元文化教育

Acknowledgement

The work described in this paper was fully supported by the grants from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. HKIEd 18600315 and 18603820). We are grateful to Professor Edward Vickers, Dr. Sicong Chen, and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments during the revision process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For an explanation of our preference here for the term ‘nationality’, see the editorial essay for this special issue of Comparative Education (60:1) by Vickers and Chen.

2 The textbooks in the history-related subjects collected in this study cover two curricula. The first is the independent subject of history taught in junior and senior secondary school, which has a long history in the PRC’s school curriculum structure. The second curriculum, the integrated subject of history and society, was implemented at the junior secondary level as part of an initiative for developing the integrated curriculum implemented over the past two decades. That subject first originated in 2004 as an experiment by the Chinese Ministry of Education and was then added to the school system nationwide.

3 Qian Xuesen (also spelled Tsien Hsue-shen, 1911–2009) was a prominent scientist and is widely regarded as the ‘father of Chinese aerospace’.

4 Empress Dowager Feng was the scion of the ruling family of a non-Han (Northern Yan) regime.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tianlong Yu

Tianlong Yu is Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA.

Zhenzhou Zhao

Zhenzhou Zhao is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China.