Ideology and politics in junior-secondary Chinese history textbooks: comparing two versions published in the 21^st century

ABSTRACT

Guided with an integrated theoretical framework of textbook and ideology, this study compares two versions of Chinese history textbooks published by one publisher in two different publication systems which were enacted immediately before and soon after President Xi Jinping’s 2012 ascendancy. Critical discourse analysis shows that, despite seeking to balance differ groups’ histories, sharing a desire of consolidating the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) domination, and supposedly following curriculum standards made before 2012, the new version of textbooks greatly differed from the old version, reflected Xi’s formal ideology and authority, and updated his informal ideology while following established guidelines for conveying historical materialism. This study concludes that knowledge in Chinese history textbooks serves the CPC’s political needs, and especially reflects the-then top leader’s efforts at consolidating Party dominance, signifying his power, and cultivating nationalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural politics
• Chinese history textbooks
• ideology
• China

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the journal editor and two reviewers for their comments and constructive suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Liu Qiu is Today’s Taiwan’ was not illustrated in Shih Kuo’s map.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science under Grant [GD14YJY01]; Young Scholar Funding provided by Ministry of Education of China under Grant [18YJC880100].