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Abstract
This article examines visual gender representation in school textbooks in post-Mao China. I conducted a visual content analysis of 1800 characters in two sets of elementary language textbooks used during the 1980s and the 2000s. Findings revealed male-dominant patterns regarding illustration type, gender presence, real-life characters, and occupational roles in the two sets of textbooks examined. Close scrutiny suggested that women were subject to more severe under-representation than girls. Regarding the change in gender images in the new textbooks, children were much less involved in productive and military activities and were more frequently depicted as engaged in apolitical settings, indicating de-politicization of the young in the new era. Only real-life male characters and men’s occupational roles displayed a trend of downplaying the revolutionary proletarian class and emphasis on the intellectual elites in the recent textbooks. Social change was not saliently reflected by women’s images in the textbooks investigated.
Abstract in Chinese
本文分析了中國後毛澤東時代學校教科書中插圖人物的性別表征。作者對1980 年代和 2000 年代出版的兩套小學⟪語文⟫課本中的 1800 個人物形象進行了內容分析。研究發現, 在插圖類型, 人物出現頻率、非虛構人物、職業角色中男性主導的特點非常明顯。對插圖中人物出現頻率和性別隔離的分析進一步揭示出成年女性比女孩的歧視更嚴重。本文也分析了性別角色的社會變遷。與 1980 年代的教科書比較, 在 2000年代的教科書中兒童減少參與生産活動和軍事活動的頻率。他們更多地出現在非政治化的場景中。這表明了新時代教科書中對年輕一代去政治化教育的趨勢。對插圖中非虛構的男性人物和職業角色的分析也顯示了淡化無産階級角色以及凸顯知識精英的趨勢, 但插圖中成年女性形象並未這體現些變遷。
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank two anonymous AJWS reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Notes on contributor
LI Xiangmei is a Ph.D. student in Gender Studies Programme, with affiliation to the Social Work Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (PR China). Her research interests include gender and discourse, gender issues in family relationships and family policy.