In between Marxism and tradition: citizenship education in China in view of the intellectual heritage of Chinese civilization

Abstract

This paper discusses the nature of Chinese ideology and the policy of citizenship education from a cultural perspective, in the light of traditional life philosophies and current tendencies. The aim is to understand the Chinese conception of citizenship and the education of citizens as a nation-specific cultural formation and a production of politics. The analysis of the impacts of mainstream mental powers of Chinese civilization on citizenship education is based on reasoning in which the formation and characteristics of the concept of citizenship education is specified with respect to the mainstream ideologies of cultural heritage on the one hand and on the current Marxism on the other. The concept of a harmonious society has been a central political value of Chinese citizenship education in both past and present. The politics of citizenship education in today’s China appears ideologically as an attempt by the communist government to build a national identity in terms of reconciling the intellectual and cultural heritage of civilization with the social and political order based on a specific Chinese interpretation of Marxism.

Keywords

• Citizenship education
• civilization
• cultural heritage
• political education
• China
• Education Policy & Politics