Education officials in China are considering changes to elementary and middle school textbooks that would expand the study of Chinese philosophy and literature, a shift that some education experts say is connected to recent efforts by the government to emphasize China’s cultural heritage.
At an annual education conference this past weekend in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Wang Xuming, president of the state-owned Language and Culture Press, told reporters that his publishing house had revised its Chinese language and literature textbooks to increase the proportion of guoxue, literally “national studies,” referring to the study of Chinese culture, in textbooks to 35 percent, up from 25 percent, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Mr. Wang, a former spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said the proposed changes had already been submitted to the ministry. If approved, he said, the new textbooks would be introduced next September in time for the new school year. While there are many education publishers in China, Language and Culture Press, along with the People’s Education Press and the Higher Education Press, is widely regarded as one of the leading publishing houses for teaching materials.
The proposed changes appear to be part of a broader shift in thinking about the importance of traditional culture to China’s modern national identity.
According to Mr. Wang, the revision process began in September 2013, the same month that he set off a heated debate when he posted comments on his Sina Weibo microblog calling for the elimination of English classes in elementary schools and more emphasis on guoxue.
Because of the low quality of instruction, he wrote, Chinese language education and learning were declining in a “landslide” that was intensifying day by day. “It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that improving national language and literature ability is a pressing issue,” he added.
Concern over young people’s Chinese language abilities has long been a point of national discussion. Last year, the city of Beijing proposed changes to the college entrance examinations taken by high school students that would reduce the importance of English on the exam, known as the gaokao, in favor of greater emphasis on the Chinese language.
Given Mr. Wang’s government background and the status of the publishing house as a state-owned entity, some education experts say that the proposed revisions are likely to be approved. At the very least, the changes appear to be in line with a statement by President Xi Jinping on the role of art last month in which he called traditional Chinese culture the lifeblood of China as well as a “foundation for China to compete in the world.”
If the proposed textbook changes are approved, it is unclear what elements in the existing curriculum might be dropped to make room for the additional coverage of traditional culture. But experts say that, for now, the most pressing issue is to understand what “traditional Chinese culture” actually entails.
“There has always been a lot of classical culture embedded in the curriculum, so that’s not really the problem,” said Ye Kai, author of a 2011 book on Chinese language and literature education. “The problem is: What are they going to choose to emphasize? There are so many sources of traditional Chinese culture.”
Language and Culture Press is not alone in its efforts to call for a greater focus on Chinese culture. Starting next year, the Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, another major textbook publisher, has said it will introduce new Chinese language and literature textbooks for elementary school pupils with more attention to classical poetry, Xinhua reported.