Cultivating Chinese Citizens: China's Search for Modernization and National Rejuvenation

Abstract

This chapter explores the cultivation of post-1840s Chinese citizens at the interface between nationalism and internationalization in their pursuit of modernization and national revival. The chapter argues that China’s sociopolitical, cultural and educational contexts have never been conducive to making free and autonomous persons or citizens. In different epochs, different regimes adopted different orthodoxies by selecting (ergo, deselecting and/or rejecting) certain cultural ideals, values and norms from China and other countries to facilitate state governance and foster social conformity for social and political stability. State-run and -funded education transmitted state-supported orthodoxies to people and sustained the symbiotic relationships between the state, governance orthodoxy and education. In effect, the Chinese state used education as a socialization tool, emphasizing citizen-making (e.g., preparing individuals to live in a collectivist society and work towards a common cause prescribed by state orthodoxy) rather than person-making (e.g., developing unique personal traits and characteristics). If China wants to foster active and autonomous persons and citizens for national rejuvenation in the 21st century, its governance orthodoxy and education must be more politically and ideologically open and accommodative, to help students develop global, national, and local identities and function as active, responsible citizens of a multileveled, multicultural, globalized world. This chapter challenges a newly emerged view advocating using Confucian traditions to help Chinese people become free and autonomous persons. It argues that for over two millennia China's sociopolitical, cultural and educational contexts have never been conducive to making free and autonomous persons or citizens. In different epochs, different regimes integrated politics, governance orthodoxy and education. They used education, particularly citizenship education as a socialization tool, emphasizing citizen-making rather than person-making. If the Chinese state wants to foster active and autonomous persons and citizens, its governance orthodoxy, education and citizenship education must be more politically and ideologically open and accommodative.