Social Change, Citizenship, and Citizenship Education in China since the Late 1970s

Abstract

Since 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). This chapter investigates how the social changes resulting from this policy shift have shaped citizenship and citizenship education (CE) in China since the late 1970s. The case of China illustrates how citizenship and CE are not static concepts, but can be varied to reflect social changes from within and outside of the political community. China is a country that has embraced socialism and based its core system on socialist values. Its development path can be divided into two broad stages of nation building: the Mao Zedong period (1949-1976), during which China became a socialist country, and the post-Mao period (1976 on) which saw many of Mao’s policies reversed under the 1978 policy of economic reform and opening to the world in response to new domestic and global contexts. This reversal, this chapter argues, has informed drastic changes in China’s socialist citizenship framework, including the introduction of a socialist market economy, the revitalization of the role of law in state governance, the rise of civil society, and the reinstatement of traditional Chinese culture and virtues for moral cultivation. These changes are reflected in China’s post-Mao CE curriculum; its various revisions reflect the CPC-led state’s efforts to maintain its political bottom line while allowing sufficient political flexibility to foster a modern Chinese citizenry and prepare Chinese students to be active and responsible local and national citizens and competitive global citizens in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. These revised frameworks for citizenship and CE, however, are confronted with issues arising from the complicated relations among the CPC, society, and the Chinese people.