Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:42:00.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Music education in China: In search of social harmony and Chinese nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2011

Wing-Wah Law  and
Wai-Chung Ho
Wing-Wah Law*
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Education, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, [email protected]
Wai-Chung Ho
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Music, Waterloo Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, [email protected]
*
Corresponding author: Wing-Wah Law
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article critically examines how interactions between social changes, social harmony, and historical memory shape school music education in China. As a historical review and documentary analysis, it traces the historical development of music education and examines the Chinese government's role in such interactions over time. The article argues that the Chinese government uses music and music education as an influential nation-building system to enrich the politics of memory. In particular, it adapts the nation's past for political ends, and passes on state-prescribed values to its citizens with a view to legitimising its power. The dynamics and dilemmas that challenge school education result from two divergent aims: (1) to combine the functional education of Confucianism and nationalism so as to encourage social harmony and maintain national myths; and (2) to encourage popular and other world music with traditional Chinese music by using multicultural teaching strategies in music lessons. The question remains how to balance ideas of social harmony, musical cultures and nationalism in school music education in the contexts of current Chinese education policies, teacher education and the globally oriented economics of China today.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , November 2011 , pp. 371 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ANDERSON, B. (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Rev. edn.). London: Verso.Google Scholar
ASIA PACIFIC RESEARCH GROUP (2004, September) China digital youth market. Available at: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=222440 (accessed on 13 August 2009).Google Scholar
BEJING REVIEW (2001) Shanghai conservatory of music enrolling pop music postgraduates. Beijing Review, 44 (3), 30.Google Scholar
BILLIOUD, S. (2007) Confucianism, ‘cultural tradition,’ and official discourse in China at the start of the new century. China Perspectives, 3, 50–65.Google Scholar
CALLAHAN, W. A. (2004) National insecurities: humiliation, salvation, and Chinese nationalism. Alternatives, 29, 199–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CALLAHAN, W. (2006) History, identity, and security: producing and consuming nationalism in China. Critical Asian Studies, 38 (2), 179–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHEN, L. Y. (2008) Multi-faceted trend of evaluation system in music teaching in normal universities. Explorations in Music, 4, 102–104.Google Scholar
CHEN, X. A. (2005) Kangzhan Yinyue Shi (History on Anti-war Music). Jinan: Hwanghe Publisher.Google Scholar
CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION (2010) Ethnic minority performances to highlight Spring Festival Gala. Available at: http://english.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20091211/101337.shtml (accessed 14 February 2010).Google Scholar
CHOW, T. T. (1960) The May Fourth Movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COBLE, P. M. (2007) China's “new remembering” of the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, 1937–1945. The China Quarterly, 190, 394–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DELLO-IACOVO, B. (2009) ‘Curriculum reform and “Quality Education” in China: an overview’. International Journal of Educational Development, 29 (3), 241–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1902/1990) The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1934/1986) Education and the Social Order. In Boydston, J. A. (Ed.), John Dewey: The Later Works (Vol. 9, pp. 175–185). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
DeWOSKIN, K. J. (1982) A Song for One or Two: Music and the Concept of Art in Early China. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, the University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DIKOTTER, F. (1992) The Discourse of Race in Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
DIKOTTER, F. (1996) Culture, race and nation: the formation of national identity in twentieth century China. Journal of International Affairs, 49 (2), 590–605.Google Scholar
DONALD, S. H. (2004) Little friends: children and creative consumption in the People's Republic of China. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7, 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EDUCATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD, PEOPLE'S MUSIC PUBLISHER (2004) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 7, Volume 14). Heilongjiang: People's Music Publisher.Google Scholar
EDUCATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD, PEOPLE'S MUSIC PUBLISHER (2005) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 3, Volume 6). Heilongjiang: People's Music Publisher.Google Scholar
EDUCATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD, PEOPLE'S MUSIC PUBLISHER (2006) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 9, Volume 17). Heilongjiang: People's Music Publisher.Google Scholar
EDUCATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD, PEOPLE'S MUSIC PUBLISHER (2007) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 8, Volume 16). Heilongjiang: People's Music Publisher.Google Scholar
EFIRD, R. (2001) Rock in a hard place: music and the market in nineties Beijing. In Chen, N. N., Clark, C. D., Gottschang, S. Z. & Jeffrey, L. (Eds.), China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture (pp. 67–86). Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
GELLNER, E. (1964) Thought and Change. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
GELLNER, E. (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
GISKIN, H. & WALSH, B. S. (Eds.) (2001). An Introduction to Chinese Culture through the Family. New York: State University of New York.Google Scholar
GU, G. Z. (2006) Salvation songs of middle-China anti-Japanese base area. Journal of Yangcheng Teachers College (Humanities & Social Sciences), 26 (1), 111–114.Google Scholar
GUAN, J. H. (2009) World multiculturalist music education and ethnomusicology in the early 21st-Century China. Art of Music (Journal of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music), 1, 127–137.Google Scholar
HAN, A. G. (2008) Building a harmonious society and achieving individual harmony. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 13 (2), 143–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HE, Y. (2007) History, Chinese nationalism and the emerging Sino-Japanese conflict. Journal of Contemporary China, 16 (50), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HEIN, L. & SELDEN, M. (2000) Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States. New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
HO, W. C. (2003) Westernization and social transformation in Chinese music education, 1895–1949. History of Education, 32 (3), 289–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HO, W. C. (2006a) Social change and nationalism in China's popular songs. Social History, 31 (4), 435–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HO, W. C. (2006b) Popular culture in mainland Chinese education. International Education Journal, 7 (3), 348–363.Google Scholar
HO, W. C. (2010) Moral education in China's music education: development and challenges. International Journal of Music Education, 28 (1), 71–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HO, W. C. & LAW, W. W. (2004) Values, music and education in China. Music Education Research, 6 (2), 149–167.Google Scholar
HUANG, F. Q. (2004) Curriculum reform in contemporary China: seven goals and six strategies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36 (1), 101–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HUANG, R. (1988) China, A Macro History. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
HUNT, M. H. (1996) The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
JORGENSEN, E. R. (2007) Songs to teach a nation. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 15 (2), 150–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAI, M. H. & LO, L. N. K. (2007) Teacher professionalism in educational reform: the experiences of Hong Kong and Shanghai. Compare, 37 (1), 53–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LANDSBERGER, S. R. (1998) Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization. Amsterdam: Pepin Press.Google Scholar
LANDSBERGER, S. R. (2001) Learning by what example? Educational propaganda in twenty-first-century China. Critical Asian Studies, 33 (4), 541–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAU, D. C. (1970) Mencius. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
LAW, W. W. (2009) Culture and school leadership in China: exploring school leaders’ views of relationship and rule-based governance. International Perspectives on Education and Society, 11, 303–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAW, W. W. & HO, W. C. (2009) A review of values education in China's school music education: from nationalism to globalisation. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 41 (4), 501–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEGGE, J. (1895) The Works of Mencius (2d edn.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
LEI, O. Y. B. (2007) Flowers on the battlefield are more fragrant. Asian Music, 38 (1), 88–121.Google Scholar
LI, C. Y. (2006) The Confucian ideal of harmony. Philosophy East and West, 56, 583–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LI, H. M. (2008) Branding Chinese products: between nationalism and transnationalism. International Journal of Communication, 2, 1125–1163.Google Scholar
LIU, C. C. (2009) Zhongguo Xin Yinyue Shilun (Thesis on China's New Music). Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Chinese University Publisher.Google Scholar
LIU, K. (2004) The internet in China: emergent cultural formations and contradictions. In Li, D. L. W. (Ed.), Globalization and the Humanities (pp. 187–212). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
LU, S. H. (2001) China, Transnational Visuality, Global, Postmodernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
LUN, V. M. C. & BOND, M. H. (2006) Achieving relationship harmony in groups and its consequence for group performance. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 9, 195–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MAK, G. (1999) Politics of curriculum: changes in teacher education in China. Educational Journal, 26 (2), 345–360.Google Scholar
MACKERRAS, C. (1984) Folksongs and dances of China's minority nationalities: policy, tradition, and professionalization. Modern China, 10 (2), 187–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1999) Gao xiao wai yu zhuan ye jiao yu hui gu yu zhan wang (Retrospects and prospects of foreign language majors in Chinese higher institutions). Foreign Language World, 4, 4–9.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (2001a) Yishu Kecheng Biaozhun (Standard of Arts Curriculum). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publisher.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (2001b) Yinyue Kecheung Biaozhun (Standard of Music Curriculum). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publisher.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (2001c) Guidelines on Curriculum Reform of Basic Education (for Experiment). Beijing: Ministry of Education.Google Scholar
PEOPLE'S DAILY NEWS (2005, 13 June) Future brightens for cultural heritage. Available at: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/13/eng20050613_189893.html (accessed 3 August 2009)Google Scholar
PEOPLE'S DAILY NEWS (2009, 3 June) 100 patriotic songs to be spread in all schools. Available at: http://china.jyb.cn/gnxw/200906/t20090603_278753.html (accessed 3 August 2009)Google Scholar
SHANGHAI CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (2010) The programs for international students. Available at: http://www.shcmusic.edu.cn/Html/lxs/zsxxe/641955071344.htm (accessed 15 February 2010)Google Scholar
SHANGHAI EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHER (2004a) Yishu – Yinyue (Arts: Music) (Grade 5, 2nd term). Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishers.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHER (2004b) Yishu – Yinyue (Arts: Music) (Grade 8, 2nd term). Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishers.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHER (2004c) Yishu – Yinyue (Arts: Music) (Grade 9, 1st term). Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishers.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI MUSIC PUBLISHER (2002) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 9, 1st term). Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI MUSIC PUBLISHER (2004a) Yishu (Arts) (Grade 5, 2nd term). Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI MUSIC PUBLISHER (2004b) Yishu (Arts) (Senior High Education – Year Two, 1st term). Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI MUSIC PUBLISHER (2004c). Yishu (Arts) (Senior High Education – Year Two, 2nd term). Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.Google Scholar
SHANGHAI MUSIC PUBLISHER (2005) Yishu (Arts) (Senior High Education – Year Three, 2nd term). Shanghai: Shanghai Music Publisher.Google Scholar
SHEN, X. M. (2007) Shanghai Education. Singapore: Thomson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SHI, A. B. (2000) Toward a Chinese national-popular: cultural hegemony and counter hegemony in Maoist and Post-Maoist China. Social Semiotics, 10 (2), 201–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SHI, X. G. & ENGLERT, P. A. J. (2008) Reform of teacher education in China. Journal of Education for Teacher, 34 (4), 347–359.Google Scholar
SICHUAN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (2010) Pop Singing Department. Available at: http://www.popmc.net/eng/index.php/academy/index/6 (accessed 15 February 2010).Google Scholar
SISARIO, B. (2007, 25 November) For all the rock in China. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/arts/music/25sisa.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed 19 February 2010).Google Scholar
SMITH, A. D. (1991) National Identity. Reno: University of Nevada Press.Google Scholar
SMITH, M. E. (2005) Reckoning with the Past: Teaching History in Northern Ireland. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
SUN, J. Y. (2009, 27 May) Critique on China – confusing patriotic songs (Zhongguo pinglun aiguo gequ bulun bulei). Ming Pao Daily News. Available at: http://news.mingpao.com/20090527/cae1.htm (accessed 27 May 2009)Google Scholar
TUOHY, S. (2001) The sonic dimensions of nationalism in modern China: musical representation and transformation. Ethnomusicology, 45 (1), 107–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VICKERS, E. (2007) Museums and nationalism in contemporary China. Compare, 37 (3), 365–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VICKERS, E. & JONES, A. (Eds.) (2005) History Education and National Identity in East Asia. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
WANG, G. W. (1993) Greater China and the Chinese overseas. The China Quarterly, 136, 926–948.Google Scholar
WANG, Y. W. (2004) The ethical power of music: ancient Greek and Chinese thoughts. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38 (1), 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WANG, Z. (2008) National humiliation, history education, and the politics of historical memory: patriotic education campaign in China. International Studies Quarterly, 52, 783–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WHITEHEAD, R. L. (1976) The new ethics in China and anti-Confucius campaign. Journal of Sociology, 12 (1), 16–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIANT, B. (1966) The Music of China. Hong Kong: Chung Chi College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
WILLIAMS, J. (1999, 29 April–5 May) Music review – Lei Feng is gone. Trip Journal. Available at: http://www.prin.edu/college/china/journal/ (accessed 15 June 2009).Google Scholar
WONG, I. K. F. (1984) Geming gequ: songs for the education of the masses. In McDougall, B. S. (Ed.), Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979 (pp. 112–143). Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
WONG, I. K. F. (2002) Nationalism, westernization, and modernization. In Provine, R. C., Tokumaru, Y. & Witzleben, J. L. (Eds.), The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (East Asia: China, Japan, Korea) (Vol. 7, pp. 379–390). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
XIAONIAN YITONG CHUBIAN SHE (2003) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 6, 1st term). Shanghai: Xiaonian Yitong Chubian She.Google Scholar
XIAONIAN YITONG CHUBIAN SHE (2004a) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 6, 2nd term). Shanghai: Xiaonian Yitong Chubian She.Google Scholar
XIAONIAN YITONG CHUBIAN SHE (2004b) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 7, 1st term). Shanghai: Xiaonian Yitong Chubian She.Google Scholar
XIAONIAN YITONG CHUBIAN SHE (2004c) Yinyue (Music) (Grade 7, 2nd term). Shanghai: Xiaonian Yitong Chubian She.Google Scholar
XINHUA NEWS (2010, 13 January) Senior leaders calls to further promote socialist culture and ethics. Available at: http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/66102/6866892.html (accessed 19 February 2010).Google Scholar
YANG, J. (2006) Learners and users of English in China. English Today, 22 (2), 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YAO, X. Z. (2000) An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ZHAO, S. S. (1998) For thousands of years, Han Chinese Confucianism has focused on the achievement of social harmony through the practice of individual moral conduct in a hierarchical society. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 31 (3), 287–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ZHONGGUO JIANGYUE BAO (2009, 3 June) Teachers and students participate in their schools’ activities – Theme on the widely educational activities ‘I Love My Homeland’. Available at: http://www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/12/info1243987743855212.htm (accessed 6 July 2009)Google Scholar
ZHOU, S. Z. (2007) The spread of the anti-Japanese and national salvation songs in Suiyuan region. Journal of Inner Mongolia Normal University (Philosophy & Social Science), 26 (6), 140–142.Google Scholar