JOMAIMA P.

ANGAR

CHINA COUNTRY

THE TRADITION, CUSTOMS, BEHAVIOR AND PRESENT LIFESTYLE

The Chinese refer to their country as the Middle Kingdom, an indication of how central
they have felt themselves to be throughout history. There are cultural and linguistic variations in
different regions, but for such a large country the culture is relatively uniform. However, fifty-
five minority groups inhabit the more remote regions of the country and have their own unique
cultures, languages, and customs.
The vast majority of Chinese people are of Han descent. They identify with the dominant
national culture and have a sense of history and tradition that dates back over one thousand years
and includes many artistic, cultural, and scientific accomplishments. When the communists took
over in 1949, they worked to create a sense of national identity based on the ideals of equality
and hard work. Some minority groups, such as the Manchu, have assimilated almost entirely.
While they maintain their own languages and religions, they identify with the nation as well as
with their own groups. Other minority ethnic groups tend to identify more with their individual
cultures than with the Han. For example, the Mongolians and Kazakhs of the north and
northwest, the Tibetans and the Zhuangs in the southwest, and the inhabitants of Hainan Island to
the southeast are all linguistically, culturally, and historically distinct from one another and from
the dominant tradition. For some minority groups, the Tibetans and Uigurs of Xinjiang in
particular, the issue of independence has been an acrimonious one and has led those groups to
identify themselves deliberately in opposition to the central culture and its government
The cultural values of a country influence its national psychology and identity. Citizens’
values and public opinions are conveyed to state leaders through the media and other information
channels, both directly and indirectly influencing decisions on foreign policy. The traditional
cultural values that influence the psyche of the Chinese people are harmony, benevolence,
righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, honesty, loyalty, and filial piety.
History and reforms

The beginning of a system of formal education in China may be traced back as far as the Shang
Dynasty (16-1045 BCE).20 From the onset, education was necessary to attain the coveted
positions in civil service which were the key to wealth. The result was the perpetuation of a
cultural/social cycle in which the elite were the educated and the educated were the elite. Prior to
the Imperial Examination system, most appointments to civil service were based on
recommendations from aristocrats and existing officials. By 115 CE, in an attempt to remove the
patronage system, the government established a curriculum for the so-called First Generation of
examination takers.16 Education under this Imperial Examination system however remained
elitist and for the most part existed only to train government officials.

The set curriculum focused on the Six Arts: music, archery, horsemanship, writing arithmetic,
history and knowledge of the public and private life rituals and ceremonies. The content was
gradually expanded to cover the Five Studies: military strategy, civil law, revenue and taxation,
agriculture and geography; in addition to a combination of works that defined the philosophy of
Confucianism. The teachings of Confucius, outlined both personal conduct as well as societal
and government goals, and were contained in the Four Books: Analects of Confucius, Mencius,
The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, and the Five Classics: The Book of Odes, The
Book of Documents, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes, The Spring and Autumn
Annals.10

The Republic (1911-1949)

In 1911, the bourgeois revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and set the stage for the
establishment of a Republican form of government by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In many respects, the
revolution that made the change possible was a product of the ideals of Western democracy. In
the area of education, the Nationalist reformers tended to favor the Western European model of
centralized state control over all levels of the education system. The aim of education also
shifted, from the emphasis on the reproduction of a scholar class to the desire to bring about
needed social change while preserving the cultural/social unity.

The new Republic’s first Minister of Education, Cai Yuanpei 4 proposed a system that advocated
the unity of five types of education: military/citizenship, utilitarian, moral, world view, and
aesthetic. He was greatly attracted to the pragmatic education theory of John Dewey, with its
emphasis on experimental inquiry. He agreed with Dewey that the aims of education were to
foster intelligence of mind, personal traits that contribute to culture and society, democratic
mobility and educational growth. In order to guard against the use and abuse of education by
those interested in using scientific knowledge for political power and economic profit, void of a
national morality, Cai Yuanpei planned to place the responsibility for administrating the
education system into the hands of independent educators who were not influenced by state,
party or church.

The People’s Republic of China – Period of Liberation and Recovery (1949-1966)

At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, only a few Chinese were attending school or even
had basic literacy skills. Mao Zedong understood the political importance of control over
education, and as part of its development strategy, the Communist Party returned to its pre-civil
war aim to improve access to education for all. During the period of the national economic
recovery (1949-1952), the new government consciously protected the rights of the poor, and
modestly encouraged locals and ordinary people to establish new schools, including private,
public, and collective. Although the government did turn its attention to ensure the rapid
recovering, stabilizing, adjusting and reorienting of the old primary schools, the greater part of
its educational energy was placed on a policy of restructuring higher education. In the early days
of Communism, to ensure rapid reshaping of the whole education system, the government
adopted Soviet education patterns with its heavy emphasis on engineering programs and
production labor.27, 28, 30 Although the growth of the enrollment rate was very quick, the Soviet
model did not address the problem of mass illiteracy.
The People’s Republic of China – Period of The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

The two tiered system of education continued to flourish until 1966. Mao believing that his party
was loosing the revolutionary fervor and was creating a privileged elite that was a threat to the
socialist regime. He accused the party of capitalist tendencies, bureaucratism, elitism, and
inefficiency. By calling on the young people to actively revive the revolutionary spirit, he
launched a ten-year period called “The Cultural Revolution”.

Students formed “Red Guards” and “revolutionary rebels” and went out among the populous to
destroy the old culture, the old ideology, the old customs, and the old habits. Education, having a
considerable impact on social and economic development, became the first targets of attack and
Mao declared that education should be revolutionalized

Education is seen by all the "players" in the China Rises stories, as both an ends and a means to
economic success. The history of China demonstrates that education is the catalyst for expanding
capabilities of individuals to have the choice to do more, live a long life, to escape avoidable
illness, and to have access to the world's stock of knowledge. For the country as a whole, the
level of adult literacy skills is an indicator of enhanced personal welfare and improved
productivity. In a virtuous cycle, improved productivity increases wages which in turn leads to
further possibility for expanded educational opportunities that will result in even higher per
capita incomes. Expanded educational opportunities and higher per capita incomes are inversely
correlated with infant mortality rates and fertility rates and positively correlated with rising life
expectancy and gender equity. China evidently has long struggled with the issue of educational
access and equity, ranging from dramatic political movements to demographic realities of rural-
urban change. Who gets educated will remain one of the central issues of education in China for
the foreseeable future. Thus China must carefully reflect on the past as well as the future to
examine how to make the present education system as democratic as possible. Democratic
education in this context refers to education that has open access and equal opportunity, but
always with the preservation of a strong core of high quality into which only those who can
qualify may enter. It implies an education system whose curriculum and pedagogy is designed to
ensure that all have access to the possibility to become citizens who are skilled at making
decisions that benefit individuals and society and who are autonomous reflective thinkers.

Teachers qualifications
Different qualification certificates are required for different types and different ranks of teachers
in China (Figure 1.5). Citizens who receive qualification certificates are eligible to teach at
schools that accept their teaching certificates or certificates pertaining to lower levels of training.
However, citizens who receive the Certificate for Practical Instructors in Secondary Vocational
Schools can only apply to practical instructor positions. Candidates must apply personally for
teaching positions. Candidates submit official identification documents, as well as an academic
diploma or compliance certification from a teacher qualification examination. An applicant must
also present a health certificate and reference letters describing his or her moral character.
Finally, candidates are required to disclose whether they have a criminal record. All applicants
should apply for the certificates in local educational administration departments at the county
level. However, the certificates are issued by different departments according to their categories.
As for qualification certificates for teachers in pre-school, primary school and junior secondary
schools, they are issued by county-level governments. Qualification certificates for teachers in
senior secondary school are issued by educational administrative departments in the upper level.
Certificates for practical instructors are also issued by educational administrative departments or
by other relevant departments. The certification process is more complex when it comes to
higher education. Universities that are directly affiliated with the Ministry of Education or
provincial-level governments have the right to issue certificates for their own faculties. Teachers
at other universities must hold government-approved certificates.
The qualification system has undergone reform recently. In the new system, the teacher’s
qualification examination is held nationally. Every certificate applicant has to pass the
examination except the applicants for higher education. In the past, the examination was held at
the provincial level mostly, and graduates from dedicated teacher training schools were allowed
to skip the exam. The written examination is taken partly on paper and partly on a computer. The
interview includes a structured interview and situational simulation. Interviewers may ask
applicants to answer questions from randomly selected topics. Or candidates may be asked to
prepare a course, answer questions about it, present the course and create an evaluation for
students based on the material. According to the Teacher’s Law, schools and other educational
institutions should progressively adopt a system where teachers are recruited using employment
contracts. The recruitment contract is issued by government at the county level and above, or by
schools that demonstrate some special conditions. The whole recruiting process should be open
and transparent, which makes the competition more equal. The tradition of permanent
employment, what was known conventionally as the “Iron Rice Bowl”, has been challenged by
the introduction of teacher contracts. Now teachers must, according to their terms of
employment, satisfactorily meet regular inspections and appraisals.

China’s education system

China has the largest education system in the world. With almost 260 million students and over
15 million teachers in about 514 000 schools (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2014),
excluding graduate education institutions, China’s education system is not only immense but
diverse. Education is state-run, with little involvement of private providers in the school sector,
and increasingly decentralised. County-level governments have primary responsibility of the
governing and delivery of school education. For the most part, provincial authorities administer
higher education institutions. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has shifted from direct
control to macro-level monitoring of the education system. It steers education reform via laws,
plans, budget allocation, information services, policy guidance and administrative means
(National Centre for Education Development Research, 2008). In China, students must complete
nine years of compulsory education. Most students spend six years in primary school, though a
few school systems use a fiveyear cycle for primary school. Primary education starts at age six
for most children. This is followed by three to four years of junior secondary education. Before
the 1990s, secondary schools recruited students on the basis of an entrance examination. To
emphasise the compulsory nature of junior secondary schools, and as a part of the effort to orient
education away from examination performance and towards a more holistic approach to learning,
the government has replaced the entrance examination with a policy of mandatory enrolment
based on area of residence (Schleicher and Wang, 2014). The gross enrolment ratio for primary
education in 2014 was 103% compared with 104% in 2006, while for secondary education gross
enrolment ratio was 94% compared with 64% in 2006 (UNESCO-UIS, 2016) After finishing
compulsory education, students can choose whether to continue with senior secondary education.
Senior secondary education takes three years. There are five types of senior secondary schools in
China: general senior secondary, technical or specialised secondary, adult secondary, vocational
secondary and crafts schools. The last four are referred to as secondary vocational schools.
Students undergo a public examination called Zhongkao before entering senior secondary
schools, and admission depends on one’s score on this examination. The government uses
examination results from Zhongkao to assign students to different senior secondary schools.
China has made significant efforts to expand participation in secondary vocational schools in
recent years in order to meet the country’s fast-evolving economic and manpower needs. In
2014, secondary vocational schools accounted for a little less than 22% of total senior secondary
school enrolment in China (UNESCO-UIS, 2016). Although senior secondary education is not
part of compulsory education in China, in 2014, 95% of junior secondary graduates continued
their study in senior secondary schools (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2015). This
figure is notable because in 2005 only around 40% of junior secondary graduates attended senior
secondary schools (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2005