catherine owens

The Construction of Cultural Values

and Beliefs in Chinese Language

Textbooks: A critical discourse analysis

Yongbing Liu* Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This article examines the discourses of cultural values and beliefs constructed in Chinese language

textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying story

grammar analysis in the framework of critical discourse analysis, the article critically investigates

how the discourses are constructed and what ideological forces are manifested in the textbooks.

More specifically, it analyses how story grammar and textual devices are manipulated in the

construction of selected versions of cultural values and beliefs for the child reader. Further, it

explores how the discourses position the child reader to read through the ways that the discourses

are constructed, and concludes that the discourses serve the interests of the government and its

cultural elites, but not the interests of the child reader.

Introduction

In the late 1970s China began to reform its economic system and opened its doors to

the outside world. After roughly two decades of reform, China has seen an

unmistakable emergence of activities that mark a ‘‘capitalist society’’: industrializa-

tion, privatization of the means of production, commodification of labour, the rise of

a new rich class, and so on (see, for example, Eaton, 1999; Naughton, 2000). The

implementation of a free market economy has led to income gaps widening

enormously, and the unemployment rate is soaring. These have caused a psycho-

logical and ideological crisis for many Chinese people and generated untold

resentment against reform, globalization, and the government. Within China it is

publicly argued that the high unemployment rate and the gap between the rich and

poor could cause social instability (see, for example, He, Q. L., 1998; Hu, 1999).

The market economy has caused the state to lose control over society and has placed

the Chinese working class at the mercy of new capitalist exploitation.

The growth of the free market has had implications beyond the economic

structure: It has opened up a Pandora’s box of social evils, such as corruption,

drug abuse, prostitution, and counterfeit products, which have appeared and

*Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Nanyang

Technological University, Singapore 637616. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 0159-6306 (print)/ISSN 1469-3739 (online)/05/010015-16

# 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd

DOI: 10.1080/01596300500039716

Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education

Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 15�/30

developed at a terrifying speed (He, Q. L., 1998). Human compassion towards

the poor and underprivileged has reached a historically low level. Some scholars (for

example He, Q. L., 1998) believe that all of these problems are caused by the

‘‘get-rich mentality’’ driven by the free market. In other words, people seem to live

in an utterly valueless condition where the goal of life is simply to make money.

Scholars go on to predict that the most severe crisis in China’s future will not just

be economic, but will bring a collapse of Chinese cultural or moral structure

as well.

Defenders of the reform, especially those in the government (see, for example,

Xiao, 1994; He, X., 1996), argue that a growing income gap and increased

unemployment rate are inevitable as China transforms into a free market economy;

the problems should be seen as ‘‘growing pains’’ necessary to the process. They

believe that social problems, as ‘‘pains of the process’’, can gradually be eased within

the system by renewed social order, legality, and education. In order to counteract

the challenges, many cultural elites agree with the government that a new discourse

based on China’s own development experiences needs to be developed (see, for

example, He, X., 1996; Hu, 1999; Xiao, 1994). Traditional Confucian Chinese

cultural values and beliefs will have to be the major source for such a new discourse.

For the government and many cultural elites, the resolution of problems regarding

morals and beliefs lies in the hands of education.

In the recent education reform called ‘‘quality education’’ one of the most

important tasks of basic education has been to transmit the desired moral code to

students and build up the correct beliefs (Liu, F., 1995). However, how are these

views sanctioned, what cultural values and beliefs are constructed to shape the moral

and political identities of the child reader, and whose interests are served in the

discourse construction? This article reports part of a study that examines these broad

questions based on the content found in Chinese language readers, which are

currently in use nationwide for primary school students from Grade 1 to Grade 6 in

China (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999).

Drawing upon critical curriculum studies and critical discourse analysis, I will

examine and discuss how language textbooks introduce the child reader to the

cultural values and beliefs constructed by the government and cultural elites. In what

follows I briefly outline the major assumptions of critical curriculum studies and

highlight the analytical technique. Then, I examine the discourses of cultural values

and beliefs that are constructed in Chinese language textbooks. My analytical focus is

on the powerful and authoritative ways in which the language textbooks construct,

position and persuade the child reader of the primacy of dominant cultural values

and beliefs.

Critical Curriculum Studies

The official curriculum documents in the form of syllabus and textbooks, among

other materials, define the objectives and goals and provide the basics or major part

16 Y. Liu

of the cultural knowledge and information for teaching and learning in schools

(Westbury, 1990). Since the school curriculum is the result of deliberate selection

and organization, the cultural knowledge in the syllabus and textbooks has been a

significant issue in education research. However, the nature of curriculum and

cultural knowledge selected and transmitted through the curriculum has typically

been regarded as beneficial for all students in particular and society in general by

curriculum scholars (Pinar, Keynold, Strattery, & Taubman, 1995). Such an

understanding of curriculum was the accepted view in curriculum research until

the 1970s. It was the emergence of the ‘‘sociology of school knowledge’’ in the 1970s

that offered a new perspective for conceptualizing the relationship between

curriculum, cultural knowledge and power in education (Whitty, 1985). The new

sociology put the emphasis on agency, reality, interaction, and lived experiences as

co-constitutive of knowledge production. This new perspective opened a wide field

for understanding curricula as ‘‘political texts’’ (Pinar et al., 1995, p. 243) and

textbooks as ideological message systems for transmitting dominant values and

beliefs of society (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991).

In his review of research in the critical curriculum studies, Luke (1988) suggests

that this scholarship has demonstrated that in any given era of the history of

education the selection of knowledges, competences, and practices for transmission

in school curricula is an ideological process, serving interests of particular classes and

forms of social control. He argues ‘‘the ideological process is dynamic, reflecting both

continuities and contradictions of that dominant culture and the continued remaking

and relegitimation of that culture’s plausibility system’’ (Luke, 1988, p. 24). Based

on his continued research on this ideological process since the late 1970s,

Apple (1999, p. 62) points out that the dominant groups in economic, political

and cultural spheres attempt to ‘‘control what counts as legitimate knowledge in

school for their own interests’’. Although certain knowledge and perspectives of the

less powerful may be incorporated into school knowledge through the process of

complex power relations and struggles among identifiable class, race, gender, and

religious groups, ‘‘they are always put under the umbrella of the discourse of the

dominant groups’’ (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991, p. 10). More specifically,

textbooks construct official knowledge or embody what Williams (1989) calls the

‘‘selective tradition’’:

From a whole possible area of past and present, in a particular culture, certain meanings and practices are selected for emphasis and certain other meanings and practices are regulated or excluded. Yet, within a particular hegemony, and as one of its decisive processes, this selection is presented and usually passed off as ‘‘the tradition’’, the significant past . . . it is in this sense an aspect of contemporary social and cultural organisation, in the interest of the dominance of a specific class (p. 58).

Williams here suggests that certain meanings and practices of the dominant class

designated as officially sanctioned knowledge for all is central to the ideological

process of social and cultural definition and provides historical and cultural

legitimacy for social control. Critical research in school curricula (see, for example,

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 17

Apple, 1988, 1999; Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991; de Castell, Luke, & Luke, 1989;

Luke, 1988) validates Williams’s claim and documents the extent to which

the cultural knowledges, values and beliefs of the dominant groups are selected

and legitimated in textbooks, while those of the dominated groups in terms of

gender, race, age, and class are excluded or subjected to distortion. The research

also shows how the dominant group’s version of the world is represented as natural,

and subjective interpretations of reality and value judgments are projected as ‘‘fact’’

or ‘‘common knowledge’’. Critical curriculum researchers believe that by under-

standing the constructedness, interest-serving, and oppressive realities of dominant

values and practices, students and teachers can be empowered to challenge the

dominance and make changes. While developed relative to a western educational

context, I suggest that these assumptions also hold true for Chinese language

textbooks and their connection to the Chinese sociocultural context. Therefore, this

study draws directly upon these assumptions.

A Research Framework

Critical discourse analysis has become one of the most influential models in text

analysis (see Luke, 2002). It is different from previous methodologies because it

‘‘focuses on the role of discourse in the (re)production and challenge of dominance’’

(Van Dijk, 1993, p. 249). Dominance is defined by Van Dijk (1993, p. 249) as ‘‘the

exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social

inequality’’. The purpose of critical discourse analysis is ‘‘to analyse opaque as well as

transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control

as manifested in language’’ (Wodak, 1995, p. 204). This stance is compatible with

the theoretical assumptions of critical curriculum studies noted earlier. More

importantly, this interdisciplinary approach provides researchers with systematic

and critical techniques for analysing and describing both spoken and written texts

while taking into account the larger sociocultural context in which the texts are

created (Fairclough, 2002).

Drawing upon the research framework of critical discourse analysis, I assume that

story grammar analysis is useful for the examination of simple ‘‘good form’’ stories

specifically produced for children in basal readers. Van Dijk (1997, pp. 12�/13) recommends ‘‘in the same way as the form of sentence is described in terms of word

order (syntax), we may decompose the form of whole texts and talk into a number

of fixed, conventional components or categories and formulate rules for their

characteristic order’’; Emphasis in original. Stories, whether fictional or based on

personal experience, are organized in knowledge structures that can be anticipated

by the audience (Thompson, 1990). In other words, stories are seen as tempor-

al�/causal chains of events that have a predicable organizational structure. The organizational structure is identified in the Stein�/Glenn story grammar (Luke, 1988; Ochs, 1997) that consists of key categories specifying the important elements of a

story. The key categories are the setting (background information on characters,

18 Y. Liu

location, time, and topic) and the episodes (which develop and link the thematic

relationships). An episode can contain a number of elements: (i) an initiating event

that causes a response on the part of the character; (ii) an internal response, which

represents how a character feels as a result of the initiating event; (iii) an attempt to

reach a goal or sub-goal; (iv) a consequence, an outcome of the attempt; (v) a

reaction, feeling, thought in response to the outcome; (vi) a resolution, which

expresses the final result.

This story grammar has been widely used for the analysis of basal reading texts

(see, for example, Luke, 1988; Ochs, 1997). By means of specifying the important

elements of a story, such as a character’s goal, attempt, consequence, and reaction,

we can reveal the significance communicated by a story. More specifically, through

analysing these elements or categories, we can uncover both the theme and

orientation of stories. By examining the theme and orientation of a story together

with the syntactic rules and pragmatic strategies used in the story, we can portray

patterns of social relations, cultural values, and beliefs conveyed in the story.

Through identifying the significance a story communicates and the point the author

or teller makes by story grammar analysis, we can show whose beliefs and values have

been authorized and whose have been silenced.

The Construction of Cultural Values and Beliefs

From the outset I would point out that it is not my aim here to engage in a discussion

of theories about the crucial concept of ‘‘culture’’ or ‘‘system of Chinese cultural

values and beliefs’’. Instead, I assume a position that has been extensively articulated

and defended by others (for example Hall, 1989; Thompson, 1990; Williams, 1989)

and attempt to examine the dominant cultural values and beliefs and their ideological

intentions selected and constructed in Chinese language readers. I assume, then, that

cultural values and beliefs are socially constructed and understood to mean

something that operates as a template of a certain description in texts and other

symbolic forms that regulates and constitutes social relations and social behaviours of

members of a particular community. As part of the selective tradition, textbooks

legitimate and transmit dominant cultural values and beliefs while omitting others

(Apple, 1999) in the Chinese context. This assumption will be tested by the

following analysis.

There are 89 out of 308 texts in Chinese language readers that are identified as

constructing a discourse of cultural values and beliefs based on Lemke’s framework

of intertexuality (Liu, Y. B., 2003). The discourse of cultural values and beliefs are

constructed from five different perspectives, namely, concentration and diligence,

respect for authority (government leaders and elders), modesty and tolerance,

collective spirit, and honesty. These perspectives are, in fact, cultural norms

constructed within the language readers to encourage child readers to learn and

obey. In other words, these cultural values and beliefs are the kind of desired

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 19

behaviours that the government and cultural elites are interested in transmitting to

their younger citizens through language education.

Concentration and Diligence

The perspective of concentration and diligence receives the most attention; 25 texts

fall into this subcategory. These texts are designed to cultivate in children either the

value of hard work, or the importance of concentration on study. While constructing

this value, the texts deliberately rule out other possibilities (for example interest,

curiosity, and motivation) as the following analysis shows.

A Little Monkey

One day, a little monkey went down the hill. When he came to a cornfield he saw many big corns in the field. He was pleased. He broke off a corn. With the corn on his shoulder he went ahead. When he came to a peach tree, he saw there were many big and red peaches on the tree. He was very glad. He threw away his corn and climbed up the tree to pick peaches. He got several peaches. When he came to a watermelon field, he saw the field was littered with many big and round watermelons. He was very excited. He threw away the peaches and began to pick watermelon. He carried a very big watermelon. On his way back, he saw a little rabbit hobbling around. He felt the rabbit would be lovely. He threw away his melon and began to chase the rabbit. The rabbit ran into a bush and disappeared. The little monkey had to go home with nothing in his hand. (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 2, pp. 18�/20)

In this story a little monkey is the initiator of a series of actions. The actions are

highly regulated in the story grammar structure: initial event, internal response,

attempt, and consequence in each of the four paragraphs. The repetition of this story

grammar structure (four times, enabling the teaching of high frequency verbs such as

‘‘come’’, ‘‘see’’, ‘‘throw away’’ and synonymous adjectives such as ‘‘pleased’’, ‘‘glad’’,

‘‘excited’’) depicts the little monkey repeating the four actions in the same pattern,

which involve choices of four different objects. The choices are made based on mere

emotion (pleased, glad, excited) rather than purpose or reasoning. The resolution or

the didactic effect is that the little monkey has achieved nothing (went home empty

handed). The didactic or moral is implicit, but not difficult for the child reader to

infer: ‘‘If you want to achieve anything, you have to be purposeful or concentrate on

one thing rather than do something out of emotion or out of mere interest’’. By

nature, children are always curious about their surroundings and would try to

experience different things that arouse their interest. By recognizing this character-

istic, the story intends to tame the ‘‘savage mind’’ that is easily distracted by

seemingly unnecessary objects. In order to emphasize the value of concentration on

study, the story implicitly condemns children’s self-interest and natural curiosity

about what happens around them, thus suppressing the creativity that is regarded as

one of the most important educational goals in the recent education debate in China

(Liu, F., 1995).

20 Y. Liu

A unique discourse option is exercised throughout this and many other stories in

the textbooks. Through the story grammatical structure, initial event, internal

response (optional sometimes), attempt, consequence, reaction (optional), and

resolution, a series of on-going events is narrated. The resolution in the story

grammar takes the form of a didactic utterance at the end of the story either by the

narrator or a principle character, which in turn reframes the previous events. This

feature functions as an interpretation within the text to restate and reinforce an

intended message. Therefore child readers are positioned to believe that only

through concentration on their tasks can they achieve a desirable result. Otherwise,

they are doomed to failure.

Respect for Authority

There are 12 texts classified as taking a perspective of respect for authority. The

authority is constructed as government leaders and elders. However, these kinds of

power relations are also manifested in many other texts, though not the primary

concerns of these texts, but embedded within the linguistic choices. The themes and

orientations of the stories identified in this category overtly address the power of

government leaders and elders. For example:

Never Forget the Well-Digger

There was a small village called Shazhouba outside Ruijin City. Chairman Mao

once lived there when he led the revolution in Jiangxi Province.

There was no well in the village. The villagers had to go a long distance out of the

village to fetch water every day. Chairman Mao showed his concern for the

hardship of the villagers. So he decided to dig a well in the village together with his

soldiers and the villagers. After the well was dug, the villagers did not have to fetch

water from a far-away place outside the village.

After liberation, the villagers put up a stone tablet at the side of the well. Inscribed

on the tablet is: ‘‘Never Forget the Well-Digger and Always Think of Chairman

Mao When Drinking Water’’. (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 2, pp. 111�/112)

In this story the story grammar highlights the formal didactic relationships between

Chairman Mao and the villagers. Chairman Mao is regulated as the initiator of an

‘‘attempt’’ while the villagers are the beneficiary of the ‘‘attempt’’. The villagers

initiate the event but are unable to act. They have to wait for someone, in this case

Chairman Mao, who has the reasoning power and sympathy to address the seemingly

simple problem which had perplexed the villagers for years. The villagers are, in turn,

positioned to be indebted to Mao by the ‘‘reaction’’ and ‘‘resolution’’ of the story.

The ideology of the story is explicit, the government leader cares for ordinary

people’s life and the ordinary people must, in return, feel grateful to the leader. The

implicit ideology is, however, that the leader is more intelligent than the ordinary

people are and, therefore, she/he is legitimized to have the power to rule. This kind of

reasoning and discourse option is exercised throughout this and many other stories of

government leaders in the textbooks.

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 21

There are quite a few other stories in the text corpus that resemble the story just

analysed in terms of their story grammar structure and orientation. In these stories

the main characters are the old government leaders and cultural elites (such as

prominent writers, and scientists). Respect for them is constructed based on the

same logic that ‘‘they served people, worked hard for the country, had a simple living

style, and cared for ordinary people’’, therefore, they should be respected. It is

obvious that the ideological intent is, on the one hand, to position the child reader to

accept the established social power relations and, on the other hand, to legitimate the

present government rule.

Modesty and Tolerance

The perspective of modesty and tolerance is realized through 18 texts. The themes

and orientations of these texts denounce arrogance and praise self-restraint.

However, hidden in the semantic structures of the texts is the message that the

status quo should be accepted and competition or will to change is discouraged.

Modesty here means not to show oneself off or to be aggressive. Tolerance here

does not mean the tolerance of different cultural values and beliefs that are promoted

in the western education context, instead, it is tolerance of unfair treatment or even

injustice in order to achieve harmony. While this may sound strange to non-Chinese,

it is a core Confucian cultural value and belief. The government and cultural

elites regard it as important and legitimate it in textbooks to socialize children to

serve their purpose of control. The terms tolerance and modesty are different in

terms of their connotations or/and themes in this context, but they are interrelated in

terms of the purposes for or orientations with which they are constructed in the

textbooks. The two cultural values and beliefs constructed in the textbooks are

combined to socialize child readers to conform to be self-restrained, and obedient

citizens. For example,

A Ceramic Jar and an Iron Jar

There were two jars in an emperor’s kitchen. One was made of ceramic and the other was made of iron. The conceited iron jar looked down upon the ceramic jar. He often scoffed at the ceramic jar. ‘‘Dare you touch me? The earthen thing!’’ The iron jar asked arrogantly. ‘‘No. I dare not, Brother Iron Jar.’’ The ceramic jar replied modestly. ‘‘I know you are not that brave. A coward!’’ The iron jar said with an air of scorn/ contempt. ‘‘I dare not touch you. That’s for sure but I’m not a coward.’’ The ceramic jar replied and then reasoned: ‘‘We are both made to contain things for people, not to touch or knock against each other. As for the capacity for containing things, I am not inferior to you. Besides, . . .’’. ‘‘Shut up!’’ The iron jar became furious, ‘‘How dare you compare yourself with me! Wait and see, you’ll be broken into pieces in a few days. But I will be here for ever.’’ ‘‘Why did you use such language? The ceramic jar said emotionally, ‘‘We’d better live in harmony. We have no reason to quarrel!’’ ‘‘I feel humiliated to live together with you. You are crap!’’ The iron jar said, ‘‘I will break you into pieces one day!’’ The ceramic jar didn’t reply.

22 Y. Liu

As time flew . . . a lot had happened in the world . . . . The two jars were abandoned in a desolate land and covered with thick remains and dust. One day, some people came and dug the remains and dust. They found the ceramic jar. ‘‘Oh, here is a jar!’’ one man said with a surprise. ‘‘Yes, it is a ceramic jar!’’ others cried out excitedly. They picked it up, poured out the dust and earth and washed it. It was as bright, beautiful and natural as it used to be in the royal kitchen many years ago. ‘‘How beautiful the jar is!’’ one man said, ‘‘Be careful! Don’t break it! This is an ancient relic. It is invaluable.’’ ‘‘Thank you so much!’’ The ceramic jar said with excitement, ‘‘My brother, the iron jar is lying beside me. Please dig him out. He must be very bored for such a long time.’’ People began to dig but they couldn’t find it after they had searched all the area. The iron jar had rusted away long ago. (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 7, pp. 132�/134)

In this particular story two traditional Chinese kitchen containers, the iron jar and

the ceramic jar, are personified to instantiate a structured pattern of conflict. The

physically strong (symbolized by the iron jar) are represented as arrogant, enacting

unfair treatment, while the physically weak (symbolized by the ceramic jar) are

portrayed as tolerant, tolerating the unfair treatment. The pattern is basically realized

by the verbal interactions between the two jars. The iron jar is constructed

purposefully as the initiator of the incident: he launches a series of unfair verbal

attacks on the ceramic jar (such as The earthen thing, A coward, Shut up, I

feel humiliated . . .). The ceramic jar is constructed as the addressee and the victim of the verbal attack. Faced with the unfair treatment, the ceramic jar does not

challenge the attacker with anger or offence, instead he firstly reasons with his

attacker politely, and then keeps silent (such as I dare not, Brother, we are

both made to . . ., we are brothers). The schematic structure of the verbal interactions, designed to enable the child reader to recognize what are acceptable

or unacceptable sociolinguistic utterances, has a dramaturgical effect; the reiterated

attempt�/consequence�/attempt�/consequence pattern is self-referential and self-re- inforcing with an orientation highlighting the approved social behaviour of modesty

and tolerance and denouncing the antisocial behaviour of arrogance and unfair

treatment to others. The orientation is also supported by the linguistic choice of

commentary words on the interactions. If the commentary words of the above

interactions are categorized as ‘‘pejorative’’, ‘‘neutral’’, and ‘‘positive’’, it is readily

seen that of the semantic items or expressions, there are no neutral words used,

instead all those commenting on the iron jar’s utterances are pejorative, whereas

those commenting on the ceramic jar’s utterances are positive (see Table 1). These

words or expressions are used formally as cohesive links between the verbal

utterances of the above interactions. However, they also communicate their

functions. All the utterances of the iron jar are pejorative expressions, whereas all

the utterances of the ceramic jar are positive expressions. Through these lexical

choices, the iron jar’s verbal and social behaviours are confirmed as antisocial, while

the ceramic jar’s are socially beneficial.

The attitudinal orientation is further reinforced and extended by the last

paragraph, where the resolution of the story is intentionally spelt out: if you are

modest and tolerant of unfair treatment, you survive in society, whereas you cannot

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 23

survive if you are arrogant and treat others unfairly. This moral lesson is elaborated

by means of a timespan based on the common knowledge (or designed to teach it as

such) that cultural relics are invaluable objects. The elaboration (Paragraph 3) covers

almost the same length as the main story (Paragraph 2). By this choice, the text

orientates the child reader to its ideological resolution. Again, interactions are the

main textual devices, but this time the generic term ‘‘people’’ is used to initiate the

interactions. This choice sets up an authoritative position that enables what ‘‘people’’

say appear to be a kind of common knowledge. Accordingly, the child reader is

positioned to interpret the social behaviour of the ceramic jar as ‘‘beautiful’’ 0/ ‘‘don’t break it’’ 0/ ‘‘it is invaluable’’. The responses of the ceramic jar in the interactions ‘‘Thank you so much’’, and ‘‘My brother iron jar is lying beside me.

Please dig him out’’ further show how tolerant the ceramic jar is towards unfair

treatment, and the disappearance (rusted away) of the iron jar confirms that the iron

jar’s antisocial behaviour cannot last. By using a long timespan, the value of tolerance

is established as enduring over time. This value is constructed intertextually through

a series of texts in the textbooks.

Collective Spirit

The perspective of collective spirit is represented by 23 texts. These texts are

intertextually related, in terms of theme and orientation, to teach children that

happiness or satisfaction comes from helping or serving others in particular or society

in general. In this sense, the value and belief are universal, not specific to Chinese

society. For example, ‘‘group work’’, ‘‘team work’’, and ‘‘cooperative personality’’ are

popular concepts based on the value and belief of collective spirit. However, the

meaning of collective spirit constructed in the textbooks concerned goes far beyond

the common sense usage. It is constructed against ‘‘the self ’’ or ‘‘individuality’’ that is

the very base, I believe, on which collective spirit is supposed to prevail. Put simply,

collective spirit is rendered in the discourse being examined as an equivalence to self-

denial.

She Is My Friend

One day in wartime, there were several artillery shells that exploded in an orphanage. Two children were killed and several were injured. Among the injured there was a girl.

Table 1.

Pejorative Neutral Positive

The conceited iron jar look down upon �/ The ceramic jar replied modestly scuffed �/ reasoned asked arrogantly �/ said emotionally said with an air of scorn �/ became furious �/ did not talk back

24 Y. Liu

When hearing the news, doctors and nurses rushed in with first aid from a nearby

hospital. Through examination, they confirmed that the girl’s wound was the most

serious. She would die from loss of blood if she could not receive an immediate

blood transfusion. However, the blood of all the doctors and nurses did not match

her blood type. The only way was to find out which of the uninjured children might

match her blood type and donate blood for her. A woman doctor then told the

children that the girl would die if she could not receive a blood transfusion. Then

she asked whether any one of them would be willing to donate blood. After a

silence, one hand was put up, then withdrawn, and put up again. ‘‘Thank you.’’ The

doctor said, ‘‘What’s your name?’’ ‘‘Yuan Heng.’’ The boy called Yuan Heng

quickly lay down on the table. During the process of blood transfusion, Yuan Heng

did not move and did not say anything.

After a while, he suddenly began to cry and covered his face with his hands. ‘‘Does

it hurt?’’, the doctor asked. Yuan Heng shook his head but still sobbed. He closed

his eyes and bit his lip, trying hard to refrain from sobbing . . . After the transfusion, the doctor told people around: ‘‘The boy thought he would

die. He thought he would die after he gave all his blood to the girl.’’ ‘‘Then why is he

willing to donate his blood when he thinks that the donation can cause his death?’’

The doctor turned to ask the boy the question. The boy answered: ‘‘She is my

friend.’’ (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 8, pp. 123�/126)

The setting of this story is a war time one and the initial event is ‘‘an injured girl

needed blood transfusion in order to survive’’. The sequence of attempt and

consequence of the story involves the protagonist (Yuan Heng) who volunteered to

donate blood in the mistaken idea that he would die because of the donation, and the

injured girl was saved. Through this sequence, the cultural value of sacrificing oneself

for others is conveyed to the child reader.

Embedded in this sequence are the sub-attempts (hesitation: ‘‘One hand had been

put up, then withdrawn, and put up again’’; fear: ‘‘began to cry’’) and consequences

(determination: ‘‘quickly lay down on the table’’, ‘‘did not move or speak’’;

understanding: stopped sobbing). These sub-attempts and consequences portray

the protagonist as a real hero and, hence, enable the child reader to believe that the

story is true. Additionally, they build up a suspense that orients the child reader to

the end of the story, where the moral is spelt out by the interactions between the

doctor and the protagonist. In particular, the ways in which the story grammar is

presented contribute to the construction of the cultural value and belief and so

encode one of the dominant cultural values and beliefs, collective spirit, as important

to the government and cultural elites.

In this text and others children are constructed as agents who enact the collective

spirit. The inclusion of children as agents creates a subjective position for child

readers to identify themselves with the protagonists or heroes practice of collective

spirit. In other words, they are positioned to learn from the moral models. As noted

at the beginning of this section, the discourse builds up the logic and rationale for the

cultural value and belief on the premise that self-interest should be suppressed in

order to practise collective spirit.

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 25

Honesty

The perspective of honesty is achieved through 11 texts. The themes of the texts

range from not telling lies to not accepting what does not belong to you. Honesty is

important to any society. It is a universal value and belief that is cherished and

promoted. The meaning of honesty is clear, rendering further explanation

unnecessary, so let’s turn to the text and see how the discourse is constructed in

the textbooks.

A Story of the Axe

A long, long time ago, there was a poor boy. One day, he went to the mountain to

cut firewood. He dropped his axe into a river by accident when he crossed the river

over a single wood bridge. He was so worried that he burst into tears. He sobbed:

‘‘How can I cut fire wood without the axe!’’ Suddenly an old white-beared grandpa

came out of the flowing water and asked with care: ‘‘Whose child is crying so

sadly?’’ The boy said: ‘‘Grandpa, I dropped my axe into the river. I cannot cut fire

wood!’’ The grandpa said: ‘‘Don’t cry, child! I’ll help you to find it.’’ While talking,

he went into the river and came out with a golden axe. He asked: ‘‘Is this your axe?’’

The boy said: ‘‘No, it is not.’’ The grandpa went into the river again and came out

with a silver axe. He asked: ‘‘Is this yours?’’ The boy shook his head, saying: ‘‘No, it

is not mine.’’ The grandpa went into the river again and came up with an iron axe.

He asked: ‘‘Is this your axe?’’ The boy said gladly: ‘‘Yes, it is mine. Thank you,

Grandpa!’’ The grandpa smiled and said: ‘‘Child, since you are honest, I give the

other two axes to you too.’’ The boy said: ‘‘Grandpa, they are not mine. I cannot

accept them.’’ The boy took his own axe and went away. Looking at the boy’s

disappearing figure, the grandpa nodded his head with a smile. (Yuwen Bianjishi,

1999, Vol. 2, pp. 118�/121)

Again, the story grammar consists of a repetition of a macropropositional sequence:

initial event, internal response, attempt, and consequence. However, the sequence

is realized by an intersubjective verbal exchange between the two protagonists, the

poor child and the old man rather than mere physical actions, building up

child reader’s expectations of outcomes and providing maximum opportunities

for the teaching of simple questions and answers as well as direct speech. Through

the repetition of ‘‘attempt and consequence’’, the poor boy’s honesty is tested:

‘‘Never to take anything that does not belong to you’’. This moral lesson is further

confirmed by the resolution at the end of the story ‘‘Grandpa nodded his head with a

smile’’.

Across this text and many others in the text corpus the discourse appears and

reappears through different themes or aspects to emphasize the meaning of honest

behaviour. These texts build up a version of the world where honest behaviour is

conducted by adults; children are likely to go astray and, therefore, need to be

supervised by adults. At the same time, they use textual and rhetorical devices to

position the child reader in solidarity with the adults and the ideal child who

performs honest acts and, hence, child readers might learn to behave in a like manner

and take the same moral road.

26 Y. Liu

Discussion and Conclusion: Selective versions for the purpose of social

control

In this article I have analysed some texts as examples that construct the discourses of

cultural values and beliefs. The analysis is basically carried out by means of a top-

down reading of the stories in question. The top-down reading draws upon the story

schema to have recourse to the themes and orientations of the stories and so unpack

the dominant cultural values and beliefs transmitted through the stories. Analysis of

the macropropositional structures is supplemented with an examination of certain

lexical choices of the narrations and conversational principles of the interactions that

are typical modes used in children’s stories.

Through the analysis a whole range of meanings associated with the discourses of

cultural values and beliefs are explored and the ideological intents of the discourses

are interpreted. The cultural values and beliefs selected and constructed for emphasis

in the textbooks are shown in Figure 1.

These cultural values and beliefs form a template that attempts to regulate the

social behaviours of the child reader. The template is highly selective in nature. The

components (what I called perspectives) of the template are the intentionally

selective versions from a much wider or inexhaustible range of cultural values and

beliefs of the past and present. As shown in Figure 1, the template can be extended to

include more than the five components I identified from the text corpus, as indicated

by n , meaning more entries can be added. Similarly, the meaning of the components

can be also dynamic. In a word, this template shows that the cultural values and

beliefs identified are constructed in the textbooks and embody what counts as the

version of the cultural values and beliefs selected and constructed by the government

and cultural elites. Further, it can be argued that the discursive construction is

intended to connect with and ratify the present transformation from a planned to a

free market economy. In this sense, the discourses serve the interests of the power

brokers (the government officials and the cultural elites) to pursue a capitalist reform

agenda and, at the same time, to discipline the public to their social control.

In the selective versions the cultural value and belief of concentration and diligence

is intended to direct the younger members of the society to their major task of

learning diligently and single-mindedly rather than to their own interests, curiosity

and critical thinking. By regulating child readers to preoccupy themselves with their

learning position and to identify themselves with hard work, the discourses avert

possible challenges to the present social order and dominance.

Respect for authority is a traditional cultural value and belief reselected and

reconstructed in the textbooks. In the current discursive construction complicated

social relations are reinterpreted and diluted into broadly defined unequal power

Concentration and diligence

Respect for authority

Modesty and tolerance

Collective spirit

Honesty n

Figure 1. A template of cultural values and beliefs

Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 27

relations between government leaders and the ordinary people, between the working

class and cultural elites and between the old and the young. Put simply,

government leaders, cultural elites and elders are constructed as people who have

social power. To avoid directly contradicting the overt claim of the current

government that the present social transformation is to build eventually up an

egalitarian society that will benefit the majority of the Chinese people, the discourses

have translated the overt emphasis on inequality in the Confucian tradition into

covert versions to do the same job. Instead of ‘‘submission’’, frequently used in the

Confucian texts (Chen, 1990), ‘‘respect for’’ is selected to serve the same purpose in

the new discourses. As shown in the analysis, through a range of generic,

grammatical, rhetorical choices the unequal power relations are portrayed as

common knowledge. How these unequal power relations can be enacted, or what

social behaviours are deemed acceptable, is demonstrated through the activities of

characters in the stories. The people to be respected are indeed the power-brokers

who rule society and benefit most from the newly implemented capitalist economic

order.

Interrelated with the unequal power relations certified by the discourse of respect

for authority, the discourse of modesty and tolerance is constructed to further

regulate the child reader’s social behaviour. The child reader is positioned to accept

the existing social order, to refrain from a desire for change, and to tolerate unfair

social treatment. As shown in the above analysis, the discourse is constructed in such

a way that there is a distinct binary divide between modesty and arrogance and

between tolerance and jealousy. The social behaviours of modesty and tolerance are

portrayed as enduring, self-beneficial, and contributive to social harmony, while the

social behaviours of arrogance and jealousy are presented as short-lived, self-

detrimental, and harmful to society.

The unequal power relations and the social behaviours of deference and self-

preservation are further buttressed by the cultural value and belief of collective spirit

in the textbooks. The discourse of collective spirit emphasizes that selflessness is a

virtuous form of behaviour; in other words, it is ideologically correct to attend to

others before pursuing one’s own interests. By the same logic, any preoccupation

with one’s own interests is strongly equated in the discourse with the concept of

egotism and selfishness. The value of the self or individuality is totally ruled out of

the discourse of ‘‘collective spirit’’. An extreme version of collective spirit was in fact

selected and reconstructed by the government throughout Mao’s rule. It is evident in

the slogans ‘‘serving the people’’, ‘‘pursuing selflessness’’, and ‘‘sacrificing for the

people and the country’’ that dominated the public media of that time. In Mao’s time

this cultural value and belief used to go together with elaborated practices of self-

improvement, ranging from dress, diet, and living conditions to almost daily rituals

of avowals of faith in an egalitarian utopia embodied in devotion to collective work.

Such practices no longer operate in China’s new free market order. In the new order

individuals pursue, and are encouraged to pursue, their own interests in competition

with others. So the cultural value and belief constructed in the textbooks is nothing

28 Y. Liu

but a fabricated version of the socio-economic reality. The fabrication, in fact, overtly

violates the rules of the game set up by another discourse ‘‘honesty’’.

Honesty, as a human quality, is the foundation stone of constructive human

relations and, therefore, is cherished by any community or society. The problem is

the ways in which cultural values and beliefs are presented in the textbooks. As noted

earlier, the discourse builds up a version of the world where adults perform honest

behaviour, children are likely to go astray and, hence, adults have the power to

supervise children’s behaviour. In reality, it is some adults (for example government

officials) who are dishonest, abusing their powers and acting corruptly in China.

In conclusion, the analysis in this study has revealed that the selective versions of

cultural values and beliefs are constructed in a manner congruent with the interest of

the government and its cultural elite. It has shown that the discourses position the

child reader to conform and to be self-restrained and obedient citizens, while

omitting or even condemning children’s interest, curiosity, and critical thinking. The

analysis also suggests that the selective versions of cultural values and beliefs are

motivated by the ideological and political interests of the government to address the

‘‘ideological crisis’’, but argues that they are constructed contrary to the current free

market social order. Overall, it is argued that the discourses are constructed to

legitimate social control rather than children’s interests.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Allan Luke, Victoria Carrington and the external referees for their

corrections and insightful comments on earlier versions of this article. This article is

a part of my doctoral research on the discursive construction of cultural knowledge

and ideology in Chinese language textbooks. The research was funded by an

International Postgraduate Research Scholarship at the University of Queensland.

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