Cultural Basis of Chinese Education

Author: Gu Mingyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: There are some educational issues that often bother me: Why is quality education so difficult to implement in China? Why does academicism persist in the minds of policymakers? Why has vocational and technical education failed to develop in China? In recent years, China has vigorously promoted the transformation of educational concepts for teachers and parents, but what concepts should be transformed? What are the roots of outdated concepts? How can new concepts be generated? Since the reform and opening-up, we have introduced many foreign educational theories and ideas. Which theories align with China's national conditions? How can they be localized? After much reflection, I believe these issues are all related to China's cultural traditions. Over ten years ago, the author developed the idea of researching the relationship between education and culture. Intuitively, I feel that education is like a vast river, and culture is the source of the river and the living water continuously flowing into it. To study education without studying culture is to only understand the surface form of the river and fail to grasp its essential characteristics. Only by thoroughly grasping its source and the 5,000-year-old living water can one truly understand the essence and nature of Chinese education. However, when it comes to actually doing it, I found myself inadequate. The reason is that my foundation in culture is too weak. To make up for this, I have strived to read and gather materials. But due to my advanced age and declining memory, I often forgot what I had read earlier. Moreover, because of my numerous distractions, I couldn't concentrate on writing, so it took ten years before I finally started writing. This year, during the extraordinary period of the SARS epidemic, when I was confined at home for two and a half months, I finally completed a draft. This manuscript can only be considered a collection of reading notes, especially regarding culture, which mainly draws on the research of others and contains little of my own insights. As for education, I have only organized some thoughts and shared some personal views, but I have not been able to solve the issues mentioned above. Now, I am publishing it for two reasons: first, to fulfill my obligations to the Beijing Educational Science Planning Office, and second, to seek guidance from my peers.