What Do You Know about Chinese Culture?

Textbook Perspectives

Dr. Liu Jinhui is a professor specializing in International Education, International Business, and Applied Linguistics. He teaches Chinese Language at California State University and is a research fellow with the National Resource Center for Asian Languages (NRCAL).

Over the last few years Dr. Liu, heading a team of postgraduate students, has conducted a survey of information about China presented in American school textbooks. In Californian schools, the team found that lessons on Chinese history and culture occurred from the sixth to the 12th grades, with the exception of the ninth grade.

Primary school textbooks featured history starting from the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 - 1100 BC), so excluding the Xia Dynasty (c. 2100-1600 BC), which contradicts China’s traditional image of itself as a 5,000-year-old civilization. Dr. Liu explained that according to American historians, there were not enough written records from the Xia Dynasty to merit its inclusion in the history books. He added that early Chinese law placed a greater emphasis on corporal punishment, which contrasts hugely with modern practices, although this has not been fully explained in the textbooks.

According to Dr. Liu, American middle school textbooks take a comparative approach to Chinese history and culture, often contrasting Han and non-Han cultures, with a particular focus on the influence of non-Han cultures on Confucianism in order to explain certain regime changes. The textbooks also compare China with other Asian countries, such as Japan, citing China’s influence on Japanese language, culture, religion, and philosophy. Dynasties are not clearly delineated – the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), for example, was taught together with the Song Dynasty (960-1279) which preceded it, and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) which replaced it. Dr. Liu was particularly surprised to see that the “four great inventions” of ancient China had been lumped together with tea and referred to as the “five discoveries.” The textbooks had clearly confused “invention” with “discovery.”

Professor Liu instructs students in the intensive Chinese language learning program on the fundamentals of Chinese calligraphy.

Most American high school textbooks focus on modern Chinese history. Dr. Liu has found that America, unlike many other Western countries, does not shy away from discussing colonial attitudes does in its school textbooks, and draws attention to colonialism’s emergence from the Industrial Revolution which helped shape a new world order. Many American historians, including the prominent sinologist John King Fairbank, argue that U.S. colonial policies had been more generous than those of, say, England or France. To cite one example: the United States government returned the reparations which had been paid them after the Boxer Rebellion, with the recommendation that the money be used to improve China’s education system, open more hospitals and develop education and health care in the country. However, despite their objective look at the history of America’s colonial policies, Dr. Liu feels that American historians still tend to interpret history from the standpoint of their own country. High school textbooks do touch on China’s recent economic reforms as well as mentioning China’s rise as a modern world power, but Dr. Liu nevertheless finds the content oversimplified.

What Is the First Thing You Think of When You Think about China?

According to 2007 data from the Linguistic Society of America, 678 American universities introduced new Chinese language programs, 101 of which were in California.

Dr. Liu stated that the steady increase in Chinese learners over the last few years rose proportionately to America’s growing population of ethnic Chinese – most Chinese American students opted for Chinese class at school. The recent surge of Chinese students studying in the U.S. has brought more local students into contact with them, and has prompted some American students to learn Chinese. There are also students who are simply interested in China and want to learn more about it.

Since he began teaching Chinese language and culture in America, Dr. Liu has always wanted to tailor his classes to better meet the learning needs of American students studying China’s society and culture. He conducted a large survey consisting of interviews and questionnaires and discovered that American students are particularly interested in nine topics related to Chinese culture:

1) Chinese cultural and historical outlook; 2) East-West cultural exchanges and Chinese Studies; 3) the Chinese political system; 4) traditional business models in China; 5) education in ancient China; 6) traditional Chinese philosophy; 7) Chinese religions; 8) traditional Chinese art; and 9) the culture of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), health and diet.

In order to further identify exactly what American teenagers knew about Chinese history and culture, Dr. Liu and his team conducted another survey to evaluate what they had learned at school. Their questionnaire consisted of three questions: 1) Do you remember what you learned about Chinese history and culture while you were at school? 2) Do you remember the names of any Chinese people mentioned in your primary school textbooks? 3) What is the first thing you think of when you think about China?

The survey showed that most of what the students actually remembered about Chinese history and culture came from their 10th grade classes, which covered the semi-colonial period of China’s history. They had forgotten most of what they had learned about China in primary and secondary school. American teenagers are most familiar with the following Chinese leaders: Confucius, Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, and Chiang Kai-shek.

From the results of the survey, Dr. Liu concluded that most American school and university textbooks on the subject of Chinese language and culture are not culturally relevant to American students and so fail to meet the needs of their target audience. Much of the content does not suit the American learning style and does not focus on the things students are actually interested in.

Towards a Better Understanding of China

In order to help American teenagers find out more about China, Dr. Liu is concentrating his efforts on bringing Chinese culture to college campuses and communities. In his capacity as researcher with the National Resource Center for Asian Languages (NRCAL) he also offers support to Chinese cultural education across the country.

Film is one of the most important vehicles for learning about other cultures, but due to the relatively small number of Chinese films shown in the U.S., American students hardly ever get to see them. So, to help American students explore Chinese film, Dr. Liu decided to bring them into the classroom. Chinese films often did not fare well when exposed to the criticisms of American students, but they presented perspectives on contemporary China and enhanced students’ overall understanding of the country.

Dr. Liu introduced an art history class at the school. Whenever a Chinese festival rolls around he and his students organize all sorts of events on the city campus, with a booth of experts who give talks on cultural traditions. And, of course, there is the obligatory lion dance at Spring Festival, which is always a hit with Americans. Dr. Liu and his team have also brought Chinese cultural events into local communities. They organized an exhibition of paintings by Zhang Daqian and Zhang Shanzi, to give people in the local community the chance to appreciate China’s art masters.

As part of his work with the NRCAL, Dr. Liu is responsible for developing training for teachers of Chinese in American schools, offering support and addressing any problems they have with classes on Chinese culture. Dr. Liu discovered that a lot of teachers found it a huge problem that language and culture are usually taught separately. Many students assumed that if they didn’t know much Chinese language they would find it very difficult to study Chinese culture. Consequently some students even dropped out of the course. Dr. Liu believes the teaching materials were much to blame.

The U.S. Department of Education is currently looking into implementing bilingual education programs in some kindergartens and primary schools, but they are faced with a shortage of teaching materials and resources. Dr. Liu recommends teaching materials which are best suited to the learning needs of American teenagers, with the objective of helping them learn more about Chinese language and culture. He has raised several issues with publishers of Chinese language teaching materials and Chinese language reading materials which need to be addressed if Chinese is to be appropriately taught abroad.

Firstly, the target age of the reader needs to be identified, then specific materials created for that age group. For example, for children aged six to eight, the basic unit of reading is a sentence, not long passages. When writing books for children of this age, the author must have an in-depth understanding of their cognitive development and level of knowledge, and use familiar language to create the story. Dr. Liu said that there were plenty of books on the market aimed at six to eight-year-olds, but most of the content was completely unsuitable as it featured words and sentences that young children could not understand. That explains why Chinese books had problems breaking into the American market, because the content was just too difficult, he added.

Dr. Liu suggested that there should be more biographies written for children, like those about internationally recognized Chinese celebrities, focusing on their youth and adolescence.