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UNESCO's relatively high prestige across East Asia has spurred intensifying efforts by governments to use its imprimatur to legitimate official narratives of the past and visions of the future. This article focuses on China's use of UNESCO as an arena for competitive national 'branding' in the education field, especially relating to STEM and AI. We analyse the Chinese state's engagement with UNESCO's education work in the context of shifts in budgetary and political influence within the organisation, and of a growing 'securitisation' of education within China itself. We show how Chinese engagement with UNESCO's educational agenda reflects both domestic political considerations and the 'major country diplomacy' of Xi Jinping, as manifested in the 'Belt and Road Initiative' and intensifying strategic competition with the USA. We conclude by discussing the implications of rising Chinese influence within the organisation for UNESCO's capacity for articulating a coherent and consistently humanistic vision for education.

Existing literature has noticed two competing ideas about the state-citizen relationship promoted in China's moral education curriculum: protecting one's freedom and rights, and contributing to and even sacrificing for the country. To reconcile this contradiction, this study uses the framework of 'neoliberalism as exception' to analyze the textbooks of "Morality and Laws," the primary teaching and learning materials in China's moral education. Defining neoliberalism as a focus on individual conduct, including self-reliance, self-entrepreneurship, and individual rights and freedom, this study shows how these textbooks selectively employ neoliberal ideas to promote an understanding of personhood where students are expected to not only practice self-reliance but also prioritize collective and national interests over their rights and freedom. This selective adoption of neoliberal tenets contributes to China's economic development and national cohesion, but it risks perpetuating systemic inequity since all students are posited as coming from the same socioeconomic background.

Numerous studies have noted the difficulties in promoting a common national identity curriculum due to increasing tension between the concepts of local autonomy and national cohesion. Hong Kong's promotion of Moral and National Education provides an interesting case to examine two aspects of this tension -- what national identity education goals can be selected when local people enjoy different rights, and how local education agents can select content and pedagogy to address such goals. This article analyses two sample textbook lessons, two teachers' teaching plans for this subject, and memos from related curriculum development meetings. The comparisons reveal that textbook adaption is a consistent and important part of teacher-textbook interaction, with three major patterns emerging from Hong Kong teachers' interactions with textbooks. These can be attributed to the influence of micro- and macro-level powers over teacher-textbook interactions in Moral and National Education.

Recent policy changes to the regulation of international schooling for Chinese nationals in China have seen restrictions on curriculum, admissions and ownership. While there is evidence of the impact of these changes at the institutional level, it is not clear how recent regulation has impacted the actors at the phenomenological level. In order to address this gap, we situate recent regulation within the concept of cosmopolitan nationalism, which highlights the interplay of local and global forces and places lived experience at the forefront of analysis. We also draw on qualitative survey and in-depth interview data with teachers from an international school in China that explored their understandings of international schooling. By analysing the teachers' understandings of international schooling, we were able to gain an insight into the impact of regulation at the level of lived experience. Overall, we found little evidence that regulation had impacted the teachers' beliefs about international schooling, suggesting either the normalisation of regulation or a lag between its implementation and internalisation. Our findings also suggested two main configurations of cosmopolitan nationalism held by the teachers. The first, which we refer to as 'cosmopolitanism with national characteristics', positions international schools as a more diverse and care-free alternative to domestic schooling. The second configuration of cosmopolitan nationalism, which we refer to as 'nationalism with cosmopolitan characteristics', positions the nation as the foundation and cosmopolitan-related aspects as peripheral.

Projecting itself as the inheritor of China's past greatness, the CCP regime increasingly seeks to boost politico-cultural confidence in education and society and turn students and ordinary people into self-confident Chinese. This article identifies the oscillation of focus from victimhood to confidence in state nationalism and patriotic education and interrogates the politics behind the official push for self-confidence. Through the lens of Foucauldian governmentality and subjectivation, it argues that self-confidence serves as a governing technique for the party-state to subjugate people by individuating and subjectivising a verifiable feeling of certainty about the future, which depends on the CCP, pathologises political grievances, and precludes alternative political imaginaries. To be constructive as well as critical, this article draws upon contemporary political theory to suggest that education for humble citizenship, which centres on contingency, interdependence, and critique of the past and present, is key to citizenship education that strives for desubjugation and autonomy.

This article provides an overview of the politics of education as they affect regions and communities on the periphery of the People's Republic of China. Drawing on the articles in this special issue of Comparative Education, it analyses tensions related to the attempted imposition of Bejing's homogenising and totalising vision of Chineseness across Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and amongst the mainland's migrant underclass. Also considered here are the politics of comparative educational scholarship, as they relate to a widespread failure to engage critically with the diversity and complexity of Chinese societies. Attributable largely to the West's own 'culture wars', this failure betrays much-touted ethical commitments to social justice and anti-'hegemonic' resistance. It is thus a central purpose of this essay - and special issue - to urge educational scholars to interrogate the politics of oppression and injustice in China and elsewhere 'beyond the Western horizon'.

Like other colonial state structures, the education system in China aims to manufacture regime loyalty and cultural conformity among its 125 million minority nationalities. The Party-state's lessons in 'being Chinese' begin by nullifying traditional languages, cultures and lifestyles, which are deemed primitive and uncouth, and then remould minority students in the image of the Han majority and its perceived superiority. In this article we examine the vast network of boarding schools on the Tibetan plateau, where three out of every four Tibetan children are placed in around-the-clock state care with little access to their home communities: here a rigid and uniform curriculum in Mandarin Chinese promises upward social mobility for those who comply while transforming and homogenising worldviews. We argue these colonial-style boarding schools are slowly and irrevocably erasing aspects of Tibetan culture in ways that fundamentally alter Tibetan identity.

This article offers a theoretical intervention in new and emergent approaches to analysing China's coercive nation-building policies under Xi Jinping. The author contends that the recent Western framing of CCP policies as genocidal or necropolitical, predicated on notions of settler colonialism and indigeneity, not only strips minority nationalities of their political agency but also prevents them from pursuing anti-colonial self-determination. By delving into the extensive scholarly work within Chinese anthropology, history, and philosophy that contributes to the reconstruction of a retrotopian Chinese nation with non-Han minority groups at its core, this article argues that the ongoing effort to build a revitalised Chinese national community requires more than merely overcoming obstacles related to minority cultures and identities. It entails actively reimagining the role and participation of minorities in 'self-sacrifice' for the Chinese national community, implying their voluntary relinquishment of identities and rights in order to align with the Chinese nation.

This article analyses the implications of recent policy changes for the portrayal of minority nationalities in the latest China's history textbooks published around 2017. We argue that ideological responses to the fierce ethnic clashes of the late 2000s and the leadership transition since 2012 have generated increasingly contradictory official discourses on the relationship between Chinese identity and cultural diversity, which are manifested in the textbooks. On the one hand, policies and textbooks still appear to endorse a multi-"minzu," inclusive understanding of nationhood and Chinese history. On the other hand, an increasing emphasis on nationalist discourses celebrating the Han culture and achievements reinforces assimilationist narratives based on a monolithic and homogenising vision of Chinese nationhood. We argue that such tensions reflect conflicts over contradictory understandings of Chineseness that have intensified since 2008--2009, and that the increasing marginalisation in textbooks of non-Han groups may contribute to further exacerbating problems in the handling of inter-"minzu" relations.

In this study, we discuss the Confucian tradition in today's multicultural China from two perspectives: that of the mandatory school curriculum, which represents 'official knowledge', and that of students from ethnic minority and/or religious backgrounds who are located on the cultural margins in China. The analysis draws on curricular narratives of the Confucian tradition for six major school subjects and semi-structured interviews with a group of university students from non-Han ethnic minority and/or religious backgrounds, whose lived experiences are rarely included in the national curriculum narrative. The analysis suggests that the interpretation of the Confucian tradition is a monopolising and dominant discourse that reinforces the cultural hierarchy between different cultural groups. However, the students appear to regard the Confucian tradition as only one culture and worldview in China, which can benefit from the critical reflexivity of other cultures.

In the face of the rising tension between Hong Kong and mainland China, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam blamed the city's education system for its inability to develop a sense of 'I am Chinese' national identity and vowed to step up 'national education' from preschool. This article explores how 188 young preschool teachers perceived their national identity and viewed the applicability of national education in Hong Kong preschools. Data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The findings showed that even though the participants strongly resisted their Chinese identity, they agreed that national education could be introduced in preschools if it would be rendered rational and apolitical. Nevertheless, they suspected that the administration's motive behind national education was political indoctrination. They also noted several pedagogical difficulties. Finally, the implications are discussed against the changing socio-political context, serving as lessons for local and international readers.

English is often ideologically constructed as a global language to facilitate intercultural communication between people of diverse cultural backgrounds. However, it still remains unknown to what extent English learning can enhance English learners' awareness of global diversity. Given the dominant population of English learners in China, it is of great significance to investigate how English learning might facilitate Chinese learners' global vision and cultivate their intercultural competence. Seeing language textbooks as a key site of cultural and linguistic representation, this study scrutinizes the hidden ideologies discursively constructed in an English Intercultural Communication (EIC) textbook targeting Chinese English learners. Data are collected from dialogues, case studies, reading passages, cultural notes, exercises in the textbook. Informed by concepts of orientalism and banal nationalism, the study reveals that the distribution of characters is nation-based, essentialized, and even stigmatized. There is an inconsistency between the discursive construction of English as a global language and the actual representation of USA/UK-centered ideology. Chinese and other non-English learners are linguistically and culturally subjected to orientalist interpretation. The internal orientalist representation of Chinese speakers is also reproduced within the diverse backgrounds of Chinese population. Based on the findings, we argue that the simplified, unbalanced and unequal representations of cultural elements may hinder English learners' awareness of cultural diversity. The study suggests that a more diversified representation of cultural practices should be adopted in EIC textbooks to cultivate the global citizenship through English language education.

A major development in recent years concerning the growth of 'private English-speaking international schooling' has been the transition from a 'traditional' mode of activity towards a 'non-traditional' context. This is especially the case in Asia, where the majority of international schools now reside. Moreover, we find that in Mainland China two-thirds of the (approximately) 900 schools that might be thought of as international schools are now perhaps better classified as 'internationalised schools', catering largely for Chinese nationals and being taught by a largely local teaching force whilst delivering a fusion of international and national curricula in a profit-driven paradigm. A major challenge is to picture and theorise this changing, and increasingly very different, landscape. This paper offers a new imagery for discussion by using metaphor. Building upon the conflicting 'diluting' and 'decoupling' metaphors that have been recently introduced in the international schooling literature, we present here a conciliatory new imagery: that of 'dovetailing'. This alternative, third metaphor suggests that the changing landscape of international schooling in places including mainland China involves models of private bilingual international schooling that are pragmatically 'dovetailed' with national forms of schooling, fusing cosmopolitan sensitivities with the nationalist needs of the state. This metaphor is now ready to be developed and adapted in China and beyond.

Nation-building in modern China at the beginning of the twentieth century had to manage the strain between ethnic nationalism and the claim of a multi-ethnic national identity. This study focuses on how history textbooks defined China and addressed this paradox. Based on the qualitative content analysis of eight popular middle school history textbooks about imperial China, this paper demonstrates how Han nationalism and the multi-ethnic nationality of China evolved in the textbooks. While these two features of national concept contradict each other, the thesis of Hanhua may serve as a bridge between them within the symbolic framework of Chinese nationalism.

Cultivating "wenhua dacai" (great cultural talent) is a central goal of the ongoing "dujing" (classics reading) education movement, which is an integral part of the broad Confucian revival in contemporary China. Focusing on the concept of "wenhua dacai," this article explores three interrelated issues. First, as a term used in the context of "dujing" education, "wenhua dacai" refers to an idealized Confucian subject shaped by an interweaving of nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Moreover, it is expected not only to revive Confucian/Chinese culture but also to contribute to human cultural exchange. Second, the tendency of students to embrace individualistic virtues in their experience of classics reading poses a challenge to the lofty and sacred ideal of "wenhua dacai," which reinforces the need for rigid discipline in learners. Finally, contextualizing the idea of "wenhua dacai" into the general transformation of education in China can contribute to a more thorough understanding of it. This article concludes that the cultivation of "wenhua dacai" dreamed of by Confucian "dujing" education activists is constituted by paradoxical discourses and practices embedded in the ideological complexities of Chinese education.

This paper explores the governmentality in Macao's higher education (HE) by exemplifying how neoliberalism and Chinese nationalism simultaneously inform the governmental rationalities and technologies in the city. Like many other systems, neoliberalism has substantially shaped Macao's HE. However, owing to post-colonial identity, Chinese nationalism has become a significant driving force in the development of Macao's HE after the handover. On the basis of governmentality and a qualitative single case approach, this paper demonstrates how the neoliberal logic and nationalist discourses frame the governmentality in post-colonial Macao's HE. The paper further argues that the recent development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area signifies an intensification of national integration that is deliberately associated with a wave of marketisation in HE. These developments represent the economic and political imperatives of Macao's HE policy and provide insights into Chineseness in HE within the contemporary political context.

Purpose: The goal is to explore the role of international education in a developing country's nation building in a mostly indigenous process. Design/methodology/approach: This study reviews China's history of international education set in the larger context of different nation building tasks in the past two centuries. Findings: The unique case of China with dramatic ups and downs in national fortunes in the past two hundred years serves to show that an open attitude to and an active engagement in international education are contributing factors for national prosperity. The case of China also serves to show that a self-determined agenda is of paramount importance in international education as a tool for nation building. Originality/value: Few studies so far have paid attention to the specific relationship between the internationalization of higher education and nation building, so the topic of the paper is an important one and a necessary addition to the existing literature. What has been the role of international education in China's national transformation? What contributions has international education made to China's achievement of nation building goals at different stages of this transformation process? What implications can other developing nations draw from China's case with regard to the role of international education in nation building? These are the questions the researchers hope to answer in this study.

The centralized compilation and use of educational materials for the three subjects of language arts, ethics and the rule of law (ideology and politics), and history are important moves in the fundamental task of creating educational materials to build up the state's authority and instill virtue and nurturing the young. Here, centrally compiled educational materials for language arts have unique advantages with respect to strengthening education in the standard spoken and written Chinese language, enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation, and so on, and they play an irreplaceable role in forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation. Centered on the "Five Identifications," this study sets out from the three-dimensional perspective of cognitive factors, affective factors and behavioral factors, to build a framework for analysis of educational materials based on the connotations of the sense of community for the Chinese nation. The characteristics of the representation of the connotative factors of the sense of community for the Chinese nation in centrally compiled educational materials for language arts are: The educational materials comprehensively and emphatically embody the educational content of the "Five Identifications"; the educational content for the different types of identification comprehensively addresses educational objectives in the three areas of cognition, affection and behavior; and educational content on cultural identification is the most enriched. Among the inherent mechanisms for forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation through the centralized compilation of educational materials for language arts, the first is organically integrating the connotative factors of the sense of community for the Chinese nation on the basis of the patterns of the subject of language arts as well as curriculum standards; the second is to use cultural identification as a focal point in promoting education for the "Five Identifications," while highlighting the unique value of the subject of language arts; and the third is to comprehensively strengthen education for identification with the community of the Chinese nation centered on the text selection system, in combination with the design of form factors and educational activities. The main pathways for forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation through the centralized compilation of educational materials for language arts are: (1) Synchronously strengthening identification with the community of the Chinese nation in the process of improving students' language arts skills and accomplishments, based on the learning situation; (2) Creating three-dimensional educational objectives for education in the community of the Chinese nation on the basis of cognitive patterns, to build firm ideological foundations; (3) Applying diverse teaching methods and educational techniques to promote consolidation of the sense of community for the Chinese nation in language arts studies and in life. [Translation by Carissa Fletcher.]

The cause of ethnic unity progress is a foundational cause for forging a sense of community for the Chinese Nation, and progressive education for school ethnic unity is an important, integral part of the cause of ethnic unity progress. Progressive education curricula for school ethnic unity are school curricula explicitly stipulated by the state. It is an important, integral part of the system of school thought and politics curricula and a completely new curriculum form. Progressive education curricula for school ethnic unity plays a critical, important role in firmly establishing the correct view of the motherland, ethnicity, culture, and history for students of all ethnicities and is also a basic path and vehicle for building a common spiritual home for all ethnicities and firmly molding a consciousness of the community of the Chinese nation. There is a solid theoretical foundation, rich practical explorations, and real need for building progressive education curricula for school ethnic unity. Properly building a system of progressive education curricula for school ethnic unity with Chinese characteristics is an important responsibility for education workers in the new era. [Translation by Jeff Keller.]

Forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation is an important innovative thesis put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping. It is a continuation, development, and innovation of Marxist ethnic theory with rich, deep content. Systematically looking at the key theories of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important accounts of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation with regards to the background of the era, the significance of their status, the characteristics of their content, and their practical requirements and deeply studying and understanding their spiritual nature and practical requirements can promote the high-quality development of ethnic affairs work in the new era and unite the people of all ethnicities in commonly striving to realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. [Translation by Jeff Keller.]

Forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation is the main line of ethnic affairs in the new era, and also a hot topic of research in theories about the Chinese nation today. The scientific connotations of education about forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation includes three aspects: conceptual content, theoretical content, and practical content. The core of the conceptual content lies in forging the conscious sense of community for the Chinese nation, to internalize the concept of national unity. The theoretical content includes the theory of ethnic affairs with Chinese characteristics in the new era and the theory of modernization of national governance. This focuses on the "discursive consciousness" of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation to give national unity a sound basis. The practical content of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation includes using education about national unity, national unification, and national rejuvenation to forge a sense of a united community for the Chinese nation, to make the ideal of national unity apparent in action. Only with a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the scientific content of education about the sense of community for the Chinese nation can we effectively implement the ideal of the community of the Chinese nation "that shares good or ill, that shares honour or disgrace, that shares life or death, and that shares a common destiny." [Translated by Desmond Cheung.]

Patriotism is controversial in moral education across contexts. In China, patriotism is highly politicised by the government and heavily promoted in education. In the last few decades, the moralisation of patriotism, which refers here to the framing of patriotism as a virtue, has become the focus of teaching patriotism in China. This paper demonstrates how patriotism is moralised and promoted in Chinese moral education textbooks. The paper begins by providing a theoretical introduction to patriotism in moral education and defending a rational approach to teaching patriotism given its controversial nature. Then it elaborates on the Chinese context of teaching patriotism and analyses patriotism as part of moral education in Chinese textbooks. Our findings indicate various ways in which patriotism is promoted in Chinese education as a non-controversial virtue and moral duty. Finally, the paper discusses the limitations of this way of teaching patriotism and argues for the adoption of the rational approach as an alternative.

Identity issues have been an area of focus in language learning motivation scholarship. However, the role of national identity in language learning motivation has not received sufficient attention. In response to the timely call for reflections on nationalism and language education, this study examines how political nationalism and cultural nationalism shape Chinese learners' motivation to learn Japanese. Our analysis suggests that cultural nationalism considerably enhances Chinese learners' motivation whereas the motivational impact of political nationalism is bifurcate. Our research helps illuminate the mechanism of the rooted L2 self and national interest in language learning motivation, especially in the Chinese context.

This study demonstrates ways that geopolitics may interfere with the pursuit of global science. In particular, the study sought to understand the impact of the U.S. Department of Justice's China Initiative on the U.S. scientific community, especially among those of Chinese and other Asian descent. Based on a survey of about 2,000 scientists in top U.S. research universities, findings show a consistent pattern of neo-racism, neo-nationalism, and the consequences for future international collaborations and maintaining highly skilled talent. The findings show how neo-racism and neo-nationalism may be sabotaging the efforts of the U.S. to be globally competitive.

Reality television (RT) programming is frequently and rightfully criticized and yet its popularity among adolescent and young adult viewers is also undeniable. In response to the need for media literacy programs to address the pleasures, the problems, and the pedagogy of the genre, we have chosen to take a cross-national, comparative approach and to model a process for teaching through our own research. Three popular reality tv programs were selected from each of our respective nations (China, South Korea, the United States) from one of three subgenres: Dancing, Restaurants, and Travel. We each watched episodes of all nine programs, inventoried their features and took notes. We then compared and contrasted the programs cross-nationally and across genres, and identified four themes: Pedagogy; Individualism and Collectivism; Tradition and Modernity; and Globalism and Nationalism. We found striking differences across nations in our analysis that provide important insights into our respective national cultures. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of our process for teaching about RT.

This study applies CDA and story grammar analysis to investigate how Chinese language textbooks for primary schools foster Chinese national identity through their depiction of Chinese people struggling against foreign invaders. The analysis was conducted on 12 textbooks and the findings were based on stories featuring a range of ages, from children to soldiers and artists, who all displayed patriotic spirit and were willing to risk their lives for China. The textbooks also highlight China's past humiliation, such as the Nanjing Massacre and the loss of territories such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The authors of those textbooks seek to encourage the students' national identity by promoting a sense of patriotism, sacrifice, vigilance against foreign threats, affirmation for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and putting the interests of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ahead of personal interests. Additionally, students are expected to have a strong sense of territorial sovereignty, recognizing Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as parts of China. However, the results also show that the portrayal of Chinese national identity is Han-centric, excluding ethnic minorities.

Integrating twenty-first century competencies into the curriculum has become an important issue for education reform worldwide. This study examines and compares twenty-first century competencies demonstrated in mother tongue curriculum standards in China, the United States and Finland. It identifies key similarities and significant differences among them. It shows that the Finnish Curriculum has a more balanced distribution of twenty-first century competencies. While communication and critical thinking are stressed in all three, critical thinking is prioritised in the American Curriculum. In addition to communication and critical thinking, the Chinese Curriculum emphasises citizenship based on national identity, metacognitive strategies and aesthetics. The American Curriculum focuses on information and ICT literacy, and the Finnish Curriculum highlights personal and social responsibility concerning cultural awareness and citizenship. The significant differences between these three Curricula are related to the countries' tradition of curriculum theories -- the Chinese integrate Western theories and the Confucian tradition, the American follow the Anglo-American curriculum and the Finnish have roots in "Bildung-Didaktik." Curriculum objectives should take into consideration both subject knowledge and skills and the student as a whole person. Additionally, different curriculum traditions should be considered and learned during the curriculum design process.

This paper investigates the strategies of governance in the language policy "Chanting the Chinese Classics" (CCC) as deployed by State authorities, schools, and local communities. It highlights the strategy of 'viewing' as a nexus between language policy processes and traditional Chinese governing philosophy. To examine the connections between macro-level language policy and local educational and communicative processes, an ethnography of language policy was conducted at a weekend community school. We argue that language policy governance in Chinese language policy implementation mirrors Confucian philosophy. To further this strategy, State authorities organize nationally televised events at which school children compete in chanting competitions, which serve as exemplars for educators, parents, and students, who are encouraged to memorize vast quantities of classic Chinese literature. Results reveal that the appropriation of the CCC policy by teachers and parents encourages self-government and aligns with language policy ideology. While the CCC policy effectively encourages thousands of children to memorize Chinese Classics, it simultaneously promotes cultural confidence and nationalism.

This study examined the multiplicative associations of the social categories of ethnicity (Hong Kong Chinese, mainland Chinese, or ethnic minorities), gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) with overall belongingness (to one's self, personal networks, and society) and national belonging to China among youth (aged 18-24 years) in Hong Kong. Our analysis revealed similar levels of overall belongingness and national belonging among ethnic minority youth relative to Hong Kong Chinese youth. The intersectionality of mainland Chinese female youth determined a higher degree of belongingness compared with their male counterparts and Hong Kong Chinese female youth. Although SES was positively associated with belongingness, it was not significantly associated with national belonging to China. We provided explanations of these patterns and recommends policy strategies to strengthen individual and national belongingness.

Efforts have been made among scholars from Japan, South Korea, and China since the 1980s--on both private and state initiatives--to narrow the gaps in their historiographies and to cultivate mutual understanding. This article offers an extensive discussion of the author's history project, "A Student Project of Writing a Common History Textbook," which which was incorporated in a multinational class environment in the Spring 2019 semester. First the author explains the development of the conceptual framework and the organization and management of the class. Then, some of the history teaching materials that the students created is introduced. Finally, the author examines what the students actually learned from this exercise and working with their group members, based on their journals and answers to the project survey. The author would argue that this was a success in promoting mutual understanding among students by having them learn history together from various points of view, as the goal was not a complete reconciliation of their historical viewpoints. Young people from different countries, even those from the countries embroiled in politico-historical controversies, are able to learn from one another to create more complex historical narratives that look beyond competing nationalisms. The results of the course confirm the value of teaching history from a global standpoint and hold promise that if adopted widely, it might have a long-term and larger, positive effect on society and even on international relations by producing globally competent future generations.

Since 1990, a large and dynamic global science system has evolved, based on grass roots collaboration, and resting on the resources, infrastructure and personnel housed by national science systems. Euro-American science systems have become intensively networked in a global duopoly; and many other countries have built national science systems, including a group of large- and middle-sized countries that follow semi-autonomous trajectories based on state investment, intensive national network building, and international engagement, without integrating tightly into the global duopoly. The dual global/national approach pursued by these systems, including China, South Korea, Iran and India, is not always fully understood in papers on science. Nevertheless, China is now the number two science country in the world, the largest producer of papers and number one in parts of STEM physical sciences. The paper investigates the remarkable evolution of China's science funding, output, discipline balance, internationalisation strategy and national and global networking. China has combined global activity and the local/national building of science in positive sum manner, on the ground of the nationally nested science system. The paper also discusses limits of the achievement, noting that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science, a partial decoupling is occurring and the future is unclear.

This study investigates e-textbook development for the course of intercultural communication of national image for English majors and learners in the context of integrating ideological and curriculum education in the Chinese mainland. Under the framework of Fairclough's three-dimensional discourse analysis and glocalization in intercultural communication, the study proposes an e-textbook development workflow involving text design, discursive database construction, and social investigation and explores the unit design strategies for the course, paying special attention to integrate ideological elements properly into intercultural communication studies in each unit. Following authenticity principle and presentation-practice-production (P-P-P) model, the study constructs an e-textbook system featuring by unit design with contents and modules both linguistic theories based and intercultural communication oriented. This e-textbook will contribute to the cultivation of a locally grounded, globally minded intercultural communicator of national image.

This research applies the analytical lens of 'cosmopolitan nationalism' to examine how 'non-traditional' international high schools interweave cosmopolitan and nationalistic tendencies in Shenzhen, China. In-depth interviews with parents (n = 16) and students (n = 60) explored the motivations for choosing international schooling, experiences of international schooling, whether cosmopolitan identities are emerging amongst students and, if so, with what characteristics. The findings demonstrate the utility of 'cosmopolitan nationalism' in illuminating the nature of international schooling in China and extends it by applying it to denote the identities expressed by students, who confidently project the national into the global with their expectations for the future.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has garnered increasing attention since its inception in 2000. Correspondingly, there has been heightened interest in 'PISA poster countries' like Singapore and Shanghai-China. Yet to date, little is known about the processes and dynamics of the construction of PISA discourses within these 'poster countries'. This paper examines the Chinese print media's reception and interpretation of PISA. Using content analysis of media reportage in 2010, 2013 and 2016, the paper identifies core patterns and themes within the media-generated PISA discourses in China and traces changes in the media discourses over time. The findings shed light on a 'mediatisation' process where the Chinese media's interpretation of PISA gets shaped by culture-specific factors such as dominant political ideology, national aspirations, and histories. As such, PISA has acquired localised meanings in China and serves as an instrument to promote national development agenda and justify education reforms.

Whilst Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has influenced education in various ways, major reforms perceived as promoting mainland control have been resisted. For two decades, Hong Kong's educational autonomy under the 'one country, two systems' formula was thus largely maintained. This changed radically with the response to the protests of 2019--2020, culminating in the introduction of a National Security Law. This has drastically constrained Hong Kong's civil society, enhanced central government control of education and accelerated efforts to reeducate Hongkongers as loyal PRC citizens. We trace how this transformation has been enacted and justified, and reflect on its consequences. We analyse the current situation through the lenses of 'internal colonialism' and securitisation, which have characterised governance of China's restive periphery under Xi Jinping. We argue that analytical perspectives in Comparative Education, relating to postcolonialism/decolonisation and globalisation, obstruct or distort understanding of Hong Kong's present predicament.

The shaping of people's identities as members of the Chinese nation is crucial to China's nationalist discourse at school. What kind of image of the Chinese nation does the state intend to transmit to its new generation of citizens? Does the constitutional separation of religion and education prescribe a secular image for the collective identity of the Chinese nation? This study explores how the interpretation of religion is manufactured during the discourse of constructing the nation in Chinese school textbooks. The findings reveal that different religious traditions are assigned strikingly different roles in the national curriculum's interpretation of the Chinese nation as a construct and the distinction between China and the external world. The integration of religious narratives and the agenda of shaping the national cultural identity of Chinese students reveal the changing role of religion in contemporary Chinese society.

China has launched several national academic excellence initiatives since the 1990s, aimed at creating world-class universities. These projects contributed to the achievements of Chinese universities over the past decades and deeply influenced the field of Chinese higher education. This study focuses on the most recent Double World-Class (DWC) project and assesses the impacts of this project on the diversification of leading Chinese universities. Drawing on institutional organization theories, we analyzed how institutions set their goals for the DWC project in development plans. Findings demonstrate that on the one hand, the DWC project reinforced universities' resource dependence on the government, which lead to universities adopting similar structures and practices. On the other hand, facing the intensified competition with domestic peers for the limited slots in the DWC project, Chinese universities differentiated their goals and orientations as they seek to highlight their competitive advantages. Findings highlight both the benefits and challenges brought by the strong nation-state policies in the pursuit of world-class universities.

How does China signal foreign policy intentions to domestic and international audiences during territorial conflicts? While China can signal its resolve by provoking nationalism at home, doing so may risk appearing threatening to neighbouring countries in the region. We argue that China resolves the dilemma by sending different types of messages to domestic and international audiences. Focusing on China’s maritime conflicts in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, we examine China’s narratives regarding the maritime disputes through the analysis of state-run media. Our findings from text mining and topic analyses of more than 31,000 state media reports from 2002 to 2021 suggest that China signals to the international audience on international cooperation emphasising diplomatic and peaceful resolutions while relatively less so in domestic media. The analyses have implications for how China signals foreign policy intentions amidst rising nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evolution and hybrid nature of Chinese classical dance (gudianwu), exploring its development since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its role in promoting national identity. It argues that the integration of elements from Soviet ballet and traditional Chinese theatre has created a unique dance form that challenges essentialist notions of Chineseness, presenting gudianwu as a product of postcolonial modernity.

This article focuses on China's policy response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Pelosi's action triggered a surge of popular nationalist sentiments in China, but the response of the Chinese government was far less tough than what many popular nationalists had expected. The article argues that the Chinese government's policy choice in response to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan did not depend on the demands of popular nationalists, but rather was based on a cost-benefit analysis according to its perceptions. The influence of popular nationalism on the government's foreign policy choices has been exaggerated owing to an overestimation of the government's reliance on nationalism for its regime legitimacy, and an underestimation of the government's control over public opinion and nationalist activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex process of symbolic boundary-making of 'Hongkonger' cultural identities through the lens of the controversial 2015 film Ten Years, which is a celebrated omnibus production comprised of five short segments that picture a dystopic end to Hong Kong's cherished way of life in the year 2025. The article is premised on an interdisciplinary approach engaging with cultural studies and film studies. On one hand, it explores how Ten Years functioned as a boundary object, a vast terrain within which cultural identities of what it means to be a Hongkonger are constructed, banished, imagined, and performed under the rubric of bodily performatives. On the other hand, it offers blurring encounters into unfamiliar and precarious territories where the formation and formulation of Hongkonger identities and sense of belonging are negotiated, evacuated, and inhabited. In the end, the key tropes in Ten Years suggest that boundary work in post-Umbrella Hong Kong affectively negotiates with state-level nationalism advocated by the central government in Beijing through establishing and reformulating notions of 'localism' and Hongkonger identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chinese cyberspace, mass media and opinion leaders struggle over socio-political discourses. While the former propagates positive views on national policies, the latter often expresses dissenting opinions that challenge authoritarian rule. In the context of China–US competition, do citizens still perceive non-state sources as more credible? Taking the Belt and Road Initiative as the issue, this experimental study investigates how Chinese netizens process conflicting information from a government-owned news agency and two opinion leaders with varying levels of source credibility. Our findings reveal that high-credibility propagandistic news is effective, whereas low-credibility propaganda is not. Furthermore, an opinion leader perceived as independent surpasses government propaganda in influence, regardless of information credibility. However, when an opinion leader is perceived as backed by a rival nation, the former's influence is counterproductive unless their message credibility exceeds that of propaganda. This study sheds light on the prevalence of nationalistic sentiment in China, which has raised concerns about the manipulation of Chinese netizens by hostile forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the nationalist, business-centric, elite-led and labour-subsuming logics of development in contemporary China are mirrored in contingent and locally-mediated ways in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In China's present 'de-revolutionary' moment [Wang, 2006], non-elite populations are conceived as labour inputs to be used and moulded in the pursuit of national development through market means. This same developmental ethos, mediated by a plethora of Chinese and non-Chinese actors, underpins the authoritarian tendencies of BRI-branded projects across the world. While authoritarian practices in China have both Leninist and capitalist genealogies and drivers, I argue here that Global China's most tangible and remarkable impacts on international authoritarianism are found in the practices required to secure capital accumulation along the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's power grows, a widespread perception is that China is more willing to respond to nationalist demands and act assertively in international incidents. In reality, China has not supported and accommodated nationalism in all events but has cooled down nationalism in some cases. An important unanswered question is, why does the Chinese government demonstrate selectivity when responding to nationalism and take different foreign policies concerning nationalism in various incidents? This article provides a coherent and testable framework to answer this question and uses five cases to test the congruence and validity of the analytical framework. The core argument is that the primary concern of the Chinese government in dealing with nationalism is its legitimacy. When policymakers perceive severe threats to China's regime security and stability, they will open a 'safety valve' to embrace nationalism, allowing nationalism to unleash its anger under the government's monitor and escalating disputes to defend national interests and appease nationalism. When there are few threats to the regime, three factors will affect China's choice: the economic value of the diplomatic relationship, elements of China's core interests, and the viability of reaching an agreement that sets aside the dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories across different social media platforms. Parallel to this conspiracy wave was a heightened sense of nationalism, which manifested through both in-group solidarity and perceived out-group threats. In this study, we examine how individuals' use of government social media to gather political information correlated with nation-related conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. Data were collected from 745 subjects in China and analyzed through path analyses, which allowed us to examine the direct association with political information consumption from government social media and the indirect association with nationalism on conspiracy beliefs. The results indicated that the use of government social media to gather political information was associated with greater beliefs in nation-variant COVID-19 conspiracies, both directly and through different mediations of nationalism. Our findings highlight the importance of examining government social media use and how nationalism can have differentiated mediation effects on beliefs in conspiracy theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]