Abstract
This paper explores a key dilemma of the Chinese middle class as it appears in their apparent adherence to official language policy despite their lack of direct knowledge of that policy. Using fieldwork data from Hangzhou, I show that a group of middle-class parents worked together to build an “Ancient Way Academy” for their children to chant the ancient Chinese classics. In this, although they were unaware of the official policy of “Chanting the Chinese Classics” (CCC), they effectively reproduced it in their actions. Some parents, however, soon drifted away from the traditionalism of CCC and toward a much stronger emphasis on the learning of English as the gateway to modernization. In facing the dilemma of choice between these two educational pathways, the parents thus unwittingly reenacted the state’s ceaseless oscillation between nationalistic and international visions of the country’s needs.
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Notes
http://news.qq.com/a/20130910/001009.htm. Accessed on August 14, 2016.
http://cul.china.com.cn/zt/2014-12/11/content_7436189.htm. Accessed on August 14, 2016.
http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2014/0101/c64094-23995307.html. Accessed on August 28, 2016.
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2014/09-10/6575039.shtml. Accessed on August 28, 2016.
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Acknowledgments
I am especially grateful to Michael Herzfeld for his invaluable comments on the language and content of this paper, which turns the polishing practice into an enjoyable process of building a verbal sculpture. Endless thanks go to the teachers, parents, and children in the Ancient Way Academy. I would like to thank editors of this special issue and the anonymous peer reviewers for their constructive comments. This research was supported by funding from the Ministry of Education of China (15YJCZH213), SISU YEOS Program (2015YCKY03), and a Grant from the Research Center for Foreign Language Strategies (WYZL201424), Shanghai International Studies University.
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Yu, H. Between the National and the International: Ethnography of Language Ideologies in a Middle-Class Community in China. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 25, 703–711 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-016-0314-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-016-0314-1