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The Patriotic Education Campaign (simplified Chinese: 爱国主义教育; traditional Chinese: 愛國主義教育; pinyin: Àiguó zhǔyì jiàoyù) was a political campaign in China initiated in 1991 but not carried out in full scale until 1994. In May 1995, the Chinese government issued the "Notice on Recommending Hundreds of Patriotic Education Books to Primary and Middle Schools across the Country", and made a list of a hundred patriotic films, a hundred patriotic songs, a hundred patriotic books. The main goal of the campaign was to "boost the nation’s spirit, enhance cohesion, and foster national self esteem and pride".

This was done through education that was designed to construct a historical memory of what the People's Republic of China was created from, by emphasizing the role the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in securing national independence, and the influence of foreign countries on China. The aim was to boost the CCP's legitimacy, which during the 1980s had declined, particularly around the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The academic Suisheng Zhao has said the Campaign is part of a strategy to make the Party the “paramount patriotic force and guardian of national pride.”

Background

The Patriotic Education Campaign was promoted by the Chinese Communist Party in the post-Cold War era. The campaign was developed by the government as a response to the growing Chinese pro-democracy movement of the 1980s, and particularly the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, which had substantially weakened popular support for the Communist Party. Particularly after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests the Chinese political leadership realized the need of political education of the younger generation in order to create support for the Chinese Communist Party. The two factions of the Chinese Communist Party, the conservatives and the reformists, agreed that Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought no longer sufficiently legitimized their rule. The conservative faction argued for strengthening the position of Maoist ideology, while the reformist faction, led by Deng Xiaoping, saw nationalism as the solution. After a period of political stability and Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992, patriotic education eventually became a youth education campaign that was mainly focused on the youth and intellectuals . This was done by mobilizing all party and state organizations and through them issuing policies and opinions that launched the campaign

Beginnings

The first official document on patriotic education was the "Circular on Fully Using Cultural Relics to Conduct Education in Patriotism and Revolutionary Traditions", which was published in 1991 by the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department. In 1993 a more influential document published by the State Education Commission was published recommending making patriotism a guiding principle for the reform of China's educational system.

The Influential CCP Central Committee published a document in the People's Daily on 6 september 1994 marking the height of the campaign, in which the objectives of Patriotic education were described. This was published an editorial in the same edition of the The People's Daily that urged all levels of the party and government to participate in launching the campaign all over the country. This was followed by the publication of selected articles from the CCP Central Propaganda Department, with speeches and articles from party leaders on patriotic education.

Content

Compulsory Education

In 1993 the State Education Commission published an influential document that stated that patriotism should be a guiding principle for the reform of China's educational system. Later in 1994 a Guideline for Patriotic Education were send out to all kindergartens, primary schools, high schools and universities, which led to the end of Marxist indoctrination and replaced it with themes of patriotism. Another important document was published in The People's Daily in 1994, by the CCP's Central Propaganda Department, and described the objectives of Patriotic Education as "boosting the nations's sprit, enhancing its cohesion, fostering its self-esteem, and sense of pride", and "directing and rallying the masses' patriotic passions to the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and helping the motherland become unified, prosperous, and strong".

Film and television were made a primary instrument of patriotic education, especially in primary and secondary schools. The State Education Commission recommended a list of patriotic movies to be shown to students, and by May 1994 official Media reported that 95 percent of primary and secondary school students in Beijing had watched patriotic movies in school .

Curriculums of high schools and Universities were changed to include patriotic education, one example being the "I am Chinese" program, which taught Chinese university studens to be proud of being Chinese, and focus on the important achievement of both the Chinese people, as well as the CCP .

Curriculums in primary and secondary education were changed to better lay out the national conditions of China in a number of fields, to give students a better comprehension of China's strengths and weaknesses, and the responsibility the students inherited. A new course called National Condition was created, in which students among other things visited historical sites designated as Patriotic Education Bases. Political education courses were created at various schools called Marxist Theory and Ideology and Politics. Students were also met with new courses that focused on China's traditional culture, such as History of Chinese Art, Chinese Calligraphy and Theory of Traditional Chinese Paintings. Apart from this

Effects

On Nationalism (see Wang 2008 p.799)

References

Category:Education in China Category:1990s in China