Nurturing Chinese Nationalists: High-School Ideopolitical Education Textbook Narratives (1991–2019)

Following the Tiananmen Incident, the Chinese government began to tighten its grip on education and turn increasingly to nationalism. Understanding the significant impact that education has on shaping lifelong ideology and behavior throughout adolescence, the Chinese government has strategically leveraged ideopolitical education, a highly politicized subject in high schools, to foster nationalism. This study attempts to address the critical knowledge gap concerning diachronic narratives in high-school ideopolitical education textbooks from the 1990s to the present. These narratives are categorized into five themes: (1) the Chinese nation; (2) the superiority of socialism; (3) the notoriety of capitalism; (4) the Century of Humiliation; and (5) the manipulation of and monopoly over common history. These themes potentially fuel nationalism through the two dynamics of “common history” and distinction between the self and other. This study thus sheds light on the Chinese government’s decades-long, consistent endeavor to instill nationalism through high-school ideopolitical education after the Tiananmen Incident.