The Balance and Insufficiency of Cultural Content in Chinese English Textbooks: A Systematic Literature Review

This study is a systematic review. The research searched Google Scholar from 2013 to 2025, etc. The search terms included "English textbooks/Cultural Presentation /Cortazzi & Jin/ICC/ concentric circles /Big C/Small C/Hofstede", etc. The inclusion criteria are: taking Chinese English textbooks or comparable EFL textbooks as the objects, discussing within the culture, and extractable methods and results. After title/abstract screening and full-text review, 18 articles were finally included (9 empirical and 9 theoretical/methodological). The main findings are: The proportion of the three types of cultures - local, target and international - is unbalanced, and international culture is significantly insufficient. A large amount of content remains at the superficial level, lacking the advancement from “Small C” to “big C” and the value level. Disconnected from student life; The inconsistent conclusions on the proportion of local and target cultures in different versions are mostly related to the differences in samples and perspectives. The contribution of this paper lies in: taking Cortazzi & Jin as the main axis, integrating ICC, concentric circles, Hofstede, and Big C/Small c for integrated comparison, and proposing an operational improvement idea of "proportion - advancement - context". Practical significance: It provides key points for quota and hierarchical design for textbook compilers, offers suggestions for localized supplementary and comparative tasks for teachers, and points policy makers towards implementable evaluation indicators and resource allocation