China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney
Citizenship and Education in Contemporary Chinese Societies: Contexts, Perspectives, and Understandings
International Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference, January 2022
This international conference will explore the varieties of citizen-making embedded in the socio-educational transformation of Chinese societies. ‘Citizenship’ is a new construct in the modern Chinese context. Since the Republic of China period, scholars have been concerned with the practice of citizenship education and how to indigenise it in Chinese societies. The discursive construction of ‘citizens’ in modern China is intertwined with two opposing ideologies (Guo, 2014). The first is statism, which emphasises the building of a powerful nation-state by shaping the civic consciousness of the Chinese people, while downplaying citizenship rights. The second is individualism, which deviates from Confucian tradition and embraces the Western culture of citizenship to build a more liberal nation-state. While the socialist regime has overwhelmingly emphasised statism and collectivism, individualisation and a consequent rise in individual consciousness of citizenship rights have emerged in post-Mao China (Yan, 2010).
In contemporary Chinese societies, the meaning of ‘citizenship’ is still under negotiation. A variety of citizen-making practices, cultivating various citizenship identities and roles, have emerged in Chinese societies. We encourage submissions from scholars who are interested in exploring the dynamics of such citizen-making processes in formal and informal educational settings through an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens. The topics may include the following.
- Citizenship and curriculum developmen
- Citizenship and educational policies/reforms
- Comparative perspectives on citizenship education
- Gender and citizenship
- Social transformation and citizenship
- Religion and citizenship
- Traditional cultures and citizenship
- Subjectivity/spirituality and citizen-making
- Nationalism, individualism, and citizen-making
Important Dates
30 November 2021: Submission of an abstract (max. 300 words), author name(s), affiliation(s), email address, and a short biographical note (max. 200 words) in English, to Canglong.Wang@hull.ac.uk.
15 December 2021: Notification of acceptance.
12 January 2022, 17 January 2022, and 20 January 2022: Conferencing.
The conference will be held ONLINE, in English.
Organizing Team
The webinar is co-hosted by Centre for Greater China Studies, Department of Social Sciences, the Education University of Hong Kong; Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Education, University of Hull; and the China Studies Centre and Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney.
Dr. ZHAO Zhenzhou (Department of Social Sciences, Education University of Hong Kong), Dr. WANG Canglong (University of Hull) and Dr. CHIA Yeow Tong (Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney) will organise this virtual conference.
References
Guo, Z. (2014) ‘The Emergence of the Citizen Concept in Modern China: 1899–1919’, Journal of Chinese Political Science, 19(4), pp. 349–364.
Yan, Y. (2010) ‘The Chinese Path to Individualization’, The British Journal of Sociology, 61(3), pp. 489–512.