Sinicization

4 Key excerpts on "Sinicization"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Handbook of Asian Education

  A Cultural Perspective

  • Yong Zhao, Jing Lei, Guofang Li, Ming Fang He, Kaori Okano, Nagwa Megahed, David Gamage, Hema Ramanathan(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Part I Sinic Education Passage contains an image 1   A Cultural Overview of Education in Sinic Civilization Guofang Li and Ming Fang He Introduction

  The Sinic civilization, or Confucian civilization, refers to the shared and related cultures of China and the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, which includes China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and Vietnam. It also includes the Chinese diaspora, especially in relation to Southeast Asia. In the last few decades, education within Sinic civilization has experienced rapid changes. These changes have engendered some of the most vital, exciting, and revitalizing developments in education in these countries, in the midst of modernization, diversification, and globalization. This development is characterized by a dramatic resurgence of educational reforms, heated debates over educational practices, and ongoing struggles over highly contested educational policies in Sinic societies. This educational development in Sinic civilization is inextricably linked with the processes and impact of diversification of the world landscape which, in turn, further complicates the diversification of cultures, languages, communications, economies, ecological systems, and ways of lives in the East, in the West, and in-between. This diversity and complexity, though creating vitality, excitement, revitalization, and renewal in the field of education, has emerged as one of the most urgent challenges facing twenty-first century educational workers—learners, teachers, educators, parents, community workers, administrators, and policy-makers. Influenced by Confucian ethics, educational workers in Sinic societies have attempted to address diversity and complexity in their educational landscapes by searching for more holistic and eclectic approaches to educational reforms and practices. These efforts are of great significance to our understanding of the educational development in these societies and beyond in the era of diversification and globalization.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Multiculturalism, Chinese Identity, and Education

  Who Are We?

  • Jason Cong Lin(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In 48 pages, textbooks deliver a sense of cultural superiority. In all periods in Chinese history, the Han and the culture connected with it are depicted as advanced, superior, and beneficial to ethnic minorities. Textbooks portray a picture that Emperors in many periods in Chinese history admired Han culture, adopted the Han’s system, and were eager to learn things (e.g., political thoughts, laws, modes of production, and customs) from Han people. Some examples include “many Hu rules in the Period of Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties” (CH64, p. 183), “rulers of various ethnic groups in the Sixteen Kingdoms period” (CH64, p. 191), and “Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty” (CH65, p. 99).

  Accordingly, textbooks portray Han influence on ethnic minorities as significant and positive only, for example: “Hu people can be deeply influenced by Han culture, which is helpful for facilitating the integration of Han and Hu” (CH64, p. 192). The Rong, Di, Man, and Yi groups were assimilated into the Huaxia group in the Zhou dynasty. This assimilation is portrayed as having “gradually eliminated the gap between them and the Huaxia group, contributed to the integration of different ethnic groups, and helped the development and expansion of the Chinese nation” (CH61, p. 48).

  Sinicization implemented by Emperor Xiao-wen in the Northern Wei dynasty is given in textbooks as a significant cultural event and a typical example. According to textbooks, the Emperor Xiao-wen implemented Sinicization to “promote the integration of Hu and Han, and eliminate the cultural gap between Han and Hu” (CH64, p. 216) and to

  Improve the cultural level of Xianbei. He believed that Xianbei should learn Han culture and change their cultures and customs, in order to improve their level of knowledge and culture. Otherwise, Xianbei will become ignorant and difficult to achieve good development.

  (CH64, p. 197)

  Sinicization contains various aspects:

  I. Political aspect: adopting Han’s bureaucracy and law, abolishing Xianbei’s old system, and moving the capital to Luoyang. II. Economic aspect: …learning Han’s lifestyle and mode of production. … III. Customs aspect: forbidding Xianbei people to wear Hu clothes or speak Hu language, requiring Xianbei people to wear Han clothes and speak Han language, changing Xianbei surnames to Han surnames, forbidding Xianbei people to bury in homeland, and encouraging Hu people to marry Han people. IV. Cultural aspect: advocating Confucianism and requiring Xianbei students to accept Han’s education.

  (CH64, pp. 216–217)

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Global Culture: Consciousness and Connectivity

  • Roland Robertson, Didem Buhari-Gulmez(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 10 China in the Process of Globalization: A Primarily Cultural Perspective Wang Ning    

  Dramatic changes in world economy and politics have undoubtedly proved that China is one of the countries in the world which have benefited most from globalization. This has manifested itself with increasing clarity over time. People may well think that globalization makes the cultures of different countries or nations increasingly homogenous; but in recognizing this homogenizing tendency we should also note the other important factor that is—at least superficially—opposed to globalization namely: (cultural) localization. In fact, cultural diversity is more and more conspicuous in the present era. It could well be argued that this is especially true of China where Chinese traditions are so strong that everything is susceptible to being localized. It would be better to say that globalization in the Chinese context might well be called ‘glocalization,’ or global in the local.

  Although in many places globalization is often viewed as synonymous with Westernization, or more specifically, Americanization, humanities scholars seem ideologically more ambivalent about Westernization—though arguably, less so about globalization. A much neglected aspect of globalization is the frantic search for ways of embracing modernity on cultural and political terms. Although modernity in the Chinese context is largely an ‘imported’ or ‘translated’ concept from the West, it has at the same time, with many indigenous elements, seriously undermined the myth of singular ‘modernity,’ paving the way for an alternative modernity or modernities with Chinese characteristics.

  Thus, the globalization of culture also means prompting localization, or—as previously stated—’glocalization,’ which in turn redefines and reconfigures this hidden ‘empire’ in a local context. The present chapter aims to let ‘the outside world’ know how China is moving closer to it by absorbing more and more foreign cultural elements, and nevertheless how Chinese culture still maintains its sense of uniqueness. Apart from discussing Chinese modernity as an alternative modernity, the chapter will also deal with the popularization of the Chinese language and the Chinese version of world literature which has certainly helped the remapping of the world language system and also pluralized the concept of world literature; with Chinese literature increasingly characterized by cosmopolitanism and transnationalism.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  SUNY series, James N. Rosenau series in Global Politics

  Cultural Politics and International Relations

  • Chih-yu Shih(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • SUNY Press

    (Publisher)

  16 Sinological Chineseness identifies Vietnam as assuming the role of an intellectual who understands the social, political, and psychological difficulties that Chinese leaders suffer and reads with confidence between the lines the policy messages from China. Owning sinological Chineseness is, therefore, accompanied by a duty of double-sided communication, including uncritically showing the negative side of China.

  Altercasting leads to the expectation that China and Vietnam will be reciprocal, willing to share, and appreciative of each other’s relationship. Once the interpretation of one party’s consideration is revealed to the other party, the latter has the role obligation to show sympathy and patience. During difficult negotiations, China is obliged to prevent the situation from escalating to an irrevocable level. China is also expected to exert patience and accept a nonsolution as a solution in a kingly manner, which has been preached and praised in sinological classics as well as among their contemporary disciples.

  Sinologists are emotionally involved in their works of translation.17 Good translations of the Buddhist texts, literary pieces, scenes, and philosophies are essential to the learning of Chinese culture.18 Several sinologists have never been to China but can develop a deep empathy toward the Han characters through the texts. Others are worried, though, that isolated translators could miss the needed touch in their translation because they fail to capture the spirit of the time due to their lack of living experiences in China. For example, a student of The Forbidden Female expounds the challenge of translating the contemporary novel to convey the triad of a universal human rights message, a gender equality message, and the reform and openness message. The exact choice of Vietnamese words to convey the delicate messages and the flow of the episodes presupposes an intricate appreciation of the Chinese narratives.19 Overall, sinological Chineseness encourages a general sense of duty to both their political leaders and schoolchildren. Sinologists intend that their leaders understand China correctly and their pedagogy enriches the curriculum so that reading about China in Vietnam can avoid an inherent bias caused by a short-term rift.20

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book