The Hundred and First Flower
Those damned liberal teachers … propagandizing the kiddies with their squishy, one-world liberalism, decaying a society from the roots up. Is there any limit to the termity of their obsession to subvert?
When high school students in Shanghai crack their history textbooks this fall they may be in for a surprise. The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.
Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
Nearly overnight the country’s most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950’s. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today’s economic and political goals.
I could easily explain the downsizing of Maoism — it didn’t work, no one believes in it anymore, and any government facing rising unrest in its countryside and the constant, implicit threat of an explosion of urban unrest needs another hook on which the subjects can hang their loyalty. All signs had been pointing to that being nationalism — hatred of the United States and Japan. What’s surprising is what those elements are also missing from this text. That would seem to be a victory for the “pragmatists” Chuck Downs had mentioned.
Let’s hope it works out better than the original Hundred Flowers campaign.
Thanks to a reader for forwarding.
Not to rain on the parade, but I noticed this phrase: “Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence.”
In other words, no mention of the Great Leap Backward, the Cultural Revolution, or any of Mao’s other disasters.
Besides, the post-1979 regime is still the author of Tiananmen Square, the Falun Gong War, the Communist-terrorist alliance, and rampant corruption that runs through the CCP.
Until I see any of THAT in a Communist textbook, this looks more like a dandelion weed than an actual flower.
Oh, and more quote from the Times: “The junior high school textbook still uses boilerplate idioms to condemn Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930’s and includes little about Tokyo’s peaceful, democratic postwar development. It will do little to assuage Japanese concerns that Chinese imbibe hatred of Japan from a young age.”
Let the dandelions bloom.
Well, I think we can agree that in China, the flowers are outnumbered by lawnmowers. Still, any incremental departure from an evil orthodoxy is room for very cautious optimism.
In other words, no mention of the Great Leap Backward, the Cultural Revolution, or any of Mao’s other disasters.
Previous editions glorified the nation-building projects of the 1950s and barely hinted at the Great Leap Backward, noting that it was not successful but mentioning nothing about the famine that killed millions. The Cultural Revolution was similarly glossed over; coverage of that time period focused on diplomatic achievements like Nixon’s visit to China. Looks like the new approach to Chinese textbook-writing is to replace distortion with omission.