ABSTRACT
Throughout their lives, Chinese citizens are confronted with representations of ‘Europe’ in various contexts and through a variety of sources. Middle school history textbooks most probably take a primal role in shaping the perspective of Europe held by Chinese people. To be sure, history textbooks reflect the world-view, norms and skills that states or societies expect the younger generation to acquire, though they might be contested by less official sources of historical knowledge. Still, the importance of state-determined knowledge for passing university entrance exams in China and the continuing influence of the party-state’s voice in a quite pluralistic setting of historical debate confirms the significance of textbooks in shaping people’s worldview. Textbook analysis is therefore employed here as a means of understanding the origins of Chinese perceptions of Europe and the EU.
