ABSTRACT
Children learn to live together in many ways, not only from what they are taught in the classroom but also from the atmosphere of their school and from the life of their community. Their school textbooks are very important vehicle for shaping their understanding of the world. This chapter analyses a set of Chinese history textbooks published by the People's Education Press. The Chinese history textbooks examined clearly stress the uniquely long history of China, meaning that of the Central Plains area, and rarely refer to minority histories. Analysis of a selected set of People's Republic of China (PRC) history textbooks reveals that there are only limited references to Uyghurs and Xinjiang. As textbook knowledge about Uyghurs and Xinjiang is found to be much more neutral than the views commonly expressed in public discourses, it is possible that textbook knowledge may act to smooth certain discriminatory stereotypes held about Uyghurs by the Han public.
