ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a critical introduction to the concepts of aspiration and competition within contemporary Chinese education at a time of the emergence of neoliberal governance of education. It examines the concepts of suzhi and suzhi jiaoyu (education for quality), which have become central to Chinese education reform. The chapter explores the (re)masculinization of suzhi education, addressing three interconnecting themes: schooling embodied masculine attributes; family roles, missing fathers, lost boys; and nation building: future men of China. It suggests that the media-generated anxiety about contemporary school boys’ futures as productive and healthy citizens able to contribute to the wider society illustrates that schooling is perceived as a central microcosm of the wider political aim of new nation building. The chapter discusses the media-generated discourse of “failing boys” and the suggested accompanying feminization of schooling as a strategic move to (re)masculinize suzhi education, reflecting the aspirational values of modernity, in light of the neoliberal modernization project in the post-socialist period.
