ABSTRACT

In many non-Western contexts, modernization has tended to be equated with Westernization, and hence with an abandonment of authentic indigenous identities and values. This is evident in the recent history of many Asian societies, where efforts to modernize – spurred on by the spectre of foreign domination – have often been accompanied by determined attempts to stamp national variants of modernity with the brand of local authenticity: ‘Asian values’, ‘Chinese characteristics’, a Japanese cultural ‘essence’ and so forth. Highlighting (or exaggerating) associations between the more unsettling consequences of modernization and alien influence has thus formed part of a strategy whereby elites in many Asian societies have sought to construct new forms of legitimacy for old patterns of dominance over the masses. The apparatus of modern systems of mass education, often inherited from colonial rulers, has been just one instrument in such campaigns of state legitimation.

This book presents analyses of a range of contemporary projects of citizenship formation across Asia in order to identify those issues and concerns most central to Asian debates over the construction of modern identities. Its main focus is on schooling, but also examines other vehicles for citizenship-formation, such as museums and the internet; the role of religion (in particular Islam) in debates over citizenship and identity in certain Asian societies; and the relationship between state-centred identity discourses and the experience of increasingly ‘globalized’ elites.

With chapters from an international team of contributors, this interdisciplinary volume will appeal to students and scholars of Asian culture and society, Asian education, comparative education and citizenship.

chapter 1|28 pages

Introduction

part I|51 pages

Education for modern citizenship in Asia

chapter 3|31 pages

A civilising mission with Chinese characteristics?

Education, colonialism and Chinese state formation in comparative perspective

part II|67 pages

Schooling, curriculum and textbooks in state projects of citizenship formation

chapter 4|22 pages

Going global?

National versus post-national citizenship education in contemporary Chinese and Japanese social studies curricula

chapter 5|20 pages

Making reflective citizens

India's new textbooks for Social and Political Life

part III|65 pages

Religion, ethnicity and the construction of modern citizenship in Asia's Islamic societies

chapter 7|24 pages

Constructing modern Turkish citizens

From Ottoman times to the twenty-first century

chapter 8|21 pages

The making of the Pakistani citizen

Civics education and state nationalism in Pakistan

part IV|47 pages

Beyond the school gates

chapter 10|23 pages

Constructing civic identity in Shanghai's museums

Heritage, ideology and local distinctiveness

chapter 11|23 pages

Education for active citizenship

Youth organisations and alternative forms of citizenship education in Hong Kong and Singapore

part IV|77 pages

Civic attitudes of young Asians