ABSTRACT
With particular reference to school music education in China, this chapter will examine the under-researched relationships between social transformation, composition/improvisation, creativity, and education reforms in the global age. The chapter will adopt a qualitative content analysis of official documents, selected music textbooks, and other relevant literatures to demonstrate and discuss the extent of music composition/improvisation for individual expression and extra-musical learning taking shape in the social context of China. This chapter will also present a discussion on selected textbook materials and how school music education may help initiate a dialogue on the delivery of improvisation activities to cultivate creativity in the music curriculum in two pairs of relationships: between the promotion of contemporary multicultural values and Chinese ethnic and patriotic education, and between the cultural and creative narratives of individualism and collectivism.
