Revisiting Chinese citizenship education: from political socialisation for Confucian collectivism to a new individualism

This study examines how collectivism is emphasised in Chinese citizenship education (CE) but is challenged by social individualisation. By illuminating the Confucian philosophy of the ‘relational self’, the study reviews how Chinese collectivism has been reinterpreted from cultural to political contexts, involving the ‘use’ of positive liberty for the sake of the collective self and functioning in a complex manner to shape students’ conceptualisations of their individual relations with the state, nation, and society. Through narrative interviews with 12 well-educated participants, the study suggests that they possess sophisticated understandings of different forms of collectivity and deeply perceive the metaphorical use of collectivism. They sustain horizontal collectivism while diluting vertical collectivism, expressing a new individualism based on reasoned considerations of individual-collectivity relations. This trend may counteract some goals of Chinese CE and imply a third wave of disembedding in China’s modernisation.