Cultural Exclusion in China: State Education, Social Mobility and Cultural Difference Book

List of illustrations

Chinese Pinyin

1 Introduction 1

Ethnicity and educational achievement 1

Educational achievement, cultural capital and social capital 3

Capital, culture and power relations 6

About this book 8

2 The trajectories of Chinese culturalism and its educational legacy 19

Introduction 19

Historical development of Chinese culturalism 20

The culture discourse in the modern era 30

The current ethos in education 36

3 Ethnicization through schooling: the mainstream discursive repertoires of ethnic minority cultures 40

Introduction 40

Education of ethnic minorities in China 40

Government concerns shaping minority education polices and practices 47

The academic discourse of minority education 50

The mainstream narratives of ethnic minorities 55

Conclusion 62

4 Choosing between 'ordinary' and minorities: the Tibetan case 64

Introduction 64

Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture: an overview 65

Opportunities for social mobility 68

Education us the means to upward mobility 69

Two schools: an 'ordinary' school and a 'minority' school 71

The parental dilemma: where to send children? 74

Where do students want to study? 77

To be 'ordinary' or minority: the cultural dilemma 79

Conclusion 85

5 The social disengagement of 'familiar strangers': the Muslim case 87

Introduction 87

Who are Muslims, who are Hui? 87

The Muslim community in the region 89

The educational level of Muslims 90

Pessimistic views of Muslim parents: a key force 94

Students' struggle between different 'cultures' 100

Conclusion 108

6 Conclusion 111

Social systems 111

Community forces and their consequences113

Economic development, political cohesion and cultural difference 116

The new cultural landscape 117

Postscript: promoting education by NGOs? 120

New educational programmes 120

Discussion 123

Appendices 127

Notes 144

Bibliography 159

Index 173