Traditional Chinese culture highlighted in new high school textbooks

BEIJING -- Traditional Chinese culture is highlighted in the new textbooks on Chinese, history and ideology and politics for senior high school students in the coming semester.

"The new Chinese textbooks boast a selection of 67 classic works of ancient poetry and prose that account for 49.3 percent of all articles," said Wen Rumei, editor-in-chief of the new Chinese textbooks, at a press conference held by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Tuesday.

Besides content on politics, the economy, society and the rule of law, the ideology and politics textbooks also attach importance to traditional Chinese culture.

"The textbooks offer a systematic exposition on traditional Chinese culture, ranging from its origin, features and contemporary values to representative personages and important ideologies," said Zhang Yibin, editor-in-chief of the ideology and politics textbooks.

The history textbooks will help students grasp the laws of history, pursue core socialist values and learn fine traditional Chinese culture, said Zhang Haipeng, editor-in-chief of the history textbooks.

The quintessence of traditional Chinese culture can be found in the history textbooks, including more than 100 great names in history, more than 80 classic works covering philosophy, technology, literature and law, over 50 major inventions as well as over 40 works of calligraphy art, painting, music, dance and sculpture, Zhang said.

The new textbooks will be used by students in the first year of senior high schools in six provincial-level regions from the autumn semester and will cover students of all grades nationwide by 2022.

New textbooks on Chinese, history and morality and rule of law replaced old textbooks for the first graders in both elementary schools and junior high schools nationwide in 2017 and will cover higher grades starting in the autumn semester, according to the press conference.

A survey showed that close to 90 percent of students liked the new textbooks, and teachers reported an average satisfaction rate of 92 percent for the textbooks, said Liu Hongjie, deputy head with the textbook bureau under the MOE.