The Chinese State’s Response to the Revival of Traditional Culture in Contemporary China: A Case Study of the Confucian Revival in Chinese Education

China has become more and more “Chinese” today. The revival of traditional Chinese culture is evident, everywhere. Nevertheless, for most part of the last century, traditional culture was widely blamed as the roots of China’s backwardness, and drastic measures were taken to eradicate even its residues. Since the beginning of the new century, however, a wide-ranging social movement aimed at regenerating Chinese traditional culture, involving both the intellectuals and ordinary citizens, has begun to emerge and thrive. And within only ten years of the new century, the cultural nostalgia has ascended as one of the most powerful ideological trends in contemporary China. An important case here is the sudden and strong resurgence of the Confucian education throughout the mainland China. Given that education has always been fundamental for the Chinese state to instill “proper” ideology among its citizens and therefore to claim its political legitimacy, how did the Chinese government respond to the change? This paper, by exploring how the Chinese government has reacted to the Confucian revival in Chinese education, arrives at the conclusion that the CCP has shown agile and proficient skills in adapting and adjusting to ascending Confucianism in Chinese education. While reaching the conclusion, the paper also challenges the popular myth that the CCP is in the full embrace of Confucianism; in fact, the Chinese government has been seen as highly prudent and even plainly manipulative in its manoeuvring of Confucianism in Chinese education