Parenting in Today’s China: Concerns, Anxiety, and Commitment*

Dr. Gan Wang, Associate Senior Research, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing

Since the late 1990s, there has been a proliferation of parenting discussion forums (BBS) on the Internet in China. On the BBS, many young parents with higher education keep records of their children’s development, socialize with other parents, first in the virtual space, then in real space., communicate knowledge of childrearing and ECE, and discuss and debate over many issues in early childhood. In an earlier paper of mine, I claim that the Internet provides a new kind of social space in which the young mothers assert their new identity. Today, I’ll concentrate on one special debate issue. Examining the debate, I propose that to better understand challenges and concerns facing Chinese parents, a cultural historical approach should be adopted.

Viewing parenting BBS, you often see great concerns and anxieties over the issue whether young children should “learn things”. To study or not to study, that is the question. There are some stories on the internet by ambitious parents who teach their children to recite dozens of Chinese classic poems at the age of 2, to recognize over a thousand Chinese characters and start to read at the age of 3, and play piano at the age of 4. Some of these parents keep record of their children’s progress in these studies and post on the Internet. Other parents might ask them in details and learn from them. Although popular with some parents, this kind of accelerated learning practice is highly controversial with some other parents.

The accelerated learning parents were criticized as too instrumental in their pursuit of immediate achievement, while ignoring children’s emotional well-being and healthy development in the long run. The accelerated learning parents were often labeled “traditional-minded”. The famous slogan of the traditional camp is “Don’t lose from the very beginning”. Their opponents believed that the success in early teaching is entirely achieved by forcing and external stimulation, and children suffer severely in the process. Parents who oppose to this kind of accelerated learning practice often claim to have modern views of education. They believe that the over-emphasis on academic performance and skill training deprive young children of a happy, care-free childhood, and might bring about severe psychological damage in the long run.

However, the modern camp has its own concerns and anxiety. As the children grow up, many parents feel forced to catch up with traditional parents, because they worry that their children will be left behind as they enter elementary schools. The worries and anxiety often lead to severe criticism of China’s current educational system, as being directed totally by the University Entrance Exam. They lament the heavy burden Chinese children have, and admire the easy life of children in the Western countries. Many young parents find themselves in a difficult situation: if their children do not study in an early age, they worry that their children will lag behind in elementary school; but if they start their children’s academic study, they worry that their children will be psychologically traumatized and lose creativity in the future. As one mother puts it: Isn’t creativity the most important quality in the future globalizing world?

In this presentation, I claim that the dichotomy of “traditional vs. modern” too crude to be able to represent the complicated situation. I believe to better understand the situation, the concerns and anxieties of Chinese parents should be contextualized in Chinese cultural tradition of climbing social ladder by exam, the exam as index of social justice, the diversification of early childhood education, the single-child policy, and the psychological uncertainties of Chinese parents in an era of rapid social change and globalization.

First, I’ll talk about the cultural significance of examination in China and its influences and pressure on parenting and early childhood education.

As you may know, in Imperial China, for 1300 years, education and imperial civil examination were the only legitimate means to joining the bureaucracy. Theoretically, any male adult in China could become a high-ranking government official by passing the imperial examination. In the long history, there are abundant examples in which individuals moved from a low social status to political prominence through success in imperial examination. The examination system was not only used by the central government to hold loyalty of local elites, to maintain consensus on basic values, but also regarded as legitimate means of social mobility. Although abolished in 1905, the examination system left rich cultural legacy, in folklore, local operas and stories, of people climbing social ladder by succeeding in examinations.

After the imperial examination was abolished, the university entrance examination took the place and became a means for people to get employment in the state sector. That remained after the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949. In the 1960s, during the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution in China, university entrance exam was abolished for 10 years. Instead of academic performance, political standards, such as one’s class background, one’s performance in revolutionary work, were used in choosing students for higher education. They were called worker-farmer-social-college students. That left room for manipulation and corruption for the political elite, and brought severe problems in social justice.

In 1977, one of the great events signifying the end of the Cultural Revolution was the government’s decision to resume university entrance exam based on academic merit. And that decision won great popularity for the new political leaders among ordinary people, especially young people who were sent to do manual labor in the rural area in the Cultural Revolution.

Thirty years ago, since every one in 27 applicants was chosen, it was a highly competitive examination. It was the most reliable way to enter the state sector, and for rural residents to change their household registration status to urban, in order to benefit from state subsidies which were only available to urban residents. Today, the university entrance exam has a much higher admission ratio of 1 from every two examinees. But as the labor market became tight and the state no longer assigns jobs to university graduates, the fight to enter top school is no less competitive. For many years, the examination system has been criticized for focusing only on academic performance, not being able to promote ability building, etc. But since it affects families nation-wide, became an important symbol of social legitimacy, the government uses extreme caution in its reform. It remains the ultimate goal of education for Chinese parents, and remains the most important event for Chinese students.

Since 1980s, the entrance exam gradually put pressure on parents to prepare their children early. Educational resources are not evenly distributed. There is the rural/urban division and there are great gaps between regions. Even in big cities, public high schools with longer history, good teachers and better financial support send more students to top universities and become parents’ favorite. These high schools are highly selective in admitting students from lower level schools and therefore secondary and elementary schools with good record in sending more students to top high schools become parents’ choice. The parents believe that entering “good schools” all the way from the elementary level will enlarge the change to go into top universities. So at each level, the pressure to beat others to go into top schools is severe. And that pressure penetrates into early childhood. From early childhood, academic performance has to be emphasized, and special talent, such as instrument playing, has to be cultivated.

In the next part, I’ll outline the diversification process of early childhood education in urban China, and how that process contributes to the current situation. Chinese preschools were almost completely public for several decades. From the 1980s onwards, the state started to allow private schools to register. In Beijing in 1990s, private preschools appeared in the market. With no support from either the state or other sources, private preschools support themselves completely on tuition which is usually higher than the public schools. To compete with public schools, many new private preschools navigated to meet parents’ needs. There appeared boarding preschools, talent training preschools, accelerated learning preschools, and schools with Western philosophy.

Talent training preschools focus on one certain talent, such as piano playing. Every child in the preschool learns to play piano.

There also appeared accelerated learning schools. Their philosophy is that every child can be intellectually gifted if you train them from an early age. In one famous accelerated learning school, the philosophy statement starts with a refutation of a famous saying by Confucius, the greatest teacher in Chinese history. One of Confucius’ most well-known educational philosophy was: “Teach students in accordance with their aptitude.” The founder of this accelerated learning school argued that Confucius said so because his youngest student was already 15 years old and he missed the important brain-forming stage. He said, if we start in early childhood when a child’s brain and psychological development are highly moldable, students’ abilities can be achieved from early training. Therefore, the school declares that “our philosophy is never child-centered, but it’s centered around children’s ideal development”. “Since intellectual competition is the main direction of competition worldwide, we emphasize the development of intelligence in the early childhood.”

The accelerated learning schools are often regarded as “traditional” schools. Although severely criticized by many modern minded parents, they gain popularity among some others. There are cases of children unable to adjust to these schools and transfer to others, but generally speaking, those children who graduate from these schools are well trained to pass elementary school entrance exams and perform well in first grade, appeared intimidating for parents who chose other schools.

Now we go to schools with Western philosophies. Montessori education was introduced into mainland China by Montessori teachers from Taiwan in 1994. Many preschools open Montessori classes and there appeared Montessori material companies and they run teacher’s training classes regularly. But over all, teachers receive very basic training and usually have no chance to work as interns. In 2004, several Chinese Waldorf teachers trained in UK returned to China and opened the first Waldorf School in Sichuan. There also appeared a few preschools adopting Waldorf philosophy all over the country.

The emergence of these schools with new philosophies is eye-opening for many eager parents. The new philosophy practitioners also write books and give speeches to promote the new ideas. The founder of several Montessori schools is also a writer and speaker. In her writing and speeches, she espoused love and freedom as the fundamental principles of Montessori education, and severely attacked old Chinese childrearing ways that are against these principles. And she popularized the concept of sensitive periods. Her school has made great efforts in parent education. They emphasize parents’ growth along with children, and combined family therapy techniques in their training.

Many parents wrote on the internet that after reading her books and attending her workshops they realized how much they were hurt in their own childhood, and without self awareness how much they would hurt their children. They think they should pay more attention to their children’s emotional development. They try to understand children’s behavior in the light of the new views, and they scrutinize every word they speak to their children in order to avoid psychological damage. This can be depressing because it’s easier to understand the principles but hard to apply them in daily life. Often than not, they know what to avoid, but they are not equipped with new ways to replace the old ones yet. The new philosophy educators made great contribution in questioning the dominant educational system, but in doing so, some of them appeared too judgmental and lost cultural sensitivity.

To make things worse, the single-child policy allow parents no room for failure.

Since early 1980s, the Chinese government launched the single child policy. Officially, every married couple in urban areas can only have one child. With only one child in the family, the attention and resources are often highly concentrated. It also has important psychological effects on the parents. On the BBS, some parents stated that since they have only one chance, they cannot take risks in their children’s education, and they cannot accept failure. At the same time, they put all their hope and dreams on this only one child, too much for a child to burden.

While the society is open up and there appeared more choices, there also comes concerns and anxiety. As the generations who witnessed tremendous social changes in very short time, the young parents today have great concerns and anxiety about their children’s future in a globalizing world. Many new philosophy parents worry that their children, growing up in the environment with love and freedom, cannot adjust well when they go to elementary school. In order to better illustrate their points, the new education practitioners sometimes highlight their confrontation with the current educational system. This confrontation reinforces many parents’ fear that an education emphasizing “love and freedom” will produce students with no disciplines and respect for others, which in turn, will bring problem behaviors in later education. Some stories of “failure” in these new schools were told and retold, and that exacerbated parents’ concerns. Parents also worry about their children’s academic performance. With very small scale and relatively short histories, the schools with new philosophy haven’t shown persuasive academic performance yet.

Although many Montessori preschools often claim to prepare children well for academic studies in the US, in China, Montessori education is more characterized by the “Love and Freedom” principle than by children’s learning enthusiasm. Impressionistic writings about Western education lead some parents to doubt any attempts in helping children intellectually. At the same time, the demonization of and emotional charges against current educational system contribute very little in encouraging parents to make a change in the current educational system. From the extreme of accelerated training to another extreme of complete neglect of intellectual development, there leaves no room to acknowledge young children’s love for exploration and knowledge.

Despite all the adversities, the Chinese parents are working hard to choose “the right way” in parenting and education, determined to help their children excel, with great commitment of family resources together with their children’s efforts.

* A keynote address presented to the 11th NZ Early Childhood Research Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 23 January 2009.