http://transpacifica.net/2008/12/08/republican-curricula-in-the-us-and-china/ News, commentary, and resources on the transpacific world. Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:16:14 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://transpacifica.net/2008/12/08/republican-curricula-in-the-us-and-china/comment-page-1/#comment-33690 Gina R Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:59:03 +0000 http://transpacifica.net/?p=397#comment-33690 I like your ending thought, as the connection of the "ideal citizen" is a somewhat thin one. As for the Republican era, I believe it is a similar concept. A lot of the teaching manuals explain to teachers that they must teach children this “civilized" behavior as a way to be modern citizens, and one of these textbooks included a photo of a ranked map of the world, the US was number 5 and China was not yet ranked. Also, the connection between hygiene and world status, in a Social Darwinism sense, was pretty clearly made; the term Social Darwinism was never explicitly stated, but implied through “strong countries" and "weak countries" and their 地位（status). The current platform, by the way, is not exclusive to Beijing; perhaps because of the expo, the "please get on the subway in a civilized 文明 way" signs line the Shanghai subway as well. I like your ending thought, as the connection of the “ideal citizen” is a somewhat thin one. As for the Republican era, I believe it is a similar concept. A lot of the teaching manuals explain to teachers that they must teach children this “civilized” behavior as a way to be modern citizens, and one of these textbooks included a photo of a ranked map of the world, the US was number 5 and China was not yet ranked. Also, the connection between hygiene and world status, in a Social Darwinism sense, was pretty clearly made; the term Social Darwinism was never explicitly stated, but implied through “strong countries” and “weak countries” and their 地位（status).
The current platform, by the way, is not exclusive to Beijing; perhaps because of the expo, the “please get on the subway in a civilized 文明 way” signs line the Shanghai subway as well.

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