Mobilising China's One-Child Generation: Education, Nationalism and Youth Militarisation in the PRC

by Orna Naftali

Overview

Drawing on a wide variety of Chinese-language publications and in-depth interviews with high-school students, Mobilising China's One-Child Generation provides systematic evidence of the spread of martial logic and techniques into Chinese schools. The book explores how China has implemented Patriotic Education and National Defence Education programmes to foster love for the nation and the Party-state, mobilise the population to fight modern wars in the information age, and encourage youth to join the army. It studies how these programmes present the tropes of war and the military to youth, and how they are related to shifting constructions of gender and the national collectivity. It also documents students' varied perceptions–and notably contestations–of this militarised ethos, complicating our understanding of popular nationalism and militarisation processes in this authoritarian global power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399519410
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2024
Series:	Advances in Critical Military Studies
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Orna Naftali holds the Abraham Miller Chair in Chinese Studies and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Nationalism, Militarization, and Youth Education in China

1. The Militarization of Youth Education in Modern China
2. War and Peace in China's Contemporary History Textbooks
3. 'Don't Get Soft': Youth Military Training in Contemporary China
4. Military Entertainment, Nationalism, and the Restoration of Chinese Masculinity
5. 'If Peace is Our Goal, Why Use War to Attain It?' Education, Media, and Chinese Youth Notions of Armed Conflict
6. 'You Can Serve the Country in More than One Way': Chinese Youth Views of the PLA and Military Service

Conclusion: Rethinking the militarization of Chinese Youth in the Xi Era
References

Editorial Reviews

This is the first authoritative study of how the Chinese education system and media guide youth on war, peace and the military. And, how youth respond in often unexpected ways to these top-down lessons. Naftali’s insights are urgent and profound for all those concerned about China and the world’s strategic order.

Louise Edwards

Around the world, matters of security are shrouded in secrecy. Naftali skilfully and courageously lifts the veil from the multiple enmeshments of education with militarisation in China, one youngster at a time. A disciplined and ruthless book, and a must read for everyone who desires to understand the promises and limits of militarisation.

Sabine Frühstück

In this ethnographically enriched book, Naftali navigates macro-level discourses, institutional practices and individual subjectivities to offer a nuanced exploration of China’s militarisation of education and the complicated perceptions of it by the nation’s youth.

Fengshu Liu