Cultural Representation in American-Published Chinese as a Foreign Language Textbooks: China's Culture or Chinese's Culture?

Abstract

In the age of globalization, foreign language education is facing a change in teaching goals from national citizenship education to transnational multicultural education. Language and culture are intertwined in foreign language learning, but teaching Chinese culture teaching and its ideology remains underrepresented in the field of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Drawing from the postmodern approach to textbook analysis (Risager, 2018), teaching Chinese culture should not be limited to the Chinese culture in Mainland China, but should legitimize the cultures of other Chinese communities, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. Two sets of Chinese language textbooks produced by American publishers were examined via qualitative and quantitative content analysis. To reveal the ideology that dominates American published CFL textbooks, cultural symbols were categorized into three sociocultural groups: mainland Han Chinese, non-mainland Han Chinese, and Chinese ethnic minorities. The research findings showed that the textbooks rely on an overarching pan-Chinese cultural ideology and attempt to diminish the political conflicts and cultural differences in other Chinese-speaking areas. Cultural symbols referring to mainland Han Chinese culture appear much more frequently than those for other Chinese-speaking groups; in comparison, non-mainland Han Chinese culture is downplayed, and Chinese ethnic minorities are marginalized.