Theoretical Review on the Dilemma of Chinese Preschoolers Cultural Identity According to Cultural Ethics

Abstract

The preschooler’s cultural identity is viewed as not only the foundation of the national identity and cultural security but also the educational goal of cultivating the modern Chinese citizen with cultural confidence. The current study examined the cultural identity of children aged 5 years, based on their own self-portraits. Thirty Children are asked to draw their self-portraits and were then asked to answer some questions focusing on their cultural identity. Among these children, one half with upper class family background were from a public kindergarten school located in the center of the city and the other half whose parents are from the floating population came from a private kindergarten located in a village. The two kindergarten schools located in Guangzhou carried out a curriculum characterized by Chinese traditional culture and they can therefore represent both ends of the Chinese kindergarten: high quality public kindergarten and inclusive private kindergarten. Qualitative analysis revealed that there were differences between the kids from the two kindergarten and migrant children in the city and they showed low cultural awareness especially about their mother’s cultures. Also children looked down upon their own playing culture under the adult’s cultural hegemony. These phenomena reflected disharmony of the three cultural levels which directly impacted the children’s cultural identity. To cultivate Chinese citizens with cultural confidence for the future, China needs to change the cultural ecology that belittles the childhood culture and its indigenous culture, to attach importance to children’s culture and children’s subjectivity in cultural identity, to be rooted in the children’s cultural origin and indigenous culture, and to transform the kindergarten curriculum according to the game spirit so as to provide the children with the early-stage environment that is in line with their learning interest, motivation and experience.