I'm not sure if this has been touched upon before, but I was speaking to a good friend of mine who taught English in China up till recently and he had some very interesting things to say about the Chinese birth rate situation.
From his experience, China under Xi Jinping is fostering the next generation of China to be a lot more patriotic and pro-natal than their predecessors. Things like "patriotic education" and "Xi Jinping Thought" are mandatory in schools and compared to the previous generation who grew up during the 2000s and early 2010s, the current generation of children in China are going to turn out far more patriotic than the current cohort of adults in China of childbearing age, and therefore have strongly pro-natal attitudes by the time they grow up.
It's very hard to change attitudes for people who have already grown up which is why governments have to rely on economic incentives, China included, but the more I look into it, the more I agree with my friend's observations. Children's way of thinking is very malleable and a lot of the patriotic education is targeted towards younger students who weren't even alive before Xi Jinping rose to power.
China under Xi is definitely different to the China of 10-20 years ago, and it's impossible to deny that there is a lot more emphasis on patriotism, including for children and their education. The only other discussions I've seen on this topic are from Chinese social media and they all seem to agree with what my friend experienced and the outcomes of it in the future. What do you all think?
From his experience, China under Xi Jinping is fostering the next generation of China to be a lot more patriotic and pro-natal than their predecessors. Things like "patriotic education" and "Xi Jinping Thought" are mandatory in schools and compared to the previous generation who grew up during the 2000s and early 2010s, the current generation of children in China are going to turn out far more patriotic than the current cohort of adults in China of childbearing age, and therefore have strongly pro-natal attitudes by the time they grow up.
It's very hard to change attitudes for people who have already grown up which is why governments have to rely on economic incentives, China included, but the more I look into it, the more I agree with my friend's observations. Children's way of thinking is very malleable and a lot of the patriotic education is targeted towards younger students who weren't even alive before Xi Jinping rose to power.
China under Xi is definitely different to the China of 10-20 years ago, and it's impossible to deny that there is a lot more emphasis on patriotism, including for children and their education. The only other discussions I've seen on this topic are from Chinese social media and they all seem to agree with what my friend experienced and the outcomes of it in the future. What do you all think?
