The post-Mao period has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation in all walks of Chinese life – much of it fuelled by, or reflected in, changes to the country’s education system. This book analyses the development of that system since the abandonment of radical Maoism and the inauguration of ‘Reform and Opening’ in the late 1970s.The principal focus is on formal education in schools and conventional institutions of tertiary education, but there is also some discussion of ...

Decision Processes in Visual Perception explores the relationships between the organization of a complex visual pattern by the perception system and the molecular activity involved in the discrimination of differences in magnitude or intensity between two stimulus elements. The text discusses the basic principles of discrimination, identification, and self-regulation of the perception system; demonstrates how adaptive decision modules emerge from multiple constraints; shows how combination...

In many non-Western contexts, modernization has tended to be equated with Westernization, and hence with an abandonment of authentic indigenous identities and values. This is evident in the recent history of many Asian societies, where efforts to modernize – spurred on by the spectre of foreign domination – have often been accompanied by determined attempts to stamp national variants of modernity with the brand of local authenticity: ‘Asian values’, ‘Chinese characteristics’, a Japanese cu...

This book offers a fresh and comparative approach in questioning what education is being used for and what the effects of the politicisation of education are on Asian societies in the era of globalisation. Education has been used as a political tool throughout the ages and across the whole world to define national identity and underlie the political rationale of regimes. In the contemporary, globalising world there are particularly interesting examples of this throughout Asia, ranging from...

This book examines the effects of faith schools on social cohesion and inter-ethnic relations. Faith schools constitute approximately one third of all state-maintained schools and two fifths of the independent schools in England. Nevertheless, they have historically been, and remain, controversial. In the current social climate, questions have been raised about the ability of faith schools to promote Community Cohesion and, included within that, their ability to promote tolerance. This boo...

Over the past four decades, East and Southeast Asia have seen a proliferation of heritage sites and remembrance practices which commemorate the region’s bloody conflicts of the period 1931–45. Remembering Asia’s World War Two examines the origins, dynamics, and repercussions of this regional war “memory boom”.The book analyzes the politics of war commemoration in contemporary East and Southeast Asia. Featuring contributions from leading international scholars, the chapters...

This book traces the influences that have shaped the secondary school history curriculum during Hong Kong's prolonged political transition between the 1960s and the early 21st century, focusing especially on the relationship between history teaching and identity formation. The author's experience as a local history teacher during the mid-1990s made him conscious of the peculiarities of the history curriculum at the time; in particular, the neglect of Hong Kong's own history in both syllabu...

In the decades since her defeat in the Second World War, Japan has continued to loom large in the national imagination of many of her East Asian neighbours. While for many, Japan still conjures up images of rampant military brutality, at different times and in different communities, alternative images of the Japanese ‘Other’ have vied for predominance – in ways that remain poorly understood, not least within Japan itself.Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia analyses the portrayal o...

Visions of the past are crucual to the way that any community imagines itself and constructs its identity. This edited volume contains the first significant studies of the politics of history education in East Asian societies.