Art Education In China: Assembly line for Artisans

As a developing country, China emphasizes more on the economy and military development but sacrifices cultural prosperity and creativity which are both important too. This political decision also applies to education. With a mainstream emphasis on studying lucrative subjects, which can contribute to the country better, art education, which seems useless for China to expand its power, was largely ignored. The Chinese government looks at art less as an inspirational subject, but a propaganda tool to serve the political agenda. Thus, artist’s individuality and creativity are not celebrated in school or in society.

The Chinese education system is unique catering to China’s current situation with Communism dominated political atmosphere and the burden of a huge population. The Chinese education system is unique catering to China’s current situation with Communism dominated political atmosphere and the burden of a huge population. In school, there ware two categories of subjects: the main subjects, including literature, mathematics, chemistry, physics, history, and geography, and the minor subjects, including visual art, performing art, and sports. Because Gao Kao (Chinese National Annual College Entry Exam) only includes the main subjects, the minor subjects are marginalized in the Chinese education system. Neither teachers nor students will pay attention to the minor subjects since they can’t aid students to success in GaoKao. The downplay of art education is not a sole accident, but a result of the current political situation in China.

In order to cater to China’s current developing needs, the Chinese government invests most effort in cultivating technological intellectualism and downplays art education as unessential subjects which lead to diminishing creativity. There is a popular Chinese political propaganda, “学好数理化，走遍天下都不怕”(knowledge of Math, Physics, and Chemistry affords you to face the world with brash, and confidence). The government is calling for more STEM-related capacity, therefore, the educational resources slanted towards those subjects. Because of the market needs, studying STEM-related majors becomes a lucrative choice. As a result, art-related subjects are largely neglected (Guo, 2013). It is not a result of the poverty of educational resource, but a result of political strategy.

Lack of education resources leads to two major problems that are blocking art education from further development. The first problem is the shortage of art teachers. Unlike other teachers, art teaching always accompanies lower salary and less respect, compared to STEM teachers. Therefore, job-hopping is very often seen among art teachers. Because of the unpopularity of the job, it is hard to find professional art teachers who are willing to stay in the educational system for years. As a result, most art teachers do not have a degree in art-related majors and they are often part-time teachers. The other difficulty is the examination-oriented nature of the Chinese education system. Since art is not one of the main subjects that are tested in Gao Kao, many students and parents believe that studying art is a waste of time. Therefore, art teachers’ work is largely under-recognized and unappreciated. Many art teachers even acquiesce in their students using class time to finish homework from other regular classes.

In the absence of art classes, many Chinese college students lack the basic knowledge of art and process a rather ignorant attitude towards art. Scholar Hong Wang devoted her research to studying Chinese art education. In her paper Understanding How College students Describe Art: An Analysis on Art Education in China, she concludes that most Chinese students are incompetent in understanding art: lack of understanding of basic art elements and principles. (Wang, 11) Because the school fails to educate its students with basic art knowledge, many students who are interested in studying art turn to art studios outside the school in the hope to gain further study of art.

The mainstream voice believes that the current education system is the most workable system that China could afford because of the overpopulation. With 1.3 billion citizens and 260 million students, it is hard for China to provide abundant education resources for everyone. There were 9.4 million students who participated in Gao Kao this year. With such an enormous number, it is impossible for colleges to review prospective students’ files one by one. Chinese government proposed the concept of Gao Kao and Yi Kao, which gather millions of students into one giant standardized exam, so they can quickly evaluate students’ academic potential based on their scores. It is not fair for the college to determine students’ accumulated effort for years in one exam. This score could not accurately profile the students. Chinese colleges will end up recruiting people who only succeed in examination preparation. However, the population could not be an excuse for the defects in the current education system. Diminishing individuality in students, an education lack of critical thinking, and pointless exam-oriented curriculum goals have harmed the development of future generations. An education system that just does enough to get by could not be a long term solution. For the future of China, Chinese educators should keep their eyes and mind open to consistently searching for new ideas.

Even though students have the opportunity to receive art education outside of school, the goal of art education is commonly misinterpreted. Yi Kao (National Entry Exam for Art Colleges) is an alternative from path Gao Kao. Art colleges usually will require students to attend Gao Kao too, but a student’s score in Yi Kao matters more. Instead of teaching students basic knowledge of art and training students to think critically, art studios are focused on how to improve students’ painting skills in a short amount of time so they can succeed in Yi Kao. For my personal experience, this kind of studio only focuses on two media, graphite and acrylic, because these are the only two media that tested on Yi Kao. preparation studios seem like a good option for students to learn more about art, but it only teaches very limited use of media and art style. Because Yi Kao requires students to create paintings in academic art style, studios would usually offer instruction on academic art and neglect to introduce other important art genres, like Impressionism, Dada, Neoclassical Art, and so on. It is very ironic that school education overlooks the minor subjects because they are not listed on the exam, but art studios overlook other important art general and media for the same reason. Regardless of Chinese art education or general education, the ultimate objective is to enter a prestigious university. (Zhang, 10). Post-college art education is educating students to become artisans rather than artists. Art is never just about the skill. The ability to think critically with creativity and imagination is more essential (Boyes & Reid, 2005).

Critical thinking is especially important for students so they would not simply agree with all the knowledge being fed to them. They will question the truthfulness of the society so they would not follow the order blindly. Creative and imagination could help students to think outside the box. After they discover the blemishes of society through critical thinking, students can find possible new solutions without being limited by their recognition of society. Especially in contemporary art, artists are passionately exploring all possible media, from digital screens to the human body, and they consistently challenge themself to think. The ideas and concept is the dominating core value in art. In comparison, Chinese art education, which solely focuses on making beautiful paintings, seems antediluvian.

Regardless of the imbalance allocation for education resources, the mainstream voice believes that the current education system is the most workable system that China could afford because of the overpopulation. With 1.3 billion citizens and 260 million students, it is hard for China to provide abundant education resources for everyone. There were 9.4 million students who participated in Gao Kao this year. With such an enormous number, it is impossible for colleges to review prospective students’ files one by one. Chinese government proposed the concept of Gao Kao and Yi Kao, which gather millions of students into one giant standardized exam, so they can quickly evaluate students’ academic potential based on their scores. It is not fair for the college to determine students’ accumulated effort for years in one exam. This score could not accurately profile the students. Chinese colleges will end up recruiting people who only succeed in examination preparation. However, the population could not be an excuse for the defects in the current education system. Diminishing individuality in students, an education lack of critical thinking, and pointless exam-oriented curriculum goals have harmed the development of future generations. An education system that just does enough to get by could not be a long term solution. For the future of China, Chinese educators should keep their eyes and mind open to consistently searching for new ideas.

Although Yi Kao could be beneficial for students who are interested in art, the intrinsic quality of this exam strangled the student’s individual identity and creativity. Drawing in graphite, painting with acrylic and fast figure sketches are the three subjects in Yi Kao. In 2019 Shanghai Yi Kao requires students to create a drawing, and painting and a sketch based on the following three pictures:

As the pictures show, the topic for artwork is very narrow. It simply requires students to represent the images on paper. There is no space left for imagination and creativity which are the two crucial qualities in art creating. These topics cannot help the art colleges to know a student’s mind better but how solid their skills are. Students who want to enroll in sculpture or design have to take the exam with the same prompt as people who want to focus on drawing and painting. This exam is very general and blocks students from further demonstrating their individual qualities.

“Standardizing” is one of the words people would never relate to art because art creation is meant to be diverse, even rebel, but it is not the case in Chinese art education. Standardized exams might be able to help the art education department to save costs, or help the colleges to quickly recognize the best painter among a pile of work, but it will never help the students to receive proper art education and the individual recognition they need. Art is never about formality. It is about what the artist believes in and what they are trying to express. Math or science subjects might have the right answer, but art never does. This quality makes art such a unique subject to study. Art is about self-reflection and responses to surroundings. Art is about the artist’s experience and identity. Art is about freedom and individuality. Art is personal. Exams like Yi Kao created a standardized answer for art which is a total misconception for art. If the goal of art education is to foster students who can copy the pictures, Chinese artists will always be blocked from completely being liberated. A true masterpiece will less likely arise in an environment that does not celebrate much imagination and creativity.

Lack of individuality is a common result reflecting the political culture in China: Chinese art education might help students to improve their skills, but it does not teach students how to form a mind of their own. Communism doctrine employs the philosophy to “abolish by means of the class war all classes, all invidious differences and set all men on the same level of security and value” (Kellen, 1950). While Communism promised equal treatment for everyone, it also diminishes individuality. Chinese schools also consistently reinforce the value of Collectivism to students from a very young age. From uniforms to the national flag-raising ceremony, all school activities are teaching students to pledge to put the honor of the institution before individuals. Since individuality is not promoted in school, personal choice is not either.

Before college, schools have arranged students academically from every class they need to attend to their goals during their school life. In Her book China’s Education Reform, Huajun Zhang shared her personal experience about her life after college. Many Chinese students, like Huajun Zhang, are driven by the idea of entering a famous college all their life, so they often feel lost or hard to “formulate a new purpose” after they achieve their goal (Zhang, 13). Art students are no exceptions. Unlike other careers, artists are driven by their inner purpose to achieve the peak of their careers. They are not creating art to get into colleges, but to reflect and express. However, the Chinese education system has established a single purpose for all students. After they fulfill this goal, the only thing left is a sense of purposelessness. It is horrifying to imagine that artists, a group of most critical and progressive people, can not think on their own.

The predicament of a lack of freedom to make their choice is a long-standing historical problem for artists. China is consistently educating artists in its own ways. During the cultural revolution that took place in Mao’s China, many artists were identified as enemies against the communist party and sent to re-education through labor (Choldin, 2003). They were forced to claim their art creations as mistakes and pledge to work for the communist party. Meanwhile, art was also used as a propaganda tool. In My Life as an Art Soldier in Mao’s China: Art and Politics, Shaomin Li, a previous art worker in China, shared his personal story of painting portraits for Mao after he passed away (Li, 2011). Since he was young, he was longing to become an artist. But the political environment in Mao’s China shapes artists into a dangerous career. Li believed that during that time period art was simply a projector for politics. Artists have to understand and even pretend the political trend in order to survive. Artist’s job was not to create freely but to obey. Their duty was to flatter Mao and the Communist Party. He said in his book:

“Artists in China had to become politically sensitive in order to survive. They had to study party policies and try to decipher what Mao or any other party leaders thought and wanted so that they could produce works that the senior officials liked and authorized. It was a very dangerous game because of the high level of uncertainty and frequent changes of political alliance within the Communist Party. Mao often abruptly denounced his allies as enemies without warning, putting the artists who tried to please him in great jeopardy and humiliation.”

After the Culture Revolution ended, China stopped educating artists with labor punishments, but they established an artist association in providence to continue this education. The association is created to coach the artists to understand what is the party’s expectations of them and to guide them on how to service the party better. Instead of censoring the work after the artist creates it, the government directly censored origin by shutting down the artist from creating. With the impact of the free market, it is not mandatory for artists to join art associations, but the organization still remains formidable (Choldin, 2003).

Throughout Chinese history, the social expectation for artists is to serve politics before serving themselves, but, it is not right. Even today, in a world where ideas travel freely and consistently evolving, Xi Jingping is still calling artists to create works that “were not just artistically outstanding but also politically inspiring”. This statement could be compared with Mao’s famous Yanan talk in which he mentioned that “creative ambitions must first serve the people and the party’s revolutionary cause”(Huang, 2014). In Communism China, art is not a media for free-thinking but a microphone for the political party. Chinese artists only have two choices: speak no politics, or speak for the politic. In Xi’s recent speech, he further explained his expectation of art: searching for truth, the good and the beautiful. (内蒙古日报，2017) This speech further narrow subjects for art-making to a sectarian range. Since the realist movement began in the mid-19th century in western society, art is not about depicting glamorous lives for the royalties or speak for the church anymore. Art is about expositing, criticizing, and thinking. The charm of art is there are no rules for art creating. Artists should act based on where their mind takes them, not political demands. Clearly, not all artists have to passive and critical, but all artists need to have a choice.

The current Chinese government does not need human resources with critical and creative thinking ability, thus art education which specifically fosters these qualities become secondary in education planning. After world war II, China quickly grew from a third world country to a vital power in the world. The Chinese government is very capable of achieving their goals. However, rising students, especially artists, with free-thinking is never on the agenda. Even artists who trained themselves, like Ai Wei Wei, will soon be muted by the government because their art subject flight attacks the Chinese Communist Party directly. China does not need artists, but political puppets. Artists’ ability to express freely is largely restricted by the party’s will.

Chinese education system subtly oppressed the students throughout their time in school and continues as they enter society. Paulo Freier already discussed this situation in Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “their [the oppressed] ideal is to be men, but for them, to be men is to be oppressors” (Freire,46). Chinese art students are striving to be the ideal students who will succeed in Yi Kao. However, without anyone realizing, the model of ideal students is the model of an oppressed student. By trying to become art students in China, students have to give up their ability to question society and the ability to imagine a better world. It forms a vicious circle: the less critical art students become, the harder it is to see through the manipulation, then the artists and the people will become more resigned towards the current system.

Even though China has grown into one of the strongest countries in the world, it is undeniable that China still has some weaknesses. The current Chinese education system is killing creativity, courage, and passion for students. Thinking becomes less important than remembering knowledge. Is that what we want our future generations to become? A study machine who can not generate their own thoughts? China has a long honorable history to raise brave and intelligent students. In 1919, Chinese students organized the May Fourth Movement to protest against the Chinese government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles. This movement is a starting point of the new republic of China. However, 101 years later, ironically our own education system started to shut down this tradition. Today, we need to give creativity and voice back to students. So they can grow into critical thinkers. With lights in their eyes, passion in their hearts, the courage to speak against any unjust, they can push society forward. This is the only way we can build a better China.

Source

Boyes, L. C., & Reid, I. (2005). What are the Benefits for Pupils Participating in Arts Activities? Research in Education, 73(1), 1–14. doi:10.7227/rie.73.1

Guo, S. (2013). National Acts for Transmission of Chinese Culture and Heritage in Arts Education. Landscapes: The Arts, Aesthetics, and Education Creative Arts in Education and Culture, 15–26. doi:10.1007/978–94–007–7729–3_2

Huang, C. (2014, December 02). Xi Jinping’s call for political art evokes bad memories of Cultural Revolution. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1624554/xi-jinpings-call-political-art-evokes-bad-memories-cultural

KALLEN, H. (1950). COMMUNISM AS A SECRET INDIVIDUALISM. Social Research, 17(3), 293–301. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/40982314

Choldin, M. (2003). Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. Derek Jones. The Library Quarterly (Chicago), 73(1), 84–86. https://doi.org/10.1086/603381

Shaomin Li. (2011). My Life as an Art Soldier in Mao’s China: Art and Politics. Modern China Studies, 18(2), 55–.

内. (2017). 习近平：追求真善美是文艺的永恒价值. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from http://theory.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0619/c40531-29348493.html