Presentation
Marcos Antonio Alves________________________________________________ 3
Research on countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity
Bingyu Chang; Xiaodan Liu; Chao Xian_________________________________ 15
Comment on “Research on countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity”
Qianqian Yu_______________________________________________________ 29
Research on the Integrated Training Mode of Higher Art Education for the Deaf
Fangfang Liu______________________________________________________ 38
Comment on “Research on the Integrated Training Mode of Higher Art Education for the Deaf”
Hui Shao__________________________________________________________ 61
Marxist view on global political economy and new market trends
Fengrong Zhang; Qianwen Xiao_______________________________________ 66
Comment on “Marxist view on global political economy and new market trends”
Cheng Cheng R.____________________________________________________ 92
A Study of the styles and characteristics of basic music theory textbooks in China in the past 100 years
Feng Yu; Qiming Zhang; Pham Minh Thuy_____________________________ 101
Comment on “A Study of the Styles and Characteristics of Basic Music Theory Textbooks in China in the Past 100 Years”
Yukun Qiao______________________________________________________ 124
A Study on the Ancient theater of official house in The Taihang mountain area of North Henan Province in China
Hengli Peng; Hanwen Li____________________________________________ 131
Comment on “A Study on the Ancient theater of the official house in The Taihang mountain area of North Henan Province in China”
Baohong Xu________________________________________________________ 154
How peace corps volunteers influence the united states: an analysis based on pragmatism
Long Ye; Zhihua Liao; Yuanyuan Yu__________________________________ 159
Comment on “How peace corps volunteers influence the United States: an analysis based on pragmatism”
Zhi Li___________________________________________________________ 176
Mao Zedong’s thought and the construction of socialist ideology
Min Zhang; Haiyong Zong; David Zeen________________________________ 182
Comment on “Mao Zedong Thought and the Construction of Socialist Ideology”
Renjun Cao_______________________________________________________ 203
Cultural Design Methodology from the Perspective of Cultural Philosophy: A Case of Ningbo
Wang Zuyao; Jia Xin; Qiao Song_____________________________________ 209
Comment on “Cultural design methodology from the perspective of cultural Philosophy: a case of Ningbo”
Tao Ma__________________________________________________________ 226
The evolution and spread of the image of "nagas bathing siddhartha" in buddhism art
Xiaodan Liu; Huiwen Xia; Tao Ma; Qi Dang____________________________ 231
Comment on “The evolution and spread of the image of “nagas bathing siddhartha” in buddhism art”
Jie Tong_________________________________________________________ 252
How should we think about common prosperity and challenges in the context of financialization?
Zhanmin Cui; Zhihua Liao; Yuxiao Luo________________________________ 257
Comment on “How should we think about common prosperity and challenges in the context of financialization?”
Yuemeng Ge_____________________________________________________ 283
Yang Naimei - life practice of a chinese “flapper” of women's development in China__________________________________________________________________ 290
Yanrui Xu; Junwei Wang
Comment on “Yang Naimei – Life Practice of a Chinese ‘Flapper’ of Women’s Development in China”
Shuang Zheng____________________________________________________ 306
The relationship between the debate on the monetary system during the eastern jin and southern dynasties and east zhejiang economic region
Yi Yang; Jie Tong; Zhou Chan_______________________________________ 311
Comment on “The relationship between the debate on the monetary system during the eastern jin and southern dynasties and east zhejiang economic region”
Ji Ma____________________________________________________________ 322
Ansai peasant paintings: inheritance of chinese primitive culture and primitive philosophy
Yaqian Chang; Liming Zhou; Peng Lu; Samina Yasmeen__________________ 327
Comment on “ansai peasant paintings: inheritance of chinese primitive culture and primitive philosophy”
Ke Li___________________________________________________________ 349
Presentation
Marcos Antonio Alves[1]
It is a great pleasure to present the first special issue of 2023, the second focused on Eastern thought. Their articles deal with philosophical issues or ones of philosophical interest in this area of the planet or are developed by authors from that region dealing with philosophical subjects or humanities in general.
The partnership with researchers from the East has born fruit, whether through special issues or through the submission of texts for publication in regular issues. The success obtained is largely due to the partners that we could call associate editors, as is Kai Wang’s case, associate editor of this issue. In addition to capturing articles, these partners participate in the reviewers’ appointment to evaluate the submitted articles, as well as in the request for corrections of texts approved for publication. In all partnerships entered into, we make explicit our commitment to the quality of the texts, respecting the evaluation criteria of the journal, as a double-blind peer review.
Particularly in the special issues, following the habit of the journal, we seek to consider all methodologies, as well as the different areas of philosophy research and areas of philosophical interest. In 2019, to illustrate this issue, we had already published a special edition of the journal exclusively on the Western authors’ thoughts from the Northern Hemisphere. It should be noted, however, that works from this hemisphere, especially from the western side, are common and predominant in philosophy. We are trying to look back and offer opportunities to specialized research that does not have as much contact and ease of publication, especially in the southern and eastern hemispheres, democratizing access, production and socialization of knowledge. It is in this spirit that special issues have been published since 2020. Such publications, as well as all information about the journal, can be found on its homepage, which has been constantly reformulated and updated: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/index.
In addition to geographic distribution in publications, the journal has also been promoting other actions, with a view to reducing inequalities and offering opportunities to all. We reconfigured, for example, the Executive Committee, whose representation is now equally divided between the research areas of the Department of Philosophy and the Graduate Program in Philosophy at UNESP, to which the journal is linked, as well as we sought a more equitable division of gender and external representation. The commission is mainly responsible for administrative issues and the ones related to the policy of the journal.
We also reconfigured the Editorial Board, seeking a more equal distribution of gender, as well as geographic and thematic one. Currently, female representation is equivalent to male. We intensified the directors’ participation, who have been established in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as members from all regions of Brazil and the world. The criterion adopted for choosing national members is their proven activity in their Lattes curriculum, especially considering, as a requirement, researchers with a CNPq/Category PQ-1 research productivity grant. For foreign members, the choice is made based on their curriculum, taking into account their production, impact factor and international reference. The Editorial Board has an advisory role and may be asked to suggest decisions on opinions on submitted material, in specific situations, to make suggestions on the editorial line of the journal, as well as to suggest or edit thematic issues. We also greatly expanded the number of reviewers. Currently, we have more than three thousand researchers in our database.
The actions of the journal, in recent years, can be evaluated through the considerable improvement in reputable rankings, such as in the Scopus and Redib indexes, or in classifications such as Qualis/CAPES, which, in 2022, classified Trans/Form/Ação in the Stratum A1, both in philosophy and in all other areas in which it has been evaluated. What makes it return to the select group of the best Brazilian and world journals in the area.
At Redib, we now occupy the 17th position among Philosophy journals from around the world registered in the index, appearing in the Q2 quartile. Also in 2022, we jumped 142 positions in the Scopus Cite Score. In this rank, in 2021, we occupied the 327th position, while, in 2020, we occupied the 469th one. In 2021, we occupied the 54th percentile group and, in 2020, we were in the 27th one. The JCR, in 2020, was 0.1; in 2021, it went to 0.4 and, in 2022, it is 0.6. The SJR, in 2021, was 0.116 and, in 2020, 0.102. This indicates that, in addition to the significant increase in citations, the Journal has also been cited by other well-evaluated journals, increasing its impact factor.
We have greatly reduced the time taken to evaluate submissions and make an editorial decision, which takes an average of three months. We understand that a quick evaluation is important, mainly with respect to the authors of the submitted manuscripts. However, this is not always possible, given the difficulty, many times, in finding reviewers and receiving the opinions in the requested time or even the need for new opinions, when there is an equal number of opinions favorable or contrary to the approval of the submission. In addition to the technical aspect in the evaluation process, we also believe that the dialogical and pedagogical element has a great value, which facilitates the debate and improvement of articles, both those approved and those not approved for publication.
We have also reduced the time between final approval of articles and their publication. This period, however, cannot be much shorter than seven months, given the process of grammatical corrections and their revisions, normalizations, editing, layout, publication on the FFC website, XML conversion and publication in databases such as SciELO and Redalyc, each one demanding its own time, in addition to the publication limit in each issue, due to the publication costs. Although we are seeking to maximize elements related to the agility of the service, the journal prioritizes the quality of the publication, whether the content itself or the presentation of the published material.
We have intensified communication with the community through social networks, mainly Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevistaTransFormAcao, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revista.transformacao/ and other networks, such as ANPOF and Academia.edu, as well as through news sent by the journal on its own page. With this, we significantly increased the number of followers on social networks.
Finally, we highlight what may have been one of the greatest innovations of the journal: the new type of texts called “comments”. As described on its homepage, the journal adopts the socialization of knowledge as its objective, seeking to promote the debate and interlocution of ideas. In view of this, since 2020, we have inaugurated a new type of texts, which consists of comments on articles approved in the evaluation process. They are produced by the referees of the submitted manuscript and published with the original article, but independently. This is a constructive criticism, not more of the quality of the article, since the evaluation process has already been outdated.
According to Alves (2023, p. 09), “The commentator can expose possible disagreements of ideas, comparison of concepts among authors, perspectives or philosophical systems, hermeneutic, methodological, epistemological differences.” It is also possible to build an expansion, explanation or even the insertion of some important concept for the understanding of the argumentative line of the commented article, relevant explanatory notes or the commentator’s position regarding the exposed thesis.
By encouraging the production of texts such as comments, we seek to promote dialogue with the texts published in the journal, aiming at improving and expanding knowledge. In addition to providing a philosophical debate, the comments are also a way of formally valuing the journal evaluators’ work, offering them the opportunity to publish their ideas and reflections, which may even have originated from the analysis of the evaluated manuscript.
Following these ideas, we publish this special issue which, for each article, we associate a comment. There are 26 texts in all, distributed in 13 articles, displayed in their first authors’ alphabetical order, and 13 comments. The authors are linked to institutions in China, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Vietnam institutions.
The first article, titled “Research on countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity”, is written by Bingyu Chang, Xiaodan Liu and Chao Xian and commented by Qianqian Yu. According to the authors, ecological civilization is a form of civilization and has cultural values. In the process of economic and social development, different countries, regions and ethnic groups are bound to differ in their understanding of the connotation of ecological civilization and its external expression due to differences in social practices. In the context of cultural diversity, the development of ecological civilization education in China is a long-term systematic project, which requires all people’s participation, and can generally be carried out at three levels, including the social level, the national level and the school one. This paper argues that the whole society is the soil for developing ecological civilization education in China, the government is the external guarantee, the schools are the main battlefield and the government mainly relies on schools to achieve the goal of ecological civilization education. Therefore, this article will focus on the school level to discuss the countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in China in the present day of cultural diversity, which includes the goal system, teachers, students, curriculum, methodology and environment. Besides, the authors take Sichuan-Tibet region and Tianjin city as examples to elaborate the specific actions of integrating ethnic ecological culture into ecological civilization education in schools.
Then we publish “Research on the Integrated Training Mode of Higher Art Education for the Deaf”, authored by Fangfang Liu, whose comment was produced by Hui Shao. Liu says that the development of higher education for the disabled is one of the most important indicators of the development of education for the disabled in a country, whether the support policies are perfect, and whether the social civilization is advanced. The results showed that deaf students, with general school experience, had better adaptive ability. The integration model was more conducive to improve deaf students' school adaptive ability and social interaction awareness. The deaf students had higher demand for professional guidance and there is room for further improvement of the integration-training model. Based on the above research results and the problems in practice, this paper gives the corresponding countermeasure suggestions. The author suggests that we should build a "trinity" integration education model oriented to socially integrated talents in art applications and improve the management system of integration education. He argues we should also improve the deaf college students’ learning support system under the leadership of the school, modify and reconstruct the integration curriculum system of arts and crafts majors, and strengthen the support and guidance of the society for the construction of integration environment.
Third, comes “A Study of the Styles and Characteristics of Basic Music Theory Textbooks in China in the Past 100 Years”, written by Feng Yu, Qiming Zhang and Pham Minh Thuy and commented by Yukun Qiao. According to the authors, due to various historical and realistic reasons, the development of basic music theory in China lags behind in the teaching system, teaching content and other aspects. It is an important task for Chinese music workers to revise or supplement the current basic music theory and related textbooks and then build a discipline system of basic music theory in China. Yu, Zhang and Thuy synthesize the theories of music education and music history, music culture, music morphology and other related disciplines. They use scientific, objective and rational values and holistic and comprehensive concepts. They take the development of the basic music theory education of China as the research object and takes history as a mirror to further consider and prospect the construction of the basic music theory discipline system of China. The basic theory of Chinese Music can be roughly divided into three stages. It can be seen, from the development of the basic theory education of Chinese Music and its teaching materials, that the development of western music theory in China, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, was a process from passive acceptance to active absorption. The scope of spreading western music theory was from the palace to the church, then to the school, and, finally, to the society, which made the music theory teaching in China gradually develop into a major and minor system as the leading mode. The basic theory of Chinese Music gradually deviated from its own track. With the deepening of music research after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the discipline development of basic music theory has witnessed a prosperous situation, and the construction of basic music theory is moving towards the direction of diversification and deepening. Based on the principle of "combining history with the theory" and combing the development of basic music theory in China, the ideal model of Chinese music theory discipline construction is conceived to promote the integration between traditional music theory and modern music theory from a diachronic perspective. The authors argue that this is relevant to strengthen the unity of the nation and the world in basic music theory from a synchronic perspective, and to pay attention to the connotation of technology and culture in music theory teaching. But also to strengthen the scientific and logical concept in music theory textbooks.
The next article, commented by Cheng Cheng R. and written by Fengrong Zhang and Qianwen Xiao, is “Marxist view on global political economy and new marked trends”. The authors remember that it has been clear from the beginning that capitalism is a dishonest business model, say Zhang and Xiao. Capitalism, on the other hand, has been connected with enormous wealth accumulation. As stated, capitalism has been associated with exploitation, the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, economic collapses and global conflict. Political economy has long examined the relationship between the faces of capitalism. Is it possible to eliminate all flaws of capitalism while maintaining its merits, as the proponents of the system believe? After dealing with this and other questions and presenting some data referring to capitalism and Marxism, the authors argue that the Marxism cannot be fully contained in a 19th-century framework due to the critical tradition it generated, which cuts across the humanities and social sciences. Even in places where he was rejected, Marx in some ways managed to permeate the water we drink and the air we breathe. The first two decades of the twenty-first century have shown us that Marxism is everywhere. Modern Marxism does not discourage modern economic trends such as entrepreneurship and free enterprise as long as they become catalysts for the welfare and prosperity of society.
The fifth article, “A Study on the Ancient Theater of Official House in the Taihang Mountain Area of North Henan Province in China”, by Hengli Peng and Hanwen Li, is commented by Baohong Xu. Peng and Li remember that as a particular type of ancient Chinese theater, talented theater of official house was mainly found in the Taihang Mountain area, in North Henan Province, which was formed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. The appearance of it is related to the local natural environment, folk culture and agricultural productivity. Through field investigation, it is found that there are eight existing theaters in the Taihang Mountain area of North Henan Province; among which, three ones are newly discovered that have not been documented by the academic circle before, as well as several traditional Chinese opera steles and wall inscriptions. This is the first time the academic circle discloses relevant data and information. These provide physical evidence about the performance of the village opera in the Taihang Mountain area of the Qing Dynasty, in China. Especially the inscriptions on the steles and the stage wall can reflect some features of the local opera performance since the Qing Dynasty, such as the type, time, troupe, and so on. To some extent, the authors argue, the richness of these ancient theaters of official house, with the architectural styles of ancient Chinese opera, has a significant value related to historical material and cultural relics. The first-hand data obtained in the investigation will also provide the latest research materials on ancient Chinese opera and theater architecture.
“How peace corps volunteers influence the United States: an analysis based on pragmatism” was written by Long Ye, Zhihua Liao and Yuanyuan Yu. This paper is commented by Zhi Li. From the perspective of pragmatic diplomatic philosophy, Peace Corps can benefit the United States, which is an important reason for the domestic support it receives within the United States, say the authors. Through the volunteers’ acculturation experience, cultural exchanges between the United States and host countries are promoted and the awareness of the American society about the Third World countries is raised, which is the true value of the Peace Corps from the perspective of American interests. As members of American society, Peace Corps volunteers gain a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the Third World in their host countries, which is not only an important part of improving the awareness of the American society in the Third World, but is also an important bridge to spread this awareness in the United States. The authors show: when volunteers return to the United States after finishing their service, they bring their understanding of the Third World to different industries and fields in American domestic society. Among them, American education and diplomacy are mostly affected. These are of great significance in improving the international vision and awareness of American education and the reliability of American foreign policy.
In the seventh place, we have “Mao Zedong’s thought and the construction of socialist ideology”, authored by Min Zhang, Haiyong Zong, David Zeen and commented by Renjun Cao. According to the authors, the 70-year practice of New China shows that our party has, permanently, attached importance and strengthened the leadership of ideological work, which is an essential factor for the Chinese nation to achieve the leap from standing, wealthy to powerful, and consolidate continuously the ruling position of the party. The successive leadership collectives of the party have explored and innovated the theory of socialist ideology in different periods of the history of China in light of the international and domestic situation, providing the CPC with a scientific theoretical basis and action guidelines for breaking through ideological barriers in its long-term rule. Mao Zedong made significant historical contributions to explore the road to new Chinese socialism, institutional design, theoretical innovation and ideological construction. Following these ideas, the authors, in this paper, intend to combine the basic principles of Marxism with the specific reality of China, creatively put forward the basic principles and basic directions of national ideology construction, and systematically elaborate the essential connotation, guiding ideology, primary objectives, fundamental nature and realization path of socialist ideology construction. Your study crave shows that the first theoretical leap of the localization of Marxist ideology in China has laid a solid foundation to build a scientific and complete country and a scientific and complete national ideology system.
The eighth article is “The evolution and spread of the image of "nagas bathing siddhartha" in buddhism art”, by Xiaodan Liu, Huiwen Xia, Tao Ma and Qi Dang. This article is commented by Jie Tong. The image of the "Nagas Bathing Siddhartha", an important theme in Buddhist art, say the authors, was produced in India. It has appeared successively in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Tibet and other places in China during the process of Buddhism spreading to the East. However, its forms and contents differ in different regions and distinct periods. Therefore, it is conducive to understand the sinicization process of Indian Buddhist art and it can deepen the understanding of the specific contents of Buddhist art exchanges to study the differences. According to the authors, the innovative point of view of this paper is that the distribution of "Nagas Bathing Siddhartha" is "regional," and the variation of its style reflects the route and regional characteristics of Buddhist transmission.
Yanrui Xu and Junwei Wang produced “Yang Naimei - life practice of a chinese “flapper” of women's development in China”, followed by Shuang Zheng’s commentary. As one of the earliest movie stars in China, Yang Naimei's life reflects the process of Chinese women’s professionalization and modernization in the early 20th century. This study discusses Yang Naimei’s life practices and significance as a Chinese flapper. Flapper refers to the modern girl who arose in Europe and America in the 1920s as a challenge to traditional lifestyles. Yang Naimei fully embodied the flapper’s characters. She often played an unruly woman on the screen, and she had many relationships in her life, accumulating wealth and a reputation with her acting career. However, society at that time did not provide enough space for the sustainable development of the women’s generation, like Yang Naimei, in economic, political and personal life. After the loss of her youth, she was disposed of by the film industry and suffered from poverty and disease in the latter half of her life. Taking Yang Naimei as an illustration of the times can reflect the twists and turns in the Chinese women’s treatment offered by the society, argue the authors.
The tenth article is “Ansai peasant paintings: inheritance of Chinese primitive culture and primitive philosophy” was written by Yaqian Chang, Liming Zhou, Peng Lu, Samina Yasmeen and commented by Ke Li. Chinese primitive philosophy, as the unity of cosmological ontology, epistemology and methodology of the Chinese philosophical system, is a complete and mature philosophical system formed in the late primitive society as early as before the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, define the authors. It is also the unity of the concept of Yin and Yang and constant life that is sublimated from the human-beings’ basic cultural consciousness: life consciousness and reproduction consciousness. The Chinese primitive culture, from the painted pottery culture 7,000 years ago to today, from the underground archaeological culture to the group culture on the ground, is a plastic art based on the concept of viewing objects and taking images. It is a broad concept of fine arts that determines the philosophical and the artistic views, emotional temperament, psychological quality and national spirit of the Chinese nation. The most primitive culture and primitive philosophy in China have been preserved with extremely rich and complete historical remains in the group's cultural and social life. It is for this reason, argue the authors, that China is the only country with an ancient history of civilization that has not experienced a cultural break. The primitive culture and the philosophical system of China, as the hilosophical basis and main connotation of ethnic group culture, are completely accumulated in the ethnic groups’ social life. The authors aim to show that the rapid development of the times makes the traditional folk customs and folk arts, which are generally deposited in the rural areas of China, become precarious. As a result, the research advantages of the unique human culture and the original culture of China will cease to exist. Therefore, it is an urgent historical task to make use of this advantage to study the original culture of China and the philosophical genes of the Chinese nation. Protection is imminent, and inheritance is the historical mission, which highlights the deeper significance of studying primitive culture and primitive philosophy in modern society.
Following, “The relationship between the debate on the monetary system during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties and East Zhejiang economic region” is produced by Yi Yang, Jie Tong, Zhou Chan and commented by Ji Ma. Not only the indigenous aristocratic families but also northern immigrant families living in East Zhejiang were involved in the debates on monetary theory and policy thought in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties. The debates, according to the authors, were often focused on the commodity prices and forced labor in East Zhejiang. This special historical phenomenon reflects two questions. On the one hand, the chaos caused by the war in the north and scholar families migrating southward greatly promoted the development of southern China, which made the five counties in East Zhejiang the most important and active areas of economy. On the other hand, it reflects the relationship changes between immigrants and indigenous gentries. Namely, the indigenous aristocratic families and northern immigrant families cooperated in economy so as to enhance the prosperity and development of the East Zhejiang region. Later, argue Yang, Tong and Zhou, with the rise of "common people", the scholars’ economic status was increasingly impacted, which resulted in the gentries’ anxiety and crisis consciousness.
The penultimate article, “Cultural Design Methodology from the Perspective of Cultural Philosophy: A Case of Ningbo”, is written by Wang Zuyao, Jia Xin, Qiao Song and commented by Tao Ma. Cultural design integrates cultural content into the design process. It is an important means to realize the innovation of traditional culture in inheritance. Cultural design behavior is subtly influenced by cultural philosophy, argue the authors. They go on to claim: specifically, cultural environment analysis, cultural semantic association and cultural imagery extraction, from the perspective of cultural philosophy, are helpful in realizing the explicitness of designers' implicit knowledge in the process of encoding and decoding cultural genes. The authors say they select Ningbo as a sample to deeply mine the regional cultural genes, explore the generation mode of cultural design, and further propose a framework for building a cultural design knowledge service system. So as to provide methodological guidance for regional cultural design practice to build sustainable cultural design capabilities.
Finally, the thirteenth text, commented by Yuemeng Ge and written by Zhanmin Cui, Zhihua Liao and Yuxiao Luo, is entitled “How should we think about common prosperity and challenges in the context of financialization?” The authors say that China is actively promoting common prosperity to address the contradiction of unbalanced and inadequate development. Financialization has become the backdrop for common prosperity. How understanding the changing connotations of common prosperity and the factors influencing it in this context becomes the subject of this paper. They argue that the imbalance between income from assets and labor and the new forms of value generation are the reasons why common prosperity is difficult to achieve. To justify this conclusion, this paper examines financialization from the critical perspective of the Marxist political economy, cites the financialization case in China and discusses the real and ideological challenges facing common prosperity. The authors analyze the nature of a new form of fetishism, financialization fetishism, and introduce the concept of narrative value, thus exposing the distortion of people's value ideology by financialization fetishism and the obscuring and erosion of labor value by the mystification of narrative value.
This is how this special issue of Trans/Form/Ação is constituted. We hope, with the practices listed above, to continue seeking the quality of our publications, promoting the sharing of knowledge in all areas and in all regions of Brazil and the world. We wish you a good reading of this issue. Thank you very much for your company!!!
Reference
ALVES, M. A. Apresentação. Trans/Form/Ação: revista de filosofia da UNESP, v. 46, n. 1, p. 07-14, 2023.
Received: 01/02/2023
Approved: 10/02/2023
RESEARCH ON COUNTERMEASURES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY[2]
Abstract: Ecological civilization is a form of civilization and has cultural values. In the process of economic and social development, different countries, regions and ethnic groups are bound to differ in their understanding of the connotation of ecological civilization and its external expression due to differences in social practices. In the context of cultural diversity, the development of ecological civilization education in China is a long-term systematic project, which requires all people’s participation, and can generally be carried out at three levels, including the social level, the national level and the school level. This paper argues that the whole society is the soil for developing ecological civilization education in China, the government is the external guarantee, the schools are the main battlefield and the government mainly relies on schools to achieve the goal of ecological civilization education. Therefore, this paper will focus on the school level to discuss the countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in China in the present day of cultural diversity, which includes the goal system, teachers, students, curriculum, methodology and environment. Besides, this article takes Sichuan-Tibet region and Tianjin city as examples to elaborate the specific actions of integrating ethnic ecological culture into ecological civilization education in schools.
Keywords: Cultural diversity; Ecological civilization education; Countermeasures for the development.
INTRODUCTION
The ecological civilization of China is a national commitment of the Chinese government to promote the establishment of a “harmonious world”, maintain global ecological security and promote sustainable development in the world, which is the international responsibility of a rising power. In the post-industrial era, a series of ecological crises such as resource scarcity, environmental pollution and destruction of biodiversity are common challenges faced by all countries. On the issue of natural resources utilization and ecological responsibility, the Chinese government advocates shared responsibility, equal opportunities and reasonable compensation for all countries, and opposes all kinds of egoism and hegemony of the big powers. Since 1996, China has made great efforts to promote global ecological protection and environmental construction by effectively implementing its “sustainable development strategy” and has been effective in such important areas as population control, energy conservation and emission reduction, and ecological construction (LIU, 2022, p. 49). The report of the 18th Party Congress points out that China would continue to adhere to the basic state policy of resource conservation and environmental protection and to the policy of giving priority to conservation, protection and natural restoration. The country would continue to make efforts to promote green development, circular development and low-carbon development. It would form a spatial pattern, an industrial structure, a mode of production and a lifestyle that conserve resources, China would continue to protect the environment, reverse the ecological environment and its deterioration from the source, create a good production and living environment for the people, and contribute to global ecological security (CHEN, 2020, p. 89).
Cultural variety is based on many people’s variations of social behaviours and on the ones of the nations. It is both a fundamental aspect of human society and a driving factor behind the advancement of human civilization. Therefore, we should respect cultural diversity, identify with our own culture, respect, cultivate and develop it well, as well as respect the cultures of other nations. We should also uphold the principle of equality among all national cultures, respect differences, understand individuality, live in peace, strengthen communication and encourage the prosperity of world culture.
Ecological civilization is a form of civilization and has cultural values. In the process of economic and social development, different countries, regions and ethnic groups are bound to differ in their understanding of the connotation of ecological civilization and its external expression due to differences in social practices. For example, ecological civilization in the West is mainly presented through ecological movements. Since the last century, people have been thinking about ecology beyond the natural environment and have made profound thoughts about the root causes of the ecological crisis.
1 Interpretation of ecological civilization under cultural diversity
The core of the values of ecological civilization is to respect and conform to nature, recognize the inherent value of natural ecosystems and establish the human beings’ ethical responsibility and moral norms for nature. It is a criticism, inheritance and innovation of the traditional natural values of the East and the West. It has a profound historical and cultural basis, including the absorption of ancient Chinese natural ethics, the reflection and criticism of modern western anthropocentrism values and the reconstruction of natural values on the basis of modern organic natural views. The ecological civilization of China has a distinctive national character and has developed a systematic ecological ethics in the course of several thousand years (JI, 2013, p. 59). Confucianism, by affirming the intrinsic value of all things, advocates treating nature and others with benevolence and love; Taoism, by revering all things to perfect oneself, takes the way of nature as a basic code of conduct; and Buddhism, by showing the ecological ethics of compassion through the idea that all beings are equal and all things are spiritual (LV, 2019, p, 19).
Due to differences in national interests, national psychology, history and culture, various countries, nations and regions frequently exhibit different philosophical perspectives, ways of thinking and behavioral patterns, or even engage in conflict and confrontation when it comes to understand, apply and implement ecological civilization. The essence of ecological civilization is to handle appropriately the interaction between humans and nature, necessitating that we both possess and control, utilize and preserve nature and, jointly, maintain the world: our one and only home. It is the logical presumption and conceptual foundation for discussion and collaboration among other nations and countries on ecological challenges, transcending the distinctions of particular national cultures.
Therefore, on the one hand, we need to understand and identify the common parts of “ecological civilization” in cultural exchanges and, on the other hand, we need to respect, understand and tolerate the differences. At the same time, since more than 200 years of industrialization in developed countries have put enormous pressure on the existing ecological environment, all countries in the world should adhere to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and developed countries should take greater responsibility in international cooperation with the fundamental interests of mankind as the starting point.
The culture of any era is influenced by cultural traditions. Cultural inheritance and development are always two aspects of one process Culture always develops on the basis of inheritance and inherits in the process of development. Therefore, we should base on our social practice, face the world, learn from all, inherit the tradition, push out the new and realize cultural innovation (XI, 2019, p. 2).
Understanding the cultural connotation of ecological civilization in the course of history, we realize that ecological civilization is the human beings’ development and innovation on the basis of primitive civilization, agricultural civilization, and industrial civilization. Ecological civilization is not a total negation of agricultural and industrial civilization, nor is it a simple return to primitive civilization; rather, it is a profound understanding and grasp of the relationship between man and nature, a dialectical negation of the relationship between man’s enslavement to nature in primitive civilization and man’s conquest of nature in agricultural and industrial civilization.
It must be pointed out that the gap between rich and poor countries is the main factor hindering harmony in the world. There are diverse ideas or paths to solve ecological problems. Each country faces different development starting points and survival situations, with its own special historical trajectory, unique natural conditions and humanistic traditions, social management mechanisms, different economic development models, cultural concepts and value systems, industrialization levels and development depths, etc., which explain the differences in ecological civilization construction models. Building ecological civilization is a global responsibility, but it cannot replace and deny the unique living conditions and different development paths of each country and nation. Otherwise, global responsibility will lose its realistic support. China advocates global cooperation and emphasizes that each country should choose the appropriate development model according to its own status and development conditions. Ignoring the objective status and copying the models of other countries will do no good. Global ecological construction is not only about protecting the natural environment and ecology but also about choosing development models and economic growth paths. In a deeper sense, there are ideological differences and even significant differences (LIU; XUE, 2020, p. 20). Therefore, the global action of ecological protection needs to seek common ground while reserving differences, establish an inclusive international vision and build a global development concept of mutual respect, pluralistic coexistence and mutual support.
To eliminate the narrow ideological differences of unilateralism is the inevitable choice to achieve harmony in the world. Harmony is not the eradication of individuality. Harmony, but not uniformity. They are different, but are not in conflict with each other. Harmony is a symbiosis, and differences are complementary to each other. Harmony and difference are an important law of social things and social development. They are also a guideline that people should follow in the world and the true meaning of the harmonious development of human civilizations (LIN, 2020, p. 1).
We must therefore embrace ecological civilization from the globalization wave. Economic globalization forces us to broaden our global perspective, utilize both domestic and foreign resources to the fullest extent possible, boost international cooperation in the development of ecological civilization, establish common standards for global ecological construction and, actively, support the establishment of a new international ecological order. In order to democratize international relations, we must uphold the equality of all nations, respect the historical, cultural and practical circumstances of each nation, as well as the diversity of its people. We must also carry out international ecological cooperation on the principles of equality and mutual benefit, sincere cooperation and reciprocity of duties and rights.
2 Basic measures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity
(1) Construct a clear goal system of ecological civilization education. In the context of cultural diversity, the goals of ecological civilization education should be multi-directional and three-dimensional. First, it is important to understand the basic knowledge of ecology and the environment at the knowledge level (SONG; ZHANG, 2020, p. 3). Cognition is the basis for emotion, belief and action. To guide students to understand and deal with the relationship between human beings and nature scientifically, we need to help them master the most basic ecological and environmental knowledge, including ecology, environmental science, environmental laws, etc. Second, the concept of ecological civilization in diversity should be established at the value level. Based on the knowledge of ecology and the environment, students should be guided to form the concept of ecological civilization, such as “[…] respecting nature, following nature, and protecting nature”, and establish an awareness of ecology and environmental protection (LIN, 2020, p. 2). The third is ability to practice ecological and environmental actions. Action is the externalization of cognition and concepts.
The concept of ecological civilization should be internalized in the heart and externalized in action. Schools should lead students to participate in environmental protection activities in schools and communities to achieve the effect of unity of knowledge and action. The degree of aesthetics is the fourth. Ecological beauty is the component of beauty that comes from nature, and love of nature is the emotional expression of awe for the natural world.
By observing the connection and coexistence of various living things in nature, teachers can help students develop their interests in ecology and aesthetics while also helping them to appreciate the beauty of life and the natural world. Fifth, pupils should get a thorough understanding of ecology. The highest standard and level in the ecological civilization education aim system is ecological literacy, which is a very comprehensive literacy that incorporates ecological knowledge, value concepts, ecological activities and ecological aesthetics.
(2) Teachers are the key. In the context of cultural diversity, the in-depth development of ecological civilization education brings many challenges to teachers, and the construction of teachers is related to the overall situation of ecological civilization education. At present, the ecological civilization education of China faces two major problems in the teachers’ team: first, the lack of professional ecological civilization education teachers; and second, the lack of the teachers’ awareness of various subjects about the diversity of inclusive ecological civilization education.
Therefore, the construction of ecological civilization education teachers should focus on these two aspects: on the one hand, we should improve the talent training system, increase the training of professional talents and build, in a large-scale, a high-quality ecological civilization education teachers’ team to meet the needs of ecological civilization education for talents. Agriculture, forestry, normal colleges and universities can set up majors related to “ecological civilization education” according to the actual situation. They can train professional teachers for ecological civilization education and guide them to integrate the ecological environment knowledge and ecological civilization education concepts learned systematically into their education and teaching work. On the other hand, teachers of various subjects should be guided to form a consensus on ecological civilization education in diversity and to integrate ecological civilization education, in a more subtle way, in the actual teaching of their subjects. In particular, it is important to strengthen training for teachers of all subjects regarding ecological civilization education. Specifically, localities can convene relevant experts to prepare special readers for teachers on ecological civilization education according to the actual situation, mainly including special training on ecological and environmental knowledge, ecological civilization concepts and how to integrate ecological civilization education in the subjects they teach.
(3) Students are the main body. We should cultivate
“eco-citizen” with ecological literacy. The term “eco-citizen” first appeared
in the Canadian document issued by the government of Canada in 1990, but there
is currently no uniform definition of the term in academic circles. Generally
speaking, an “eco-citizen” is a modern citizen who is ecologically literate and
actively engaged in the construction of ecological civilization. Cultivating
eco-citizen with inclusive and open ecological literacy in the context of
diversity is the main objective of ecological civilization education. In the
World Education Report, UNESCO stated that the kind of world we leave behind
for future generations depends to a large extent on the kind of future
generations we leave behind for the world. This is in line with the fundamental
questions of education in the new era: “what kind of people to train”, “how to
train people” and “for whom to train people. At the same time, we should
clearly understand that the cultivation of “eco-citizen” is not something that
can be done overnight (ZHU, 2021, p. 113).
There is always a gap between the young students’ actual ecological literacy, who are the main subjects of education, and the ecological civilization requirements of a certain society. This gap is the basic contradiction in the process of ecological civilization education. To solve this contradiction, we need to follow the basic laws of education, i.e., the laws of respecting the students’ subject status and the ones of ensuring those teachers’ educational activities. They are in line with students’ actual literacy, as well as the laws of “bilateral interaction” and “internalization and externalization” (YANG, 2019, p. 60). At the same time, we should also follow the laws of “bilateral interaction”, “internalization and externalization” and “coordination and control” to effectively achieve the goal of ecological civilization education. On the other hand, in the context of cultural diversity, the cultivation of “eco-citizen” includes not only ecological awareness but also ecological behavior in order to achieve the effect of unity of knowledge and action. In general, it means guiding and encouraging young students to develop diverse ecological civilization values and ways of thinking, and to practice a simple and moderate, green, low-carbon, civilized and healthy lifestyle (SONG, 2021, p. 284). This not only affects each person’s healthy and happy life but also has a bearing on the effectiveness of the construction of ecological civilization in China and the human beings’ future development prospects.
(4) Curriculum is the main carrier and specific development of teaching activities. To carry out ecological civilization education, “ecological curriculum” is the carrier. The formation of “curriculum ecology” is the pursuit. Schools should break the limitations of inherent disciplines, courses and specialties, establish a mutually complementary ecological civilization education curriculum system and extend ecological civilization education to the entire field of curriculum construction. On the one hand, we must actively establish ecological courses, such as general education courses on ecological civilization, interdisciplinary courses on ecological civilization, optional courses on ecological civilization, etc.
All levels and kinds of educational institutions can create regional or school-based ecological courses, based on local peculiarities, and formally integrate them into the educational system. Schools can use this process to pool the teachers and students’ knowledge to create self-systematic educational resources for ecological civilization, including reading books and manuals, creating promotional videos with an ecological civilization theme and, continuously, creating educational materials with rich content, varied formats, and online and offline integration. On the other hand, the concept of ecological civilization should be infiltrated into the teaching of specific subjects to promote the formation of “curriculum ecology”. Since ecological issues are complex and wide-ranging, ecological civilization education in diversity should break the boundaries of disciplines and achieve the same direction in ecological civilization education in all disciplines (SONG, 2021, p. 127). There are many subjects in geography, biology, chemistry, ideology and politics, and languages that are united with ecological civilization. For example, the geography subject shows environmental issues, and disaster prevention and mitigation; the biology subject explains the ecosystem and biodiversity; the chemistry subject introduces chemical products; the ideology and politics subject analyzes Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization thought and rural revitalization strategy; and the language subject inspires respect for life, etc. Therefore, we should make good use of the important channel of subject teaching to involve more subjects in ecological civilization education and to explore and bring into play the value of “curriculum ecology”.
(5) Methodology is the focus: As an important part of the basic education reform, ecological civilization education should follow the trend of education reform. It should advocate and widely apply the research-based learning and teaching mode to better reflect and give full play to the characteristics and advantages. These are the ones by which ecological civilization education proves to be significantly practical, comprehensive and social. Therefore, schools should encourage students to take the initiative to pay attention to social and ecological issues. The students should be encouraged to use their existing knowledge and experience to solve problems through independent inquiry and hands-on practice in the process of cultivating students’ diverse humanistic spirit and ecological literacy. In specific classroom teaching, teachers should also encourage students to actively pay attention to ecological and environmental problems in various fields, guide them to propose valuable research topics, and carry out specific research study activities in strict accordance with scientific research methods and the basic steps of the research study. At the same time, in the process, we should focus on stimulating students’ curiosity, imagination, innovation and critical thinking, and ensure that students experience the process of independent-cooperation-inquiry in a lively form and, eventually, propose targeted and practical solutions to ecological and environmental problems, cultivate students’ sense of social responsibility, enhance cultural tolerance and improve their social participation ability. In short, efforts should be made to achieve ecological civilization education to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of the ecological environment and acquire the methods and skills to identify, solve and prevent environmental problems.
(6) Environment is the condition. The campus environment is an objective external condition for schools to carry out diverse ecological civilization education, and it has a subtle influence on students. Therefore, it is also particularly important to convey indirectly ecological civilization ideas to students by creating a diverse campus environment and diverse culture. Creating a diverse campus is also an important carrier of quality education and one of the ways to achieve the internal development of the school. A diverse campus is not only about diversity of life, but also about all teachers and students’ high ecological literacy and proactive actions. Therefore, the creation of a diversity campus mainly includes three aspects: first, to establish the concept of diversity, that is, the school should be guided by the idea of ecological civilization and realize the organic combination of modern diversity culture and ecological environment; second, to advocate diversity culture, that is, the school should create a green, civilized, inclusive and collaborative spiritual and cultural atmosphere; third, to create a diverse environment, that is, the school should implement innovative actions of diversity campus, create beautiful teaching and living environment, let teachers and students enjoy and inculcate beauty. The concept of diversity is the core; the culture of diversity is the soul; and the environment of diversity is the foundation; all three are inseparable (QING, 2021, p. 9).
3 Cases
(1) The path of integrating ethnic ecological culture into ecological civilization education in schools in Sichuan and Tibetan areas. It is necessary for ecological civilization education in schools to form a holistic and strong curriculum cluster. In addition to the integration of ecological civilization education in ideological and political theory courses and some professional courses, special ecological civilization education courses should be offered to form an ecological civilization education system with intertwined humanistic and scientific spirits. The ethnic groups' ecological cultures of Sichuan-Tibet region can be included in the educational materials about ecological civilization used in local schools since they have clear regional, ecological, and holistic characteristics and contribute to maintaining ecological balance of the region.
At present, there are more research results on the ethnic groups’ ecological culture in the Sichuan-Tibet region, and turning the research results into materials for ecological civilization education in schools not only practices the spirit of putting learning into practice but also meets the needs of ecological civilization education in schools. At present, local colleges and universities are incorporating the content of ethnic ecological culture into their ecological civilization education materials. The process of preparing the teaching materials is based on the harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature, which is the main line and core of the national ecological culture. The framework is constructed on three levels: material, spiritual and institutional, i.e., the technology of knowing and using nature on the material level, the concept of knowing and respecting nature on the spiritual level and the system of protecting nature.
Strengthening the teachers’ quantity and quality construction is a way of ecological civilization education. First, there have been multiple channels to integrate and train teachers in related fields (REN, 2018, p. 22). There are teachers who may only favor a particular ethnic minority ecological culture or a certain level of ethnic ecological culture research. These teachers primarily strengthen the study of ethnic ecological culture as a whole in order to adapt to the needs of ethnic ecological culture teaching. These teachers have some background in ethnic ecological culture research, and some of them have research and cognition of ethnic ecological culture. Secondly, some teachers of ethnic cultures are trained to teach ethnic ecological cultures. Teachers of ethnic cultures have certain knowledge and theoretical skills in ethnology and culture, and through self-learning and relevant training, they can transition to the ethnic ecological cultures teaching (CHEN, 2020, p. 88).
Besides, it should build ecological civilization education in colleges and universities by relying on the Sichuan and Tibetan ethnic minorities’ ecological culture. In the case of compact classroom hours for ecological civilization education, the second classroom can be used to promote ecological civilization education. On the one hand, the second classroom can make up for the limited classroom hours and contents, and on the other hand, through on-site learning and perception, it can deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of ecological civilization concepts and enhance ecological civilization awareness. Some living ethnic ecological cultures in the Sichuan-Tibet region provide valuable resources for carrying out the second classroom. In the process of carrying out ecological civilization education, these resources are fully utilized to promote better results of ecological civilization education (CHEN, 2020, p. 87). For one thing, college students make use of the opportunity of returning to their hometowns during holidays to visit and investigate the local ethnic ecological culture. After returning to school, they organize investigation and exchange meetings. To construct the practice foundation for ecological civilization education, several ethnic communities are chosen. The ones that have traditional ecological culture, which has been better conserved and clear ecological consequences. The classroom theory of ecological civilization education is reinforced by visiting practice sites to see and experience the ecological concept of peaceful coexistence between humans and nature as well as the ecological effects caused on the ground.
(2) Similarly, in northern China, the Tianjin Municipal Regulations on Promoting Ecological Civilization Education were recently promulgated, aiming to further enhance the awareness of ecological civilization in the whole society and promote the construction of a national action system for ecological environment governance.
The Regulations focus on the important legislative concept of “ecological civilization education is the common responsibility of the whole society” in the system design and make institutional provisions on how to carry out ecological civilization education from all aspects of society and from multiple perspectives.
The Regulations put forward that the municipal and district people’s governments are responsible for promoting ecological civilization education in their respective administrative regions. The education department shall incorporate ecological civilization education into the education content of schools and kindergartens. Primary and secondary schools, institutions of higher learning and vocational schools shall incorporate the contents of ecological civilization education into their corresponding courses and carry out practical activities of ecological civilization education.
CONCLUSIONS
Ecological ethicists have extended the focus of ethics from human society to the entire ecosystem, indicating the sublimation of human understanding of natural values and providing a valuable reference for modern society to re-examine the relationship between man and nature. Only when ecological, ethical values are transformed into the common sense of life and can have an impact on life practice, prompting us to rebuild the coordinate of life values and change the way of life to choose one that conforms to an ecological civilization. Especially in today’s culturally diverse world, ecological civilization education is of great significance as it concerns ecological security and the sustainable development of all regions in China. From the school level, to promote ecological civilization education in the diversity of China, it is necessary to enhance relevance and pay attention to effect orientation, break the barriers between natural sciences and humanities and social sciences and build a discipline-integrated ecological civilization education system. This paper first proposes general countermeasures for developing ecological civilization education in a culturally diverse social environment at the school level and then uses the Sichuan-Tibet region of China as an example to illustrate how to take targeted actions at the school level if cultural diversity is to be respected in the process of ecological civilization development. As mentioned in the paper, the Sichuan-Tibet region has rich and unique endowments of ethnic ecological culture resources. Therefore, it should be integrated into ecological civilization education in schools, relying on the vernacular, vividness and liveliness of ethnic ecological culture to stimulate students’ affinity for ecological civilization education and reduce the difficulty of understanding, thus enhancing the learning effect. Of course, the integration of ethnic ecological culture into ecological civilization education in schools is only a kind of idea combined with the characteristics of the Sichuan-Tibet region, and it may encounter many difficulties in concrete practice.
INVESTIGAÇÃO SOBRE AS CONTRAMEDIDAS PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO ECOLÓGICA DA CIVILIZAÇÃO NAS ESCOLAS NO CONTEXTO DA DIVERSIDADE CULTURAL
Resumo: A civilização ecológica é uma forma de civilização e possui valores culturais. No processo de desenvolvimento econômico e social, devido às diferenças nas práticas sociais, diferentes países, regiões e grupos étnicos são forçados a diferir em sua compreensão da conotação da civilização ecológica e de sua expressão externa. No contexto da diversidade cultural, o desenvolvimento da educação da civilização ecológica na China é um projeto sistemático de longo prazo, que requer a participação conjunta do povo, e pode, de modo geral, ser realizado em três níveis, incluindo o nível social, o nível nacional e o nível escolar. O presente artigo argumenta que toda a sociedade é o solo para desenvolver a educação da civilização ecológica; na China, o governo é a garantia externa e as escolas são o principal campo de batalha. Nesse sentido, o governo confia essencialmente nas escolas para alcançar o objetivo da educação da civilização ecológica. Portanto, o presente artigo se concentrará no nível escolar, baseado na diversidade cultural dos dias atuais, para discutir as contramedidas para o desenvolvimento da educação da civilização ecológica, na China, que inclui o sistema de metas, professores, estudantes, currículo, metodologia e meio ambiente. Além disso, o presente artigo toma a região de Sichuan-Tibet e a cidade de Tianjin como exemplos para elaborar as ações específicas de integração da cultura ecológica étnica com a educação da civilização ecológica nas escolas.
Palavras-chave: Diversidade cultural. Educação da civilização ecológica. Contramedidas para o desenvolvimento.
REFERENCES
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Received: 26/07/2022
Approved: 27/09/2022
Comment on “RESEARCH ON COUNTERMEASURES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY”
Commented Article: Chang, Bingyu; LIU, Xiaodan; IAN, Chao. Research on countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 21- 36, 2023.
Chang, Liu and Ian (2023) have done justice to this very complex topic. The topic is inextricably interwoven with the pressing issues of the planet, such as ecology, civilization, culture, diversity, coexistence and sustainability. The writers have skillfully shown the path forward for humanity. And the way is keeping a balance between progress, ecology and ethics in the context of cultural diversity. On the less desirable side, the writers have omitted some of the most significant aspects of the topic of the article. First, the writers failed to give a holistic view of the ecological civilization under cultural diversity. Second, the writer’s assertion that the world will turn into some ecological utopia, if all the countries extend their cooperation to each other, is far-fetched and a distant dream. We need to be moderate in our future projections. Third, the writers have given a comprehensive account of the regulations of the government regarding the inclusion of ecological studies in primary and elementary schools in the hopes that, in this way, ecological studies may get their due importance in the school curricula. However, they did not discuss the obstacles and hindrances to attaining that goal. Fourth, the writers have focused their research on Sichuan and Tibetan ethnic minorities. Therefore, we cannot have the larger spectrum of ecological studies included in the curricula of the rest of the country. The circle and scope of the study should have been more extensive and complex. Fifth, the writers of this article have not succeeded in approaching the subject topic holistically and have left much to be desired.
A type of civilization with cultural values is ecological civilization. Due to variations in social behaviors, different nations, regions and ethnic groups will unavoidably have varied perspectives on what ecological civilization means and how it manifests externally due to economic and social growth. A long-term and methodical endeavor, the development of ecological civilization education in China necessitates the participation of each individual and is normally carried out at three levels: the social, the national and the school one. This is because implementing such projects at the local level is difficult due to the cultural variety. In this paper, it is argued that the entire society is the soil for developing ecological civilization education in China. The government is the external guarantee, schools are the primary battleground, and the government primarily relies on schools to accomplish the goal of ecological civilization education. In order to examine the countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in China in the current era of cultural variety, this study will concentrate on the school level. This covers the goal system, instructors, students, curriculum, methodology and environment. Additionally, it expounds on the precise steps of integrating ethnic ecological culture into ecological civilization instruction in schools (ALEXANDER; STIBBE, 2014, p. 104).
The Chinese Government has made a national commitment to advancing the creation of a “harmonious world,” preserving ecological security worldwide, and promoting sustainable development, which is the duty of a growing power on the international stage. All nations are currently dealing with several ecological crises in the post-industrial era, including resource depletion, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. The Chinese Government supports shared responsibility, equal chances and just compensation for all nations on resource use and ecological stewardship. It rejects all forms of egoism and the hegemony of the major powers.
By successfully implementing its “sustainable development strategy” in 1996, China has made significant efforts to promote global environmental protection and construction and has been successful in key areas like population control, energy conservation, emission reduction and ecological construction (LIU, 2022, p. 49). According to the report of the 18th Party Congress, China would continue to uphold the fundamental state policies of resource conservation and environmental protection. It would give priority to conservation, protection and natural restoration, promote green development, circular development, and low-carbon development, and create an industrial structure, a spatial pattern, a mode of production, and a way of life that conserve resources and protect the environment (CHEN, 2020, p. 89).
Cultural diversity is an essential component of human society and has a vital role in the development of human civilization. It is based on the differences in social behaviors related to various peoples and nations. As a result, we ought to value cultural diversity, recognize and cherish our own culture, and promote its healthy development as well as that of other countries. All national cultures should be treated equally, and we should also value individuality, appreciate diversity, live in harmony, improve communication and promote the development of global culture (ARCURY, 1990, p. 300).
A type of civilization with cultural values is ecological civilization. Due to variations in social behaviors, different nations, regions, and ethnic groups will unavoidably have varied perspectives on what ecological civilization means and how it manifests externally due to economic and social growth. For instance, environmental movements in the West are the primary means of presenting ecological civilization. Since the turn of the century, people have considered ecology in terms that go beyond the natural world and have seriously considered the underlying causes of the ecological problem (BERKOWITZ, 2005, p. 227).
Respecting and coexisting with nature, recognizing the intrinsic value of natural ecosystems and outlining people’s moral responsibilities to the environment are the guiding concepts of ecological civilization. Traditional Eastern and Western natural values are being questioned, transmitted and developed. Its rich historical and cultural background includes consideration of and criticism of present western anthropocentrism, as well as the reconstruction of natural values based on contemporary organic biological ideas. It also integrates ancient Chinese natural ethics. Over several thousand years, the ecological civilization of China has created systematic ecological ethics and a particular national identity (JI, 2013, p. 59). Confucianism, which upholds the inherent worth of all things, encourages treating others and the environment with kindness and love. Taoism, which emphasizes reverence for all things in order to perfect oneself, uses way of nature as a guide for behavior. Buddhism demonstrates the ecological ethics of compassion through the notion that all beings are equal and all things are spiritual (LV; WU, 2019, p, 19).
When it comes to comprehending, using and implementing ecological civilization, various countries, nations and regions frequently display different philosophical perspectives, ways of thinking and behavioral patterns, or even engage in conflict and confrontation due to differences in national interests, national psychology, history and culture. The goal of ecological civilization is to manage the relationship between people and nature in a way that benefits both parties. To do this, we must both hold and control, use and protect nature, and cooperatively maintain the world, which is our one and only home. It is the logical premise and conceptual basis for dialogue and cooperation on ecological issues with other nations and countries, overcoming the differences between various national cultures (BRUYERE, 2005, p. 20).
As a result, while participating in cultural exchanges, we must recognize and grasp the components of “ecological civilization” that are shared by all and accept, comprehend and tolerate the disparities. At the same time, all nations should uphold the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities, and developed countries should assume greater responsibility in international cooperation with the basic interests of humanity as the starting point. This is because more than 200 years of industrialization in developed countries have placed enormous pressure on the existing ecological environment (CARSON, 1962)
Cultural traditions have an impact on culture in every era. Cultural development and inheritance are two elements of the same process, and culture always develops based on inheritance and inherits during the development process. As a result, we ought to base our actions on social norms, face the world, learn from everyone, inherit the past, embrace the present and actualize cultural innovation (XI, 2019, p. 2).
We know that ecological civilization is the people´s growth and innovation based on prehistoric civilization, agricultural civilization and industrial civilization as we understand the cultural connotations of ecological civilization throughout history. Ecological civilization is a profound understanding and grasp of the relationship between man and nature, a dialectical negation of the relationship between man’s enslavement to nature in primitive civilization and man’s conquest of nature in agricultural and industrial civilization. Ecological civilization is not a total negation of agricultural and industrial civilization nor a simple return to primitive civilization (CHAI, 2010, p. 548).
It must be noted that the biggest obstacle to global peace is the difference between wealthy and developing nations. There are many different approaches to resolving ecological issues. Each country faces unique starting points for development and survival circumstances due to its unique historical trajectory, specific natural conditions and humanistic traditions, as well as social control mechanisms, various economic development models, cultural concepts and value systems, industrialization levels and development depths, among other factors. These factors explain the differences in ecological civilization construction. While everyone is responsible for working toward sustainable civilization, the specific living conditions or development route of no nation or country can be replaced or ignored.
Otherwise, the case for global accountability will become less plausible. China promotes international cooperation and stresses that each nation should select the best development model in accordance with its own situation and conditions; ignoring the objective situation and adopting other models of nations will not help. The choice of development models and the routes for economic growth are also important aspects of global ecological construction, and in a more profound sense, there are ideological differences that can be quite significant (LIU; XUE, 2020, p. 20). To achieve world peace, it is therefore necessary the global action of ecological protection looks for common ground while reserving differences, establishes an inclusive international vision, constructs a global development concept of mutual respect, pluralistic coexistence and mutual support, and eradicates the limited ideological differences of unilateralism. Individuality should not be eliminated in the name of harmony, and differences should not be in conflict with one another either. The complementary nature of differences is the basis for harmony. The meaning of the harmonious development of human civilizations and a fundamental law of social things and social development are harmony and difference, which everyone should aspire to in their daily lives (LIN, 2020, p. 1).
We must thus accept the ecological civilization brought about by the globalization wave. Economic globalization forces us to take a more global perspective, utilize both domestic and foreign resources to their fullest potential, promote international collaboration in the advancement of ecological civilization, establish common standards for the development of the ecosystems of the world, and actively support the establishment of a new international ecological order. To democratize international relations, we must uphold the equality of all nations, acknowledge their unique historical, cultural and practical circumstances, as well as their peoples’ diversity. International ecological cooperation must also be conducted under the guiding principles of fairness and mutual gain, true cooperation and reciprocity of obligations and rights (CORTINA, 1993, p. 98).
In order to perform quantitative research on the five components of ecological literacy – knowledge, awareness, ethics, emotion and behavior – we drew on the ideas of linguistic ecology. These elements provide reliable evaluation criteria for evaluating ecological literacy. They could represent a fresh approach to ecological study and advancement. Our work explored interdisciplinary research by fusing linguistics and ecology. We discovered that among these five criteria, the participants in our case study varied greatly in their degree of ecological literacy. As a result, we suggest the three following focused remedies (COYLE, 2022).
First and foremost, we must focus on the creation and content of ecological education, which includes both indoor and outdoor learning. This will have a variety of effects on the degree of ecological literacy and is one of the best strategies to promote it. The most significant influence on the degree of ecological knowledge will come through environmental education, which includes a variety of ecological knowledge-related topics, including professional ecological knowledge, ecological ethics knowledge, and environmental and biological knowledge in nature (CRUTZEN; STOERMER, 2000, p. 17).
Second, we should actively promote outdoor activities, increase local natural landscape appreciation and foster a love of nature among metropolis residents. The appropriate departments must expand outdoor activities based on getting eco-education. This will improve residents’ physical health and allow them to enjoy nature. We can more clearly understand the urgency of ecological issues by spending more time in nature (DAVIDSON, 2021).
Finally, in order to improve ecological literacy, we must act to express everything linked to ecology through our own actions. After identifying ecological issues, remedies must be put into use. The preceding strategies are the finest means of achieving effective ecological behavior. Regular environmental education initiatives are required. They should be overseen by experts who exhibit ecological behavior and have a high level of ecological literacy.
To understand the inherent differences among residents of ecologically advanced cities better, the experts compare the various types and sociodemographic characteristics of metropolitan residents in terms of ecological literacy in future research. The social scientists also need to examine more in-depth recommendations to improve ecological literacy. By suggesting efficient growing techniques, this will assist the experts in promoting and cultivating ecological literacy in accordance with the residents’ unique qualities. The findings of the present study can offer some important insights that can raise the level of ecological literacy of China generally and serve as a guide for the study and development of ecological literacy in other nations and regions.
Ecological ethicists have shifted the ethical focus from human society to the entire ecosystem, demonstrating the subjugation of human comprehension of natural values and offering a useful framework for contemporary society to reexamine the interrelationship between man and nature. Ecological and ethical principles will not have an impact on life experiences until they become part of our common sense, at which point we will need to reconstruct our system of life values and adopt a new lifestyle that is consistent with an ecological civilization. Since ecological security and the sustainable development of all regions in China are related, especially in today’s culturally varied world, education about ecological civilization is essential. Promoting environmental civilization education in the variety of China calls for raising relevance and paying attention to impact orientation, removing barriers across the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, and creating a discipline-integrated ecological civilization education system.
In order to respect cultural diversity in the process of developing ecological civilization, this paper first suggests general countermeasures for developing ecological civilization education in a social environment that is culturally diverse at the school level. It then uses the Sichuan-Tibet region of China as an example to show how to take targeted actions at the school level. As stated in the paper, the Sichuan-Tibet region has rich and distinctive ethnic ecological culture resources, so it should be incorporated into ecological civilization education in schools. This will increase the learning effect by encouraging students’ interest in ecological civilization education and lowering the difficulty of understanding. The inclusion of ethnic ecological culture in the teaching of ecological civilization in schools is just one type of notion paired with the features of the Sichuan-Tibet region, and it may face numerous challenges in actual implementation.
References
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ARCURY, T. A. Environmental Attitude and Environmental Knowledge. Hum Organ, v. 49, n. 4, p. 300-304, 1990.
BERKOWITZ, A. R.; FORD, M. E.; BREWER, C. A. A Framework for Integrating Ecological Literacy, Civics Literacy, and Environmental Citizenship in Environmental Education. In: JOHNSON, E.; MAPPIN, M. (ed.). Environmental education and advocacy: changing perspectives of ecology and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. p. 227-266.
BRUYERE, B. L. The Effect of Environmental Education on the Ecological Literacy of First-Year College Students. J Nat Resour Life Sci Educ, v. 37, n. 1, p. 20-26, 2008.
CARSON, R. Silent Spring. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962.
CHAI, H. Researches on Reliability and Validity of Inspection Procedure in Questionnaire Design. World Science and Technology Research and Development, v. 4, p. 548-550, 2010.
Chang, B.; LIU, X.; IAN, C. Research on countermeasures for the development of ecological civilization education in schools in the context of cultural diversity. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 21- 36, 2023.
CHEN, J. On the Theoretical Character of Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization. Qinghai Social Science, n. 6, p. 85-93, 2020.
CORTINA, J. M. What is Coefficient Alpha? An Examination of Theory and Applications. J Appl Psychol, v. 78, n. 1, p. 98-104, 1993.
COYLE, K. Ecological Literacy in America; What Ten Years of NEETF/Roper Research and Related Studies Say about Environmental Literacy in the U.S. The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. NEEF, 2005. Available in: http://www.neefusa.org/pdf/ELR2005.pdf. Accessed in: April, 05th, 2022.
CRUTZEN, P. J.; STOERMER, E. F. The “anthropocene”. IGBP Newsletter, v. 41, p. 17-18, 2000.
DAVIDSON, M. F. Ecological Literacy Evaluation of the University of Iceland Faculty, Staff, and Students: Implications for a University Sustainability Policy [dissertation]. Reykjavik (Iceland): University of Iceland. Amazonaws, 2021. Available in: http://s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/skemman.is/ContentPages/115928815. pdf. Accessed in: June, 08th, 2022.
JI, C. W. Interpretation of the Cultural Connotation of “Ecological Civilization”. Primary and Secondary Education, n. 11, p. 57-60, 2013.
LIN, F. The Philosophical Implications of Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization. Journal of Qiqihar University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition), n. 12, p. 1-3, 2020.
LIU, R. K. The Integration of Ethnic Ecological Culture into Ecological Civilization Education in Yunnan and Guizhou Universities. Environmental Education, n. Z1, p. 47-49, 2022.
LIU, Y.; XUE, R. Interpretation of the Connotation of Ecological Civilization and Its Institutional Guarantee. Research on Finance and Economics, n. 5, p. 19-25, 2020.
LV, Z. M.; WU, Y. R. “Seventy Years of Environmental Rule of Law in China: from History to the Future”. In China Law Review, n. 5, p. 16-20, 2019.
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Received: 27/12/2022
Approved: 10/01/2023
Research on the Integrated Training Mode of Higher Art Education for the Deaf[7]
Abstract: The development of higher education for the disabled is one of the most important indicators of the development of education for the disabled in a country, whether the support policies are perfect, and whether the social civilization is advanced. The results showed that deaf students with general school experience had better adaptive ability The integration model was more conducive to improve deaf students' school adaptive ability and social interaction awareness. The deaf students had higher demand for professional guidance and there is room for further improvement of the integration-training model. Based on the above research results and the problems in practice, this paper gives the corresponding countermeasure suggestions. The paper suggests that we should build a "trinity" integration education model oriented to socially integrated talents in art applications and improve the management system of integration education We should also improve the deaf college students’ learning support system under the leadership of the school, modify and reconstruct the integration curriculum system of arts and crafts majors, and strengthen the support and guidance of the society for the construction of integration environment.
Keywords: Deaf college students. Higher art education. Arts and crafts. Integrated education.
Introduction
The structural impact of economic globalization in the 21st century is also reflected in the field of higher education, where the reform of technology and information technology and the oriented needs of the knowledge economy have driven the reform of higher education, aiming at training the complex talents needed in the new era. The reform should focus on the articulation of higher education with the students’ future social life; we should unite the world, integrate China and abroad, close communication between teachers and students, and build a platform for cooperation. In the field of special education, higher art education for the deaf was proposed in the context of the reform of higher education and the development of the concept of integrated education in the world, and gradually gained attention and development (GARTNER; LIPSKY, 1987, p. 367).
Haigh and Martin (1993, p. 49) note that in the United States, once students with special needs enter schools, they use strategies such as "crowding and assistance" to meet the students’ needs with disabilities and other strategies to meet the students’ educational needs with disabilities. So those special education students can have a better academic life and better learning outcomes. According to Patricia et al. (2007, p. 12), special education needs aim to achieve curricular goals and it is necessary to provide special or adapted curricula for students through special equipment, aids or resources, altering and adapting the physical environment or special teaching methods and strategies, and emphasizing the social structure and emotional climate of the educational context. The formation of educational needs can be divided into objective factors such as social, cultural and developmental impulses and subjective factors such as students' self-development needs. With the transformation and reform of higher education in China, general higher education in this country has gradually entered the stage of "popular and universal" development (LI; QU, 2008, p. 28), and the "elite" higher education training model for deaf students cannot meet the deaf students’ educational needs (CHEN; WANG, 2016, p. 21). At the same time, the quality of education for deaf students is closely related to their employment, and the satisfaction of educational needs directly points to the solution of the deaf students’ employment problem.
At present, the Chinese deaf college students’ employment problems are quite serious, with low contracting rate, poor job stability and lack of interpersonal friendship at work, which seriously affect the Chinese deaf college students’ social integration and subjective well-being. The deaf college graduates’ employment rate nationwide in 2017 showed that more than 70% of deaf graduates did not have certain professional skills, and 50% of deaf graduates left their jobs after six months. In 2013, nationwide wide statistics and research found that deaf college students left their jobs because they were so different from their majors that they were unable to continue their hobbies and fulfill their dreams and values. Based on the results of this paper, the authors went into the case schools to conduct in-depth interviews and participant observations and found that many deaf college students believe that the deaf circle is important. Among those students, 62% believe that, given the objective factors of developing an integrated educational model and the reality of improving the deaf people’s subjective well-being, based on the deaf college students’ physiological and psychological characteristics, as well as the right brain advantage, spatial intelligence and strong practicality, this paper argues that deaf college students can choose to study arts and crafts. These ones can enable deaf college students to master and sharpen their craft skills in addition to the micro-integrated learning environment in school, where they can improve their sense of cooperation, communication, interpersonal awareness and, gradually, improve their subjective well-being based on their smooth integration into society.
2 Literature Study
2.1 Definition of core concepts
Higher education for the deaf occupies a crucial position in special education system of China, and the target audience of its education is generally the deaf students who have obvious problems in psychological and physical aspects. The promotion of this education is somewhat different from the general higher education. We consider that: (1) Special education can be simply defined as "an educational institution serving the hearing disabled group"; (2) Special education can be regarded as "the activity of admitting deaf people who meet the qualification requirements to receive relevant professional education in general or special colleges and universities through general or unique teaching forms, taking into account the characteristics and corresponding needs of the deaf group"; (3) This special education is an activity that takes into account the deaf population’s physical and mental characteristics and their main needs. After they have received their secondary education, they are given special professional education, through colleges and universities, in various scientific ways, in order to educate better high quality professional deaf people who can contribute to the good development of society.
In the process of this study, we can define higher education for the deaf as a purposeful and unique educational activity for the deaf population that meets the disabled’s educational conditions in China. Secondly, it is a specialized special education, which is relatively different from the general higher education, and its development is restricted by various social factors and realistic conditions.
Integrated education is developed from the "normalization" movement in Northern Europe and the "return to the mainstream" movement in the United States, and is often called inclusive education in China. UNESCO organized the "World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality" in 1994 and also successfully published the "Salamanca Declaration", which defined the concept of inclusive education for the first time It means: "All children have their own unique interests, skills and inner needs, and the teaching system should be designed and the program should be operated in a way that gives children with special needs the opportunity to participate in general education, and schools must do their best to meet the special needs of all children.”
The definition of inclusive education shows the following elements in the declaration: it is an education that firmly believes that all children are special and that each child should be taught in a differentiated way according to his or her characteristics; it is an advanced policy tool for social discrimination and social integration; and finally, it is an efficient form of organization that can scientifically and effectively increase the utilization of educational expenses.
2.2 Review of Literature
2.2.1 Progress of Research on Integrated Education Model
The idea of inclusive education is based on the social foundation of pluralism and equal opportunity in the West and the philosophical tradition of liberalism. Many countries have taken inclusive education as the ideal or ultimate goal of their special education development and the theoretical basis for relevant policy formulation. Different researchers and organizations have proposed different definitions of inclusive education according to their own understanding.
Duvdevany (2002, p. 379) argued that integration consists of two levels: first, equal and appropriate education for children with disabilities in a normal environment (i.e., regular schools); and second, equal and full participation of people with disabilities in the life of the community (i.e., community integration). Lindsay (2003, p. 3) and others argued that inclusive education should not be understood in isolation as being only for certain specific groups, but should be expanded to provide quality, friendly and diverse learning environments and opportunities for all. Ramsay (1993) states that inclusive education can be inclusive enough to accommodate all students’ needs, interests and experiences as long as this is what they deserve to be served. Aho et al. (2010, p. 166) pointed out that inclusive education should be richer, more diverse and more stimulating for students. Such an education should be one that is more conducive to students living in an equitable community after school, and that is not just for students who are disadvantaged in their current placement, but for all students.
Deng Meng (2009, p. 8) suggested that all disabilities are caused by pathologies, so it is important to identify the cause of the child's disability through scientific and effective medical methods. Based on the results of the identification, it is important to determine whether the child should be placed in an integrated or segregated environment. However, because identification is subject to error and may contain discrimination and prejudice on the part of schools, teachers specialists, the actual implementation of inclusive education may still prevent children with disabilities from being integrated into normal classrooms. Duvdevany (2002, p. 383) combined this philosophy with a resistance to "segregated" instruction:
All people build their expectations for us based on the experience accumulated by the disabled in the past. If all disabilities are isolated or seen as different, and considered as people with very different functions, they will not really be recognized and accepted by the society in any case. This can be said to be the strictest satire on the unique institutions and isolation system. (STAUB; PECK, 1995, p. 36-40).
However, Daniel (1997, p. 67) has always believed that unique education should be retained, and he believes that, in many places, unique education is incomparable to ordinary education, and it is unique because it is "unique". It focuses on special education, is research-based and emphasizes relevant empirical inquiry, which is lacking in many general education programs. This is due to the fact that the research-based specialization model is difficult to implement for all general education students, and that unwise integration is bound to increase the burden on students in the learning process.
Blackman (1992, p. 28) suggests that special education should be defined as a model of support in the regular classroom, rather than placing children with disabilities in a segregated environment; He also suggests that the development of unique instruction has lagged behind because special education has segregated children with disabilities for so long that people have ended up thinking that special children should be segregated. Pugach and Warger (2001, p. 194) argue that shadowing is not a scientifically sound programmatic strategy, but rather a measure that was developed due to inadequate teaching and learning conditions, and that it is a practical, but unavailable, alternative to unique instruction in our currently underdeveloped developing country.
In a research project funded by the Tianjin Philosophy and Social Science Research Institute, Liu Zhili et al. (2018, p. 52) followed up and analyzed the situation of deaf students who participated in the minor education study and explored how to optimize the teaching format of deaf students in China, in a rehabilitative manner from the perspective of integrated teaching.
Ren et al. (2017, p. 5) analyzed the current situation of the deaf education system in China and gave specific measures to improve it Jiang et al. (2018, p. 13) analyzed the same characteristics of two well-known deaf schools in the U.S. and summarized their specific ways of operation and organizational composition. They also analyzed the future direction and problems in the development of the deaf education process in China to build a socially acceptable teaching model for deaf students. Pang Wen (2017, p. 35) analyzed the system of higher education for deaf students at home and abroad in three key aspects, including the main body, the level and the specific distribution and number of deaf students Li Dan (2019, p. 51) pointed out the problems in the teaching of deaf students in China and proposed corresponding measures according to the specific problems. In this study, she analyzed the differences between China and the United States in the form of mass development and gave four suggestions on how to study the differences in the forms of mass development between China and the United States.
2.2.2 Review and Summary
In the field of art and higher education, inclusive education is an effective tool to fight against discrimination and to improve the people’s integration with disabilities. It is a practical and human-oriented teaching and training model.
The development of higher education for the deaf has gone through a process of segregated education, integrated education (with classes), education for all and integrated education in China. The research on higher art education for the deaf has been carried out by scholars in China, which shows that there is already a concern and investigation on the integration model in the field of higher art education in China. However, when introducing it into the field of special education in China, we should pay attention to the specific situation of this country and the specific practice of higher art education institutions for the deaf.
The deaf people have a great advantage in spatial intelligence, and the long-term use of sign language for communication has trained the deaf people's visual thinking skills. The habit of using visual symbols to express their thoughts has been developed gradually, which has created the deaf people's unique ability to express themselves. Compared with engineering, science, business and other art majors, arts and crafts ones, which are more suitable for deaf students to learn and develop. Therefore, it is meaningful and innovative to explore an integrated education model for deaf students to study arts and crafts.
The scholars’ research results in China have been limited to theoretical research. Most of the research methods are theoretical to theoretical, without experimental or practical proofs. The research contents are limited to the issues of teaching model, teaching management, teaching support system and other educational development. In addition, few scholars have studied the deaf students’ physiological, psychological and personality characteristics. There are few studies on higher art education for deaf students in China Few studies have explored the integration model of higher education for deaf students. Little attention has been paid to the deaf students’ social integration.
In this paper, we focus on the current situation and challenges of the integrated education model of higher art education for deaf students under the new concept of education, taking the 14-year teaching practice of the School of Special Education and Arts of M University as an example We observe the classroom teaching of its arts and crafts program. In this study, we will look into the current situation of its teaching mode of integrated education in terms of its philosophy, curriculum, education management, classroom teaching and faculty. We also find out the characteristics of its integrated teaching mode, analyze the deaf students’ problems and needs, and explore a suitable teaching mode of integrated education for deaf students.
3 Research Design
3.1 Research Methodology
The research paradigm determines the choice of research methods. Positivism (or logical positivism) corresponds to quantitative research, and interpretivism (or constructivism) corresponds to qualitative research., Based on the epistemology of interpretivism, it is natural to choose a qualitative research method. For this study, both the research questions and the research tools further helped me to confirm a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods as this thesis 3.1.1.1.1.
The nature of qualitative research, which is fluid, evolving and dynamic, contributed to the examination of this study about the process of inclusion in the School of Special Education and the Arts at School M. This paper argues that it is important to consider how various fluid factors in the school, such as deaf college students, faculty counselors, educational and instructional administrators, and the dean, understand the arts curriculum, arts instruction, and how this understanding influences their teaching behaviors. As Lindsay (2003, p. 5) said, education cannot be a living education unless it has roots in the earth. Therefore, the study of specific teaching and learning models or models of training requires the participants’ full understanding, the specific contexts in which they act and the impact of the contexts on their actions, in order to truly understand the specific actions and meanings of the various mobile elements in schools, such as deaf students, in the context of school integration. As Lindsay (2003, p. 5) said, words such as doubt, belief, thought, idea, etc., must be placed and described as actions in which the organism and the environment act together, or interact, if they are to have any objective meaning, let alone be publicly affirmed.
The first is to understand the current situation and the effect of the implementation of the integration model in the case school from the core participants’ perspective of the teaching activities. The second purpose is to process and analyze the data and to obtain the deaf students’ actual needs and to use the data analysis results as an empirical basis to support the construction of a more suitable integration model for deaf students (Loveland, 2000).
3.1.1 Selection and Determination of Case Schools
(1) Principle of maximizing the amount of information and the appropriateness of case schools
In this study, the primary principle of choosing M school as the case school is to maximize the information. In terms of location, School M is located in the center of the city, with convenient transportation and a small school area. The school is typical in terms of the appropriateness of its educational environment; the campus environment is full of art, the building of the College of Special Education Arts is full of art and fun, and a large number of original works and art elements are posted and arranged to reflect the emphasis of the college on the deaf students’ artistic and creative abilities. The School of Special Education and Arts has established its own independent building, although the teaching management of the school is independent from the school. The deaf students have the same teaching resources as the other hearing students in the school The activities, campus environment and school resources are all strongly integrated, which is conducive to the in-depth investigation and study of the integration mode of the disabled and the disabled.
(2) The relative objective advantage of the outsider field
Many researchers use the city where they have lived for a long time or a familiar field as the case study site, which can bring convenience in terms of transportation, environment, regional culture, educational culture, philosophy, etc. However, the familiar field also brings some limitations, as long-term immersion in the regional culture, educational culture and philosophy nurtured by the familiar field will be subject to stereotypes, stereotypes, habits and other subjective factors. On the contrary, in the field of the other, there is a relative advantage of being able to capture the new group of objects that exist in the new field (Loveland, 2000). In addition, because the case school is the only undergraduate university in China that provides arts education for the deaf, it has a strong attraction to this paper, and the case school has the relative advantage of being an outsider to this paper.
3.1.2 Research Subjects
In this study, we obtained the support and cooperation from the faculty and students of the College of Special Education and Arts of M University. 300 questionnaires were distributed among the students with hearing impairment in four years and the recent graduates. 206 questionnaires were collected, of which 186 were valid, with an effective rate of 90%. Among 186 subjects, 73 were male and 113 were female; 106 were totally deaf and 80 were with residual hearing. The rate of effectiveness was 90% (Details in Table 1).
Table 1 Basic Situation of Subjects
|
Attribute |
Subtotal |
Proportion |
|
|
Sex |
Male |
73 |
39.25% |
|
|
Female |
113 |
60.75% |
|
Grade |
Freshman |
79 |
42.47% |
|
Sophomore |
52 |
27.96% |
|
|
Junior |
28 |
15.05% |
|
|
Senior |
27 |
14.52% |
|
|
Long term residence of family |
Urban |
106 |
56.99% |
|
Rural |
80 |
43.01% |
|
|
Family composition |
Parents |
155 |
83.33% |
|
Single parent |
31 |
16.67% |
|
|
Only child or not |
Yes |
68 |
36.56% |
|
No |
118 |
63.44% |
|
|
The ability to read mouths |
Very good |
29 |
15.59% |
|
General |
118 |
63.44% |
|
|
Not so good |
28 |
15.05% |
|
|
Basically cannot see |
11 |
5.91% |
|
|
Degree of hearing impairment |
Hearing disability level 1 |
106 |
56.99% |
|
Hearing disability level 2 |
51 |
27.42% |
|
|
Hearing disability level 3 |
18 |
9.68% |
|
|
Hearing disability level 4 |
11 |
5.91% |
|
|
Annual household income |
30 thousand to 50 thousand |
139 |
73% |
|
50 thousand to 100 thousand |
25 |
13.44% |
|
|
100 thousand to 200 thousand |
14 |
7.53% |
|
|
200 thousand above |
8 |
4.30% |
|
Our production
In addition to the subjects of the questionnaire survey, two deaf college students, two teachers of professional courses and two teaching administrators were selected as the subjects of the interviews. In view of the fact that the study included the study of learning support systems, three teachers of professional courses, who were proficient in sign language, and one external expert teacher, who did not know sign language, were selected to conduct interviews and participant observation in the classroom. The purpose of the in-depth interview was to understand the deaf college students’ actual needs, who are the most important participants in the integrated education model, and to analyze and consider their suggestions.
3.1.3 Methodology of data collection
In this paper, we will enter the classroom of arts and crafts majors to conduct participant observation, and at the same time, the communication with the deaf students in their daily life and their verbal expressions can also reflect their views on integration. This paper will make full use of the class time and break time to interact with the deaf students to understand more about their preferences and the preferences for the teaching mode and course content.
In this study, we interviewed two deaf college students, a teaching administrator, a dean and two classroom teachers, mainly in semi-structured and unstructured interviews. In the deaf students’ dimension of interpersonal adaptation, the aim is to understand the problems of interpersonal and social communication between deaf students and their deaf friends, hearing friends, teachers and others in the process of learning and living in school. The purpose of the study is to understand the deaf college students’ career values who are studying arts and crafts, i.e., their job search needs and employment values, whether they aim at acquiring a skill to be a part of the society, or to realize their dreams and improve their self-worth.
The questionnaires used in this study were based on the Entrepreneurial Intentions Scale (EIS), developed by Macro (2006), the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS), developed by Deci, the Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS), developed by Huebner, and revised by Liu Wang, a domestic scholar. The final questionnaire contains four dimensions: learning adaptation, interpersonal adaptation, environmental adaptation and career values. In the final statistical study, all the reverse questions were recoded, and the adaptation status improved with the increase of the score. The questionnaire was strictly reviewed by front-line experts and teachers, and it has good content validity. Most of the items in the questionnaire have factor loadings of more than 0.6 on one factor. The items reflect the scale topics to a high degree. The four dimensions of the questionnaire have significant correlation with each other, and the questionnaire has good structural validity.
The physical data collected included (1) school-level data, including internal school publications, school culture brochures and video materials; (2) teaching data, including teachers' schedules, lesson plans, teaching and research activities, student worksheets and student-made works; and (3) photographic data and how the school can make the most effective use of resources and provide the greatest possible resources for teachers. (4) Photo materials and how the school can make the most effective use of resources and provide teachers with the maximum possible resources, such as photos of the physical environment of the school, classroom layout, corridors, school motto, and the teachers and students’ activities during thematic activities.
3.1.4 Methods of information analysis
In this study, data coding was done through the following steps.
As the data collected in this study came from interviews, participant observation, physical observation and note taking, and the subjects involved were school administrators, teachers and students, in order to facilitate the subsequent query and analysis of the data, we used O for the data from participant observation, I for the data from interviews, S for the data from physical collection and N for the data from notes. The subject roles A denote school administrators and deans, T denotes teachers and S denotes students.
The second step is open coding, which is based on repeated grinding and reflection on the data read Creswell (2000) pointed out that during the initial reading of the data, it is important not to rush to categorize the data in order to grasp the overall context of the data and gain general understanding. The researcher first read the data word by word, line by line, and recorded some feelings, understanding and reflections while reading the data, i.e., a detailed memo.
The third step, associative coding, is to further coalesce, focus, refine and differentiate the codes obtained from open coding and the categories or themes among the codes, and on this basis, to seek a more general or explanatory dimension, or what Kaplan (1964) calls the search for "repeatable rules". Based on the degree of relevance of the codes, the categories that relate to various aspects of arts and crafts teaching were analyzed in terms of relevance, with rough correlations made on a case-by-case basis, and others that could not be categorized were considered in a separate category.
The fourth step is the coding of core categories, in which each category or stage is analyzed in depth and the information in the transcript is reassembled according to the relationships between the categories. An explanatory structure is constructed by systematically integrating the inter-conceptual relationships, conceptual attributes and dimensions. The final coding icon of the arts and crafts professional integration training model of the school is shown in Appendix II.
The main data processing methods were descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and correlation test. Descriptive statistics were used to provide data support for qualitative information. Independent sample t-test was used to test the differences between the three variables of deaf college students' learning adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and environmental adaptation on the factor of whether they had general school experience or not. The correlation test was conducted to verify the correlation between the four dimensions of learning adjustment, interpersonal adjustment, environmental adjustment and career values, as part of the structural validity of the questionnaire. The correlation tests of the reliability, content validity and structural validity were conducted using spssl7.0.
3.2 Reliability and validity of research and research ethics
3.2.1 Reliability and validity test
(1) Reliability test
Reliability represents the stability and consistency of the scale.
The internal consistency coefficient, i.e. Cronbach coefficient, is generally
used to test the reliability of the Likert scale. The scale questions in the
questionnaire are selected by using SPSS17.0 for reliability analysis, and the
results are shown in Table 2. Except that the environmental adaptation
dimension is less than 0.7 due to fewer questions, the internal consistency
coefficient between the other three dimensions of the questionnaire is more
than 0.7. The internal consistency of the questionnaire is good. In addition,
the overall coefficient 
of the Questionnaire for Deaf College Students is 0.902, which is
greater than 0.8, proving that the questionnaire has high reliability.
Table 2 Alpha Coefficient Test Results of the Questionnaire for Deaf College Students.
|
Measurement index |
Number of samples |
Number of projects |
|
|
Learning adaptation |
186 |
9 |
0.812 |
|
Interpersonal adaptation |
186 |
12 |
0,774 |
|
Environment adaptation |
186 |
5 |
0.682 |
|
Professional values |
186 |
14 |
0.876 |
|
Total amount table |
186 |
40 |
0.902 |
Our production
(2) Validity test
Validity test is also called validity analysis. To measure whether the results reflected by a questionnaire are valid, it is necessary to see whether the results can explain the theoretical concepts of the questionnaire in most cases, so as to determine whether the data results can be analyzed in the next step. In this study, the validity of the questionnaire is mainly tested by two methods: content validity test and structure validity test.
Validity check for the content and items of the questionnaire was determined on this basis through thorough analysis of pertinent literature, reference to a number of internationally used test questionnaires with good reliability and validity, and college students’ open questionnaire survey, students who are hard of hearing. The expression data gathered, in the open questionnaire survey, were used as much as possible to determine the items. Experts, front-line special education teachers, and hearing impaired college students also provided input.
Test of structural validity: First, use correlation analysis to test the structural efficiency of the correlation coefficients between the four dimensions in the questionnaire. It can be seen from the results that the Pearson correlation coefficient of occupational values and interpersonal adaptation, environmental adaptation and learning adaptation is p<0.05, indicating that occupational values and interpersonal adaptation, environmental adaptation and learning adaptation are significantly correlated at the confidence level of 0.05. That is, the four dimensions of the questionnaire are highly correlated, and the structural validity of the questionnaire is good.
Table 3 Matrix analysis of correlation coefficients among the four dimensions of the scale
|
|
Learning adaptation |
Interpersonal adaptation |
Environment adaptation |
|
|
|
Learning adaptation |
Pearson correlation
Significance (double tail)
Number of cases |
1.00
186.00 |
.497** 0.00 186.00 |
.539** 0.00 186.00 |
.439** 0.00 186.00 |
|
Interpersonal adaptation |
Pearson correlation
Significance (double tail)
Number of cases |
.497** 0.00 186.00 |
1.00
186.00 |
.604** 0.00 186.00 |
.577** 0.00 186.00 |
|
Environment adaptation |
Pearson correlation
Significance (double tail)
Number of cases |
.539** 0.00 186.00 |
.604** 0.00 186.00 |
1.00
186.00 |
.535** 0.00 186.00 |
|
Professional values |
Pearson correlation
Significance (double tail)
Number of cases |
.439** 0.00 186.00 |
.577** 0.00 186.00 |
.535** 0.00 186.00 |
1.00
186.00 |
**. At 0.01 level (double tail), the correlation is significant
Our production
After that, the scale was tested for goodness of fit. The main fitness indicators, obtained after the error items, were optimized and corrected. They are shown in the following table:
Table 4 Overall goodness of fit analysis table
|
Fitness test index |
Ideal standard |
Model results |
Conclusions |
|
CMIN/DF |
1-3 |
1.335 |
Good |
|
RMSEA |
<.08 |
0.043 |
Good |
|
RMR |
<.08 |
0.061 |
Good |
|
GFI |
>.90 |
0.802 |
Common |
|
CFI |
>.90 |
0.963 |
Good |
|
IFI |
>.90 |
0.963 |
Good |
Our production
The fitness is good. In terms of other fitness indicators, most indicators perform well, and the overall fit is good. It shows that there is a high agreement between theory and actual data. The results of the scale are convincing, and the structural validity of the scale is good.
This study improves the reliability and effectiveness of data analysis through the following methods:
First, triangular mutual evidence is used to improve the validity. Information is collected and compared from different perspectives, such as managers, teachers, students, etc., mainly by comparing the observation and interpretation of different research objects on the integrated training mode of arts and crafts. Data from different sources are used for mutual comparison, including physical data, in-depth interviews and participatory observations.
Second, the personnel verification method is used to collate the recording transcription, interview and observation records. After that, it feeds them back to the researchers to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of their core data. Third, the objectivity of the coding process. Students, who belong to the same major and researchers, are invited to code the interview data for three times, compare the codes of different researchers and ensure the objectivity of the coding process through the consistency of the coding.
Finally, reflect on researchers as research tools to ensure that the researchers are value neutral in research. Through the continuous improvement of this process, the sensitivity of researchers, research objects and the relationship between researchers and research objects can be improved The researchers’ capacity should be guaranteed as much as possible.
This research opens access to the case school and gives a detailed description of the purpose and situation of the study to the personnel who need to participate in the study. In the process of qualitative interviews, in order to obtain more realistic information, especially when the research issues are sensitive, some researchers may use covert access. It is also feasible to conduct covert research in the educational environment. It is often necessary to conceal, from the participants, the fact that the research has being conducted or its real purpose. This research does not deal with sensitive subjects. But it enters the research field in the open and provides a general description of the research purpose to the principal, grade group leader, teachers, parents, and other relevant personnel, as well as who I am and what kind of research topic I am working on. I then go on to specify my research purpose as the research moves along. The public has a guaranteed right to know about the research object. In order to respect the subject's rights, the research also uses anonymous processing when presenting questionnaire data and other materials and avoids exposing the subject's image.
4 A Comprehensive Exploration of the Integrated Cultivation Model of Higher Arts Education for the Deaf
4.1 Comprehensive discussion based on research findings
Based on the results of the data processing, the following conclusions were drawn from the comprehensive analysis of the scale data using SPSS17.0.
According to the purpose of the study, the differences in the three variables of academic adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and environmental adaptation among the deaf college students, with and without general school experience, were tested. This indicates that deaf college students, with and without general school experience, have different assessments of academic adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and environmental adaptation. The deaf college students, with and without general school experience, have different assessments of academic adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and environmental adaptation. The benefits of a general school education, which provides more opportunities for deaf students to interact with the hearing population and the outside world, as well as a platform for joint learning and extensive interaction, are unparalleled by special school education. In the school environment, the learning mode of integration is more conducive to the deaf students’ school adaptation ability.
The results of the questionnaire analysis show that most of the deaf students have good interpersonal skills in school, and the integration of college teaching and school environment is conducive to the deaf students’ development of interpersonal skills. However, it is common for deaf college students to feel frustrated due to the communication barrier, and there are still problems in the deaf college students’ self-esteem and self-confidence. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to how to transform school adaptation into social adaptation in the construction of the integrated education training model.
The data of this dimension showed that there were 9 items under the learning adaptation dimension. The results of the seven items showed that deaf college students had higher needs for professional guidance, and the specific needs for academic guidance were, in descending order, extra tutoring in art, elective art courses, lectures for deaf students, sign language interpretation, instant typing services, online learning resources and speech recognition training.
Based on the research and discussion on the current situation of inclusive education at three levels, namely, the campus culture construction of inclusive concept, the management of inclusive education at the College of Special Education and Arts and the implementation of inclusive teaching in arts and crafts, the following conclusions are drawn.
First of all, M School focuses on the spirit of freedom and openness. Its school philosophy has promoted the campus culture construction of integrated education, which has provided cultural guidance of the integration concept, support for the opening and development of the special education art institute support for the expansion of the enrollment of the special education art institute and for the expansion of the student population. It has also provided provision of school-wide integrated education resources, leadership in the special education teachers, sign language teachers and interpreters’ recruitment and campus logistical settings. The School of Special Education and the Arts provides important support for the integration concept, values and teaching practices.
Secondly, the integration education model of the College of Special Education and Arts is different from the traditional "classroom" integration model in four aspects: integration of curriculum content, integration of teaching resources, integration of campus environment and integration of social network. The use of teaching methods such as "appreciation education method" and "top student transfer method" provides a good educational environment to support the deaf students’ learning. Under the teachers’ leadership and guidance, students adopt inquiry, cooperation and meaningful construction methods of learning, which is conducive to the starting and ending points of the integration model of the School of Special Education and Arts. In the case school, they are to improve the technical skills and social integration of the deaf students. But the support and guidance of the leadership of the school, in social integration training, is not enough, and the integration model of the school has room for further development and improvement. However, the leadership of the college does not provide enough support and guidance for social integration training.
Again, according to the analysis of the deaf people’s physiological and psychological characteristics, deaf people have the advantage of left vision and right brain, spatial intelligence, visual thinking ability and the capacity to concentrate and do things differently from the hearing people. It is tentatively believed that the "practical-oriented" arts and crafts major is suitable for deaf college students and can promote deaf college students too. In addition, it is a good way for the deaf to learn arts and crafts, which is an effective way for them to open themselves and gain an open mind The implementation of the integration model in the arts and crafts program is conducive to the improvement of the deaf college students’ character and personality.
In conclusion, there are limitations in the credit system, studio system and classroom learning support system of the arts and crafts program in the case school. we will try to give specific suggestions for improvement and construction in the following subsections.
4.2 Construction of the integration training model of higher art education for the deaf
Based on the deaf people’s "small scale" and "elite" higher education cultivation model in China, it is necessary to build a "trinity" integration education model oriented to the innovative talents of art and application. It is imperative to build a "trinity" integration model to cultivate innovative talents with artistic application.
The "trinity" model of integration education not only focuses on the cultivation of deaf students' skills in craft production and the mastery of social skills, but also focuses on the cultivation of deaf students' comprehensive quality, social integration ability and basic interpersonal skills in society, i.e., promoting the joint development of quality, skills and integration. The goal of the integrated education and training model is to cultivate high quality and innovative talents, which meet the needs of the labor market and the new economy and society. So that deaf students can find their self-worth, improve their self-confidence and enhance their subjective sense of well-being. However, this model should focus on the combination of school adaptation and social adaptation to create a comprehensive and harmonious learning environment for deaf college students. So that students can adapt to society in advance during their four years of undergraduate study and lay a good foundation for their social adaptation ability.
As a "practical" art for deaf people, the arts and crafts major, combined with the trend of integrated education, the demand of labor market and the results of the research on deaf college students, suggests that the cultivated talents should have strong hands-on production ability and art design creation ability. It also suggests that they are able to analyze the trend of arts and crafts and market demand by sensing the trend of arts and crafts. At the same time, it is recommended that deaf college students should be trained with social integration and interpersonal skills, unlike the training goals for hearing students in art colleges of general higher education. This should be the overall goal of talent training. This is in line with the “trinity” model of integration training.
The majority of higher education institutions for the deaf in China evaluate the students’ academic performance by the total credits of the four academic years together. And they take the total credits of the four academic years that have reached certain standards as the basis for graduation. This credit system, which lacks systematic planning and neglects the integration of students, will reduce the deaf students’ motivation and learning efficiency.
The credit system proposed here suggests that each deaf student should accumulate 124 credits in four academic years and graduate after completing 124 credits. This amount of credits includes 60 credits of required courses and 64 credits of specialized ones, divided into two categories: major courses and elective courses, each of them accounting for 32 credits. After their sophomore year, deaf students will select a major course and a required course of their interest from the open major courses displayed on the website of the school, with different credits for different majors. 124 credits are required for deaf students in their junior and senior years, and on this basis, deaf students will be guided to choose other art minors, do their own internship, or participate in a program with their teachers’ permission. In particular, four courses, namely, Sign Language and Communication, Deafness and Society, Mental Health and Career Planning, will be offered as major courses, each one of them with 8 credits, in order to promote the choice of major courses for deaf students and to promote their awareness of social integration and interpersonal communication.
The studio system is designed based on the virtual integration of the work process and the logic of the simulated work structure, which can be regarded as an extension of the classroom teaching. In addition to the instructors’ professional team, the studio can also conduct an open selection and recruitment process among the best deaf graduates, and those who meet the two-way selection criteria can enter the studio after a voluntary application and examination. The staff is not fixed and is subject to periodic adjustments through periodic evaluations.
The studio does not directly undertake art and craft design tasks, but rather organizes daily teaching through virtual work assignments or group design projects, with the aim of integrating school teaching and social work through the "studio" as a window of interface. So those students have the awareness of active interpersonal interaction and social integration. In this paper, it is argued that the studio system can supplement the daily classroom art teaching with a virtual integrated work environment. So those students can receive multiple educational inspirations of art, technology, society, integration and interaction at the same time.
The main objective of higher education is to cultivate comprehensive quality and stimulate innovation consciousness, and the most important feature of the integration training mode is to focus on the deaf college students’ cultivation of social integration ability. Therefore, for the curriculum of arts and crafts, it should focus on the deaf college students’ improving the social integration quality and interpersonal communication ability on the basis of strengthening the deaf students’ comprehensive quality and craft skills, that is, the integration. The construction of the curriculum system is led by the element of "integration", and the three elements of "quality", "skills" and "integration" are developed synergistically.
In particular, first of all, the curriculum should be connected with the deaf students’ actual foundation, the teaching contents should be reasonably arranged, and suitable teaching and teaching materials should be selected. On the one hand, the gap of knowledge, after the deaf students enter the university, should be avoided and, on the other hand, it should guarantee the "necessary and sufficient" knowledge for the disabled students to learn professional skills. For example, the teaching of ideological and political quality courses, such as "Mao Introduction", focuses on strengthening the deaf students’ professional quality education. The teachers train the deaf students' sense of cooperation and interpersonal consciousness through the skillful use of sign language, the production of multimedia courseware, videos and other visual teaching methods and teaching methods. They cultivate the deaf students' sense of social integration in the academic exchange and cooperation.
The course is designed to help deaf students to master the basic language skills and writing skills, and to develop their understanding of professional knowledge.
In addition, the course is designed to enhance the deaf students’ skills in the field of arts and crafts.
Last but not least, the integration mode should focus on the deaf students’ social adaptation ability. It is not enough to teach in the classroom only through explicit integration education, but also through a large number of implicit integration education courses in the three-year university life. So that the deaf students can get out of the closed psychology and quickly integrate into the hearing students’ college group, and enhance the communication and integration into the mainstream society. The students will be able to integrate into the mainstream society.
5 Summary and outlook
The present study focuses on the current situation and challenges of the integration education model of higher art education for the deaf in the new concept of case schools. In this study, we will look into the current situation of its teaching mode of integrated education in terms of its philosophy, curriculum, education management, classroom teaching and faculty, and we find out the characteristics of its teaching mode of integrated education. The aim of this study is to investigate the teaching rules of higher art education for deaf students, and to improve the integrated education model of higher art education for them.
This study has the following limitations: firstly, the researcher was accompanied by a sign language interpreter during the interviews with the deaf college students, but this may affect the collection and acquisition of qualitative research data during the interviews and communication with the deaf college students; secondly, there is a limitation of the research time, because the distance between the case school and the researcher's own geographical location, which is relatively long. The research schedule of this study was so tight that we only had two months to conduct participant observation and interviews, which did not allow us to make many trips to the case schools We could have conducted a semester-long comprehensive study of the integration model of arts and crafts education in accordance with the time pattern of the case schools.
Second, based on the deaf college students’ psychological characteristics, the structured interview method, which was conducted in a direct question-and-answer format, may not be able to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the students' problems. If there is an opportunity in the future, a more detailed design can be made for the selection of the subjects.
Finally, based on the reflection of the sample size, the initial idea of the study was to conduct a cross-school comparative study, based on two case schools, and to select the colleges and universities in China that have done a good job in the integration of art education. But if we did so, the differences between the schools might be too great due to different regional cultures and school philosophies. And it would be impossible to compare the similarities and differences. If a follow-up study is conducted, the sample size will be expanded to study the impact of different regional cultures and school philosophies on the integration of higher arts education for the deaf.
PESQUISA SOBRE O MODO DE TREINAMENTO INTEGRADO DE ENSINO SUPERIOR DE ARTES PARA SURDOS
Resumo: Uma das medidas mais significativas do progresso de uma nação, no fornecimento de educação para pessoas com deficiências, bem como uma medida de quão bem seus sistemas de apoio operam e quão longe a sociedade se encontra, em seu desenvolvimento social, é o crescimento do ensino superior para pessoas com deficiências. Os resultados indicaram que os alunos surdos com experiência escolar geral apresentaram melhor adaptabilidade. O modelo de integração era mais adequado para aumentar a conscientização dos alunos surdos sobre a interação social e a adaptabilidade escolar. Ademais, os alunos surdos tinham uma demanda maior por orientação profissional. No entanto, é importante observar que o modelo de treinamento de integração ainda possui espaço para aprimoramentos. Com base nos resultados das referidas pesquisas e nos problemas da prática, o presente artigo apresenta as sugestões e pareceres de contramedidas correspondentes. O artigo sugere que devemos construir um modelo educativo de integração baseado no conceito “trindade”, orientado para talentos socialmente integrados em aplicações artísticas, aperfeiçoar o sistema de gestão da educação de integração, melhorar o sistema de apoio ao aprendizado de estudantes universitários surdos sob a liderança da escola, modificar e reconstruir o sistema curricular de integração das áreas de arte e artesanato e fortalecer o apoio e a orientação da sociedade para a construção de um ambiente de integração.
Palavras-chave: Estudantes universitários surdos. Ensino superior de artes. Artes e artesanato. Educação integrada.
References
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Received: 27/07/2022
Approved: 27/09/2022
Comment on “Research on the Integrated Training Mode of Higher Art Education for the Deaf”
Commented Article: LIU, Fangfang. Research on the integrated training mode of higher art education for the deaf. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 47- 72, 2023.
Liu (2023) has taken the pains and burnt the midnight oil to research the topic at hand thoroughly. The writer has skillfully highlighted all the main aspects of the research article and given suggestions and insights wherever the subject demanded. Scintillatingly, the writer employed all the research tools available to dig out all the profound wisdom and observations regarding this fascinating topic. One of the key measures of how well an education system of a nation for the disabled is doing, as well as how well its enabling laws and social civilization are progressing, is the growth of higher education for people with disabilities.
The culture of the deaf community is visualized through its art, which has a distinctive aesthetic value and serves a communication and cultural appeal. Building a campus culture of “tolerance and no difference” and constructing a social environment of “equality and integration” are goals of integrative education. The adoption of an integrated education and training model for deaf students, who major in arts and crafts and acquire higher art education, helps enhance deaf people’s social integration and fosters their seamless absorption into society (BATEMAN; LINDEN, 1998).
This work collects case study data using interviews, participant observations and object collections as part of a combined qualitative and quantitative research methodology. Using the School of Arts and Special Education at School M as the case school, the classroom teaching activities of four grades of the arts and crafts major are monitored in a collaborative manner. For in-depth interviews, two teachers, two teaching managers and two deaf college students were chosen. The deaf college students’ survey on the survival status was performed through the questionnaire for deaf college students, and the data were processed and analyzed using SPSSl7.0. The qualitative data are compiled and analyzed using the three-level coding method of Strauss and Corbin (CROCKETT; KAUFFMAN, 1999).
The results of the data analysis of the questionnaire and the coding of qualitative data indicate that: (1) deaf students with general school experience have better adaptability; (2) the universal health integration training mode is more conducive to improving the deaf students’ school adaptability and social communication awareness; (3) deaf college students have a high demand for professional guidance; and (4) deaf students with disabilities have a higher rate of unemployment. Fourthly, the integrated training mode of the case school is demonstrated in four areas: the integration of curriculum material, teaching resources, campus environment and social networks; yet, its integrated training mode still has potential for development (GERSTEN; SCHILLER; VAUGHN, 2000). Fifth, deaf individuals benefit from having a left vision, right brain, spatial intelligence, the ability to think visually, the capacity for concentration and the other healthy people’s practice.
According to initial speculation, deaf students can learn in the “practical” arts and crafts major (HALLAHAN; KAUFFMAN, 2000). When integration mode is used in the arts and crafts major, deaf students can better understand interpersonal communication and social integration while acquiring society-based abilities. The deaf college students’ needs in terms of learning adaptation, interpersonal adaptation and professional values are the key elements driving the creation of the integrated training model. However, national legislation and labor market demands have also had an impact (HALLAHAN; KAUFFMAN; LLOYD, 1999).
The following recommendations are made to improve the integrated training method of higher art education for the deaf at case schools in light of the study above findings and issues in practice. Another recommendation was to enhance the system for managing integrated teaching and learning, as well as to improve the integrated arts and crafts curricular system and learning support system for deaf college students under the direction of the school (HALLAHAN; KEOGH, 2001).
Few pertinent studies on the deaf students’ psychological traits and the integration model in higher education are now available in the research on higher art education for the deaf in China. The current state of the integration education model of higher art education for the deaf in case schools under the new idea is the main subject of this study, along with research on the difficulties encountered (HOCKENBURY; KAUFFMAN; HALLAHAN, 1999). Take, for instance, the 14-year integration training model and the teaching practice exploration of the Art Institute of Special Education. Explore an integrated education teaching mode that is appropriate for deaf students by delving deeply into the classroom teaching of its arts and crafts. It is significant to observe and understand the current situation of its integrated teaching mode from the school running concept, curriculum, education management, classroom teaching, teachers and other aspects, and discover its characteristics (KAUFFMAN, 1999). It has creative value in enhancing the integrated education model of higher art education for the deaf. It can encourage the investigation of the teaching guidelines of higher art education for the deaf in case schools (LLOYD et al., 1998).
Following are the limitations of the study. First, based on the researcher’s factors, the interview and communication with deaf college students can be affected by the collection and acquisition of qualitative research data, as the deaf college students’ conversations are supplemented by sign language translation and have a basic sign language foundation. The second limitation is the time necessary for study due to the geographical separation between the case school and the researcher. Only two months were available for participatory observation and interviewing due to the constrained study arrangement and learning progression in this paper, which is inconvenient for repeated excursions in the case school. According to the time rule of education and teaching in the case school, a thorough investigation of the integrated arts and crafts training mode for one semester can be done if follow-up research can be done (MASTROPIERI; SCRUGGS, 2000).
Second, given the deaf college students’ psychological characteristics, the structural interview method that the interview approach employs may not be able to determine the student’s understanding of the issues ultimately. The maximization of information is another principle that directs the selection of study materials. The content covered may not be exhaustive enough if there is a chance to design the selection of research objects in more detail in the future.
Finally, reflection is used to determine the sample size. The initial plan for the project was to compare two case schools as a starting point for a cross-school analysis. Then, for the field research, universities with superior higher art education integration and training models were chosen. The School of Arts for Special Education of School M was chosen as the case school because if this were done, it might result in too great disparities between schools due to varied regional cultures and school concepts, making it hard to analyze similarities and contrasts. Should a second study be conducted, the sample size will be increased to examine the effects of various regional cultures and educational paradigms on the integrated training model of higher art education for the deaf. This model can be used as a prototype universally and across the globe.
References
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CROCKETT, J. B.; KAUFFMAN, J. M. The Least Restrictive Environment: Its Origins and Interpretations in Special Education. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999.
GERSTEN, R.; SCHILLER, E. P.; VAUGHN, S. Contemporary Special Education Research: Syntheses of the Knowledge Base on Critical Instructional Issues. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000.
HALLAHAN, D. P.; KAUFFMAN, J. M. Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Education, 8th edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
HALLAHAN, D. P.; KAUFFMAN, J. M.; LLOYD, J. W. Introduction to Learning Disabilities, 2. ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
HALLAHAN, D. P.; KEOGH, B. K. Research and Global Perspectives in Learning Disabilities: Essays in Honor of William M. Cruickshank. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2001.
HOCKENBURY, J. C.; KAUFFMAN, J. M.; HALLAHAN, D. P. What’s Right About Special Education? Exceptionality, v. 8, n. 1, p. 3-11, 1999.
KAUFFMAN, J. M. Commentary: Today’s Special Education and Its Messages for Tomorrow. The Journal of Special Education, v. 32, p. 244-254, 1999.
LIU, F. Research on the integrated training mode of higher art education for the deaf. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 47- 72, 2023.
LLOYD, J. W. et al. Academic Problems. In: KRATOCHWILL, T. R.; MORRIS, R. J. (ed.). Practice of Child Therapy, 3. ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
MASTROPIERI, M. A.; SCRUGGS, T. E. The Inclusive Classroom: Strategies for Effective Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 2000.
Received: 04/12/2022
Approved: 10/12/2022
MARXIST VIEW ON Global POLITICAL ECONOMY AND new MARKET TRENDS[10]
KEYWORDS: Modern Marxism. Political economy. The market economy, capitalism. 21st Century Economy.
INTRODUCTION
Commercial enterprises could generate money by exploiting their clients through the use of guaranteed monopolistic rights until Adam Smith came around. No matter how much money the landowning class wastes because of their laziness and inefficiency, surplus revenues can be transferred to the merchant class (and the state) and the country as a whole, benefiting both. Only during wartime or economic crises brought on by trade interruption due to natural, political, or military circumstances a surplus of wealth could able to be reaped by the people on the periphery of society. State policies based on the commercial and colonial systems must be adapted to capitalist systems if they are to be successful (MARX, 1991, p. 120).
There are two major contributions that Adam Smith made to civilization. First, he argued that the surplus was a result of an increase in the division of labor and an increase in the productive use of capital rather than its forced expropriation. He, on the other hand, viewed commercial cooperation as a win-win situation for both parties (KEYNESIANISM, 1988, p. 10).
All parties participating in a transaction must stand to earn anything from it for it to be effective; otherwise, they will not participate. Every time various trade options are presented to an individual, He or she will select the one that delivers him or her the biggest benefit. Transactions between capitalists and laborers are included here (MACMILLAN, 1994, p. 210). Trade limitations, according to these two concepts, limit the ability of at least one side to profit from a transaction. Other benefits of the trade include the potential for better utilization of capital within the economy and an increase in overall well-being as a result. The monopolist may benefit from monopoly power, but the nation as a whole suffers as a result. Eliminating the commercial and colonial systems, conflicts and commercial crises will not only boost the riches of the country. Human greed and folly have allowed the monopolistic system to persist, not capitalism itself, which is responsible for the problems of capitalism.
The foundation of Adam Smith's economic theory is the idea that production and exchange are essentially unrelated. The workers’ productivity was boosted by their hard effort and dexterity, as well as by the segmentation and mechanization of the job and the rich soil on which they worked (KEYNESIANISM, 2000, p. 45). An influential thinker, Jean-Baptiste Say, proposed that all three sources of production – land, labour and capital – contributed to the total output of the economy. Say was inspired by the physiocrats to come up with this concept. Because of the free market, the division of labor was allowed to flourish, resulting in a rise of the national wealth and an increase in the number of people it could support. However, even though this was true, commerce had a negligible effect on the allocation of funds to the various manufacturing components (BARAN, 2008, p. 60).
Some people thought that trading was only a means of distributing resources. According to this idea, price fluctuations sparked a shift in the allocation of labor and capital. These changes were made in conjunction with the general trend toward revenue parity across all industry segments in the country. To put it another way, factory owners' earnings were in equilibrium with their productive efforts in a free market (DIETZ, 1975, p. 142). The exchange rate simply served as a purely technical mechanism to guarantee that wages reflected productivity contributions at the predetermined rate of economic expansion. Unrestrained competition caused revenues to be lost by their original owners and transferred to other parties, impeding the process of equilibration. Because competition is unable to level the playing field with monopoly power, you cannot be taken advantage of.
Money only serves a functional purpose in Smith's paradigm. According to monetarists and mercantilists, it is a myth that wealth can only be acquired through the use of money. This is what these people believe. Smith based his beliefs on David Hume's view of money as only a means of exchanging things. Smith saw money as nothing more than a means of exchanging goods. In the long term, removing money from circulation and preserving it in an inert hoard does not benefit the owner financially; rather, it inhibits the owner from having the opportunity to produce additional money by putting his resources to productive use, which results in a loss of financial gain (AGNEW, 1979, p. 99). Since the power of money is restricted by the pressure of competition, collecting monetary riches does not confer any particular economic rights on the owner of such riches, unless those riches are tied to monopoly power.
To keep the economy from collapsing, monetary hoards are used to create a reserve fund. The more money a person has, the more money he or she can get for other currencies, and as a result, the more money he or she has overall. As a result, an increase or decrease in the money supply can only affect the overall price level and has neither edge nor affectivity on products produced or traded in a given period. Consequently, Smith developed a concept of analytical separation between real and monetary systems, which is analogous to the concept of separating production from the exchange (BARAN, 1966, p. 258).
Due to the numerous discrepancies that exist throughout Adam Smith's work, it is difficult to track his development of this idea. Both political economy and economics have been built on its core principles. This so-called science claims that by using capitalist Smithian principles, it is feasible to establish an idealized capitalist system. This model can be used as a standard to measure how well actual capitalist systems work. As a result, it appears that the model captures the essence of capitalism and that any flaws in real capitalism are due to institutional and human limitations (BARRY, 2002, p. 285). People who use the system are to blame for its shortcomings rather than the system itself because they are incompetent, greedy, and ignorant. When capitalism was in its infancy, there was a rise in secular religions like this.
1 MARX'S CRITIQUE OF THE UNBRIDLED MARKET FORCES
For Marxists, the concept of the "cunning right of the strong" is that capitalists use their "passive mirroring" of the social relations of capitalist production to exercise their "cunning right" (ENGELS, 1843). There are three ways of looking at the exploitation of capitalism, and they all boil down to this: despite Marx's picture of the essence of the capital expressing itself in the market, the link between essence and appearance was not deterministic reductionism. According to Marx, the only way to discover the true essence of capital is through its exchange with other forms of capital. Essentially, competition is nothing more than a manifestation of the inner nature of capital, its inherent character realised as an external requirement. There are as many capitals as there are, each of them with a distinct personality because of this reciprocal process. There can never be a universal capital without competition from various exchangeable capitals. Capitalists' antagonism is reflected in the value of their trades. That is what I mean (CW28, 350). The capitalist nature of each capital is determined by the market. Since Marx was well versed in the market economy, he was well suited to explain capitalism and criticize political economy from a Marxian perspective. Therefore, Marx's critique of capitalism is inextricably linked to his understanding of the market (BLOCK, 2000, p. 83).
Instead of serving as an ordinary medium for capitalist authority, the market serves as a means through which the faceless power of capital is imposed on both capitalists and workers. As a capitalist, like a worker, you are subject to the whims of the market, and your fate is decided by that judgement of the market. While an individual capitalist is free to choose how he spends his money, the social nature of the capital imposes itself on him as he attempts to maximize its value.
Due to competition, every capitalist is compelled to participate in a class fight against overproduction. Individual capitalists are not responsible for this, but rather the drive of capitalism to grow production capacity without regard for market limits (CALIS, 2010, p. 1). Even though there is only a limited manifestation of "effective demand" in the market, capitalist production is not characterized by the subordination of social output to social needs. While social needs are important to capitalists, their primary purpose is to grow their riches. The only ways to combat this propensity toward commodities excess production and uneven development of production productive steady are global market growth, new "needs," and periodic destruction of productive capacity and redundancy of labor. Instead of being guided by the seemingly contradictory logic of surplus-value accumulation, a capitalist economy is steered by the desires of its connected producers and consumers.
Labor productivity and efficiency have improved to levels never before seen in human civilization as a whole due to the demand that all capitalists must decrease their working hours of workforces to the bare minimum to remain competitive in the marketplace. This is because the competitive nature of capitalism necessitates it for all business owners. A rise in labor productivity does not necessarily lead to an increase in the overall supply of commodities or a decrease in the overall quantity of work that must be done by the general public (CALLON, 1998, p. 1). As a result of rising wealth disparity and a shrinking middle class, we see an increase in economic inequality. Those who have lost their occupations and are now compelled to engage in idle endeavours make up the "reserve army of labour, "which is steadily growing. Humans are devalued during the accumulation process in the same way that machinery is devalued. Workers are more dehumanized and exploited as the concept of "development" moves forward at an alarming pace.
Human labour can now produce more commodities and services than ever before because capitalism creates the conditions necessary for such expansion. These discoveries would not have been possible without the application of several scientific theories and the utilization of multiple machines. The rising socialization of production under capitalism is the root cause of all of these characteristics. The products of socialized labor, on the other hand, are all claimed by capitalists as their own because this type of socialization is only possible under the control of capitalism (CALLON, 1998, p. 244). It is only when labor is socially organized that the capitalist possibilities are revealed as the social powers of labor. When labor is organized, the social powers of the workforce are unleashed. Rather than as a social relationship entwined with the process of production, the capabilities of capital are seen as inherent in the means of production instead. A lack of understanding about how money works have contributed to this.
The social structure, in which employees are currently operating, was not created by individuals individually. Instead, they are forced to interact with it as a capitalist system and must do so. They are informed of the situation in this way. Social aspects of working circumstances, including usage of machinery and capital fixed in all forms, appear to remain even if they are combined with the employee. Even if it is merged with the worker, this is still the case. So, as a result, it looks to be a capitalist-ordered practice that has no consideration for workers' interests at all (CALLON, 2007, p. 311). A capitalist social character appears to be bestowed upon the conditions of production as a result of this. This means that it appears to be apart from the workers and to be an intrinsic part of the production circumstances itself.
Karl Marx's critique of political economy was the culmination of a long and failed period of academic labor. The vast majority of Marx's publications, including his notebooks, correspondence, and other journalistic resources, are available to us for research purposes. Marx has created only two theoretical works that he wrote particularly for publication: The Critique of Political Economy and the three various editions of the first volume of Capital. It was Marx who penned both of them. With this, our readings of "What Marx genuinely meant" should be approached cautiously (CALLON, 2007, p. 111).
To focus on theoretical arguments, we must avoid giving undue weight to passages that have been removed from their original context and against giving too little weight to assertions that are made just for rhetorical or polemic purposes. Just two times in Marx's lifetime, he devoted his time to advancing his theory on modern society. The methodological grounds of the critique were formed between 1844 and 1847. Between 1857 and 1867, he worked carefully through all of the "economic trash" to construct the theoretical implications that resulted from it. During Marx's lifetime, he lived in three separate phases.
2 ENGELS’ CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
Marx was completely ignorant of the political economy until 1844. Because money is the most abstract and universal expression of alienation, it is the source of his moral-philosophical critique. However, the study of political economy by Friedrich Engels provided him with an economic basis for his moral-philosophical critique of capitalism. On the other hand, Marx went further than Engels in his criticism. We must first examine Engels' critique of the market before we can understand Marx's (CHRISTOPHERS, 2014, p. 12).
Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy sparked Marx's interest in political economics. For his part, Engels' critique of capitalism focused on the economic and moral problems that competition created. Engels contended that the following crises of capitalism were caused by the increase in competitiveness among private industrial asset owners.
Private property, Engels claimed in his critique of political economy, is the source of all market system ills. This demonstration showed that private property generates competition for economic interests in the marketplace, utilizing private property as a case study. Through this conflict, the values of the market are defined. They, like economists, reject the existence of the conflict that underpins product distribution. Instead of the "relationship between land productivity and human side, competitiveness," as economists have shown, the basic cause of rent is not disparities in soil output, as economists have claimed (CHRISTOPHERS, 2014, p. 15).
As far as product allocation goes, "There is no inherent standard; it is a wholly foreign and, in their case, lucky norm – competition, the wise right of the stronger." This leads to fragmentation, which divides capitalists against capitalists and workers against workers as a result of private property. Competitiveness is the key to eradicating human wickedness as it currently exists.
Because supply and demand, in a private property system, are constantly out of balance, society develops via competition between different types of interests. There are many reasons for this imbalance, but the first and most important one is that the economic players are ill-informed. The imbalance stemmed from a lack of information. Because we are all currently living in a state of unconsciousness, it is impossible to estimate the size of the market (EMMANUEL, 1972, p. 80). Prices rise when there is a discrepancy between supply and demand. This, in turn, promotes additional supply to be generated. As soon as it is introduced, prices start to fall; if supply is greater than demand, prices keep dropping, reviving the consumer’s interest. The result of this is an unhealthy situation that prevents any progress from being made because the cycle of overstimulating and fading never ends. Economists deem this law to be one of the best due to its ongoing revision. Anything that is lost in one place is gained somewhere. On the other hand, this is a natural law rather than a mental law. It is a universal law that states that all things must change. In his brilliant theory of demand and supply, the economist says that "One can never produce too much," but in practice, trade crises occur as frequently as comets. According to the economist, "One can never generate too much." These corporate upheavals, on the other hand, show that the law is reaffirmed in a different way than the economist would like us to believe (FINE, 2003, p. 478). As an example: if regulation can only be implemented by periodic disturbances, what do we make of it? The fact that the participants were completely unaware of what was going on proves that this is a universal law.
To avoid rivalry and crises, producers would need to know what their clients needed, the amount they needed to make themselves as well as how much they needed to share among themselves. If you continue to produce like humans, rather than scattering particles that have no idea who they are, all of these unnatural and impossible-to-test hypotheses will vanish. "There will be more trade disruptions as long as you continue to produce haphazardly and negligently, leaving everything up to chance. Each new financial crisis will be worse than the last because it will have extended more and further. A bigger number of small capitalists will become poorer as a result, and the number of people who rely only on their labor will increase, which will lead to an increase in the amount of labor required (CW3, 433-434).
As a result of the competitive character of the economy, there is a constant desire to overproduce, which leads to an imbalance between supply and demand. Competition between capital, labor, and land eventually causes production to reach a fever pitch, at which time all-natural and rational linkages are flipped on their heads by production (FINE, 2002, p. 200). No capital will be able to resist the challenge of other forms of investment if it is not used to its utmost capacity. To win a competitive dispute, one must put up the most effort possible and give up all of their basic human ambitions in to so. It is impossible to avoid the following weakness that results from this overexertion.
Only those who are unable to cope with the pressures of competition would be left behind, according to Engels, who does not go into great detail on how this leads to overproduction. Individuals who cannot keep up with the competition are left behind, and he refers to this as "the stronger wins" in the context of the battle. At the beginning of the development of capitalism, redundancy, and overproduction cycles coexisted side by side. Eventually, the economy will reach a point of excess productive power, resulting in the mass extinction of the human race as a result of a lack of available resources (HARVEY, 1975, p. 200). Both the circumstances of the country and its demeanour have attracted ridicule for some years now in England. Boom and bust cycles, also known as overproduction and underproduction, are likely to occur when production is subjected to higher volatility in a circumstance like this one. Contradictory capitalism is embodied in this cycle of boom and bust, poverty and surplus, overwork and underemployment, and the capitalist mode of production as a whole is not an exception to this pattern.
For Marxism, it is important to remember that Engels linked the crisis tendencies of capitalism to competition (CW4, 508). However, he also made the point that "[…] all is done blindly, as guesswork, more or less at the mercy of accident in the market." (CW4, 508; 382 of CW4) As an analogy, he cited the general cycle as the root cause of the incapacity of separate markets to coordinate supply and demand (HARVEY, 1985a, p. 9). It is because of the centralizing tendencies of competition, as well as the rising monopolization of industry, that the general cycle is feasible, he explained. "The greatest levers for the autonomous growth of the proletariat" can be found in the economic crises, according to Marx's critic, Friedrich Engels. In part, this is due to technological advancements that allow the "reserve army" workers’ regular infusion (CW4, 384, 429). "The mightiest levers for the autonomous growth of the proletariat" can also be found in economic crises (CW4, 580).
3 ALIENATED LABOR AND THE FETISHISM OF THE COMMODITY IN CAPITALISM-RULED SOCIETIES
Marx's annotations on James Mill's analysis of the value form served as the basis for his critique of political economics and the capitalist mode of production. Marx's critique of political economy was likewise strongly dependent on the capitalist mode of production. Marx began each new chapter of Critique of Political Economy and Volume One of Capital by extending and enhancing the analysis he had begun in 1851 in his notebooks and Grundrisse. Each subsequent chapter began with this growth and elaboration of the analysis (HARVEY, 1985b, p. 20).
Marx's method holds that the underlying social relations of production cannot be separated from the commercial connection for analysis. After performing his research, he comes to this conclusion. Both the buyer and the seller are not private individuals; rather, society determines who they are. They are commodities bearers whose skills and attributes come from their function in the social reproduction of production. The social interaction it shows is not specified by exchange, a formal abstraction. An exchange happens when two parties decide to exchange products or services. By contrasting Marx's market theory with Smith's examination of the trade relationship, we can have a better understanding of the relevance of Marx's claim. The perception of the exchange relationship as an asymmetrical link between two nominally identical property owners is a flaw in Smith's reasoning. Smith's analysis is flawed in this regard. Engels was critical of political economy because it disregards the inherent power imbalances in such relationships, where "the smart right of the stronger" prevails in the inevitable conflict of interests (HARVEY, 2010a, p. 1). Nonetheless, this critique against Smith is not fundamental because it does not undermine Smith's premise that both sides benefit by trading, regardless of the unequal strength and advantages of each side. This critique against Smith is not fundamental because it does not undermine Smith's premise that trading benefits both parties.
Marx's critique of political economy focuses on the asymmetry of social function rather than the unequal power relations between actors in transactions. As a result, it is easier to see the asymmetry in social function (HARVEY, 2010b, p. 12). Fortuitous interactions between isolated producers of specialized use-values, who exchange these use-values to satisfy each other's mutual desires, are the foundation of market theory. There is a balanced relationship between those who sell and buy products privately (although, as Smith himself recognized, such casual exchange will not lead to a determinate exchange relation, nor are these possessors of things yet owners). Asymmetry between the owners of money and those who possess things is not the norm in societies that have produced commodities, but rather the norm in those societies. This disparity complicates the interaction between the parties involved. In other words, whenever people trade, the social power of money comes into conflict with the unpublished outcome of an individual's effort.
If you are employed by a private corporation, the output of your labour is not meant for you to use. Using value only works within the social production system as a whole, though. However, even though it was developed in private, it has been produced for others’ benefit, and the only way it can be a useful product is to be developed for others. Only by exchanging commodities for something else can the labor, which went into their production, be put to use for the benefit of society. A commodity is a social product. Exchanging something signifies social acceptance of the utility value of an object as a value unto itself, or expressed in another way (HENDERSON, 2019, p. 3).
Our understanding of commodities requires us to think of them as practical good that is produced by only a single person's effort and effort alone. On the other hand, the commodity itself cannot be put to any kind of immediate use. It can only be regarded as valuable if it is traded for something else. The creation of use-values collectively is impossible since it is only possible to satisfy human desires through the private production of commodities as values in a society that generates commodities. The social division of labor is determined by the free interchange of goods and services, not only the worth of individual commodities. The division of the effect of the labor on social relationships is expressed in this way (HENDERSON, 2006, p. 1).
Commodity value determination is complicated by the ambiguity and complexity of the social processes that drive it. It is necessary for an item to be traded firstly with someone who can value it before it can be assigned value to its social context. What matters most to the individual creator is that the worth of the product is realized, not who buys it. When it comes to the value of the commodity, the link between the individual and other producers is merely a blip on the radar. When it comes to commodities, it appears that the quality of a person-to-commodity relationship is intrinsically linked to the worth of the commodity itself.
As stated in Engels' critique of political economics, the "labour theory of value" derives the value of a commodity from its link to its producer, whereas the "utility theory of value" derives it from its relationship to its consumer. The value of a commodity does not appear to be influenced by the social context in which it is produced; rather, the worth of the commodity appears to originate from the fact that it is a result of labor and an object of desire (KALECKI, 1954, p. 57). Thus, the commodity has a built-in capacity for social power, which is derived from the social relations of production linked with the commodity. Isn't it more important to how a commodity performs in the context of other commodities in society to establish its value than how it looks on its own? When it comes to the "fetishism of commodities," this is where it all began.
Political economists idolized commodities because they neglected to take into account the possibility of social labor being taken. The naturalization of capitalist social relations was caused by a failure to explore the social basis of value. Even among the most well-known proponents of the monetary value system, including Adam Smith and David Ricardo, there is a propensity to treat the commodity as a separate entity from the monetary value system. This naturalization of capitalist social interactions led to the naturalization of capitalism. Even if they are only focusing on how much money it is worth, it is not enough. It has gotten much more buried. In the bourgeois mode of production, the value form of the output of labor, which is the most abstract and universal form, characterizes it as a historical and transitory form of social production distinct from other modes of production. The most widespread form of the bourgeois mode of production, the value form of the output of labor, allows this distinction to be drawn (KARATANI, 2014, p. 1). This leads to the erroneous belief that social production has always operated in this manner. If you do not understand the differences between different value forms and the various monetary systems, then you will not be able to make the best decisions.
Even though it is only an appearance, the fetishism of commodities is real. However, the relationship between individuals and things is predetermined, but the interaction between individuals is merely accidental. A person's social life is profoundly influenced by the circumstances of his or her material possessions. Since things are linked together, it is correct to say that social interactions can be communicated through these relationships. Commodity power does not exist, and it is naïve to believe that it does. One could argue that, instead of drawing its social strength from the commodity, it serves as a symbol of social alienation (KINCAID, 2007, p. 10). Commodity trade, as a social form of value production, must be studied in more depth. There must be more attention paid to understand the fundamental mystery of money, which is the most abstract and universal kind of currency power.
4 MONEY AS A SOCIAL RELATION AND A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
Because of this, classical political economics was unable to see how commodity production was a distinct sort of social relationship that could only be recognized through trade. As a result, in the political economy, money is not seen as a symbol of social relationships (LEVY, 2002, p. 137).
Traditionally, the exchange of goods and services was rather evenhanded. Commodities were exchanged between parties in a trade. The rate of exchange was set by the amount of labor done in the collecting of the given products. Therefore, each person was able to satisfy their needs through the trading of commodities. However, the content of trade was determined by the exchange of one person's private labor for another's private labor, and this was the form of the exchange. The trade of goods and services between individuals was seen as a private matter in ancient political economies. Private barter is the basis of the sophisticated trading system in capitalist countries, and money was created as a means of facilitating the coordination of desires (BRECHER, 2010, p. 1).
He argued that, contrary to Marx's ludicrous vision of business, the traditional political economy myth believes that, when isolated individuals engage in rare exchanges, exchange prices are not required to reflect the amount of labor that goes into producing certain goods. Exchange ratios could only be measured in this way in a highly competitive market. Every system of commerce already has a socially defined interest, thus achieving the private interest requires replicating the same social norms and practices. A person's wish can only be fulfilled if society determines the nature, manner and methods of doing so. Grundrisse (p.156; see page 156) cites the following:
As long as there is a well-developed trading system, there is no need for two separate transactions: one of use-value and one of labor value. There is an asymmetrical exchange rather than a series of one-to-one exchanges. If you value money over utility, then you are more likely to value a commodity than you are to value its utility. Contrast this with a transaction when the goal is to exchange a commodity that is not needed for one that is. As a result, the other commodity may be useful to me in the future as well. As opposed to the conventional explicit exchanging of use-values of the story, the exchange system aims to coordinate needs. There can be no international alienation of needs without the mediation of value. Direct commodity dealing has a basic asymmetry, which suggests that commerce is not as harmonious as the mainstream narrative suggests (LIE, 1997, p. 432).
Even the most basic notion of exchange cannot be reduced to the simple exchange of one good for another if we move away from the classic parable and understand exchange as a social phenomenon. Even in the most basic kind of transaction, this is true. A certain amount of genuine manual labor is required throughout the manufacturing process of each product I sell. And this amount varies from one product to the next. I truly hope that when I sell my work, I will get a fair price for the time and effort to create it. Alternatively, I am trying to portray my product as a symbol of nonmaterial, socially essential labor time, rather than as the product of my direct labor. Without this, understanding money is impossible.
The time spent by employees, who must do their duties, is more important to me than the amount of actual labor that went into its creation. So, I will treat it as an embodiment of abstract labor. As far as I am concerned, it does not matter how long it takes the other manufacturer to complete their product because the comparable has already been removed from the conditions under which it was made then (MACKENZIE, 2006, p. 341).
When you look at the exchange from the perspective of a social relationship, it becomes evident that my commodity is a part of a broader social universe of commodities. The fact that my commodity is the same as another's does not affect the fact that my commodity is the same as another's. When exchanging my commodity, the equivalent commodity is exchanged as such since it is an embodiment of abstract labour and, as such, represents a fraction of the total labor performed by society. The other commodity must be treated as an equal in exchange if it is to hold this level of social influence. As long as there is no connection between the two, it is just another commodity like any other (MACKENZIE; MUNIESA; SIL, L., 2007, p. 1). For every currency, there is always a commodity, and money is just another commodity. The fact that money is a global currency and an abstract representation of human labor, when seen as a commodity, means that it lacks many of the features that are commonly ascribed to it. The status of the money, as a currency replacement, has had a role in the development of these characteristics.
We commit one of the most prevalent errors in political economics if we think about money in isolation from the context in which it is transacted. Gold, according to the mercantilists, had intrinsic value. When it came to determine the value of an item, they focused solely on how much money it could be exchanged for; in other words, the worth of a good was defined by how much money it could be traded for. To put it another way, the value of gold is just the ratio of the values of two distinct commodities. The exchange value of gold, like that of any other commodity, is simply the ratio of the values of two different commodities. The market for mercantilism and monetarism has created an unexpected link between "exchange value" and "price." Classical economics argued that an item or genuine worth of service could only be expressed through its intrinsic value and that the market was just the route through which this value might be communicated to customers (MACKENZIE; MUNIESA; SIL, F., 2007b, p. 1).
Both of these views of money, according to Marx, are insufficient to explain its nature. One of the major tenets of classical political economy was that money is a distinct commodity that can be compared to other commodities. While this is true, monetarists were right to point out that money was created as a universal medium of exchange rather than a specific commodity. As soon as it is realized that power of money is derived from its social standing in the economic system, the problem is overcome. Money can only fully represent value if it serves as a universal equivalent. This is where the power of money comes from. Commodities and money can only represent collective relations as a result of production, and money is a byproduct of those relationships developing during the production of commodities themselves.
The social relation of money concretizes the link between the individual's labor and the collective labor undertaken by the society. Private labor is put to the test to see if it has any societal value or necessity by putting the commodity on the market (MARX, 1885, p. 1). Therefore, private labor aspires to be acknowledged as a unique category of abstract social labor. The quantity of labor time, that the market considers to be socially important, does not, then, imply that the actual amount of labor accomplished or that the labor is socially valuable in response to the stated needs of the market. Only when prices and values continually vary from the labor times stated in specific commodities, the socially regulated production of goods is viable. The discrepancy between the price of a commodity price and value leads to the production of alienated commodities. However, according to classical political economy, it was unimportant.
A society built on the production of commodities has a paradoxical foundation, which is the main reason for the crises that mark the development of capitalism. The formal abstractions of political economy, which reduce money to a technological instrument, conceal this conflict. These crises happen because the political economy treats money as a mere technological tool. When it comes to political economy, the only thing that can limit an infinite expansion of output is the natural environment. In contrast, a commercial transaction, that can be reduced to a formal transaction, has no issues whatsoever. Recurring crises are not caused by an alienated and irrational style of social production, as traditional political economy suggests. Human error is more likely to be the cause of these calamities (MARX, 1964, p. 1).
The bourgeois mode of production, according to Ricardo, is the only mode of production that matters, thus money is merely a formal means of circulation. The form of a commodity has no bearing on its value, and Ricardo would argue that barter and commodity circulation are just two different forms of exchange. When there is a crisis, it is difficult for him to accept that the bourgeois mode of production has a built-in obstacle to the unrestricted expansion of productive forces. However, only when producers fail to anticipate the consequences of their lack of foresight, causing a disruption of exchange can there be a crisis in commodity trading. To avoid the idea that crises are the consequence of chance, one must switch from commodities analysis to capital analysis (MARX, 1967, p. 1).
5 FROM THE COMMODITY TO CAPITALIST PRODUCTION
At least in his early writings, Marx did not distinguish between the production of commodities and the production of capitalist products. Insofar as commodities are used to reproduce social production relations, the shift to capitalist production will have a significant impact on how we think about trading interactions. Irrespective of how widely Capital is read, Marx did not provide the foundation for his critique of capitalism until Grundrisse (MARTIN, 2008).
For this reason, incidental bartering cannot be generalized to the systematic trade of products in political economy. As a society based on extensive commodity production, the analysis of commodities and money produced by commodity production may be applied to the analysis of a capitalist society, which is based on broad commodity production itself.
The shift from commodity production to capitalist production has a significant impact on the social structure of the economy. "Money capital," which he defined as "capital as money," was the most abstract sort of capital that he examined (Capital, I, p. 247). Unless it is used to create capital, money will never be able to "self-expand". When used as a means of exchange for goods, money cannot self-expand, and the same is true when it is kept in reserve. When money is in circulation, the only way to enhance its value is to buy something and then sell it. It is only then that money becomes capital as it grows in size as it moves through the economy. Value is transformed into money and then into the capital in this manner: value to money to capital. According to the article (Capital, I, p. 256; MIROWSKI, 2013, p. 213):
In the beginning, money is used to buy goods, which are then sold for profit by recovering the money spent on the original purchase. Value can be created in the form of "surplus value" by this process. "Capital" is a term for this phenomenon, in which the accumulation of value generates the sense that it can rise in value. Capital does not exist in the form of money or other commodities; it only takes on these forms as a result of the expansion of capital. Capital must undergo these transformations for it before the process does not raise the value of money or other commodities. The procedure would be unnecessary if this were the case. Thinking differently, on the other hand, means viewing capital "[…] as something rather than a connection" (page 258), and as a result giving in to the fetishizing notion of commodities, says Grundrisse. (MIROWSKI, 2007, p. 1980).
To be called capital, money and other commodities must be actively involved in the creation of new value. As a first step in understanding the workings of Capital, one must first understand how value can expand on its own. For a value sum to gain additional value as it travels, how is this possible? Capital must be able to appropriate labor at some point in its circulation without having to pay for it. Because of the location, this is not going to work out.
There can be no exchange because the only thing exchange does is altering the form that value takes. According to our understanding, at least. It is possible to have unequal exchanges, but that does not create any new value; all that happens is that the gains and losses are equalized. Although it is feasible to make uneven transactions, they will not add to the overall worth of the transaction. Merchants and usurers, for example, were responsible for redistributing value in the early stages of capitalism (MALLO, 2019, p. 1).
Value is created when human effort is integrated into the industrial process. Only the difference between estimated and actual labor costs can be used to generate surplus value. What exactly is it about work that prevents it from being fully compensated? Given that, this shows that labor is a commodity paid less than its value in the market. This raises the question of what distinguishes it from other commodities (MANRESA, 2020, p. 190).
Marx's conundrum was resolved by a careful analysis of the social structure of capitalism. He came to the conclusion that, instead of buying l labor, capitalists acquire the ability to produce that labor. When a worker was hired by a capitalist, no asymmetrical production relationship between the two parties was created, whereby each sold their "capital" to the company and earned an equal share of the finished output. Instead, the worker and the capitalist sold, each one, the firm and their respective "capitals," with the worker selling the corporation of his labor. By selling his ability to work (also known as "labour-power), the worker in issue sold the capitalist for a certain period. It was a capitalist's responsibility to put his money into action. Therefore, he purchased the necessary labor force and the necessary production gear (MITCHELL, 2007, p. 244). Workers are enslaved to the capitalist who owns their labor from day one. The first step in the process is to get started. To begin with, the product is owned by the capitalist, not by the worker who made it (Capital, I, pp. 291- 2).
These qualities were inevitable because manufacturing was based on the selling and purchasing of labour as a commodity.
When it comes to understand the concept of surplus value, it is important to know how much work a person does and how much work they sell. Because l labor can only be used or "consumed," the development of value, which establishes labor as an independent good in its own right, is necessary. Because labor is a commodity, it is paid for at its market value, but it can be put to use in ways that produce more value than its market price once it has been purchased.
If “labor” and "work-power" are not interchangeable terms, they are part of a fundamental division between "use value" and "value," which is at the root of most political economy misunderstandings. It is critical to distinguish between labor and labor power because each one reflects a separate social relationship, which can only be generated through a specific set of social interactions relating to production. People's ability to work is determined by the amount of effort they put in. It is up to every individual and collective work to realize this potential if they have the resources to do so. The link between labor-power and actual labor has been dissolved throughout history because workers have historically been cut off from the means of production and subsistence. Workers and capitalists are currently engaged in an exchange of goods and services. Labor-power exchanges their labor power for the equivalent of the means of subsistence they supply for themselves under this arrangement. For the payment of the wage, a capitalist receives full ownership of the results of the work done by his employees. When a transaction is complete, however, a product has not yet been created. To build it, the workers must bring their distinctive viewpoints and free will to bear on the production process (FUENTES; FUENTES, 2017, p. 529).
If you want to put it another way, they've given up on maximizing the influence of what they can achieve because they no longer feel entitled to anything that might come from their labor. It is his responsibility to ensure that the employees produce more value than he has invested in variable capital, and to achieve this, he must subordinate the workers' desires to his own. In other words, he must ensure that they generate a return on investment greater than the amount invested. Labor-power and labor can only be understood in labor output as a result of this conflict of interests.
Surplus value is not determined by labor time, but rather by an analysis of capitalist production based on the distinction between the value of labor and labor-power, which are established independently of one another. This is a key point to keep in mind. This is because Marx created the theory of surplus value. Overhead costs for labor and equipment are deducted from the profit of the product to arrive at the amount of surplus value that a business generates. Production cannot begin until the aforementioned sum has been received. Capacity defines the size of the capitalist’s operation and it can persuade workers to work additional hours beyond what is required to deliver a product of equal value to the sum that was originally stated. A capitalist form of the social determination of production does not rely on Ricardo or Marx, but on the capital itself, which reduces the actual activity of labor to the time spent on it. This is why it is permissible to describe the output value in this way. That is why there is no need for the " labor theory of value" to be a presupposition to "surplus value," but rather a result, in terms of how accurately it reflects the social structure of the capitalism. Why? Because it is a natural outgrowth of the theory that labor itself creates value.
As labor and labor-power are distinct, it is feasible to achieve a balance between the two ones, resolving political economy conflicts. Here are two components to the value of labor: the value it has as a commodity, and the value it contributes to the total product value. Pay is a measurement for both of these. As a result, its value is not in line with the current exchange rate. Profits are generated by underpaying workers compared to their market value. This is what they concluded. Capitalists and workers have an unequal distribution of goods and services, which leads to exploitative working conditions, according to this school of thinking. A division between labor and labor power allows Marx to do this (MUNIESA, 2007, p. 1).
6 THE CAPITALIST PROCESS OF THE MARKET ECONOMY
The incorporation of the notion of capital broadens our comprehension of production and trading. The production process is no longer under the direct producer's control. Direct producers may only work for and be directed by a single person, the capitalist, under capitalist production as long as the means of production and the means of production are kept apart. Creating value and surplus value is the capitalist's fundamental objective, not producing use-values. Sub-side-value production under capitalism necessitates the creation of use values. To put it another way, the work of capitalism no longer entails the use of production equipment to create useful goods. Rather than the worker being employed by capital, the means of production are employed by the worker instead of the other way around (Capital, I, p. 425).
Workers should not be viewed as a technical process in the labor process that is accompanied by equipment because of the "technical and observable actuality of the item above them." In this example, as in many others, social power can only be acquired through the growth of specialized social ties. When workers use machines, just a portion of the power of the capital may be applied to them. Alienated labor is a source of the power of the capital and a tool that capitalists can utilize to hire more workers by acquiring surplus value. Therefore, capitalism is a system that values things above people, values dead labor over living labour, and values producers above goods. The production process is only subject to the value-creation process in a capitalist labor process. There are still aspects of the labor process that involve people for an independent commodity producer. Efforts to reduce labor time are the only criterion in the capitalist labor process. Productivity is completely subordinated to profit and surplus value in the labor process of a capitalist economy. Instead of a cooperative technological arena for the production of use values, production is a never-ending battleground over the length of the working day, the intensity of labor, and the degradation and workers’ dehumanization. Production with the inherent exploitation of employees in the capitalist system, trade is characterised by the freedom and equal treatment of all participants (O'HARA, 2001, p.13).
7 OVERPRODUCTION AND THE GROWTH OF THE WORLD MARKET
Disproportionality appears to be a matter of chance as competitiveness and disproportionality become more interwoven. When it comes down to it, the individual moments have until now been completely unconcerned with each other. They determine and search for each other internally but they may never meet, balance or correspond with one another. To begin with, the occurrence of events, that are intimately linked but otherwise unrelated to one another, is required for the creation of a paradox. CW28 and 340 are the two most common examples.
The continual effort made by capital to overcome external and internal obstacles to its reproduction is a historical dynamic of capital accumulation that links production and circulation. This historical cycle of capital accumulation links production and circulation. Although capital accumulation tends to grow production capacity, regardless of market constraints, the increased output must still be sold for forged capital to be realized, which in turn enables the reproduction of capital to occur. The propensity of the capitalism to expand into new markets all over the world is determined by this. Because productivity varies so widely across countries, commodities can travel freely across them. This occurs as a result of a mismatch in the market between money changers and investors. A worldwide market is required for industrial production to find an active demand for its output once it has reached the modern stage of development, which is the same as finding an equivalent for its output.
The need to increase capital is inextricably linked to the desire to produce more and more with no end in sight, as capital accumulation was the major driving force behind the creation of the global market.
There can be little doubt that a global market will arise as a result of the fundamental qualities of the money. Thus, capital tends to expand the sphere of circulation while also transforming it into production, which is carried out by capital at every step in the chain of circulation. The fundamental contributor to the creation of relative surplus value is an increase in productivity. As a result, existing consumption increases, existing needs spread, and new needs and use values emerge.
As opposed to drive market growth and generate new demands, the major force behind the dynamic of capitalism is a firm determination by capital to fight against its natural inclination to amass and spread out in an unbalanced manner. This is because the capitalist mode of the dynamic of the production is derived from the efforts of the capital to overcome its tendency to accumulate and unevenly develop. A more accurate way of putting it is to say that market growth is strengthening the tendency to amass wealth and produce an excessive amount of commodities, rather than lessening it. This is the exact opposite of what one might predict (PECK, 2012, p. 129).
Extending credit promotes market growth, which accommodates discrepancies, enables the smooth liquidation of less lucrative capitals and absorbs insolvency, so reducing the over-accumulation of the capital. On the other side, excessive capital accumulation has the potential to set off a global crisis that is brought on by excessive global capital accumulation. Ripples spread across the entire system as a result of the downward spiral. When a company goes bankrupt, it sets off a chain reaction of defaults, which causes the market to shrink (PECK, 2007, p. 113). We use the term "systemic crisis" to describe a situation in which the entire system is under stress. In the typically benign evolution of the capitalism, there is no pathological eruption. Pathological eruptions are simply the most extreme manifestation of the accumulation character, and they are the result of the capitalists' subjective ignorance or misjudgment, rather than the most dramatic expression of the perennially crisis-ridden accumulation character.
CONCLUSION
It is unavoidable that some form of public banking and producer cooperatives will take over the economy to preserve society from catastrophic collapse if privatization and marketization are allowed to continue unchecked. This will be done to avert the catastrophic devastation that would otherwise occur. It has always been a key goal of the revolutionary movement to overthrow these institutions. From the time I first encountered Marxism and other radical ideologies, I have been a firm believer in the idea of "cooperative," or workers' democracy.
A democratically administered national industry is nothing more than worker cooperatives on a greater scale and in a political context, even if Marxists have long urged that important industries should be nationalized. This is because worker cooperatives have been around for a long time. As long as people believe that participatory budgeting, community land trusts, and other models based on democratic administration and ownership remain commonplace, it will be easier to take on the most powerful businesses in the world.
Progressives and "radical reformers", who want a more democratic and cooperative political economy, as well as more traditional progressives, who want to reverse the international austerity regime, will both ones benefit from the resulting chaos if the dire predictions of yet another economic collapse come true. Because of this, the international austerity regime will be more easily overturned if there is a state of anarchy. To put it simply, it is hard to imagine how a scenario like this could ever be avoided. Workers will set the foundation for truly revolutionary changes as long as activists struggle to transform production relations at all levels (regional/national/global) to eliminate private profit appropriation and authoritarian exploitative corporate structures. Transitioning away from “growth economy” capitalism, which devastates the environment, people, democracy and society as a whole, may be conceivable in the future.
For example, even while the fundamental concepts of Marxism might help guide our understanding of the path forward, we must discard the proletarian revolution as a model for a gradualist change in society. Building a new economy from the ground up and fighting for changes in public policy are two separate but intertwined tasks. Marxism has taken on this form in the twenty-first century.
La visión marxista de la economía política mundial y la nueva tendencia del mercado
Resumen: Desde el principio ha sido muy obvio que el capitalismo es un tipo de empresa engañosa. Por otro lado, el capitalismo ha estado vinculado a la acumulación masiva de riqueza. Como se indica, el capitalismo ha estado vinculado a la explotación, a una creciente desigualdad de la riqueza, a colapsos económicos y a conflictos internacionales. La economía política ha estudiado durante mucho tiempo cómo interactúan las dos caras del capitalismo. ¿Es posible arreglar los problemas del capitalismo preservando sus beneficios, como afirman sus partidarios? Algunos anticapitalistas sostienen que limitar o eliminar el capitalismo es la única manera de acabar con él. La teoría tendrá el mayor impacto en el resultado de esta situación. Los economistas ven los mercados como un lugar en el que todos reciben un trato justo a la hora de valorar y recompensar las contribuciones económicas a la sociedad. El reino del mercado, en vez de culpar los defectos sociales e individuales de manera global, culpa la carencia del individuo manera particular. La clave para formular una predicción sólida de la caída del orden actual es la tesis marxiana de que las relaciones de producción constituyen la base de toda civilización. En otras palabras, las estructuras de clase sustentan las instituciones políticas, culturales e ideológicas. De ello se desprende que una sociedad postcapitalista sólo puede desarrollarse en la medida en que surjan nuevas relaciones de producción, o de clase (o más exactamente, relaciones “sin clases”). De forma similar a cómo surgieron nuevas relaciones económicas a lo largo del tiempo cuando Europa pasó de una sociedad feudal al capitalismo industrial, y cómo se construyeron nuevas sociedades sobre estos sistemas, en las próximas generaciones surgirán nuevas manifestaciones de crecimiento masivo de la producción para que la especie humana experimente menos épocas de crisis económica. A finales de 2007, la economía mundial se desplomó rápidamente, obligando a los bancos a declararse en quiebra y a necesitar rescates gubernamentales. La principal idea errónea de las economías de mercado, que se autorregulan de forma natural, quedó rebatida. La catástrofe brindó la oportunidad a los individuos de reevaluar cuestiones de larga data que habían quedado sin resolver porque desafió las nociones preconcebidas. La obra fundamental de Marx, "El Capital", según las librerías de todo el mundo, tuvo un espectacular aumento de ventas tras la crisis. En algunos aspectos, el marxismo parece estar regresando. Debido a la tradición crítica que creó, que abarca las humanidades y las ciencias sociales, el marxismo no puede entenderse adecuadamente dentro del marco del siglo XIX. Marx fue capaz de influir en el agua que bebemos y en el aire que respiramos incluso en lugares donde fue rechazado. El marxismo es omnipresente, como han demostrado las dos primeras décadas del siglo XXI. Mientras sirvan de catalizadores para el bienestar y el desarrollo de la sociedad, las tendencias económicas contemporáneas como el espíritu empresarial y la libre empresa no son desalentadas por el marxismo moderno.
Palabras clave: Marxismo moderno. Economía política. Economía de Mercado. Capitalismo. Economía del siglo XXI.
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Received: 27/07/2022
Accept: 27/09/2022
Comment on “Marxist view on global political economy and new market trends”
Commented Article: Zhang, Fengrong; XIAO, Qianwen. Marxist view on global political economy and new market trends. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 79- 106, 2023.
Zhang and Xiao (2023) have skillfully dealt with a complex and intricate topic. The new market trends, such as laissez-faire and free market economy, and their role in global political economy with a Marxist view, were juxtaposed so elegantly. However, no work is without its flaws and weaknesses; this work is no exception. First and foremost, the writers have reiterated the same old mantra of ‘capitalism is evil.’ Even from the start of the abstract, the writers have mainly focused on the so-called defects of the capitalist system. They should have taken a middle ground and criticized this system from a vantage point of impartiality and with zero bias. Second, in the introduction, the writers reiterated trite and cliched quotes from Marx about Capital and its adverse effects on and for society. This lopsided view gives the readers the impression that the writers have a tilt toward one particular point of view. Third, the writers have failed to show a Marxist theory of emerging market economy trends. They would have been better placed if they had given due importance to modern Marxist approaches to these new economic trends and their relevance in the twenty-first century. Fourth, the writers’ criticism that Marx’s view on the unbridled forces of the economy was misplaced. These are not uncontrolled forces. This is called a free market economy wherein the business trends determine the price allocation and capping of the goods and other merchandise, which is not unfair to the buyer. Almost invariably, the free market economy delivers affordable goods to consumers, which is a positive step. The free market economy has contributed significantly to the prosperity of the world. Fifth, the writers have not sufficiently addressed the relevance of Marxist political and economic perspectives regarding new market trends that currently have their currency around the globe.
It has been abundantly clear from the beginning that capitalism is a deceitful type of business. On the other hand, capitalism has been connected to a significant increase in wealth. As it was already said, capitalism has been associated with exploitation, widening income disparities, economic crises and interstate hostilities. Political economists have long researched the interactions between the two facets of capitalism. Some anti-capitalists assert that the only way to stop capitalism is by reducing or eradicating it. The most significant influence on the outcome of this circumstance will come from the theory. Economists believe that when evaluating and rewarding economic contributions to society, markets are places where everyone is treated fairly. The root cause of societal and personal issues is an individual deficit, not market supremacy. The key to coming to a sound conclusion concerning the end of the current order is the Marxian thesis that production relations form the basis of every society. In other words, political, cultural and intellectual institutions are supported by class systems. It follows that a post-capitalist organization can only develop as new production relations, or more specifically, class (or rather, “no class” links), emerge (ANDERSON, 1980).
In the same way that new economic relationships emerged over time, as Europe transitioned from a feudal system to industrial capitalism, and a contemporary society was built on top of these systems, new manifestations of massive production growth will emerge in the ensuing generations so that the human species experiences fewer times of economic crisis. Late in 2007, the world economy quickly crashed, forcing banks to declare bankruptcy and need government bailouts. The main misconception of market economies that they are naturally self-regulatory has been disproved. The disaster provided a chance for individuals to reevaluate long-standing issues that had remained unsolved because it challenged preconceived notions. According to bookshops around the globe, Marx’s seminal work “Capital” had a dramatic rise in sales following the crisis. In some ways, Marxism seems to be making a comeback. Due to the critical tradition he created, which spans the humanities and social sciences, Marxism cannot be adequately understood within a 19th-century framework. Marx was able to influence the water we drink and the air we breathe, even in locations where he was shunned. Marxism is pervasive, as the first two decades of the twenty-first century have demonstrated. As long as they serve as catalysts for the welfare and development of society, contemporary economic tendencies, like entrepreneurship and free enterprise, are not discouraged by modern Marxism (ARTHUR et al., 1998).
Until Adam Smith, businesses could profit by abusing their customers by utilizing guaranteed monopolistic powers. Regardless of how much money the landowning class fritters away due to their inefficiency and laziness, surplus funds can be distributed to the merchant class (and the state) and the nation, benefiting both ones. The individuals on the periphery of society could only benefit from an excess of riches during times of war or economic crises brought on by trade disruption due to natural, political, or military events. If state policies based on the commercial and colonial systems are to succeed, they must be modified for the capitalist system (MARX, 1991, p. 120).
Adam Smith made two significant contributions to civilization. First, he contended that rather than being the outcome of forced expropriation of capital, the surplus was caused by an expansion in the division of labor and an increase in its productive application. On the other hand, he believed that business collaboration was a condition everyone benefits from (KEYNESIANISM, 1988, p. 10).
For a transaction to be effective, all parties involved must stand to gain anything from it; otherwise, they won’t participate. An individual will always choose the trade option that will bring them the most significant benefit when a variety of trade options are provided to that individual. This includes exchanges between capitalists and workers (BAUMOL, 1974, p. 51). These two ideas state that trade restrictions restrict the capacity of, at least, one party to profit from a transaction. The potential for greater capital utilization within the economy and an improvement in general well-being are two further advantages of the trade. Monopoly power may be advantageous to the monopolist, but it is detrimental to the entire country. The wealth of the country will increase as a result of the colonial and commercial systems, disputes and commercial crises being eliminated. The problems of capitalism are not caused by capitalism itself; instead, they are caused by human greed and foolishness, which has allowed the monopolistic system to continue (BARKER, 1991, p. 204).
Adam Smith’s economic theory is based on the notion that trading and production are unrelated. The workers’ hard work, dexterity, job specialization and mechanization, as well as the fertile soil they worked in, all contributed to their increased production (KEYNESIANISM, 2000, p. 45). All three of the sources of production – land, labour and capital – could contribute to the overall output of the economy, according to influential thinker Jean-Baptiste Say. Say developed this idea after being influenced by the Physiocrats. The division of labor was permitted to thrive because of the free market, which led to a growth in the wealth of the nation and the number of people it could support. Even so, the distribution of finances among the numerous industrial components was hardly affected by commerce (BARAN, 2008, p. 60).
People believed that resource distribution was the only purpose of trading. This theory proposes that changes in pricing led to a change in how labor and capital were allocated. These adjustments were made in line with the broad trend of the nation toward revenue parity across all industry segments. To put it another way, in a free market, factor owners’ revenues were in balance with their productive efforts (DIETZ, 1975, p. 142). In order to ensure that salaries accurately reflected productivity contributions at the predetermined pace of economic expansion, the exchange rate just operated as a purely technical mechanism. Uncontrolled competition slowed the equilibration process, causing income to be lost by their original owners and transferred to other parties. You cannot be taken advantage of because monopoly power prevents competition from levelling the playing field (BRENNER, 1977, p. 25).
Money solely serves practical purposes, in Smith’s view. Monetarists and mercantilists argue that it is false to believe that wealth can only be acquired via the use of money. These people share this opinion. David Hume’s contention that money is only a medium of exchange served as the basis for Smith’s position. For Smith, money served only as a means of exchange for goods. In the long run, hoarding money and keeping it out of circulation do not help the owner financially; rather, they inhibit the owner from being able to increase his wealth by putting his resources to productive use, which results in a loss of gain (AGNEW, 1979, p. 99). Unless such riches are tied to monopolistic power, accumulating financial wealth does not give its owner any special economic rights because the pressure of competition limits the power of money (BURNHAM, 1991, p.73).
Money hoards are utilized to establish a reserve fund to prevent the collapse of the economy. A person’s ability to exchange money for other currencies increases with their overall wealth; therefore, having more money makes sense. Because of this, a change in the money supply can only impact the level of prices overall and has no bearing on the goods produced or traded during a particular period. Smith, therefore, created the idea of a conceptual division between natural and monetary systems comparable to the concept of separating production from the exchange (BARAN; SWEEZY, 1966, p. 258).
Adam Smith’s evolution of this concept is challenging because of the various inconsistencies throughout his writings. Its fundamental concepts have served as the foundation for political economy and economics. This so-called science asserts that it is possible to create a perfect capitalist system utilizing capitalist Smithian principles. This model can be used to gauge how effectively existing capitalist systems operate. It follows that the model seems to represent the essence of capitalism and that any problems in natural capitalism are caused by institutional and human limits (BARRY; SLATER, 2002, p. 285). Because they are unskilled, greedy and stupid, those who use the system are to blame for its flaws rather than the system itself. There was an increase in these secular faiths during the early stages of capitalism.
The inclusion of capital expands our understanding of production and trade. The direct producer no longer has control over the production process. As long as the means and the methods of production are maintained distinct, direct producers may only be employed by and supervised by one individual: the capitalist. The primary goal of a capitalist is to create value and surplus value, not to create use values. These ones must be created in order to produce sub-side values in capitalism. To put it another way, using manufacturing machinery to make useful things is no longer necessary for capitalism to function. The means of production are employed by the worker rather than the other way around, as opposed to the capital employing the worker (THOMAS, 2014).
As a result of the “technical and observable actuality of the item above them,” workers should not be considered as a technical process in the labor process that is accompanied by equipment. In this instance, as in many others, gaining social influence requires the development of specialized social ties. Only a tiny percentage of the power of capital may be used on the machines that employees use. The ability of capitalists to hire e workers by acquiring surplus value comes from the use of alienated labor. As a result, capitalism is a system that prioritizes producers over products, dead labor over living labor, and things above people. In a capitalist labor process, the value-creation process is the only process that affects the production process. An independent commodities producer still uses people in some parts of the labor process. The sole criteria used in the capitalist labor process are attempts to shorten the amount of workdays. In a capitalist economy, productivity is fully subject to profit and surplus value. Production is a never-ending fight over the length of the working day, the intensity of labor, and the degradation and dehumanization of workers rather than a cooperative technological arena for producing valuable goods. Production trade is characterized by the independence and equitable treatment of all participants, in contrast to the inherent exploitation of employees in the capitalist system (O’HARA; MARX, 2001, p. 13).
As competitiveness and disproportionality grow more entwined, disproportionality seems to be a matter of luck. In the end, the individual moments have been wholly indifferent to one another up to this point; they determine and seek one another out internally, but they may never meet, balance, or correlate with one another. The first condition for the emergence of a paradox is the occurrence of events that are intimately tied yet otherwise unrelated to one another. Examples of CW28 and 340 are two of the most prevalent.
A historical dynamic of capital accumulation that connects production and circulation is the constant struggle capital makes to overcome internal and external barriers to its reproduction. Production and circulation are bound by this historical cycle of capital accumulation. Although capital accumulation tends to enhance production capacity despite market restrictions, the extra output still needs to be sold for forged capital to be realized, which then permits the reproduction of capital. This determines the capacity of the capitalism to penetrate new markets around the globe. Commodities can move freely across nations because productivity varies so greatly among them. This happens due to a market mismatch between investors and money changers. Once industrial production reaches the current level of development, which is the same as finding an equivalent for its output, it needs a global call to find an active demand for its production.
As capital accumulation was a crucial factor in the development of the global market, the urge to accumulate capital is closely tied to the desire to produce more and more with no end in sight. There is little doubt that the underlying characteristics of money will lead to the emergence of a global market. Because capital performs production at every link in the circulation chain, it tends to modify and enlarge the sphere of circulation. An increase in productivity is the primary factor in producing relative surplus value. Existing consumption rises as a result, as do needs, and new requirements and use values appear.
The main driving force behind the dynamic of the capitalism is not market expansion or the creation of new needs, but rather the steadfast will of the capital to battle against its natural tendency to gather and expand out in an imbalanced way. This is due to the dynamic of the capitalist mode of production being formed from the attempts of the capital to combat its propensity to accumulate and develop unevenly. To put it more accurately, market expansion is boosting, not diminishing, the propensity to accumulate riches and generate excessive quantities of commodities. Contrary to what may be expected, this is the exact reverse (PECK, 2012, p. 129).
Credit growth promotes market expansion, which accommodates differences, enables the orderly liquidation of less lucrative capitals, absorbs insolvency and lowers capital accumulation. On the other hand, a global crisis brought on by excessive global capital accumulation can start as a result of excessive global capital accumulation. There were reverberations across the entire system as a result of the downward spiral. When a business declares bankruptcy, a sequence of defaults follows, which leads the market to shrink (PECK; THEODORE, 2007, p. 113). When the entire system is under stress, we refer to the situation as a “systemic crisis.” There is no malignant eruption in the generally peaceful evolution of capitalism. Instead of the most spectacular expression of the constantly crisis-ridden accumulation character, pathological eruptions are just the most severe manifestation of the accumulation character and they are the outcome of capitalists’ subjective ignorance or misjudgment.
If privatization and marketization are allowed to proceed unchecked, it is inevitable that some kind of public banking and producer cooperatives will take over the economy to prevent society from experiencing a catastrophic collapse. To avoid the cataclysmic destruction that would otherwise take place, this will be done. A major objective of the revolutionary movement has always been to topple these institutions. I have held a strong belief in the concept of “cooperative,” or workers’ democracy, ever since I first read Marxism and other radical philosophies.
Even while Marxists have long advocated for the nationalization of significant industries, a democratically run national sector is nothing more than worker cooperatives on a larger scale and in a political context. This is because worker cooperatives have existed for a very long period. It will be simpler to take on the most powerful corporations in the world as long as people think that democratic administration and ownership models like participatory budgeting, community land trusts and others are still the norms.
If the dire predictions of yet another economic collapse come true, progressives and “radical reformers”, who want a more democratic and cooperative political economy, as well as more traditional progressives, who want to reverse the international austerity regime, will both benefit from the resulting chaos. Because of this, a condition of anarchy will make it simpler to overthrow the global austerity system. Said, it’s difficult to envision how a situation like this could ever be averted. As long as activists fight to restructure production relations at all levels (regional, national and global) to eliminate private profit appropriation as well as authoritarian and exploitative corporate institutions, workers will lay the groundwork for revolutionary changes. In the future, it might be possible to move away from “growth economy” of capitalism, which destroys the environment, people, democracy and society. Marxism has to reorient itself to the needs and demands of the free market economy, which has run the economy of the world successfully for many decades now and in the foreseeable future.
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Received: 27/12/2022
Approved: 10/01/2023
A Study of the styles and characteristics of basic music theory textbooks in China in the past 100 years
Abstract: Due to various historical and realistic reasons, the development of basic music theory in China lags behind in the teaching system, teaching content and other aspects. It is an important task for Chinese music workers to revise or supplement the current basic music theory and related textbooks and then build a discipline system of basic music theory in China. This paper synthesizes the theories of music education and music history, music culture, music morphology and other related disciplines. It uses scientific, objective and rational values and holistic and comprehensive concepts. It takes the development of the basic music theory education of China as the research object and takes history as a mirror to further consider and prospect the construction of the basic music theory discipline system of China. The basic theory of Chinese Music can be roughly divided into three stages: (1) The basic music theory from the early 20th century to the founding of the People's Republic of China; (2) From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the period of reform and opening up; (3) Basic music theory compiled and published since the reform and opening up. It can be seen, from the development of the basic theory education of Chinese Music and its teaching materials, that the development of western music theory in China, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, was a process from passive acceptance to active absorption. The scope of spreading western music theory was from the palace to the church, then to the school, and, finally, to the society, which made the music theory teaching in China gradually develop into a major and minor system as the leading mode. The basic theory of Chinese Music gradually deviated from its own track. With the deepening of music research after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the discipline development of basic music theory has witnessed a prosperous situation, and the construction of basic music theory is moving towards the direction of diversification and deepening. Many musicologists and music educators have made contributions to the construction of basic music theory in China from different disciplines and research perspectives. Based on the principle of "combining history with the theory" and combing the development of basic music theory in China, the ideal model of Chinese music theory discipline construction is conceived to promote the integration between traditional music theory and modern music theory from a diachronic perspective What is relevant to strengthen the unity of the nation and the world in basic music theory from a synchronic perspective, and to pay attention to the connotation of technology and culture in music theory teaching. But also to strengthen the scientific and logical concept in music theory textbooks.
Keywords: Basic music theory. Textbooks in China. Styles and characteristics. Development context.
Introduction
According to Mr Fei Xiaotong, a famous scholar of anthropology and sociology in China, "cultural self-awareness means that people living in a certain culture have 'self-awareness' of their culture, and self-awareness is to strengthen the autonomous ability of cultural transformation and obtain the autonomous position of deciding to adapt to the new environment and cultural choices of the new era (GE, 2004, p. 53). The philosophical idea of music education has a significant leading and guiding function in the development of basic music theory textbooks, according to the history of basic music theory textbook composition in China.
In order to understand the style and traits of creating fundamental music theory textbooks in China over a century, it is crucial to outline the change and evolution of the notion of Chinese music education as well as how Chinese music education philosophy is constructed. By integrating the writing style and traits of Chinese basic music theory textbooks throughout the past century, this research attempts to increase our understanding of the internal law regulating the development of these books. This essay will achieve this by thoroughly integrating the traits of the philosophical ideas behind music education over numerous historical eras. Throughout recent years, the domestic research on basic music theory textbooks mainly focuses on the following aspects:
Firstly, the review of basic music theory textbooks. Secondly, the research on writing Chinese folk music basic music theory textbooks. Thirdly, the discussion on the ways and problems of writing basic music theory textbooks; and fourthly, the research on the history of writing basic music theory textbooks. Scholars have emerged with many results from comparing Chinese and western music theory and the appeal and practice of writing basic music theory textbooks for Chinese folk music. In terms of exploring the ways and problems of writing basic music theory textbooks, scholars have raised many questions about the logical relationships, uniformity of presentation, rigor and interdisciplinary knowledge that need attention to write basic music theory textbooks. They pointed out the problems in writing basic music theory textbooks from different levels and promoted the scientific and systematic nature of writing basic music theory textbooks.
Because of various historical and realistic reasons, the basic music theory is called "pediatrics" in China. Ordinary teachers of basic music theory usually do not have comprehensive and in-depth research ability, while "everyone" in the music field disdains to explore the existing problems, which causes the development of basic music theory textbooks and teaching content to lag behind. Nowadays, a group of ethnomusicologists and music educationists is struggling to find out how to improve Chinese traditional music theory and how to build a Chinese music theory system.
Through the specific textual research on the introduction of European music theory into China, from the introduction of European music theory in the Qing Dynasty to the influence of Japanese music theory in the school song period and the involvement of the Soviet Union's music theory system after the founding of the People's Republic of China, this paper aims to explore the history, current situation and development of the construction of basic music theory textbooks. And it aims to explain more convincingly how European music theory affects modern music theory. It is of great significance for the research of music education in the new century to explain how the basic music theory can be improved and changed with the development of the times. On the basis of previous studies, this paper seeks to further broaden the train of thought and make a modest contribution to the construction of the Chinese music theory system from the perspective of the relationship between Chinese traditional music theory, European music theory, modern music theory and multiculturalism.
1 The basic music theory textbooks from the early twentieth century to the founding of the People's Republic of China
From the literature on modern education (including music education) in China, it can be seen that, in terms of philosophical ideas of music education, it mainly borrowed from Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece in Europe, as well as Kant’s and Schiller’s aesthetic education ideas in modern Germany (JIN, 2002, p. 334). This active learning and borrowing were based on reflecting on the traditional Chinese education system and ideas, a process of cultural selection based on comparing Chinese and foreign cultures. This essay contends that while the model and curriculum of contemporary Chinese music education are based on the western musicological system, western aesthetic, psychological and pedagogical ideas have been used to influence the values of music education. The implications of ancient Chinese music education concepts have also been combined, adopted, inherited and expanded at the same time. The "borrowing" is manifested in the western aesthetic education theories to seek aesthetics for the implementing of education values. "Inheritance" manifests itself in the continuation of traditional music education values such as "moral edification," "changing customs" and "cultivating temperament. Continuity. The "expansion" of music education, as an important part of the cultivation of "perfect personality", reflects the "humanistic" value of music education.
In modern times, western science and technology, education and culture were introduced to China during the opening of church schools and the process of Chinese students staying in America, Europe and Japan. The Chinese followed the example of Europe, America and Japan in establishing education and schools. Modern Chinese music education began to sprout during this period. Initially, music classes were offered in church schools, and music textbooks were mainly compiled by westerns, such as Di Jiu Lie's "Enlightenment in Music." Still, basic music theory textbooks, compiled by the Chinese, had not yet appeared. It is widely believed that the first textbook of basic music theory compiled by the Chinese was the Textbook of Music Dictionary, translated and supplemented by Zeng Zhifan in 1904. This textbook was written by (English) Ai Baier and translated by (Japanese) Suzuki Mijiro and Zeng Zhifan. It was translated and supplemented according to the original and the translation (LI, 2006, p. 58).
The textbook is divided into five chapters: musical notation, notes, rests, scales, intervals, tones, meters and abbreviations. In the preface of this book, Zeng Zhifan (2008, p. 26) analyzes the characteristics of "singing lessons" in Chinese music education from the perspective of comparing Chinese and western musics and puts forward his views on “[…] the theory of musical improvement”, uniting Chinese modern music education. He argues that Chinese music education in modern times has "[…] little knowledge of the importance of singing" and "[…] little knowledge of the importance of music," and that who truly understands music must first be knowledgeable in basic music theory (ZENG, 2008, p. 29).
In A Century of Chinese Music History 1900-2000, Ju Qihong (2014, p. 435) argues that the Textbook of Music "[…] contains many of the translation terms created and still in use today." As to the use of this book for translation, Sun Ji’nan in A Chronicle of Modern Chinese Music Education 1840-2000, describes the “Textbook of Music for use in Chinese teacher training colleges, middle schools and girls' schools at that time." The evidence to be mentioned for this music theory translation was precisely textbook for a precise time. Liu Xiaojing (2016, p. 32), in "Music Appreciation," argues that the term "new music" was "[…] first found in the preface to the Textbook of Music in 1904, which was compiled and published by Zeng Zhifan, a representative of school music songs." The above scholars' evaluation shows that the Textbook of Music was recognized as the first national compilation of basic music theory. The first appearance of the term "new music" in it. Then it contains the idea of "the parallelism of the four educations." It shows the importance and value of this textbook for modern Chinese music. The importance and value of this textbook for modern Chinese music are evident.
According to the Bibliography of Modern Chinese Music (1840-1949), other basic music theory textbooks of this period include Questions and Answers on Music Theory, edited by Wu Da, and Introduction to Music Theory, edited by Shen Pengnian in 1908, Music Theory, compiled by Li Yiyi in 1909, Textbook of Middle School Music Theory, edited by Zhong Zitong in 1910 and Middle School Music Theory by Tiger Tamura and translated by Xu Chuanlin and Sun Ix in 1908. Ix translated the Textbook of Middle School Music Theory, aesthetics specialist etc. The representative textbooks of basic music theory before the 1920s are shown in Appendix I (WANG, 2006, p. 410).
In the 1920s and 1930s, basic music theory textbooks were translated and written by scholars such as Xiao Youmei, Feng Zikai, Miao Tianrui, Zhu Shudian, Wu Bochao, Ke Zhenghe, Wu Mengfei, Liu Quping, Chen Hong and Ying Shangneng. They appeared one after another. For example, Miao Tianrui edited The Simple Method of Reading, Xu Baoren edited The New School System Primary School Curriculum (Textbook of Music), Xiao Youmei edited The New School System Textbook of Music Theory, General Musicology, Feng Zikai and Qiu Mengcheng's Kaiming Music Teaching Book - Music Theory Ed.
This book is divided into ten chapters, including sound names, music scores, theoretical overviews, tune overviews, tune body overviews, vocal music, instrumental music and musical development overviews. Chapter 1: Tone names, including stem, semitone, branch, standard and yellow bell; Chapter 2: Music score, including notation, types of the music score, notes, rests, beats, intensity terms, speed terms, expression terms, ornamental notation, miscellaneous notation, etc.; Chapters 3 and 4: Intervals and scales; Chapter 5: Introduction to theory, what the study of harmonics is, what the study of advanced music theory is; Chapter 6: Introduction to tunes; Chapter 7: Introduction to Music Styles, which introduces the forms of instrumental and vocal music styles; Chapters 8 and 9: Introduction to the composition and classification of vocal and instrumental music; Chapter 10: Overview of music development, which introduces the music of ancient, medieval, modern and new times by historical periods.
In Chapter 10, Xiao Youmei (1988, p. 31) argues that "[…] the first most thing about music history is which elements are included in music history.” He believes that the elements should include
[…] the organization of scales, the range and construction of musical instruments, the organization of notation and music scores, the organization of music and songs, the changes in music theory, music education institutions and music teaching methods, and the biographies of musicians. (XU, 2002, p. 96).
The Kaiming Music Textbook. Music Theory Editorial is edited by Feng Zikai and Qiu Mengchen (1935, p. 23). The book is divided into four parts based on the 1932 Music Curriculum Standards for Junior High Schools. The first part is about reading music, including the organization of musical notes and scales; the second part is about general knowledge of music, including the meaning of music, the development of music, the classification of music, human voice and vocal music, etc.; the third part is about preliminary harmonics, including intervals, triads and their inversions, seventh harmonics and the application of harmonics; the fourth part is about composing small songs.
In Modern Chinese School Music Education 1840-1949, Wu Yongyi (1999, p. 53) describes the distribution of the content textbook content during the academic year, stating that "[…] the general music theory lessons take up 1/4 or 1/3 of the weekly class time." In this textbook, Feng Zikai (1935, p. 16) explains his understanding of Music in Music and Life and affirms the benefits of good and noble music for the body and mind from functional music, saying that "[…] music is a spiritual food, and its power to influence life is certainly great. ...noble music can submerge the heart and develop a sound personality..." In his book The Development of New Music in Modern China and the Famous People of Zhejiang, Liu Jiandong (2014, p. 162) argues that "[…] the book concentrates on Qiu Mengchen's conception of musicology" and corroborates this view in the context of Qiu's (1999, p. 100) musical philosophy. The representative basic music theory textbooks of this period are shown in Appendix II (LOU, 2008, p. 102).
The development of music theory in China, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, was a process from passive acceptance to active absorption, with the spread of western music theory from missionaries to foreign students, from foreigners to Chinese, and from the court to churches, schools and society. The Chinese music theory gradually deviated from its own track. At the same time, a few musicians have realized the lack of basic Chinese music theory and consciously compared and fused Chinese and western music theory in their writings. But this did not prevent Western music theory from becoming the main or even the core content of the basic Chinese music theory textbooks, which is strongly evidenced by the numerous music theory textbooks after the founding of the PRC. As the study of Chinese music has intensified since the founding of the PRC, Chinese musicians have become increasingly aware of the urgency of writing and constructing basic Chinese music theory textbooks and disciplines (XIAO, 1928, p. 33).
2 The basic music theory textbooks written and published between the founding of the People's Republic of China and the reform and opening up
At the beginning of the founding of New China, China established the development policy of "taking Russia as a teacher" in education, economy, science and technology. China put forward the slogan of "learning wholeheartedly from the Soviet Union," thus beginning to learn from the Soviet Union in terms of educational ideas and concepts, educational models, teaching methods, etc. (SUN, 1951, p. 93). Experience with music education in the Soviet Union. The widespread adoption of "communist pedagogical ideas" and "Marxist aesthetic theory" in music education led to the alienation of its core principles and a gradual departure from the path of aesthetic education. Therefore, many translations appeared during this period, especially the Soviet translation example Qizhang's Basic Theory of Music, by S. Sposobin, Cao Yundi's Fundamentals of Music Theory, Fan Jianqin's Self-Study Guide to Music Theory, etc. (HUANG, 2014, p. 81). These translations played an important role in modern music education in China after the founding of the PRC.
Additionally, China was subjected to a harsh economic and cultural embargo by western capitalist nations during that period of history. The political line of China, shaped by the class struggle, caused China to reflect more of a political character in terms of literature and education (SUN, 2001, p. 9). For example, the 1955 Beijing Reference Materials for Teaching Music in Junior High Schools stipulate that music lessons in secondary schools
[…] should provide students with education in patriotism, internationalism, labour, collectivism, and self-discipline through musical works (mainly songs) of distinctive ideological and artistic character; in other students' dialectical materialist worldview and to cultivate their socialist moral character. Cultivating students' socialist moral qualities and making them fully developed members of socialist society." (ZHANG, 1998, p. 162).
It can be seen that music education at that time was prominent in its political and ideological nature, and the emphasis was on cultivating students with a communist ideological and moral consciousness through music education.
Because of the excessive emphasis on the political instrumental value of the music, music education in this period completely lost its function of aesthetic education and was completely reduced to a political appendage (ZHANG, 2004, p. 91). For example, the criticism of the ancient music education thought in China at that time was a reflection of the conflict between "proletarian thought" and "non-proletarian thought" in the field of the political ideology of China, in the field of music education and in the field of music culture. It was a mechanical copy of the one-sidedness of the theory in the exaggeration of the class and political functions of the ancient music education thought and the denial of the "pleasure of body and mind”, "cultivation of emotion and sex" and "teaching peace through music." The value of aesthetic education, such as "teaching harmony through music”, has turned music education into a tool for political struggle (LIU, 2006, p. 57).
In contrast to the translated foreign basic music theory textbooks, the Chinese wrote their own basic music theory textbooks during this period, which became mainstream. It can be said that such music theory textbooks were created by the times, but there was no shortage of classics.
The most representative basic music theory textbook of this period is Fundamentals of Music Theory, written by Li Chongguang (1962, p. 23) and published by People's Music Publishing House in 1962, which was later reprinted in many editions. The book is structured into 15 chapters, with multiple sections in each chapter covering topics like tones and pitches, metre, notation, general theory of modes, different modes based on the pentatonic scale, intervals, chords, rhythm and metre, tempo and intensity, transposition, alternate modes, etc. An introduction to simple and ruled scores as well as a glossary of musical vocabulary are included in the appendices. This textbook caused great repercussions in academic circles once published. Yang Tongba (2003, p. 56), in his article, "Choice in Practice, Innovation in Practice: The Development of Chinese New Music Theory and its Ideological Inspiration", considered this textbook "[…] the most representative and successful one among the music theory textbooks written and published by China itself." The reason why this textbook has attracted so much attention, apart from the characteristics of the textbook itself, is that this was "the period when basic music theory was most popular and influential, so much so that people consciously and unconsciously made the study of basic music theory an essential initial stage of music learning." In this musical atmosphere, the textbook had a great impact on society.
In the executive summary of this textbook, Li Chongguang (1984, p. 326) states that "[…] this book is a trial textbook of basic music theory for secondary music schools […] suitable for a wide range of professional and amateur musicians." Li Chongguang attaches great importance to the study of basic music theory. In "To Strengthen the Study and Research of Basic Music Theory," he argues that
[…] the depth and breadth of influence on basic music theory are comparable to any other music theory course. (LI, 1984, p. 329). Therefore, the quality of teaching basic music theory is not only a problem for a few professional musicians and amateur music lovers, but it is also a big problem directly related to the music culture education of one billion people.
It can be seen that Li Chong Guang closely related the study and teaching of basic music theory to music culture education. In terms of the means and methods of learning music theory, he argues, in the afterword of the textbook Fundamentals of Music Theory that "[…] learning music theory must be combined with vivid and concrete musical works, and there is little point in reciting many definitions in the abstract apart from vivid and concrete Music. In addition, theory must be combined with aural training..." (LI, 1984, p. 330). In a way, these assertions provide a scientific path for us to learn basic music theory. Representative basic music theory textbooks of this period are shown in Appendix III (JU, 2014, p. 33).
In the more than forty years since its publication, Fundamentals of Music Theory has given full play to its important role in the construction of the discipline of music theory, influencing the musical concepts of several generations of Chinese people and "being a foundational music theory textbook for several generations of Chinese people to enter the hall of music." It should be said that it is the most representative and successful of the music theory textbooks written and published by ourselves in China, and "[…] has been used for the longest time, reprinted the most times, and has had the greatest influence." However, due to the long years of its publication and the fact that it has not been fundamentally changed when it has been reprinted repeatedly since then, Fundamentals of Music Theory fails to incorporate the results of the research on traditional Chinese music theory and modern music theory by scholars at home and abroad in the past 40 years, making it appear too outdated and unable to meet fully the current requirements of music theory teaching.
3 The basic music theory textbooks written and published since the reform and opening up
Since the reform and opening up, the call for building the basic music theory of Chinese folk music has become stronger and stronger, and the main feature of the basic music theory textbooks written and published is the tendency of nationalization, discipline and specialization. Scholars' call for constructing the basic music theory of Chinese folk music carries a strong sense of urgency and mission.
The appeals and efforts of numerous literary and artistic figures, including musicians, were largely responsible for the restoration and establishment of the status of aesthetic education in schooling. Another significant factor was the publication of articles and speeches on the significance of aesthetic education (including music education) in a number of journals and conferences. In order to bring aesthetic education, including music education, to the attention of the state and society, the pioneers in the music industry of China, on the one hand, sought evidence from the history of educational development in ancient and modern China and abroad. It also sought theoretical support from modern Chinese, western aesthetic education theories and ancient Chinese music education ideas. On the other hand, they took the initiative to absorb the latest research results on foreign education, psychology and music aesthetics. They gradually formed. Further, we took the initiative to absorb the latest research results on foreign education, psychology and music aesthetics. We gradually formed a philosophical theory of music aesthetic education, adapted to social and economic development needs. In the Third Symposium on Music Aesthetics held in 1985, Mr. Yao Siyuan (1998, p. 63) presented a paper entitled "Music Aesthetic Education Should Be the Core of Music Education in China's Schools." We also focus on the misconceptions of the Chinese education sector at that time about the value of aesthetic education, such as "moral support," “education” and “entertainment” (MA, 2001, p. 41). The students’ essential and core task of music education is to guide students to perceive, understand, experience, evaluate, discriminate and create through the beauty of music. The most essential and core task of music education is to guide students to perceive, understand, experience, evaluate, discriminate, and create music beauty and enhance their aesthetic ability and literacy.
After the publication of Mr. Yao Siyuan (1998, p. 65)’s series of papers, the view that music education should be “centered on musical aesthetics” has gradually been recognized by the music education community in China. Some scholars have tried to build a philosophical and theoretical framework of music education as “musical aesthetic education.”
The publication of Jiahua Liao’s monograph, Aesthetic Music Education (1993), is a further interpretation and expansion of the theory of “[…] music education with musical aesthetics at its core.” In this monograph, the author was guided by the theory of Marx’s materialist epistemology that “[…] man is also built according to the laws of beauty,” based on music aesthetics and modern aesthetic education theories while absorbing contemporary research results in music psychology and pedagogy, “tasks,” “characteristics,” “principles” and “psychological structure” (LIU, 2016, p. 116). Like music education, Liu (2016, p. 125) pointed out that “[…] music aesthetic education is a kind of educational practice with music as the medium and aesthetics as the core.” The task of music education is to cultivate students’ correct aesthetic beauty, improve their aesthetic ability in music and promote their all-around development in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor. The monograph and the author’s 1992 paper, entitled “Philosophical Reflections on Music Education”, are important works in the philosophical study of music education in China during this period (SUN, 2011, p. 22).
Under this call and effort to establish the basic music theory of Chinese folk music, many teaching materials on or among the basic music theory of Chinese folk music have appeared. For example, Basic Music Theory Course, edited by Yan Cheng Nephew, Tong Zhongliang, and Zhong Juncheng (DU, 2005, p. 213); Basic Music Theory of Chinese Folk Music edited by Du Yaxiong (1995, p. 361), Chinese Music Theory etc. These basic music theory textbooks have done preliminary work to explore the basic music theory of Chinese folk music. They have introduced and discussed the basic knowledge of Chinese folk music, such as the eye of the board, the working scale, the rhythm, the event, the house, the tune and the notation (DEREK, 1984, p. 89).
The pentatonic scale, the 12 rhythms and rhythms of Chinese folk music, the eye of the board, board style, work-shape score, the half-character score of Yan music, the score of the zither, the character score of the rhythms and rhythms, the curve score, the character score of the gongs and drums and the general knowledge of mythology are all covered in the eight chapters that make up this textbook. In the preface of the textbook, Du Yaxiong (2005, p. 98) reviewed basic music theory textbooks since modern times, saying that
[…] after the Opium War, Western learning was gradually introduced to the East, and we generally adopted Western European music theory in music education. In modern times, Western basic music theory has occupied the whole Chinese music education system, and some attempts to improve the basic music theory textbooks are not helpful, so it is urgent to write basic music theory for Chinese people. (WANG, 2004, p. 198).
Given that, Wang Zhenya (2004, p. 198) felt that “[…] the practice of replacing Chinese music theory with Western European music theory over the past hundred years should be reviewed.” This book, which supports the Music Theory of Chinese Nationalities, was released. In recent years, this basic music theory textbook has been mixed reviews. Still, one of the more pertinent ones is Guan Jianhua’s statement in Music Curriculum and Teaching Research 1979-2009. Since the 1980s, some scholars in China have been determined to create a basic music theory of Chinese traditional music and gradually construct their music system (MING, 2010, p. 71). A welcome step was taken with the release of Mr. Du Yaxiong’s Basic Music Theory of Chinese Nationalities” (China Literature and Literature Publishing Company, 1995). Representative basic music theory textbooks of this period are shown in Appendix IV (ZHOU, 2004, p. 89).
From the late 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century, with the advent of global integration and the era of information, the exchanges of the world economy, culture, education and ideas have become increasingly frequent. The turnover of educational philosophy, philosophical thinking and aesthetic theory of music can be described as rapidly changing. In terms of the research field of music education philosophical thought, the music education philosophical research of China focuses on two aspects: first, the translation and introduction of foreign music education philosophical thought; second, the selection and construction of contemporary Chinese music education philosophy (TONG, 2003, p. 32).
In terms of foreign philosophical research on music education, the ones that have a significant influence on the music education of China include the “[…] aesthetic philosophy of music education,” “[…] multicultural music education thought” and “[…] philosophy of music education practice.” (LIU, 2006, p. 57).
The introduction of the philosophy and development of multicultural music education in the world has promoted the recognition of multicultural music education among Chinese educators and promoted the process of practicing multicultural music education in Chinese education (DAI; HUANG, 1993, p. 49). As an educational concept, “multicultural music education” believes that the meaning, value and function of music are different in different cultural contexts and that the student’s understanding and evaluation can only be obtained by linking music to the corresponding social and cultural contexts. The music of all ethnic groups in the world has its unique value and should be respected and passed on (ZHANG, 2004, p. 103). Through multicultural music education, we can not only achieve the universality of the music culture of the world but also help to promote mutual understanding and recognition among people from different countries and ethnic groups.
The importance of incorporating multicultural ideals into music education can be seen as having two positive effects on the growth of music education in China. At the theoretical level, it is mainly a reflection on the philosophy and practice of music education in Chinese schools since the modern era. At the Sixth National Seminar on Music Education Reform held in 1996, in response to the fact that the school music education of China has long focused on the European music theory system and neglected the construction of the Chinese national music theory system, it was concluded that there is a tendency to “[…] emphasize the West over the Chinese” in the value orientation of music education, or even to “[…] use the West to negate the Chinese.” (ZHANG, 1987, p. 143). The school music education of China has been in a state of shock. Some scholars in China have proposed the construction of “[…] a music education system with Chinese culture as the mother tongue” (LIU, 2016, p. 231). Actually, the idea and practices of multicultural music education have been progressively included in the teaching of music in schools. In the field of professional music education in China, many music colleges and universities across the country have been offering courses such as “World Music” and “Music Anthropology” to introduce the music of different cultures in the world through professional music education and establish the value of multicultural music education (ZHOU, 2004, p. 68). In the field of basic education, China’s Compulsory Education Music Curriculum Standards, promulgated in 2001, have clearly put forward the curriculum concept of “understanding multiculturalism”. The 2011 edition of the Compulsory Education Music Curriculum Standards has further elaborated the humanistic nature of the music curriculum from the perspective of multiculturalism (DA, 1983, p. 29).
Under the background of diversity, basic music theory textbooks specialized in twentieth-century music. A series of disciplinary basic music theory textbooks for teacher education and preschool education have appeared, such as Tong Zhongliang’s Modern Music Theory Course, You Jingbo’s Basic Music Theory for Popular Music, Xia Zhigang’s Basic Music Theory Course for Early Childhood Teachers, Wang Lixin and Ma Fangming’s Music Theory and Sight Singing for Preschool Education (XU, 2002, p. 32). These basic music theory textbooks provide ideas for the in-depth and extended research of basic music theory. It can be seen that the development of basic music theory textbooks in this period was in the direction of diversification (MING, 2010, p. 16).
The paper is divided into eight chapters about the basic music theory of twentieth-century music, covering the new tonal scales, modern beat and bar liberation, modern chords and harmonies, modern tonality and critical relationships, and music theory about modern compositional techniques. The appendices include a table of MIDI timbres and percussion keys, a table of jazz chord markings, a synthesizer and computer music glossary. While some chapters of the Basic Music Theory Course, written by Tong Zhongliang et al. in 1990 and 2001, dealt with modern music theory, this Modern Music Theory Course goes a step further and deals specifically with basic music theory of the twentieth century. In One of the Complementary Achievements of Music Theory: A Review of Professor Tong Zhongliang’s Modern Music Theory Course, Zhang Jing (2004, p. 29) praised the textbook for
[…] making a common and systematic theoretical summary of the highly individualized new Music of the twentieth century, which makes its contribution more significant because of its difficulty; and then transforming these extensive and specific theoretical issues into a basic course that can directly meet the needs of teaching. This is a breakthrough from scratch.
In Music Theory and Culture, Shi Yong considers the modern music theory textbooks, written by Tong Zhongliang (2003, p. 9) and others, to be “[…] a new requirement for music theory teaching in the era of development” and calls for “[…] the responsibility and obligation of music education in the 21st century to enable every student to learn and grasp contemporary music development with a modern consciousness based on the inheritance of both Chinese and Western traditions.” (YANG, 2003, p. 52). Every student must be able to learn and understand the most recent advances in current music in the twenty-first century, building on the legacy of both Chinese and western traditions and with a modern understanding. Appendix V (DU, 2005, p. 215) lists the representative introductory music theory texts published during this time.
After the reform and opening up, the development of the discipline of basic music theory in China has seen unprecedented flourishing, and many musicologists and music educators have added to the construction of basic music theory in China from different disciplinary perspectives and research horizons. Whether it is traditional music theory, modern music theory, or basic music theory from a cultural perspective, they are all important parts of the disciplinary system of music theory with Chinese characteristics. They all occupy an irreplaceable position. How to integrate them into a whole and build a system is an important question that Chinese music theorists and music educators need to think about at present.
Conclusion
Since the birth of Zeng Zhifan’s translation and supplementation of the Textbook of the Music Canon in 1904, Chinese music scholars have been happy preparing basic music theory textbooks, and many results have been released. These basic music theory textbooks have several characteristics in general:
(1) This paper roughly divides Chinese music philosophical thought into three stages, and the preparation of basic music theory textbooks in each historical stage has its specific historical development characteristics.
(2) The translation of overseas basic music theory textbooks. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, translations of basic music theory textbooks have appeared at each stage, and a large number of scholars such as Zeng Zhifan, Miao Tianrui and Feng Zikai have devoted themselves to compiling basic music theory textbooks.
(3) The trend of nationalization of basic music theory textbooks. In the past hundred years, the contents of basic music theory courses and basic music theory textbooks are mainly based on western music theory. The construction of basic music theory of Chinese traditional music became an important issue at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century.
(4) In recent years, there have been several disciplinary basic music theory textbooks for different majors and levels, such as basic music theory for preschool education, basic music theory for early childhood education, basic music theory for popular music, etc.
(5) The emergence of these nationalized, specialized basic music theory textbooks have greatly contributed to the reconstruction of the basic music theory knowledge system.
From the standpoint of pure music philosophy, this paper contends that traditional music education concept, the origin of Chinese educational philosophy, permeated feudal society at all times and was eventually assimilated with modern western aesthetic education idea. After the establishment of New China, it was, however, diminished and even condemned; nonetheless, after reform and opening up, its cultural values and traditional educational philosophy can be inherited and acknowledged in the present. The main reason is that the idea of music education contains the eternal theme of “humanistic edification” as the value and function of education, which can make education and social development organically integrated, highlight the social function of music education, and thus adapt to the needs of different social development. The historical experience of Chinese music education shows that the construction of philosophical theories of music education should take into account the needs of different socio-economic and cultural development as well as the law of development of music education itself. And blindly copying political or cultural theories instead of music education philosophy will have a great negative impact on the development of music education. In treating Chinese and foreign music education philosophy, reasonable inheritance and borrowing are the only way to develop and innovate music education philosophy. Total rejection of existing theoretical systems or sticking to the old ways will not help the development of music education philosophy.
INVESTIGACIÓN SOBRE EL ESTILO Y LAS CARACTERÍSTICAS DE LOS LIBROS DE TEXTO DE LA TEORÍA MUSICAL BÁSICA EN CHINA EN LOS ÚLTIMOS CIEN AÑOS
Resumen: Debido a varias razones históricas y realistas, el desarrollo de la teoríeorlsica de la mlsica en China se queda atrátrra cuanto al sistema de enseñanza, el contenido de la enseñanza y otros aspectos. Es una tarea importante para los trabajadores chinos de la misica revisar o complementar la teoríeorteorntar sica actual y los libros de texto relacionados, y luego construir un sistema de disciplina de la teoríeorla teordesica en China. Este artículo sintetiza las teoríeorreorr educacióducacirr las tehistoria de la m sica, la cultura musical, la morfologíorfolog, la otras disciplinas relacionadas, utiliza valores científicos, objetivos y racionales y conceptos holísticos y comprensivos, toma el desarrollo de la educacióducaciedteoríeoracieducacsica de China como objeto de investigaciónvesttoma la historia como espejo para seguir considerando y prospectar la construccióonstrusistema de disciplina de la teoríeorla teordesica de China. Los fundamentos de la mtsica china pueden dividirse, a grandes rasgos, en tres periodos: (1) desde principios del siglo XX hasta la fundacióundacita la blica Popular China; (2) desde ese momento hasta el periodo de reforma y apertura; y (3) desde el periodo de reforma y apertura hasta la actualidad. La teoríeor teord. La teord. evolucionóvoluciond. La teord. Lfundacióundaciond. Lblica Popular China a travéravulun proceso de aceptaciócepasiva y absorcióbsactiva, como puede observarse en el desarrollo de la enseñanza de la teoríeorla teorde la ene lasica china y sus materiales didrcticos. La teoríeor teora teordidiales dpropagórprincipalmente desde el palacio a la iglesia, luego a las escuelas y finalmente a la sociedad. Como resultado, la enseñanza de la teoría musical china evolucionóvprogresivamente hacia un sistema menor mayor como modo dominante, y los fundamentos de la mtsica china se desviaron gradualmente. Tras el establecimiento de la Repiblica Popular China, la investigaciónvestigaciina, lprofundizado, lo que ha beneficiado el crecimiento de la disciplina de la teoríeorla teorbásica, que ahora se dirige hacia la diversificacióiversifprofundidad. El desarrollo de la teoríeorla teorde la teor teor de la tecontado con la ayuda de varios music musicusieducadores musicales de diversos campos académicos y puntos de vista de la investigaciónvestimodelo ideal de la construccióonstruccdisciplina de la teoríeorla teorde la teoconcibe sobre la base del principio de "combinar la historia con la teoríeor la tpeinar el desarrollo de la teoríeorla teordesica en China. Este modelo fomenta la integracióntegraciteoríeorgracirasica tradicional y la teoríeora teorlsica moderna desde una perspectiva diacrónica, refuerza la unidad del padel pal pmundo en la teoríeorla teorsica bcsica desde una perspectiva sincrónica, y presta atenciótenciiaconnotacióonnotacitecnología en su conjunto.
Palabras clave: Teoría musical básica. Libros de texto en China. Estilos y características. Contexto de desarrollo
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DEREK, R. Dictionary of Western Education. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation, 1984.
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DU, Y. X. On the Structural System of Chinese Music Theory. Music Research, n. 3, p. 98-216, 2005.
FENG, Z. K.; QIU, M. H. Enlightened Music Textbook. Theory of Music. Shanghai: Shanghai Kaiming, 1935.
GE, T. Social Change in the Sound Records: Shanghai Recorded Music Industry from the Early 20th Century to 1937. The History Review, v. 6, p. 53-60, 2004.
HUANG, X. P. Building Our Own Basic Music Theory. Musicology in China, n. 4, p. 84-98, 1996.
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Appendix I
Table1 List of representative basic music theory textbooks I (WANG, 2006, p. 410)
|
Names |
Authors |
Publishers |
Publication time |
Main content |
|
Music Textbook |
Written by (Britain) Abel and translated by (Japanese) Suzuki Yonejiro translated and supplemented by Zeng Zhimin |
Shanghai Guangzhi |
July 15, 1904 |
The book was arranged into five chapters, including music scores, notes, rests, junctures, staves, intervals, scales, tones (i.e., int, donation), beats, marks, abbreviations, etc. |
|
Middle School Music Theory Textbook |
Compiled by Zhong Zitong |
Shanghai Music Research Institute |
In 1910 |
The book was divided into 32 lessons, including staves, notations, syllable marks, musical alphabets, and notes. |
|
Middle School Music Classics Textbook |
written by Tamura Toraichi (Japanese) and translated by Xu Chuanlin and Sun Shan et al. |
The Commercial |
April 1907 |
The book was arranged into 18 chapters, including staff notations, clefs, musical alphabets, notes, rests, repeats, beats, and ranges. |
Appendix II
Table II List of representative elementary music theory teaching materials (II) (LOU, 2008, p. 102)
|
Names |
Authors |
Publishers |
Publication time |
Main content |
|
Music Theory Textbook under New Academic System |
Written by Xiao Youmei |
The Commercial |
March 1924 |
This book is divided into six volumes, every witten10 lessons, such as Volume 1, Music Theory Textbook for Junior Middle Schools, which is arranged according to 1-10 lessons, lesson 1: musical alphabets and major scales, lesson 2: sound recognition, including stave, notes and rests, notation, dotted notes, beats, musical terms, and lessons 7-10: major G and major F respectively. |
|
General Musicology |
Written by Xiao Youmei |
The Commercial |
May 1928 |
This book was arranged into ten chapters, including the musical alphabet, music score, theoretical overview, melody introduction, music form introduction, vocal music, instrumental music, the outline of music development, etc. |
|
Preliminary Music |
Written by Feng Zikai |
Beixin |
May 1931 |
This book consists of 20 chapters, including tone and range, scales and melody, notes and rests, beats, musical marks, chromatic scales, harmonic intervals, melody intervals, tempo and other slogans, transposition, grace notes, vocal music, musical instruments, etc. |
|
Enlightened Music Textbook, Theory of Music |
Written by Feng Zikai and Qiu Menghen |
Kaiming |
July 1935 |
This book was arranged into four chapters, compiled according to the Junior Middle School Music Curriculum Standard in 1932, divided into reading music, general knowledge of music, preliminary harmonics and small songs, and the teaching contents were specified according to the academic year. |
|
An Outline of Music Studies |
Written by Ying Shangneng |
The Commercial |
December 1935 |
This book was arranged into 13 chapters, including notation, music score, key signature, grace note, scale, interval, beat, rhythm, dynamics, melody and musical form, vocal music nouns, chords and closing methods, and word interpretation, with exercises. |
|
Teaching Books Of Music Theory in Junior High Schools Method of Reading Music |
Written by Qiu Menghen |
Chunfeng Music Education Bureau |
January 1938 |
This book was divided into 20 lessons, including musical notation, alphabets, notes, rests, beats, dynamics, scales, tone marks, transposition, tempo, and emoticons. |
Appendix III
Table III List of representative elementary music theory teaching materials (III) (JU, 2014, p. 33)
|
Names |
Authors |
Publishers |
Publication time |
Main content |
|
Concise Tutorial of Music Theory |
Written by Sun Congyin |
New Music |
November 1951 |
The whole book was arranged into ten chapters, including musical notation, musical alphabets, notes, rests, beats, semitones, accidentals, key signatures, scales, intervals, various marks, grace notes, vocabulary of music, and so on |
|
Fundamentals of Music Principle |
Li Chongguang |
People’s Music |
October 1962 |
This book was arranged into 15 chapters; each chapter was divided into several sections, including tone and pitch, temperament, notation, general theory of modes, various modes based on the pentatonic scale, intervals, chords, rhythm and beat, tempo and dynamics, transposition and alternating modes, etc. The appendix briefly introduces numbered musical notation and ganache tablature, the common music vocabulary. |
|
Basic Theory of Music |
Written by Sposobin (USSR), translated by Wang Qizhang |
People’s Music |
August 1958 |
This book was arranged into 15 chapters, including some knowledge about sound and pitch, rhythm, beat, tempo, interval, chord, mode, transposition, grace note, phrase, and ellipsis in notation. |
Appendix IV
Table IV List of representative elementary music theory teaching materials (IV) (ZHOU, 2004, p. 89)
|
Names |
Authors |
Publishers |
Publication time |
Main content |
|
Elementary Music Theory Tutorial |
Edited by Yan Chengquan, Tong Zhongliang, and Zhong Juncheng |
People’s Music |
October 1990 |
This book was arranged into 14 chapters, which cover the basic western music theory knowledge and the basic music theory knowledge of Chinese folk music, such as the circle-of-fifths system, twelve toning rules, eighty-four tones, the model of “Zhi” and “Wei,” the common sense of ganache tablature, and so on. |
|
Basic Tutorial of Chinese Traditional Music Theory |
Edited by Tong Zhongliang |
People’s Music |
January 2004 |
This book consists of 9 chapters, including the name of bamboo pitch-pipes used in ancient China, five-tone scale and seven-tone scale, three-tone equal temperament and eight tones, change of keys and eighty-four tones, rhythm and beat, ganache tablature, abbreviated character notation and other tablatures, circle-of-fifths system, and its toning system, bell temperament, temperament for plucked instruments and new temperament (a set of precise proportional numbers to specify the length of each pitch pipe of the twelve-tone equal temperament), etc. |
|
Basic Music Theory of the Chinese Nation |
Edited by Du Yaxiong |
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles |
October 1995 |
It was arranged into ten chapters, including pentatonic scale, twelve-tuning system, banyan, banish (a form of the beat), ganache tablature, a half-character score of Yan music (music score for lute, wind instrument, etc.), scores for plucked instruments, rhythm score, curve score, gongs, and drums score, the common sense of temperament, etc. |
|
Common Sense of Chinese Music Theory |
Edited by Du Yaxiong |
Beiyue Literature & Art |
August 1999 |
This book was arranged into nine chapters, involving sound, tone, rhythm, beat, banyan, ganache tablature, knowledge of temperament, jun, gong, key and relations of key, melody, polyphonic Music, traditional notation, aesthetic features of Chinese traditional Music, the relationship between scores, singing, and performance, etc. |
|
Chinese Music Theory |
Edited by Du Yaxiong, Qin Dexiang |
Shanghai Conservatory of Music |
January 2007 |
This book was arranged into six chapters involving the music system, material system, temperament system, tune system, structure system, and sign system. |
Appendix V
Table V List of representative elementary music theory teaching materials (V) (DU, 2005, p. 215)
|
Names |
Authors |
Publishers |
Publication time |
Main content |
|
Tutorial of Modern Music Theory |
Written by Tong Zhongliang |
Hunan Literature and Art |
In 2003 |
This book was arranged into five chapters, covering the elementary music theory of music in the 20th Century, including the new mode scale, the liberation of modern beat and bar, modern chord and accord, modern tonality and key relationship, and music theory related to modern composition techniques, etc. The appendix includes MIDI timbre and percussion key table, jazz music chord symbolization table, synthesizer and computer music vocabulary, etc. |
|
Basic Music Theory Tutorial for Preschool Teachers |
Written by Xia Zhigang |
Hunan Literature and Art |
May 2013 |
This book, arranged in ten chapters, was introduced in the preface as an elementary music theory textbook for preschool education and preschool teachers’ college students, covering knowledge of sounds and musical alphabets, staff notation, numbered musical notation, rhythm, and beat, common musical signs, intervals, chords, modes, Chinese national modes, melodies, musical forms, etc. According to the characteristics of schools for kindergarten teachers, the structure analysis of common musical forms of children’s songs was added. |
|
Elementary Music Theory of Popular Music |
Edited by You Jingbo |
Anhui Literature and Art |
July 2016 |
This book was arranged into 12 chapters. According to r characteristics of popular music, besides the music theory knowledge of sound, rhythm and beat, interval and mode, it also included chapters on blues mode and its musical characteristics. |
Received: 27/07/2022
Approved: 10/11/2022
Comment on “A Study of the Styles and Characteristics of Basic Music Theory Textbooks in China in the Past 100 Years”
Commented Article: YU, Feng; Zhang, Qiming; THUY, Pham Minh. A study of the styles and characteristics of basic music theory textbooks in China in the past 100 years. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 117- 144, 2023.
YU et. Al (2023) have justified the primary rationale behind the topic. The topic, indeed, is kaleidoscopic. However, with their swift pens and sharp wits, the writers highlight all the significant developments affecting the styles and characteristics of basic music theory in textbooks in China in the past 100 years. Massive material had to be sifted and scanned because of the enormity of the work, which spans over a century. The advancement of fundamental music theory in China trails behind us in teaching methodology, materials and other areas for various historical and practical reasons. Updating or adding to the current basic music theory and associated textbooks, followed by establishing a discipline system for basic music theory in China, is crucial for Chinese musicians. The development of the primary music theory education of China is the research object. History is used as a mirror to consider further and anticipate the development of the basic music theory discipline system of China.
This paper synthesizes the theories of music education and history, music culture, music morphology and other related disciplines. It also uses scientific, objective and rational values, besides holistic and comprehensive concepts. The fundamentals of Chinese music may be loosely split into three periods: (1) from the turn of the 20th century to the foundation of the People’s Republic of China; (2) from that time until the period of reform and opening up; and (3) from the period of reform and opening up to the present. The growth of western music theory in China, before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, was a transition from passive acceptance to active absorption, as observed from the evolution of the primary theory education of Chinese music and its educational materials. In China, music theory education gradually evolved into a central, minor system as the dominant mode, and the fundamental theory of Chinese music slowly veered off its course as a result of the spread of western music theory from the palace to the church, then to the school and, eventually, to society.
The development of fundamental music theory, which is presently moving toward diversity and depth, has profited from the increased depth of music study that has followed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The advancement of fundamental music theory in China has been made possible by a large community of musicologists, educators and researchers from a range of academic disciplines and research perspectives. The concept of “combining history with the theory” and an examination of the advancement of fundamental music theory in China serve as the foundation for the ideal model of Chinese music theory discipline building. This model encourages the assimilation of traditional and modern music theory from a dialectical point of view, strengthens the unity of the country and the world in basic music theory from a synchronic perspective, and pays attention to the connotation of technology.
A royal tomb from 433 B.C. was discovered in Hubei Province, China, in 1978 by archaeologists working there. Among the twenty musical instruments is a collection of 65 bronze bells supported by wood. The two unique pitches of each almond-shaped bell depend on where it is struck. They are excellent for complementing vocals and other instruments because of their low inharmonicity and quick self-damping (BAGLEY, 2005, p. 54). Twelve different pitches per octave can be found in the middle registers. The pitches roughly divide the scale in half. Without specifically fitting any traditional European tuning system, pairs of pitches separated by 3, 4, or 7 units create consonant intervals (LEHR, 1988, p. 144).
Each strike point contains a gold-inlaid inscription that identifies its set pitch. This inscription is buried into the tip of the strike point. The four root labels, that are identical duplicates of their current pentatonic counterparts, are Gong (number 1), Shang (number 2), Zhi (number 4) and Yu (number 5). The fifth modern label (number 3) does present; however, it does not precisely correspond to the other root positioned four units above the gong. This is even though it also appears. These very roots are then translated upward by an additional four units using a second suffix called Zeng, which results in the production of labels for the final four chromatic pitch classes. The generation of the same system by the cross-product of four roots and three suffixes is isomorphic with the formation of the chromatic system through the transpositional combination of an all-combinatorial [0257] tetrachord with an [048] augmented triad. Both processes result in the generation of the same system (COHN, 1998, p. 4).
The inscriptions provide a list of many relevant uses according to each pitch. The surfaces of the larger bells indicate a range of pentatonic functions for both of its constituent tones and, in places where there is sufficient capacity for writing, these functions are displayed. Isomorphic to those inscriptions would be the Western concept that, for example, the E bell functions as 1 of the E scale, 2 of the D scale, 3 of the C scale, 4 of the A scale and 5 of the G scale (where the scales are pentatonic). An identical range of pentatonic functions was utilized, as indicated by the inscriptions on a set of 41 chime stones found in the tomb. These stones also span from twelve to an octave (LYNCH, 2018, p. 290).
In the years 1979 and 1980, Yuan-Yuan Lee (1979, p. 16; 1980, p. 41) had two articles in the Chinese Music magazine, a publication of the Chinese Music Society of North America. After that, I read about the Zeng bells in a metallurgical journal and an archaeological monograph. These two resources both gave me information (VON, 1993; CHEN et al., 1994). I had the honor of being asked to speak in a plenary session at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory in 1997. I grabbed what I thought was a really large stick. I waved it around in an obnoxious manner in an effort to draw some attention because I had properly anticipated that this would be the greatest live audience I would ever have the opportunity to address. This is what I meant when I said that such a finding might arouse a level of curiosity that is comparable to that of a community of what it says about our discipline. I waited patiently for a response. My home field, on the other hand, remained to hibernate even after my bell immediately self-damped itself.
Bagley (2005, p. 58) employs lovely language when he compares the inscriptions to “[…] a book about musical scales with a demonstration CD hidden inside the back cover.” As a result, they “[…] represent the earliest works on music theory that are currently known from China” (p. 41). The inscriptions reveal that Zeng theorists were fascinated by the chromatic universe as a repository for twelve (theoretically) evenly spaced transpositions of the pentatonic scale, each composed of distinctive pitches with apparent purposes. To a contemporary music theorist who has studied Western music, this last line comes so naturally that it takes effort to recognize the seething mass of ideas that it compresses, the majority of which are separate from one another. Bagley achieves this by decomposing the claim into, in my opinion, seven sub-claims: specific pitches that are (1) uniformly distributed across a range of (2) octave-equivalent pitches that constitute twelve pitch classes, (3) co-related via transposition and (4) well-defined functions with regard to twelve different pentatonic scales (72). Nothing about these things should be taken for granted because musical systems are a gift from nature (NOWACKI, 2020).
Bagley positions the Zeng bells as the flashy apex of a 1,500-year-old bell-forging civilization. The method of the pointed ellipse was already invented by 2,000 BC. Early bells were crafted one at a time for utilitarian purposes like alarming or herding livestock. No later as 1100 BC, single bells were first gathered to court “from the field” to anchor the tune of vocal and instrumental ensembles. Eventually, tiny musical consorts that were aesthetically jumbled but acoustically matched to one another emerged. One consort from the 11th century B.C. filled a half-octave chromatically, suggesting an early standardisation of the chromatic reservoir. Assuming that the documentary evidence from the fifth century B.C. also applies to bell consorts, some of the priorities that might have guided the matching of bell frequencies to form pentatonic scales six centuries earlier include the maximization of acoustic symmetries as well as the transposability by substitution of a single bell one unit away, as in the case of “CDEGA” => “CDFGA” => “CDFGBb.” Bagley shows that pentatonic modulations would not have been possible, at least not for the chime stones, in the middle of a composition, which is consistent with the idea that they were not likely to have occurred. One can assume that each bell acting as the gong of one of the twelve different pentatonic transpositions reflected a range of cosmological, political, or societal factors.
Bagley (2005, 2015) claims that the fixed-pitch properties of the bells lead to the 12-tone chromatic reservoir closing. There is no incentive to constrict the pitch universe and bring it full circle, unlike the Mesopotamian harp, which has seven diatonically tuned pitches and can achieve the same chain of fifth-related transpositions by slowly returning individual strings (RAHN, 2022, p. 15). A more intricate connection may be made with the Greek system of tonoi, which was first described a century after the Zeng bells were buried and permits at least twelve possible transpositions that are close to their original position (HAGEL, 2009, p. 44). The increased centralization of the aulos, according to Andrew Barker (1987, p. 107; 1989/2, p. 26), may have prompted the development of this strategy. Although the pitches of the aulos are fixed like bells, they can be slightly changed by partial-hole fingering, embouchure, air pressure, and mechanical attachments (HAGEL, 2009, p. 337). The majority of the historical evidence for these systems, which is intermittent and constructed more than 500 years after the fact, as well as iconography and poorly preserved musical instruments, only provide indirect information about these systems. [ii] The aural and written evidence of the Zeng bells, on the other hand, is beyond dispute.
Chinese music researchers have enjoyed creating fundamental music theory textbooks, and numerous results have been published since Zeng Zhifan’s interpretation and augmentation of the Textbook of the Music Canon in 1904. These fundamental texts on music theory share a number of features in common: (1) this paper broadly separates Chinese music philosophical thinking into three stages, with each historical stage having its own unique historical development features in terms of the construction of basic music theory textbooks. (2) The translations of books on fundamental music theory from abroad. Basic music theory textbooks have been translated at every stage from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Many academics, such Zeng Zhifan, Miao Tianrui and Feng Zikai, have dedicated their careers to creating basic music theory textbooks. (3) The tendency for basic music theory textbooks to be nationalized.
The construction of basic music theory for Chinese traditional music became a significant concern at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century. Western music theory has been the main subject of foundational music theory courses and fundamental music theory textbooks for the past century. (4) A number of discipline-specific basic music theory textbooks for various majors and levels have recently been published, including basic music theory for preschool and early childhood education, basic music theory for popular music, and others. (5) The establishment of these disciplined, nationalized systems. Specialized basic music theory textbooks have made a significant contribution to the revival of the core knowledge base of the field.
This paper argues that traditional music education notion, the ancestor of Chinese educational philosophy, pervaded feudal society at all periods and was ultimately merged with contemporary western aesthetic education idea. This argument is made from the position of pure music philosophy. However, it was diminished and even denounced after the founding of New China; yet, with liberalization, its cultural values and conventional educational philosophy can be preserved and recognized in the present. The primary reason is that the concept of music education incorporates the timeless idea of “humanistic edification” as the purpose and value of education. This can help to organically integrate education and social development, highlight the social meaning of music education and allow it to adjust to the demands of various social development.
The result of music education will be significantly harmed by blindly adopting political or cultural theories in place of music education philosophy, according to the historical experience of Chinese music education, which demonstrates that the development of philosophical ideas of music education could perhaps take into consideration the needs of various socioeconomic and cultural development as well as the law of music education development itself. The only approach to improving and creating a music education philosophy, regarding Chinese and foreign music, is through good inheritance and borrowing. The advancement of music education philosophy will not be aided by completely rejecting preexisting theoretical frameworks or by adhering to conventional practices.
References
BAGLEY, R. The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory. Proceedings of the British Academy, v. 131, p. 41-90, 2005.
BAGLEY, R. Ancient Chinese Bells and the Origins of the Chromatic Scale. Zhejiang University Journal of Art and Archaeology, v. 2, p. 57-81, 2015.
BARKER, A. Text and Sense at Philebus 56a. Classical Quarterly, v. 37, n. 1, p. 103-109, 1987.
BARKER, A. Greek Musical Writings. V. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
CHEN, C. Y. et al. (ed.). Two-Tone Set-Bells of Marquis Yi. Singapore: World Scientific. 1994.
COHN, R. Music Theory’s New Pedagogability. Music Theory Online, v. 4, n. 2, p. 4-6, 1998.
HAGEL, S. Ancient Greek Music: A New Technical History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
LEE, Y. Y. An Amazing Discovery in Chinese Music. Chinese Music, v. 2, n. 2, p. 16-17, 1979.
LEE, Y. Y. The Music of the Zenghou Zhong. Chinese Music, v. 3, n. 1, p. 3-15, 1980.
LEHR, A. The Tuning of the Bells of Marquis Yi. Acustica, v. 67, n. 2, p. 144-148, 1998.
LYNCH, T. Without Timotheus, Much of our Melopoiia would not exist; but without Phrynis, there wouldn’t have been Timotheus’: Pherecrates’ twelve strings, the Strobilos and the Harmonic Paranomia of the New Music. Greek and Roman Musical Studies, v. 6, n. 2, p. 290-327, 2018.
NOWACKI, E. Greek and Latin Music Theory. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2020.
RAHN, J. Was Mesopotamian Tuning Diatonic? A Parsimonious Answer. Music Theory Online, v. 28, n. 1, p. 15-17, 2022.
VON, F. L. Suspended Music: Chime-Bells in the Culture of Bronze-Age China. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993.
YU, Feng; Zhang, Qiming; THUY, Pham Minh. A study of the styles and characteristics of basic music theory textbooks in China in the past 100 years. Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy, v. 46, Special Issue, p. 117- 144, 2023.
Received: 22/11/2022
Approved: 10/12/2022
A Study on the Ancient theater of official house in The Taihang mountain area of North Henan Province in China[18]
Abstract: As a particular type of ancient Chinese theater, talented theater of official house was mainly found in the Taihang Mountain area, in North Henan Province, which was formed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. The appearance of it is related to the local natural environment, folk culture and agricultural productivity. Through field investigation, it is found that there are eight existing theaters in the Taihang Mountain area of North Henan Province; among which three ones are newly discovered that have not been documented by the academic circle before, as well as several traditional Chinese opera steles and wall inscriptions. This is the first time the academic circle discloses relevant data and information. These provide physical evidence the performance of the village opera in the Taihang Mountain area of the Qing Dynasty, in China. Especially the inscriptions on the steles and the stage wall can reflect some features of the local opera performance since the Qing Dynasty, such as the type, time, troupe, and so on. To some extent, the richness of these ancient theaters of official house, with the architectural styles of ancient Chinese opera, has a significant value related to historical material and cultural relics. The first-hand data obtained in the investigation will also provide the latest research materials on ancient Chinese opera and theater architecture.
Keywords: Official house. Ancient theater. Ancient opera. Folk belief.
INTRODUCTION
An ancient theater of official house is a place for folk opera performances in the Taihang Mountain area. It is mainly distributed in the Taihang Mountain area of the Zhanghe River Basin, in North Henan Province, and the junction of Henan, Hebei and Shanxi provinces. The official theater, named after the "official house," consists of the official house, the stage and the auditorium (formerly known as the "pool"). The local people build the official house to invite gods to "sit down" to see the opera performance. It is usually empty.
Typically, brick-wood or brick-stone houses make up the official residence. They are constructed on stone foundations, which range in height from 0.1 to 0.8 metres. The house often uses a three - or five - couplet gallery and veranda structure. There are passageways set into the front eaves, and the depth is roughly 1 metre. The main door is in the middle, and there are symmetrical windows on either side. Plaques and couplets are absent. The area is rectangular and has three open-concept rooms on the surface. The front of the platform serves as the site of worship, with a shrine built up against the gable to house statues. The theater building in the front of the official house is generally of brick and wood structure, hard-gable-type, or hanging-gable-type building. The foundation of the platform is at the same level as the office building from 10 to 30 meters of the area for ordinary audiences to watch the opera between the theater and the official house. Because of the low-lying terrain between the officials and the theater building, it was called a "pool" in the Qing Dynasty. In the collection of Xiaojuanyou Pavilion, written by Bao Shichen (1991, p. 3) of the Qing Dynasty, the performing theater in the Qing Dynasty is recorded as "[...] the place is built in the middle of the stage, the flat ground in front of the platform is famous for the pool, and the opposite platform is the hall [...]". It is an architectural pattern. The scientific name of the official house opposite the theater should be the hall, a common folk name.
Since the ancient theater of official house is a place to worship gods and perform operas, the academic circle has always regarded it as a temple theater in the past, without a special in-depth investigation and study. Although in the 1980s and 1990s, Henan made a concerted effort to investigate and publish Records of Chinese Opera and Records of Anyang Opera, they did not mention the particular type of temple theater (YANG, 1992, p. 151). Che Wenming (2013, p. 4), a famous expert on theater research in China, also ignores the important type of "ancient theater of official house" when discussing the types of ancient Chinese theater. Yang Jianmin (1992, p. 145-160) made a preliminary record of the ancient theater of official house in Anyang County. However, there is no comprehensive investigations and in-depth study on this type of theater, not to mention its position and value in the history of ancient Chinese theater. Even some of the theaters recorded by him are no longer in existence.
Firstly, the difference between the official house theater and the temple theater is that an official house is a temporary place of sacrifice. They are used for opera performance to worship the gods in only a few days and are empty or for sundries at other times. Therefore, they are called "Empty God Hall": houses without the gods. Secondly, the official house is a space shared by the gods, not belonging to a particular God. The immortals have their temples and are invited to this place only during the drama performance. Thirdly, the official house is a public asset of the village, that is jointly owned and administered by the town. Since the official house theater is a specific kind of ancient theater, which one is unique in the Taihang Mountain region of North Henan Province, it differs from the temple in this way.
Based on the above understanding, from July to August 2019, the research groups "Investigation and Research of Ancient Theater in Central Plains" and "Chinese Opera in the Context of Temple Culture in Central Plains" made a comprehensive investigation and study of the ancient theater of official house in the Taihang Mountain area of North Henan Province. This is the first thorough investigation and research on the ancient theater of official house by Chinese academic circles. It has found the distribution law of three previous unrecorded theaters, several opera steles and wall inscriptions. All the data and information were measured and verified by the authors and members of the research groups. Based on the first-hand information obtained from the investigation and the previous research, this article discusses the ancient theater of official house, as well as its performance detail, and devoted to provide the latest data information for research in this field.
1 NAME OF OFFICIAL HOUSE AND ITS ORIGIN
To study the ancient theater of official house, we first clarify the origin of its name. The word "Guanfang (官房, Official House)" was first found in the Northern Song Dynasty. He Zhu (2008, p. 548), a famous poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, once wrote: "I used to live in an official house. I always admire Zhong Mu. There is no place for horses in the mountains, but there are cattle fields in the mountains".
He Zhu was born in an official house. Hezhu'shu Biography in the History of the Song Dynasty records that "He Zhu is a native of Weizhou and the grandson of empress Xiaoh." (TUO, 1985, p. 13103). It can be seen that He Zhu was a royal relative. He lived in the house provided by the government since he was a child, calling himself the "official house". It is worth noting that Weizhou (now Xinxiang, Hebi, Henan Province) refers to the South Taihang area where official houses are ubiquitous. It shows that the name "Guanfang (Official House)" has existed since the Northern Song Dynasty. In the "Records of Si Ming" in the Song Dynasty, it is written "distribute Haozhai official houses before the barrack":
East Corridor: three official houses, one Xuan house, one official cabin, one department room, one teaching room, one teaching headroom, one golden drum teaching room, and one miscellaneous office room were allocated. (WU; MEI, 1990, p. 5998).
The "barrack" refers to the army. In the Song Dynasty, the government provided the military, and the government built and appropriated the officer's housing. The "official house" here has two meanings: one refers to the officer's house; the other refers to the house is officially owned. After the Song Dynasty, the term "official house" was used by later generations. According to the fourth volume of "Tongzhi Tiaoge" in the Yuan Dynasty:
In October of the 19th year of the Zhiyuan's reign (1282 A.D.), there was a clause in the imperial edict saying: according to the imperial decree issued in the 1st year of the Zhongtong's reign (1260 A.D.), those who were widow, lonely, old, weak, disabled, and unable to survive by themselves, should be supported by the government. It still ordered each place to set up a nursing house. If there were official houses, they would be used to build the nursing house. If there was no official house, the nursing house should be made by the government and adopted exclusively. (BAI, 1986, p. 56).
The "official house" here refers to the house invested in and owned by the government. The meaning is the same as that of the Song Dynasty. According to the "Records of Zhaozhou County" in the Ming Dynasty:
GuanZhai, a of sections, Likou was in 50 Li of the County West, led to the county boundary of Leping, Shanxi province. Baichengkou was 50 Li northwest of the county, with Yuanshi County in the East, Pingding City in the west, and Jingxingkou in the north. The critical point was to build three stone cities and one official house. (CAI, 1962, p. 118).
The second volume of the "Rules and Regulations of Punishment Continued by the Imperial Military Department" in the Qing Dynasty states that:
The bodyguards of the Qianqing gate in front of the imperial palace were awarded 30 rooms in Chen's residence. The minister in charge of the imperial guards planned to send two members to serve as the guards' battalion commander. No idle people were allowed to live. They would be punished if they did not live as requested by the official house. (B.O., 1893, p. 7).
The above are the records of official houses in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The meaning of "official house" has always been evident in ancient times since referring to the house owned by the government, as opposed to a private house. The "official house" mentioned in the "Records of Zhaozhou County" deserves attention. Since Zhaozhou County was located in the Taihang Mountainous area, passes were set up at the "key places" of Taihang Mountain in the Ming dynasty. Official houses were built for soldiers guarding such passes. All ordinary people in the Taihang Mountain area needed to pass through the official house, so they were familiar with it. It is the reason why the term "official house" is popular in the Taihang Mountain area.
It should be noted that the "official house" stated in historical texts refers to the residence held by the government. In contrast, the residence referenced by villagers is the public house that the village collectively owns. Due to their identical meanings as non-private real estate, the people refer to the village public housing as "official house." The main house in the village was referred to as the official house by the residents, who appropriated this title. In the Taihang Mountain area, building official houses to sacrifice the gods and perform operas is unnecessary. There is a simpler and easier way to build a "viewing shed": made of bamboo, wood, and fabric, commonly known as "Shenpen.". During the play, people bring the statue tablet to the shed and remove it afterward. The advantages of the canopy are low-cost, simple and easy to operate, and the disadvantage is that it is not resistant to wind and rain. If it is windy and rainy, it will affect the ceremony. In the 13th year of the Yongzheng's reign of the Qing Dynasty (1735 A.D.), the "Reconstruction of the Theater" in Jitan Town, Deng County, Nanyang City, said:
The palace was built in the year of Emperor Yongzheng and completed in August. Each value of playing truss wood for the platform, there was no shelter in windy and rainy weather. Although the music and dance performance were still going on, the clothes, costumes and movements of the opera performance were disrupted. It seemed blasphemous to the gods. (CULTURE BUREAU OF DENG COUNTY, 1987, p. 396).
In the 28th year of the Qianlong's reign of the Qing Dynasty (1763 A.D.), the "Inscription on the Renovation of the Theater" in Xujia Village, Xin'an County, Luoyang City, said:
In Xin'an County, there is Xujia village at 30 kilometers to the north, a kiln temple in the west, and three theater buildings in front of the temple. On the day of prayer, the stage of the theater was blocked by wind and rain. It was a pity for the village that there was no way to please the gods or follow people's wishes. (CULTURE BUREAU OF XIN'AN COUNTY, 1987, p. 93).
There is no favorable weather in Shenxi (divine opera performance for gods), which is a severe event in the eyes of the ancients and should be taken seriously. It may be the reason that the villagers in the Taihang Mountain area, built the ancient theater of official house to use. With so many temples around the village, why do people not build a temple theater there? It is because of the local physical and geographical conditions and economic conditions. Most of the temples in the Taihang Mountain area are located in the mountains around the villages. The mountains are high, the forest is dense and the transportation is inconvenient. The cost of building the temple theater is very high, and the problems of artists' food, housing and transportation are not easy to solve. The villages in the Taihang Mountain area are small in scale and population, and poor in economic conditions, so they cannot build theaters for all the temples. In the long-term practice, the local tradition of performing opera in the official house gradually came into being.
The official house theater of the village was constructed, and its purpose changed from "[…] sending the opera for gods up the mountain" to "[…] inviting the gods to go down the mountain," The gods were invited to attend an opera being performed in the village, which helped them to overcome the difficulty of human climbing and preserve human, material and financial resources. Judging from the extant inscriptions of operas, the ancient theater of official house has been famous since the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The following is a statistical table of the construction time of official houses and theaters in the existing local inscriptions.
Table 1 - Statistics of construction time of the ancient theater of official house in North Henan
|
Theater location |
Inscription name |
Creation and repair time |
Origin of the inscription |
Remarks |
|
Dongshui Village, Duli Town, Anyang County |
The stele inscription of the renovation of official house |
The 42nd year of the Qianlong's reign (1777 A.D.) |
Yang Anmin. Records of Opera in Anyang City. Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992, p. 233. |
The stele of rebuilding the official house dates to the 11th year of Daoguang. There is a record in the inscription that "the official house was repaired in the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign, and it is not far from this year." |
|
East Ma'an village, Heshun Town, Linzhou City |
The stele inscription of the renovation of official house |
The 49th year of the Qianlong's reign (1784 A.D.) |
The stele is now embedded in the west wall of the courtyard of the East Ma'an Village Committee. |
The stele of rebuilding the official house was inscribed in 1796 in the first year of Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty. The inscription says that "in the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, Li Fude, a good man of the village, and all villagers worked together to build a new official house." |
|
Jiaoling Village, Tongye Town, Anyang County |
The stele of the renovation of official house |
June 15, the 9th year of the Yongzheng's reign (1731 A.D.) |
The stele is now in Jiaoling Village |
The original stele has no title; the inscription is the list of donors who rebuilt the official house in the 9th year of Yongzheng's reign. |
|
East Lingxi Village, Duli Town, Anyang County |
The stele inscription of the renovation of official house and the construction of theater |
May 26, the 14th year of the Guangxu's reign (1888 A.D.) |
The stele is now embedded in the gable on the north side of the theater in East Lingxi Village |
The inscriptions are embedded in the wall, and some of the inscriptions are covered, but the information of time is clearly marked. |
|
Lingxi Village, Shayao Town, Huixian County |
The stele inscription of the construction of temple and theater |
4th year of the Republic of China (1915 A.D.) |
The stele is now standing under the gallery of Lingxi Village |
The original stele has no title, and the contents are the process of building official houses and theaters and the list of donors |
Data source: The table is made by the authors based on the information obtained from the field investigation and the research results of Yang Anmin (1992, p. 233).
The table shows that the ancient theater of official house mainly appeared in the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In the year of 1790, to celebrate Qianlong Emperor's birthday, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty changed the situation of suppressing folk opera and called Hui troupes to Beijing. This event marked the rise of local opera in the Qing Dynasty. Still, it also shows that the folk opera in the Qing Dynasty had been prosperous in the late Qianlong period, with the strength of confrontation with "Yabu" Kung Opera. The theater of official house began to appear in the Taihang Mountain area at this time, which shows that local folk drama activities were pretty active. Many opera performances put higher requirements for performance places, prompting people to donate money to build more solid performing places to improve performance conditions.
2 EXISTING ANCIENT THEATER OF OFFICIAL HOUSE IN NORTH HENAN
Up to now (2019 A.D.), there have been eight ancient theaters of official house in North Henan. Among them, three are well preserved; three are remaining theaters, but the official houses have been destroyed; two are remaining official houses, but the theaters has been destroyed. The following is a brief introduction to the eight theaters.
Table 2 - Statistics of the existing ancient theater of official house in North Henan
|
Theater location |
Age of Construction |
Preservation status |
Official house data |
Theater data |
|
East Lingxi Village, Duli Town, Anyang County |
The 14th year of the Tongzhi's reign (1871 A.D.) |
Well preserved |
The surface width is 9.10m. The depth is 5.08m. The height is 5.41m. |
The surface width is 6.73m. The height of the platform mouth is 2.94m. The height of the platform base is 1.44m, and the depth of the front stage is 3.85m. The depth backstage is 2.81m. |
|
Nanyangcheng Village, Duli Town, Anyang County |
Unknown |
The theater has been destroyed, and the official house is in excellent condition. |
The surface width is 8.46m. The depth is 7.40m. The height is 5.86m. |
|
|
Dongshui Village, Duli Town, Anyang County |
The 11th year of the Daoguang's reign (1831 A.D.) |
The theater has been destroyed, and the official house is in excellent condition. |
The surface width is 10.60m. The depth is 5.92m. The height is 5.50m. |
|
|
Jiaoling Village, Tongye Town, Anyang County |
The 9th year of the Yongzheng's reign (1731 A.D.) |
The official house has been destroyed, and the theater is in excellent condition. |
|
The surface width is 7.07m. The height of the platform mouth is 2.88m, the size of the platform base is 0.99m, and the depth of the front stages is 3.93m. The depth backstage is 3.11m. |
|
Yanghe Village, Wulong Town, Linzhou City |
Unknown |
Well preserved |
The surface width is 8.20m. The depth is 5.20m. The height is 5.20m. |
The surface width is 7.29m. The height of the platform mouth is 2.96m, the size of the platform base is 1.56m, and the depth of the stage is 7.13m. |
|
Dongma'an Village, Heshun Town, Linzhou City |
The 1st year of the Jiaqing's reign (1796 A.D.) |
The official house has been destroyed, and the theater is in excellent condition. |
|
The surface width is 6.69m. The height of the platform mouth is 2.89m. The height of the platform base is 1.43m, and the depth of the front stage is 3.91m. The depth backstage is 2.80m. |
|
Lingxi Village, Shayao Town, Huixian County |
The 4th year of the Republic of China (1915 A.D.) |
Well preserved |
The surface width is 8.74 m. The depth is 5.50m. The height is 5.430m. |
The surface width is 6.74m. The height of the platform base is 1.49m, and the size of the platform mouth is 2.66m. The depth of the front stage is 4.66m. Backstage depth: 2.20m. |
|
North Dongpo Village, Nancun Town, Huixian County |
Unknown |
The official house has been destroyed, and the theater is in excellent condition. |
|
The surface width is 7.383m. The height of the platform base is 1.495m. The entrance height is 2.540m, and the depth of the front stage is 3.551m. The depth backstage is 1.751m. |
Data source: The authors make the table based on the information obtained from the field investigation. And all data were personally measured and verified by the authors.
Among the eight theaters mentioned above, six are in Anyang. Anyang is a place with many ancient theaters of official houses. Although Huixian County is under the jurisdiction of Xinxiang City, Henan Province, it is geographically closer to Shanxi Province and belongs to the Taihang Mountains area, so there is a small distribution in the territory. From the architectural form, the surface width of the official house is between 8-10m, with a depth of 5-7m and a height of 5m; the surface width of the theater is about 6-7m, with the size of the platform base of 1.4m, the size the entrance of 2.5-2.9m, the depth of the front-stage of 3.5-4m, and the depth of the backstage of 1.7-3m. This article is to introduce the well preserved theaters and their great academic value as follows.
2.1 Official House Theater of East Lingxi Village, Duli Town
The northernmost point of Henan Province is East Lingxi Village, which is situated on the south bank of the Zhanghe River. Tianjiazui Village in Shexian County, Hebei Province, is located across the river, and the ancient theater of official house is located at the entrance of the village. The official house is constructed on a 0.4-meter-high stone platform with a hard top made of brick and wood, facing west. Under the front eaves, two wooden eaves columns support the architrave. The corridor under the eaves is 1 meter deep, and the indoor area is 36 square meters. The altar is the same wide as the room, with a depth of 1 m, a height of 1.5 m, and a statue on top. In front of the platform is the worship area, covering an area of 27 square meters. The theater building is directly opposite the official house, about 10 meters away from it, facing east from the west, and backed by the Zhanghe River. It is a brick wood structure with a gable in front and a hard gable behind it. The roof is covered with grey tiles, and there are no ornaments like the tail and ridge beast on the ridge. The platform foundation is made of Qingtiao stone in the Taihang Mountain area. It is 1.44 meters high and firm. The beam frame structure consists of five beams, and the front stage is supported by four wooden eaves pillars and a drum-shaped mirror foundation.
On the north wall of the theater is a "Stele Inscription of the Construction of the Theater in East Lingxi Village, Anyang County", in the 10th year of Tongzhi's reign. It records the process of building an ancient theater of official houses in the Qing Dynasty, which is precious. It is at this moment collated and transcribed as follows:
Today, the foundation of the theater building in East Lingxi Village has been built for years. It has not been made into a stone wall but a towering building. When people pray for the autumn harvest in spring, or there are strong wind and rain, the divine opera cannot be performed, and people's reverence is depressed. In the village, Han Yongqi and Wang Yi were filled with emotion. They were kind-hearted and prepared to invite the public to discuss. They donated money according to the acre of land and paid wages by the door. If there was divine help, Jue Gong would succeed quickly. On the day of the completion of construction, the villagers asked me to engrave stones on its composition. The poem said: "the building is as high as an eagle flies and as colorful as sunshine, to pray for favorable weather and village protection" Han Yongqi and Wang Yi, the leaders of the community (The following are donations from the stewards and from She County, Cizhou County and Lin County, and the names of craftsmen were omitted).
March 20, Xinwei, 10th year of Tongzhi's Reign in the Qing Dynasty
With a total of 220, 200 Wen spent.
All village public opinion: Official land should not be used to sell rice and gamble. If anyone refuses to accept, he will be sent to the government for investigation and punishment. (YANG, 1992, p. 151).
According to the inscription, this ancient theater of official house, in East Lingxi Village, was built in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. There once was a theater in the local area, but it collapsed only because of age and was rebuilt on the original site in the 10th year of Tongzhi's reign. The purpose of building the theater is evident in the inscriptions. Local people were worried that the gods would be offended if the divine drama could not be performed regularly because of strong wind and rain, so they spared no effort to rebuild the theater. The completion of the theater has reduced the villagers' anxiety of belief and enhanced the public's confidence. Local people believe that this will not only bring happiness to the gods but also will bring harvest and good luck to the community.
According to the inscription, the local societies played a decisive role in the construction of the theater. Han Yongqi and Wang Yi, who initiated this move, were the "leaders" of the community. Only by using the power of faith can the villagers' organizations be mobilized to complete this large project. The inscription records that the cost of building the theater is apportioned according to the acre of land per household. In addition to apportioning money and food, they have to provide volunteer work. As the villagers built the ancient theater, the property and use rights belonged to the collective of the village. The village rules, at the end of the inscription, are shown as "All village public opinion: Official land should not be used to sell rice and gamble. If anyone refuses to accept, he will be sent to the government for investigation and punishment." (YANG, 1992, p.151).
This area is referred to as "official land" because it is not privately held. The phrase "Official land should not be used for the sale of rice and gambling" does not preclude villagers’ businesses from conducting catering and gaming. It stresses that working in such sectors is prohibited in the ancient theater of official house. The internal reasoning is that since the theater is owned by the collective, nobody should exploit it for their own benefit.
2.2 Official House Theater of Jiaoling Village, Tongye Town
The official house in Jiaoling Village of Tongye Town was demolished in 2010, and now only the official house and theater remain. The theater is facing north and 15 degrees east. It is a brick and wood building with a front rolling shed and hard rear gable.
The platform foundation is made of Qingtiao stone in the Taihang Mountain area, with a height of 0.99m. The bearing structure of the theater is five beams. The front stage has four square stone columns as eaves pillars, and the lower end is connected with the drum-shaped mirror foundation. The platform is 7.07 meters wide; the entrance is 2.88 meters high; the front stage is 3.93 meters deep; the backstage is 3.11 meters deep. Wooden partition fans separate the front and back platforms. Above the wooden lattice fans, there are four words, "Ge Wu Lou Tai (Singing and Dancing Terrace)," among which the word "Ge (Singing)" has disappeared. The door is 0.74 meters wide and 2.03 meters high. The "Stele Inscription of the Construction of the Theater" is inlaid on the gable of the east side of the theater. The date of the inscription is "[…] the 5th day of July in the 5th year of the Republic of China (1916 A.D.)", which indicates that the theater was rebuilt in the early Republic of China. The inscription says: "[…] there was an old singing and dancing building in the street of Jiaoling Village, Anyang County, Zhangde City (Now Anyang City), Henan Province."[21] Therefore, this theater existed in the Qing Dynasty. There are opera sculptures under the front of the theater, the contents of which are opera characters, and the repertoire remains to be examined.
Figure 1 - Ancient Theater of Official House in Jiaoling Village, Tongye Town
Photographed by the author Hengli Peng, on August 15, 2019.
2.3 Official House Theater of Yanghe Village, Wulong Town, Linzhou City
It is located on Yanghe Village Street, Wulong Town. The official house is on the north side of the road, facing the south and the theater. The distance from the official house to the theater is 10 meters. It is a hard-gable building with a civil structure, 8.20m long from east to west, and 5.20m wide from south to north, with the eaves of 2.20m high.
The theater is of brick and wood structure, and the front eaves are paved with brackets under the forehead. The surface width is 7.29m, the height of the platform mouth is 2.96m, the size of the platform base is 1.56m, and the depth of the stage is 7.13m. The bottom of the platform is paved with bluestone, and the gable is covered with green bricks and filled with the embryo. There are four square eaves pillars at the entrance. A couplet is carved on the two stone pillars in the middle: "[…] according to the law and Lv's point, the ancient and modern human feelings are expressed through their clothes."[22] From the architectural style and structure, it should be Qing-dynasty architecture.
Figure 2 - Ancient Theater of Official House in Yanghe Village, Wulong Town
Photographed by the author Hengli Peng, on July 22, 2019
2.4 Official House Theater of East Ma'an Village, Heshun Town, Linzhou City
The theater is located in the courtyard of the village committee of East Ma'an Village, Heshun Town. Compared with the office building of the village committee, the location of the office building is the base of the official house.
The theater has a rolling shed in front and a hard gable behind. The width is 6.69m, with a height of 2.89m and 1.43m. The wooden lattice fans and the upper and lower doors