(Clearwisdom.net) I am a foreign language teacher at a university. Several days ago, I saw a copy of the Foreign Language Education Curriculum Guidelines that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used since it came to power. After some deep thinking, I suddenly realized the actual meaning of these curriculum guidelines.
I always believed that, of all the different school curricula, foreign language education could be considered to be relatively independent and that it would not be that easy to dilute it with CCP culture. Every language has its own cultural context. While learning a language, one will naturally get into contact with the cultural context that is embedded in the language. I believed that, in China, those who had learned foreign languages should have had relatively free and open minds. I also felt fortunate to have chosen a career that kept some distance from the CCP culture.
However, the true situation is not like that at all. The CCP has never loosened its control or its desire to "reform" foreign language education. The education curriculum guidelines of the Chinese Ministry of Education clearly state: "The Foreign Language Education Curriculum Guidelines are systematically designed in an integrated way according to the national education guidelines, laws, policies, and education plans. It is the official document that has, in the form of outlines, dictated the nature, objective, contents, principles, methods, and so on in the teaching of foreign language."
The 1956 Foreign Language Education Curriculum Guidelines stipulated: "Foreign language education is helpful to the construction of socialism...the development of the students' ability to think, the broadening of their visions, and the execution of socialist education."
The 1978 English Language Education Curriculum Guidelines pointed out: "There is a need to correctly handle the relationship of the political and ideological education and language education in the area of English language education..."
The 1981 Foreign Language Education Curriculum Guidelines said: "Follow the principles of language education and instill ideological education into the teaching of languages."
One can imagine what the textbooks and reference books would be like when they are written in a manner that is consistent with these kinds of foreign language education guidelines, which essentially serve the purpose of carrying out "socialist education" and "political and ideological education." Those who have completed a foreign language education under the Communist rule all know that foreign language textbook articles are used to teach the CCP culture through foreign languages. What the students learn are simply the alphabet, words, phonetics, syntax, and grammar, and they absolutely do not make contact with the rich and unique cultural context that the language contains. The CCP has isolated the words from the culture that is behind those words. What has been given to the students are only the superficial words, a shallow skin, while the original meanings of the words have been dug out and replaced with ideas from the Party culture. Even if one has learned the language, one still does not know the genuine meaning of that language, and what he or she has learned is just something superficial. As a result, although many people seem to have learned foreign languages very well, they simply cannot communicate with native speakers of those languages, nor can they understand their beliefs, thinking, and style of living. This phenomenon has puzzled many people, because they do not know what is going on. What they have learned is a foreign language that has been warped by the Communist Party culture that has been injected into it. They have not truly learned that language.
I remembered that during the Great Cultural Revolution, the foreign language textbooks were filled with such words as "barefoot doctors," "Red Guards," "Capitalist Supporters," and so on. In the latter 1980s, when I entered college, the teacher still trembled at the mention of such concepts as the Bible, democracy, freedom, and so on. Even though the students had the chance to hear these concepts, they could hardly understand their true meanings. According to my teacher, he once led his students on a tour of a Catholic church to give them a conceptual understanding of religious beliefs. The students could see how religious followers worshiped. But as a consequence, my teacher was severely criticized by the school officials.
Some may say that now the situation has changed, that people are more concerned about making money, and that no one cares about those things anymore. Actually, that is not the case. The CCP now hides and covers up its efforts to instill its ideology through education and mind control instead of being so overt about it. Thus, its control has become even more secretive, more severe, more cunning, and more brutal. For example, in the past, the schools taught courses in CCP History and Political Education. Presently, not just these two courses, but also Ideology and Morality, Ideological and Political Education, Political Economy, The Theories of Deng Xiaoping, The Outlines of Mao Zedong Ideology, The History of International Communism, The Military, and others are taught. So from elementary school to college and then on into graduate school, when the students pursue their Master's degrees and PhD's, they have been repetitively instilled with the CCP culture. These courses are the most unpopular ones among the students. However, they are also the ones on which they will definitely be tested during the school or college entrance exams. So to make a living, the teachers have no choice but to teach these courses. To get into the next-level schools, the students have to memorize them. Although foreign language education is not controlled that tightly, the textbooks' articles have still been screened and sensitive questions have been eliminated. Even the English-Chinese dictionaries do not escape this fate. The New English-Chinese Dictionary is full of examples of words or sentences from the CCP culture, which makes people feel at a loss as to whether to cry or laugh. What is even more ridiculous is what the CCP has done to the Far East English-Chinese Dictionary, which has Liang Shiqiu (or Liang Shih-Ch'iu) as the chief editor and has been published in Taiwan. All the contents that are not in accord with the CCP culture have been removed.
No one is allowed to talk about the things that are not included in the Foreign Language Education Curriculum Guidelines. That is, one cannot speak the truth; this has become one of the CCP's disciplines. Otherwise, one will certainly be persecuted. He Yingqing, a female lecturer at Hunan Vocational Institute of Biological, Mechanical and Electrical Technology, was tortured to death for telling people the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. (English version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/7/2/87289.html ).
Sun Shibin, a teacher from the Affiliated School of Northeastern Normal University, was deprived of his right to teach because he refused to give up his belief in "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance," and he was tortured to such a degree that he could hardly walk and almost lost his vision. (Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/4/158082.html )
Zhou Qing, a distinguished teacher of physics in Jinshan County No.1 Middle School in Xiaogan City of Hubei Province and a Falun Gong practitioner, became paralyzed and almost blind due to the torture by police in Hubei Province. (English version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/7/16/87728.html )
Falun Gong practitioner Guo Jingtai, who was a teacher at Tonglian Company School in Shihezi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (AR), was mentally traumatized and died because of the persecution. (English version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/7/19/87823.html )
Chen Xue, a young teacher from the Department of Computers at Fujian University of Technology, was fired by the university because she told her students, between classes, the truth about the staged Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation as well as the fact that millions of Chinese people have quit the CCP and its related organizations. (Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/20/159219.html )
Zhang Kai, a Falun Gong practitioner and a sophomore at Qingdao University of International Trade in Shandong Province, was given three years in prison for publishing an article telling people the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong. (English version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/8/7/88389.html )
Zhang Lishan, a Falun Gong practitioner and a teacher at the College of Physics at Hebei Normal University, was sentenced to five years in prison for telling people the facts about the persecution. (English version available at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/8/12/88534.html )
One could go on and on with such examples. These are just a portion of the facts that the Minghui/Clearwisdom website has reported in one month about the persecution of school teachers and students. These only constitute a part of the whole picture of the CCP's brutal persecution of those in the circle of education. Seeing these facts, people may no longer believe the claim that, "Under the CCP's rule, the human rights situation has been improved" and "People are more concerned with the economy, so the mental control and suppression has been less severe than before."
Education has originally been a way for a country or a nation to produce its own intellectuals and improve the lives of its people. However, under the CCP's rule in Mainland China, education has become a shackle that the CCP has used to control its people. However, the land of China is the stage for revealing the truth; it is not a paradise for the CCP to commit evil. The book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is like a sword from heaven, which has already cut off the painted mask of the evil Party and pierced its heart. The overwhelming trend to quit the CCP cannot be stopped. People are longing for the truth about the persecution. People are longing for the day when they can break through the CCP's mental control and regain their freedom.