The Chinese Educational Idioms That the Chinese Shall Live By

Abstract

With the conviction that formulaic expressions in a language are carriers of stable thought patterns of its culture, the paper conducts a thematic analysis of Chinese educational idioms with the goal of exploring the traditional Chinese educational values reflected in the Chinese language use. Altogether, about 100 Chinese idioms that pertain to teaching, learning and parenting are identified from a Chinese Chengyu (idioms) dictionary. Findings of this study challenge the common practice of borrowing Western pedagogical discourses to justify curriculum change initiatives in China, arguing that the traditional Chinese educational discourses should be retained in order to secure a strong cultural identity for young generations.