From "sick man" to strong man: The changing role of english language teaching in China in an era of rising nationalism and global ambitions

Abstract

This chapter examines how a resurgence of nationalism in the People's Republic of China under President Xi Jinping has affected the teaching of English there. First, the authors provide a brief history of English in China, and then focus on its role in the internationalization of Chinese universities in the 1990s and early 2000s. Next, they examine recent changes to national and local English teaching policies through the perspectives of instructors and students at a coastal university in southern China that was part of the economic opening and reforms in the 1980s but has since shifted its orientation away from internationalization under pressure from the central government. By recounting of these experiences, the authors reveal the range of impacts that recent nationalist policies have had on English teaching in China and point to pedagogical interventions that seek to balance internationalist and nationalist desires in China.