China to introduce revised textbooks, featuring stories of astronauts, scientists, border heroes

Primary and middle schools across China will start using newly revised textbooks in three subjects starting from the autumn semester this year, with new contents including stories of astronauts, scientists and heroes guarding China's borders, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The revisions of textbooks on ethics and rule of law, Chinese language and history feature new archeological findings in studying the origin of the Chinese civilization, and content to enhance education on national security and rule of law, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. 

Liu Hongjie, an official from the MOE, said the revisions will strengthen education in national defense, labor, life safety, health and others, China Central Television reported on Tuesday.

The textbooks of Chinese language include the story of Huang Wenxiu, a former village official in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who died in a flash flood at the age of 30 in 2019. Huang, who is widely seen as a role model of China’s poverty alleviation work, was posthumously awarded the title “role model of the times.” 

The textbook of Chinese also highlights China’s technology improvement and stories of role models including astronauts, heroes who guarded China’s borders, scientists, educators, and frontline workers, according to media reports.

Additionally, students can learn about Chinese civilization by tracing representative archaeological findings such as the Liangzhu Ancient City site, the Taosi site, and Niuheliang site in history textbooks, according to the MOE.

Meanwhile, the revisions have also reduced difficulty in Chinese language studies.

The revised textbooks will also promote national security education, legal education, and education on forging a sense of national identity. For example, revised history textbooks now contain content on the self-defense counterattacks in the Chinese-Indian border in 1962 and the self-defense counterattacks in China-Vietnam border in 1979, according to China Central Television.

These textbooks will first be used in the first grades of primary and middle schools in the upcoming autumn semester. By 2026, all grades of the nine-year compulsory education will use the new textbooks, according to the MOE.

The MOE launched the textbook revision work in March 2022, with more than 200 experts participating in the revision. During the revision, more than 550 schools, 2,000 teachers, and over 100,000 students took part in trial teaching and studying, said the MOE.