Chinese primary art education and traditional art culture: focusing on the content analysis of art textbooks

In order to explore the teaching content of traditional art and culture in Chinese elementary art education, this research investigated the contents of 12 elementary school 『Fine Art』 textbooks from “People's Education Publishing House(人民敎育出版社).” The educational objectives of traditional art and culture presented in the art curriculum were aimed at promoting Chinese ethnic pride based on the love of excellent ethnic cultural heritage. Based on this, the results of the analysis of the art textbooks are as follows. Firstly, the total number of learning units in the 12 art textbooks is 230 units, and the total number of illustrations presented is 520. Among them, the number of artworks related to Chinese culture is 401, that is 77.1% of the total. And in terms of chronological classification, a significant number of 120 artworks was related to traditional Chinese art and culture before modern times, that is 29.7% of total. Secondly, as for the works related to traditional art and culture, 57.5% of the 120 works was included in the ‘appreciation and criticism’ learning area. Thirdly, the artistic fields to which the works belong to were quite diverse, starting with hieroglyphics, and including ceramics, sculpture, bronze, painting, crafts, architecture, gumbo, theatre, stamps, maps, and musical instruments. Fourthly, the main educational content through the works of each period is as follows: in the case of the Neolithic and Advanced Periods, the background and transformation process of the emergence of ceramic and bronze arts and the sculptural features and values of individual works were mentioned; Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in the case of the Qin(秦) Dynasty, the paintings and Buddha sculptures of the Donhuangseokgul in the Tang(唐) Dynasty, the ink-colored portraits of the Song(宋) Dynasty, the architectural arts of the 'Peking Palace' in the Ming(明) Dynasty, and the works related to ceramics and ink and light-colored painting in the Qing(淸) Dynasty, the meaning and value in terms of art history and sculpture were covered. Especially in the works of the Ming Dynasty, we can see that aesthetic issues were also mentioned.