Censure sur les livres scolaires et universitaires en Chine Populaire

Chinese Universities Told to Ban 'Western Textbooks,' Grumbling From Classrooms2015-01-30 RFAChina's education minister on Friday ordered the country's colleges anduniversities to ban textbooks that promote "western values," a phrasethat often refers to democracy and human rights.Yuan Guiren told a higher education forum that Chinese institutionsshould take steps to protect their "political integrity," and "never lettextbooks promoting western values appear in our classes," officialmedia reported.Yuan said colleges and universities should step up "ideologicalmanagement, especially of textbooks, teaching materials and classlectures," the official Xinhua news agency reported.In particular, textbooks and materials taken direct from western sourcesshould be further controlled, he said.Yuan also said higher education institutions should ban any negativecomments about the ruling Communist Party from its classrooms."Remarks that slander the leadership of the Communist Party of China,smear socialism or violate the country's Constitution and laws mustnever appear or be promoted in college classrooms," Xinhua quoted him assaying.He warned teachers and lecturers not to grumble or express discontent infront of their students.Xinhua cited the case of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, who was handed alife jail term for separatism in September after the authorities accusedhim of "spreading separatist thoughts" among his students, charges whichTohti has repeatedly denied.*‘Western’ cultural imports*Yuan's comments come as China steps up a nationwide campaign to rejectwhat officials describe as "western" cultural imports, includingcelebrating Christmas.But a university professor who asked to remain anonymous said Yuan'scomments were "nonsense" and harked back to the Mao era when China wasshut off from the rest of the world."This is the same as the closed door policy," the professor said. "Forthe education minister to be saying such things is deeply embarrassing."She added: "If we're going to reject all western ideologies,Marxism...much of modern science and even university education itselfcame from the West.""According to Yuan Guiren, we should abolish universities, including theeducation ministry, and run private schools for the study of classicalChinese texts," she said."As we're traveling back 2,000 or 3,000 years, we could bring backfoot-binding and speak in archaic Chinese."*Sense of menace*Rights lawyer Zhang Xuezhong wrote in a social media post that Yuan'swords carried a chilling sense of menace."His speech contains a number of uses of 'must' and 'mustn't,' and isintended to give university lecturers a good talking-to," Zhang said."As the highest-ranking education official, Yuan takes a confrontationaland threatening tone, which is aimed at frightening and humiliatinguniversity lecturers across the country," he wrote."Chinese university teachers already lack academic freedom, but nowthey've even lost their basic dignity," Zhang said.Yuan's speech comes just days after the Communist Party ideologicalmagazine Qiushi published an article criticizing university lecturersfor "bad-mouthing China."Liu Jingsheng, a veteran dissident who served more than 10 years in jailfor his part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square, nowa member of writers' group Independent Chinese PEN, said Yuan's commentswere no accident, but part of a concerted clampdown on free speech byPresident Xi Jinping."Xi Jinping has a Mao Zedong complex," Liu said. "Ever since he came topower, he has trumpeted his support for a socialist value system.""But he can't get back to the Mao era entirely."He said Xi's administration is trying to instill such ideologicalnotions in the minds of children from primary school onwards."But this isn't likely to be sustained, because of the impact ofeconomic factors [contact with the outside world]," Liu said.*Visa denied*Yuan's warning came as a Hong Kong-based Egyptian poet and academic wasdenied a visa to teach after being hired as a visiting professor byBeijing Normal University.Sayed Gouda said the visa denial is likely linked to the publication ofhis recent novel Closed Gate, which describes the experiences of a youngPalestinian man in Beijing during the mass student-led democracymovement of 1989.Gouda, a permanent Hong Kong resident, told reporters that the decisionon his visa came through nine days after Closed Gate was launched inHong Kong."They told me it's because I'm from Hong Kong...but I thought it wasvery strange, because I have a permit to travel to the mainland," Goudasaid."I know it has nothing to do with my visa; it's to do with the novel Iwrote."He added: "My novel didn't set out to criticize the Chinesegovernment...but the student demonstrations formed the background of thenovel, so it would be impossible to ignore them."Sayed Gouda wrote Closed Gate based on his experiences as an exchangestudent in Beijing from 1988 to 1989 when he witnessed the Tiananmencrackdown, Hong Kong's /Ming Pao /newspaper reported.His novel was launched at Hong Kong's June 4th Museum in Tsimshatsui onJan. 18.

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