Author(s)
My project’s inspiration came from two areas. Firstly, my passion for Social History, particularly children and childhood. Secondly, my desire to share this love with others through an engaging and relevant approach. While ubiquitous and widely accepted in Late Imperial China, Neo-Confucian pedagogies are narrow-minded, archaic, and even jarring when viewed through contemporary lenses. I wish to showcase this difference in a nuanced way, providing readers with a glimpse of how these views could be possibly received if applied in a modern context. Ultimately, I hope each reader comes away from the project with the information and arguments to form their own perspective, deciding if a Neo-Confucian childhood education does have possible (or impossible) present-day relevance.
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Author’s Reflection
As a history student passionate about Social History, particularly children and childhood, the opportunity to do a creative passion project was exciting as I got to learn more about the topic in the context of Imperial China. My goal with the project was to create something that both encapsulates insights and perspectives of childhood in the era, but also to make it accessible and enthralling for my peers or friends to read and get interested in the topic as well. What I came up with was the Li (禮) Education Blog, a parody blog site designed to share Neo-Confucian pedagogies to parents using examples and case studies in the humorous form of “A+ Model students”.
Comprising of 1 introductory post and 3 tip posts. Each serves to explore the multifaceted nature of neo-Confucian pedogeological philosophies vis-à-vis Modern beliefs, their archaisms in some respects, their potential utility in others, and even elements of hypocrisy in retrospect. Themes such as prodigy obsession, emphasis on Rolt studying, the rejection of child social development and the creation of child obligation through mother’s suffering are some of the things I tried to explore. The content was also packaged with as much likeness and inspiration from real education blogs, both to lend an air believability to the posts but also to make the content accessible without becoming tiresome like a lecture.
Enriching the discussion was also the use of fake commentors. These characters embody contrasting views in society (as the pun in their names represent) to let viewers ponder more about the philosophies in both their benefits and harms. I tried to make both characters layered to prevent audiences from viewing one opinion as superior to another, but rather to use these characters as platforms to view these philosophies from different perspectives and come to their own nuanced take on each.
I hope you have as much enjoyment looking through the project as I did making it!