Cultural Values Reflected within Chinese Children’s Stories

The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled CULTURAL VALUES REFLECTED WITHIN CHINESE CHILDREN'S STORIES presented by Chenyi Zhang, a candidate for the degree of Master of Science, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. the research design and helpful suggestions in the writing process. I would also like to show my appreciation to Dr. Suhwon Lee for her helps and suggestions in the data analyses process. understanding of the cultural values imparted to children. In the past two decades, Chinese society has changed tremendously due to modernization and globalization (Qi & Tang, 2004). Because culture can be shaped by the changed social ecologies (Trandis, 2004), it is appropriate to argue that current Chinese culture may have some new and different characteristics that differ from what researchers have previously reported. The present study employed children's stories as a tool for examining cultural values in China over the last 20 years. Hence, the study is expected to offer an updated description of Chinese cultural values. There are few studies that focus on the socialization of Chinese children related to the impact of cultural changes. Ho (1989) argued that continuity with traditional patterns of Chinese socialization was still evident in the late 1980s. However, there were regional variations in child-rearing practices. This may have suggested that Chinese traditional culture was powerful and influential in the society. Studies after the mid-1990s have shown growing evidence denoting the changes in the socialization process for Chinese children's decision making in peer, family and school contexts, and found the presence of some Western values (i.e. concepts of rights, individual autonomy and democratic norms) were salient aspects of Chinese children's social reasoning and practices. Wang, et al.'s recent comparison study of Chinese and American children's psychological wellbeing reported that in some developed Chinese cities (i.e., Beijing and Shanghai), Chinese children share many similarities with American children. The authors also indicated that in recent years some Chinese families and children have been increasingly exposed to Western values. These findings strongly support the notion that changes have occurred in Chinese culture in recent years. Studying cultural changes is very challenging. Due to its multi-dimensional structure, researchers define culture differently in their works (Trandis, 2004). The definition of cultural values is somewhat clear and concrete. Researchers agree that values are more important than the rituals, heroes, symbols, and …