Cultural Values in Chinese Textbooks

The Construction of Cultural Values
and Beliefs in Chinese Language
Textbooks: A critical discourse analysis
Yongbing Liu*
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
This article examines the discourses of cultural values and
beliefs constructed in Chinese language
textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide
in China. By applying story
grammar analysis in the framework of critical discourse
analysis, the article critically investigates
how the discourses are constructed and what ideological forces
are manifested in the textbooks.
More specifically, it analyses how story grammar and textual
devices are manipulated in the
construction of selected versions of cultural values and beliefs
for the child reader. Further, it
explores how the discourses position the child reader to read
through the ways that the discourses
are constructed, and concludes that the discourses serve the
interests of the government and its

cultural elites, but not the interests of the child reader.
Introduction
In the late 1970s China began to reform its economic system
and opened its doors to
the outside world. After roughly two decades of reform, China
has seen an
unmistakable emergence of activities that mark a ‘‘capitalist
society’’: industrializa-
tion, privatization of the means of production, commodification
of labour, the rise of
a new rich class, and so on (see, for example, Eaton, 1999;
Naughton, 2000). The
implementation of a free market economy has led to income
gaps widening
enormously, and the unemployment rate is soaring. These have
caused a psycho-
logical and ideological crisis for many Chinese people and
generated untold
resentment against reform, globalization, and the government.
Within China it is
publicly argued that the high unemployment rate and the gap
between the rich and
poor could cause social instability (see, for example, He, Q. L.,

1998; Hu, 1999).
The market economy has caused the state to lose control over
society and has placed
the Chinese working class at the mercy of new capitalist
exploitation.
The growth of the free market has had implications beyond the
economic
structure: It has opened up a Pandora’s box of social evils, such
as corruption,
drug abuse, prostitution, and counterfeit products, which have
appeared and
*Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National
Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 637616. Email:
[email protected]
ISSN 0159-6306 (print)/ISSN 1469-3739 (online)/05/010015-16
# 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/01596300500039716
Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education
Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 15�/30
developed at a terrifying speed (He, Q. L., 1998). Human
compassion towards

the poor and underprivileged has reached a historically low
level. Some scholars (for
example He, Q. L., 1998) believe that all of these problems are
caused by the
‘‘get-rich mentality’’ driven by the free market. In other words,
people seem to live
in an utterly valueless condition where the goal of life is simply
to make money.
Scholars go on to predict that the most severe crisis in China’s
future will not just
be economic, but will bring a collapse of Chinese cultural or
moral structure
as well.
Defenders of the reform, especially those in the government
(see, for example,
Xiao, 1994; He, X., 1996), argue that a growing income gap and
increased
unemployment rate are inevitable as China transforms into a
free market economy;
the problems should be seen as ‘‘growing pains’’ necessary to
the process. They
believe that social problems, as ‘‘pains of the process’’, can
gradually be eased within

the system by renewed social order, legality, and education. In
order to counteract
the challenges, many cultural elites agree with the government
that a new discourse
based on China’s own development experiences needs to be
developed (see, for
example, He, X., 1996; Hu, 1999; Xiao, 1994). Traditional
Confucian Chinese
cultural values and beliefs will have to be the major source for
such a new discourse.
For the government and many cultural elites, the resolution of
problems regarding
morals and beliefs lies in the hands of education.
In the recent education reform called ‘‘quality education’’ one
of the most
important tasks of basic education has been to transmit the
desired moral code to
students and build up the correct beliefs (Liu, F., 1995).
However, how are these
views sanctioned, what cultural values and beliefs are
constructed to shape the moral
and political identities of the child reader, and whose interests
are served in the
discourse construction? This article reports part of a study that

examines these broad
questions based on the content found in Chinese language
readers, which are
currently in use nationwide for primary school students from
Grade 1 to Grade 6 in
China (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999).
Drawing upon critical curriculum studies and critical discourse
analysis, I will
examine and discuss how language textbooks introduce the child
reader to the
cultural values and beliefs constructed by the government and
cultural elites. In what
follows I briefly outline the major assumptions of critical
curriculum studies and
highlight the analytical technique. Then, I examine the
discourses of cultural values
and beliefs that are constructed in Chinese language textbooks.
My analytical focus is
on the powerful and authoritative ways in which the language
textbooks construct,
position and persuade the child reader of the primacy of
dominant cultural values
and beliefs.

Critical Curriculum Studies
The official curriculum documents in the form of syllabus and
textbooks, among
other materials, define the objectives and goals and provide the
basics or major part
16 Y. Liu
of the cultural knowledge and information for teaching and
learning in schools
(Westbury, 1990). Since the school curriculum is the result of
deliberate selection
and organization, the cultural knowledge in the syllabus and
textbooks has been a
significant issue in education research. However, the nature of
curriculum and
cultural knowledge selected and transmitted through the
curriculum has typically
been regarded as beneficial for all students in particular and
society in general by
curriculum scholars (Pinar, Keynold, Strattery, & Taubman,
1995). Such an
understanding of curriculum was the accepted view in
curriculum research until

the 1970s. It was the emergence of the ‘‘sociology of school
knowledge’’ in the 1970s
that offered a new perspective for conceptualizing the
relationship between
curriculum, cultural knowledge and power in education (Whitty,
1985). The new
sociology put the emphasis on agency, reality, interaction, and
lived experiences as
co-constitutive of knowledge production. This new perspective
opened a wide field
for understanding curricula as ‘‘political texts’’ (Pinar et al.,
1995, p. 243) and
textbooks as ideological message systems for transmitting
dominant values and
beliefs of society (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991).
In his review of research in the critical curriculum studies, Luke
(1988) suggests
that this scholarship has demonstrated that in any given era of
the history of
education the selection of knowledges, competences, and
practices for transmission
in school curricula is an ideological process, serving interests of
particular classes and
forms of social control. He argues ‘‘the ideological process is

dynamic, reflecting both
continuities and contradictions of that dominant culture and the
continued remaking
and relegitimation of that culture’s plausibility system’’ (Luke,
1988, p. 24). Based
on his continued research on this ideological process since the
late 1970s,
Apple (1999, p. 62) points out that the dominant groups in
economic, political
and cultural spheres attempt to ‘‘control what counts as
legitimate knowledge in
school for their own interests’’. Although certain knowledge
and perspectives of the
less powerful may be incorporated into school knowledge
through the process of
complex power relations and struggles among identifiable class,
race, gender, and
religious groups, ‘‘they are always put under the umbrella of the
discourse of the
dominant groups’’ (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991, p. 10).
More specifically,
textbooks construct official knowledge or embody what
Williams (1989) calls the
‘‘selective tradition’’:

From a whole possible area of past and present, in a particular
culture, certain
meanings and practices are selected for emphasis and certain
other meanings and
practices are regulated or excluded. Yet, within a particular
hegemony, and as
one of its decisive processes, this selection is presented and
usually passed off as
‘‘the tradition’’, the significant past . . . it is in this sense an
aspect of contemporary
social and cultural organisation, in the interest of the dominance
of a specific class
(p. 58).
Williams here suggests that certain meanings and practices of
the dominant class
designated as officially sanctioned knowledge for all is central
to the ideological
process of social and cultural definition and provides historical
and cultural
legitimacy for social control. Critical research in school
curricula (see, for example,
Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks 17
Apple, 1988, 1999; Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991; de Castell,
Luke, & Luke, 1989;
Luke, 1988) validates Williams’s claim and documents the
extent to which

the cultural knowledges, values and beliefs of the dominant
groups are selected
and legitimated in textbooks, while those of the dominated
groups in terms of
gender, race, age, and class are excluded or subjected to
distortion. The research
also shows how the dominant group’s version of the world is
represented as natural,
and subjective interpretations of reality and value judgments are
projected as ‘‘fact’’
or ‘‘common knowledge’’. Critical curriculum researchers
believe that by under-
standing the constructedness, interest-serving, and oppressive
realities of dominant
values and practices, students and teachers can be empowered to
challenge the
dominance and make changes. While developed relative to a
western educational
context, I suggest that these assumptions also hold true for
Chinese language
textbooks and their connection to the Chinese sociocultural
context. Therefore, this
study draws directly upon these assumptions.

A Research Framework
Critical discourse analysis has become one of the most
influential models in text
analysis (see Luke, 2002). It is different from previous
methodologies because it
‘‘focuses on the role of discourse in the (re)production and
challenge of dominance’’
(Van Dijk, 1993, p. 249). Dominance is defined by Van Dijk
(1993, p. 249) as ‘‘the
exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that
results in social
inequality’’. The purpose of critical discourse analysis is ‘‘to
analyse opaque as well as
transparent structural relationships of dominance,
discrimination, power and control
as manifested in language’’ (Wodak, 1995, p. 204). This stance
is compatible with
the theoretical assumptions of critical curriculum studies noted
earlier. More
importantly, this interdisciplinary approach provides
researchers with systematic
and critical techniques for analysing and describing both spoken
and written texts
while taking into account the larger sociocultural context in

which the texts are
created (Fairclough, 2002).
Drawing upon the research framework of critical discourse
analysis, I assume that
story grammar analysis is useful for the examination of simple
‘‘good form’’ stories
specifically produced for children in basal readers. Van Dijk
(1997, pp. 12�/13)
recommends ‘‘in the same way as the form of sentence is
described in terms of word
order (syntax), we may decompose the form of whole texts and
talk into a number
of fixed, conventional components or categories and formulate
rules for their
characteristic order’’; Emphasis in original. Stories, whether
fictional or based on
personal experience, are organized in knowledge structures that
can be anticipated
by the audience (Thompson, 1990). In other words, stories are
seen as tempor-
al�/causal chains of events that have a predicable
organizational structure. The
organizational structure is identified in the Stein�/Glenn story
grammar (Luke, 1988;
Ochs, 1997) that consists of key categories specifying the
important elements of a

story. The key categories are the setting (background
information on characters,
18 Y. Liu
location, time, and topic) and the episodes (which develop and
link the thematic
relationships). An episode can contain a number of elements: (i)
an initiating event
that causes a response on the part of the character; (ii) an
internal response, which
represents how a character feels as a result of the initiating
event; (iii) an attempt to
reach a goal or sub-goal; (iv) a consequence, an outcome of the
attempt; (v) a
reaction, feeling, thought in response to the outcome; (vi) a
resolution, which
expresses the final result.
This story grammar has been widely used for the analysis of
basal reading texts
(see, for example, Luke, 1988; Ochs, 1997). By means of
specifying the important
elements of a story, such as a character’s goal, attempt,
consequence, and reaction,

we can reveal the significance communicated by a story. More
specifically, through
analysing these elements or categories, we can uncover both the
theme and
orientation of stories. By examining the theme and orientation
of a story together
with the syntactic rules and pragmatic strategies used in the
story, we can portray
patterns of social relations, cultural values, and beliefs
conveyed in the story.
Through identifying the significance a story communicates and
the point the author
or teller makes by story grammar analysis, we can show whose
beliefs and values have
been authorized and whose have been silenced.
The Construction of Cultural Values and Beliefs
From the outset I would point out that it is not my aim here to
engage in a discussion
of theories about the crucial concept of ‘‘culture’’ or ‘‘system
of Chinese cultural
values and beliefs’’. Instead, I assume a position that has been
extensively articulated
and defended by others (for example Hall, 1989; Thompson,

1990; Williams, 1989)
and attempt to examine the dominant cultural values and beliefs
and their ideological
intentions selected and constructed in Chinese language readers.
I assume, then, that
cultural values and beliefs are socially constructed and
understood to mean
something that operates as a template of a certain description in
texts and other
symbolic forms that regulates and constitutes social relations
and social behaviours of
members of a particular community. As part of the selective
tradition, textbooks
legitimate and transmit dominant cultural values and beliefs
while omitting others
(Apple, 1999) in the Chinese context. This assumption will be
tested by the
following analysis.
There are 89 out of 308 texts in Chinese language readers that
are identified as
constructing a discourse of cultural values and beliefs based on
Lemke’s framework
of intertexuality (Liu, Y. B., 2003). The discourse of cultural
values and beliefs are

constructed from five different perspectives, namely,
concentration and diligence,
respect for authority (government leaders and elders), modesty
and tolerance,
collective spirit, and honesty. These perspectives are, in fact,
cultural norms
constructed within the language readers to encourage child
readers to learn and
obey. In other words, these cultural values and beliefs are the
kind of desired
behaviours that the government and cultural elites are interested
in transmitting to
their younger citizens through language education.
Concentration and Diligence
The perspective of concentration and diligence receives the
most attention; 25 texts
fall into this subcategory. These texts are designed to cultivate
in children either the
value of hard work, or the importance of concentration on
study. While constructing

this value, the texts deliberately rule out other possibilities (for
example interest,
curiosity, and motivation) as the following analysis shows.
A Little Monkey
One day, a little monkey went down the hill. When he came to a
cornfield he saw
many big corns in the field. He was pleased. He broke off a
corn. With the corn on
his shoulder he went ahead.
When he came to a peach tree, he saw there were many big and
red peaches on the
tree. He was very glad. He threw away his corn and climbed up
the tree to pick
peaches. He got several peaches.
When he came to a watermelon field, he saw the field was
littered with many big
and round watermelons. He was very excited. He threw away
the peaches and
began to pick watermelon. He carried a very big watermelon.
On his way back, he saw a little rabbit hobbling around. He felt
the rabbit would be
lovely. He threw away his melon and began to chase the rabbit.
The rabbit ran into
a bush and disappeared. The little monkey had to go home with
nothing in his
hand. (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 2, pp. 18�/20)
In this story a little monkey is the initiator of a series of
actions. The actions are
highly regulated in the story grammar structure: initial event,
internal response,

attempt, and consequence in each of the four paragraphs. The
repetition of this story
grammar structure (four times, enabling the teaching of high
frequency verbs such as
‘‘come’’, ‘‘see’’, ‘‘throw away’’ and synonymous adjectives
such as ‘‘pleased’’, ‘‘glad’’,
‘‘excited’’) depicts the little monkey repeating the four actions
in the same pattern,
which involve choices of four different objects. The choices are
made based on mere
emotion (pleased, glad, excited) rather than purpose or
reasoning. The resolution or
the didactic effect is that the little monkey has achieved nothing
(went home empty
handed). The didactic or moral is implicit, but not difficult for
the child reader to
infer: ‘‘If you want to achieve anything, you have to be
purposeful or concentrate on
one thing rather than do something out of emotion or out of
mere interest’’. By
nature, children are always curious about their surroundings and
would try to
experience different things that arouse their interest. By
recognizing this character-

istic, the story intends to tame the ‘‘savage mind’’ that is easily
distracted by
seemingly unnecessary objects. In order to emphasize the value
of concentration on
study, the story implicitly condemns children’s self-interest and
natural curiosity
about what happens around them, thus suppressing the creativity
that is regarded as
one of the most important educational goals in the recent
education debate in China
(Liu, F., 1995).
20 Y. Liu
A unique discourse option is exercised throughout this and
many other stories in
the textbooks. Through the story grammatical structure, initial
event, internal
response (optional sometimes), attempt, consequence, reaction
(optional), and
resolution, a series of on-going events is narrated. The
resolution in the story
grammar takes the form of a didactic utterance at the end of the
story either by the

narrator or a principle character, which in turn reframes the
previous events. This
feature functions as an interpretation within the text to restate
and reinforce an
intended message. Therefore child readers are positioned to
believe that only
through concentration on their tasks can they achieve a
desirable result. Otherwise,
they are doomed to failure.
Respect for Authority
There are 12 texts classified as taking a perspective of respect
for authority. The
authority is constructed as government leaders and elders.
However, these kinds of
power relations are also manifested in many other texts, though
not the primary
concerns of these texts, but embedded within the linguistic
choices. The themes and
orientations of the stories identified in this category overtly
address the power of
government leaders and elders. For example:
Never Forget the Well-Digger
There was a small village called Shazhouba outside Ruijin City.

Chairman Mao
once lived there when he led the revolution in Jiangxi Province.
There was no well in the village. The villagers had to go a long
distance out of the
village to fetch water every day. Chairman Mao showed his
concern for the
hardship of the villagers. So he decided to dig a well in the
village together with his
soldiers and the villagers. After the well was dug, the villagers
did not have to fetch
water from a far-away place outside the village.
After liberation, the villagers put up a stone tablet at the side of
the well. Inscribed
on the tablet is: ‘‘Never Forget the Well-Digger and Always
Think of Chairman
Mao When Drinking Water’’. (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 2,
pp. 111�/112)
In this story the story grammar highlights the formal didactic
relationships between
Chairman Mao and the villagers. Chairman Mao is regulated as
the initiator of an
‘‘attempt’’ while the villagers are the beneficiary of the
‘‘attempt’’. The villagers

initiate the event but are unable to act. They have to wait for
someone, in this case
Chairman Mao, who has the reasoning power and sympathy to
address the seemingly
simple problem which had perplexed the villagers for years. The
villagers are, in turn,
positioned to be indebted to Mao by the ‘‘reaction’’ and
‘‘resolution’’ of the story.
The ideology of the story is explicit, the government leader
cares for ordinary
people’s life and the ordinary people must, in return, feel
grateful to the leader. The
implicit ideology is, however, that the leader is more intelligent
than the ordinary
people are and, therefore, she/he is legitimized to have the
power to rule. This kind of
reasoning and discourse option is exercised throughout this and
many other stories of
government leaders in the textbooks.
There are quite a few other stories in the text corpus that
resemble the story just

analysed in terms of their story grammar structure and
orientation. In these stories
the main characters are the old government leaders and cultural
elites (such as
prominent writers, and scientists). Respect for them is
constructed based on the
same logic that ‘‘they served people, worked hard for the
country, had a simple living
style, and cared for ordinary people’’, therefore, they should be
respected. It is
obvious that the ideological intent is, on the one hand, to
position the child reader to
accept the established social power relations and, on the other
hand, to legitimate the
present government rule.
Modesty and Tolerance
The perspective of modesty and tolerance is realized through 18
texts. The themes
and orientations of these texts denounce arrogance and praise
self-restraint.
However, hidden in the semantic structures of the texts is the
message that the
status quo should be accepted and competition or will to change
is discouraged.

Modesty here means not to show oneself off or to be aggressive.
Tolerance here
does not mean the tolerance of different cultural values and
beliefs that are promoted
in the western education context, instead, it is tolerance of
unfair treatment or even
injustice in order to achieve harmony. While this may sound
strange to non-Chinese,
it is a core Confucian cultural value and belief. The government
and cultural
elites regard it as important and legitimate it in textbooks to
socialize children to
serve their purpose of control. The terms tolerance and modesty
are different in
terms of their connotations or/and themes in this context, but
they are interrelated in
terms of the purposes for or orientations with which they are
constructed in the
textbooks. The two cultural values and beliefs constructed in
the textbooks are
combined to socialize child readers to conform to be self-
restrained, and obedient
citizens. For example,

A Ceramic Jar and an Iron Jar
There were two jars in an emperor’s kitchen. One was made of
ceramic and the
other was made of iron.
The conceited iron jar looked down upon the ceramic jar. He
often scoffed at the
ceramic jar. ‘‘Dare you touch me? The earthen thing!’’ The iron
jar asked
arrogantly. ‘‘No. I dare not, Brother Iron Jar.’’ The ceramic jar
replied modestly.
‘‘I know you are not that brave. A coward!’’ The iron jar said
with an air of scorn/
contempt. ‘‘I dare not touch you. That’s for sure but I’m not a
coward.’’ The
ceramic jar replied and then reasoned: ‘‘We are both made to
contain things for
people, not to touch or knock against each other. As for the
capacity for containing
things, I am not inferior to you. Besides, . . .’’. ‘‘Shut up!’’ The
iron jar became
furious, ‘‘How dare you compare yourself with me! Wait and
see, you’ll be broken
into pieces in a few days. But I will be here for ever.’’ ‘‘Why
did you use such
language? The ceramic jar said emotionally, ‘‘We’d better live
in harmony. We have
no reason to quarrel!’’ ‘‘I feel humiliated to live together with
you. You are crap!’’
The iron jar said, ‘‘I will break you into pieces one day!’’ The
ceramic jar didn’t
reply.
22 Y. Liu

As time flew . . . a lot had happened in the world . . . . The two
jars were abandoned
in a desolate land and covered with thick remains and dust. One
day, some people
came and dug the remains and dust. They found the ceramic jar.
‘‘Oh, here is a
jar!’’ one man said with a surprise. ‘‘Yes, it is a ceramic jar!’’
others cried out
excitedly. They picked it up, poured out the dust and earth and
washed it. It was as
bright, beautiful and natural as it used to be in the royal kitchen
many years ago.
‘‘How beautiful the jar is!’’ one man said, ‘‘Be careful! Don’t
break it! This is an
ancient relic. It is invaluable.’’ ‘‘Thank you so much!’’ The
ceramic jar said with
excitement, ‘‘My brother, the iron jar is lying beside me. Please
dig him out. He
must be very bored for such a long time.’’ People began to dig
but they couldn’t find
it after they had searched all the area. The iron jar had rusted
away long ago.
(Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 7, pp. 132�/134)
In this particular story two traditional Chinese kitchen
containers, the iron jar and
the ceramic jar, are personified to instantiate a structured
pattern of conflict. The
physically strong (symbolized by the iron jar) are represented as
arrogant, enacting
unfair treatment, while the physically weak (symbolized by the
ceramic jar) are

portrayed as tolerant, tolerating the unfair treatment. The
pattern is basically realized
by the verbal interactions between the two jars. The iron jar is
constructed
purposefully as the initiator of the incident: he launches a series
of unfair verbal
attacks on the ceramic jar (such as The earthen thing, A coward,
Shut up, I
feel humiliated . . .). The ceramic jar is constructed as the
addressee and the victim of
the verbal attack. Faced with the unfair treatment, the ceramic
jar does not
challenge the attacker with anger or offence, instead he firstly
reasons with his
attacker politely, and then keeps silent (such as I dare not,
Brother, we are
both made to . . ., we are brothers). The schematic structure of
the verbal
interactions, designed to enable the child reader to recognize
what are acceptable
or unacceptable sociolinguistic utterances, has a dramaturgical
effect; the reiterated
attempt�/consequence�/attempt�/consequence pattern is self-
referential and self-re-
inforcing with an orientation highlighting the approved social
behaviour of modesty

and tolerance and denouncing the antisocial behaviour of
arrogance and unfair
treatment to others. The orientation is also supported by the
linguistic choice of
commentary words on the interactions. If the commentary words
of the above
interactions are categorized as ‘‘pejorative’’, ‘‘neutral’’, and
‘‘positive’’, it is readily
seen that of the semantic items or expressions, there are no
neutral words used,
instead all those commenting on the iron jar’s utterances are
pejorative, whereas
those commenting on the ceramic jar’s utterances are positive
(see Table 1). These
words or expressions are used formally as cohesive links
between the verbal
utterances of the above interactions. However, they also
communicate their
functions. All the utterances of the iron jar are pejorative
expressions, whereas all
the utterances of the ceramic jar are positive expressions.
Through these lexical
choices, the iron jar’s verbal and social behaviours are
confirmed as antisocial, while

the ceramic jar’s are socially beneficial.
The attitudinal orientation is further reinforced and extended by
the last
paragraph, where the resolution of the story is intentionally
spelt out: if you are
modest and tolerant of unfair treatment, you survive in society,
whereas you cannot
survive if you are arrogant and treat others unfairly. This moral
lesson is elaborated
by means of a timespan based on the common knowledge (or
designed to teach it as
such) that cultural relics are invaluable objects. The elaboration
(Paragraph 3) covers
almost the same length as the main story (Paragraph 2). By this
choice, the text
orientates the child reader to its ideological resolution. Again,
interactions are the
main textual devices, but this time the generic term ‘‘people’’ is
used to initiate the
interactions. This choice sets up an authoritative position that
enables what ‘‘people’’

say appear to be a kind of common knowledge. Accordingly, the
child reader is
positioned to interpret the social behaviour of the ceramic jar as
‘‘beautiful’’ 0/
‘‘don’t break it’’ 0/ ‘‘it is invaluable’’. The responses of the
ceramic jar in the
interactions ‘‘Thank you so much’’, and ‘‘My brother iron jar is
lying beside me.
Please dig him out’’ further show how tolerant the ceramic jar
is towards unfair
treatment, and the disappearance (rusted away) of the iron jar
confirms that the iron
jar’s antisocial behaviour cannot last. By using a long timespan,
the value of tolerance
is established as enduring over time. This value is constructed
intertextually through
a series of texts in the textbooks.
Collective Spirit
The perspective of collective spirit is represented by 23 texts.
These texts are
intertextually related, in terms of theme and orientation, to
teach children that
happiness or satisfaction comes from helping or serving others
in particular or society

in general. In this sense, the value and belief are universal, not
specific to Chinese
society. For example, ‘‘group work’’, ‘‘team work’’, and
‘‘cooperative personality’’ are
popular concepts based on the value and belief of collective
spirit. However, the
meaning of collective spirit constructed in the textbooks
concerned goes far beyond
the common sense usage. It is constructed against ‘‘the self ’’
or ‘‘individuality’’ that is
the very base, I believe, on which collective spirit is supposed
to prevail. Put simply,
collective spirit is rendered in the discourse being examined as
an equivalence to self-
denial.
She Is My Friend
One day in wartime, there were several artillery shells that
exploded in an
orphanage. Two children were killed and several were injured.
Among the injured
there was a girl.
Table 1.
Pejorative Neutral Positive
The conceited iron jar look down upon �/ The ceramic jar

replied modestly
scuffed �/ reasoned
asked arrogantly �/ said emotionally
said with an air of scorn �/
became furious �/ did not talk back
24 Y. Liu
When hearing the news, doctors and nurses rushed in with first
aid from a nearby
hospital. Through examination, they confirmed that the girl’s
wound was the most
serious. She would die from loss of blood if she could not
receive an immediate
blood transfusion. However, the blood of all the doctors and
nurses did not match
her blood type. The only way was to find out which of the
uninjured children might
match her blood type and donate blood for her. A woman doctor
then told the
children that the girl would die if she could not receive a blood
transfusion. Then
she asked whether any one of them would be willing to donate
blood. After a
silence, one hand was put up, then withdrawn, and put up again.
‘‘Thank you.’’ The

doctor said, ‘‘What’s your name?’’ ‘‘Yuan Heng.’’ The boy
called Yuan Heng
quickly lay down on the table. During the process of blood
transfusion, Yuan Heng
did not move and did not say anything.
After a while, he suddenly began to cry and covered his face
with his hands. ‘‘Does
it hurt?’’, the doctor asked. Yuan Heng shook his head but still
sobbed. He closed
his eyes and bit his lip, trying hard to refrain from sobbing . . .
After the transfusion, the doctor told people around: ‘‘The boy
thought he would
die. He thought he would die after he gave all his blood to the
girl.’’ ‘‘Then why is he
willing to donate his blood when he thinks that the donation can
cause his death?’’
The doctor turned to ask the boy the question. The boy
answered: ‘‘She is my
friend.’’ (Yuwen Bianjishi, 1999, Vol. 8, pp. 123�/126)
The setting of this story is a war time one and the initial event
is ‘‘an injured girl
needed blood transfusion in order to survive’’. The sequence of
attempt and

consequence of the story involves the protagonist (Yuan Heng)
who volunteered to
donate blood in the mistaken idea that he would die because of
the donation, and the
injured girl was saved. Through this sequence, the cultural
value of sacrificing oneself
for others is conveyed to the child reader.
Embedded in this sequence are the sub-attempts (hesitation:
‘‘One hand had been
put up, then withdrawn, and put up again’’; fear: ‘‘began to
cry’’) and consequences
(determination: ‘‘quickly lay down on the table’’, ‘‘did not
move or speak’’;
understanding: stopped sobbing). These sub-attempts and
consequences portray
the protagonist as a real hero and, hence, enable the child reader
to believe that the
story is true. Additionally, they build up a suspense that orients
the child reader to
the end of the story, where the moral is spelt out by the
interactions between the
doctor and the protagonist. In particular, the ways in which the
story grammar is
presented contribute to the construction of the cultural value

and belief and so
encode one of the dominant cultural values and beliefs,
collective spirit, as important
to the government and cultural elites.
In this text and others children are constructed as agents who
enact the collective
spirit. The inclusion of children as agents creates a subjective
position for child
readers to identify themselves with the protagonists or heroes
practice of collective
spirit. In other words, they are positioned to learn from the
moral models. As noted
at the beginning of this section, the discourse builds up the
logic and rationale for the
cultural value and belief on the premise that self-interest should
be suppressed in
order to practise collective spirit.
Honesty
The perspective of honesty is achieved through 11 texts. The
themes of the texts

range from not telling lies to not accepting what does not
belong to you. Honesty is
important to any society. It is a universal value and belief that
is cherished and
promoted. The meaning of honesty is clear, rendering further
explanation
unnecessary, so let’s turn to the text and see how the discourse
is constructed in
the textbooks.
A Story of the Axe
A long, long time ago, there was a poor boy. One day, he went
to the mountain to
cut firewood. He dropped his axe into a river by accident when
he crossed the river
over a single wood bridge. He was so worried that he burst into
tears. He sobbed:
‘‘How can I cut fire wood without the axe!’’ Suddenly an old
white-beared grandpa
came out of the flowing water and asked with care: ‘‘Whose
child is crying so
sadly?’’ The boy said: ‘‘Grandpa, I dropped my axe into the
river. I cannot cut fire
wood!’’ The grandpa said: ‘‘Don’t cry, child! I’ll help you to
find it.’’ While talking,

he went into the river and came out with a golden axe. He
asked: ‘‘Is this your axe?’’
The boy said: ‘‘No, it is not.’’ The grandpa went into the river
again and came out
with a silver axe. He asked: ‘‘Is this yours?’’ The boy shook his
head, saying: ‘‘No, it
is not mine.’’ The grandpa went into the river again and came
up with an iron axe.
He asked: ‘‘Is this your axe?’’ The boy said gladly: ‘‘Yes, it is
mine. Thank you,
Grandpa!’’ The grandpa smiled and said: ‘‘Child, since you are
honest, I give the
other two axes to you too.’’ The boy said: ‘‘Grandpa, they are
not mine. I cannot
accept them.’’ The boy took his own axe and went away.
Looking at the boy’s
disappearing figure, the grandpa nodded his head with a smile.
(Yuwen Bianjishi,
1999, Vol. 2, pp. 118�/121)
Again, the story grammar consists of a repetition of a
macropropositional sequence:
initial event, internal response, attempt, and consequence.
However, the sequence

is realized by an intersubjective verbal exchange between the
two protagonists, the
poor child and the old man rather than mere physical actions,
building up
child reader’s expectations of outcomes and providing
maximum opportunities
for the teaching of simple questions and answers as well as
direct speech. Through
the repetition of ‘‘attempt and consequence’’, the poor boy’s
honesty is tested:
‘‘Never to take anything that does not belong to you’’. This
moral lesson is further
confirmed by the resolution at the end of the story ‘‘Grandpa
nodded his head with a
smile’’.
Across this text and many others in the text corpus the discourse
appears and
reappears through different themes or aspects to emphasize the
meaning of honest
behaviour. These texts build up a version of the world where
honest behaviour is
conducted by adults; children are likely to go astray and,
therefore, need to be
supervised by adults. At the same time, they use textual and

rhetorical devices to
position the child reader in solidarity with the adults and the
ideal child who
performs honest acts and, hence, child readers might learn to
behave in a like manner
and take the same moral road.
26 Y. Liu
Discussion and Conclusion: Selective versions for the purpose
of social
control
In this article I have analysed some texts as examples that
construct the discourses of
cultural values and beliefs. The analysis is basically carried out
by means of a top-
down reading of the stories in question. The top-down reading
draws upon the story
schema to have recourse to the themes and orientations of the
stories and so unpack
the dominant cultural values and beliefs transmitted through the
stories. Analysis of
the macropropositional structures is supplemented with an
examination of certain

lexical choices of the narrations and conversational principles
of the interactions that
are typical modes used in children’s stories.
Through the analysis a whole range of meanings associated with
the discourses of
cultural values and beliefs are explored and the ideological
intents of the discourses
are interpreted. The cultural values and beliefs selected and
constructed for emphasis
in the textbooks are shown in Figure 1.
These cultural values and beliefs form a template that attempts
to regulate the
social behaviours of the child reader. The template is highly
selective in nature. The
components (what I called perspectives) of the template are the
intentionally
selective versions from a much wider or inexhaustible range of
cultural values and
beliefs of the past and present. As shown in Figure 1, the
template can be extended to
include more than the five components I identified from the text
corpus, as indicated
by n , meaning more entries can be added. Similarly, the

meaning of the components
can be also dynamic. In a word, this template shows that the
cultural values and
beliefs identified are constructed in the textbooks and embody
what counts as the
version of the cultural values and beliefs selected and
constructed by the government
and cultural elites. Further, it can be argued that the discursive
construction is
intended to connect with and ratify the present transformation
from a planned to a
free market economy. In this sense, the discourses serve the
interests of the power
brokers (the government officials and the cultural elites) to
pursue a capitalist reform
agenda and, at the same time, to discipline the public to their
social control.
In the selective versions the cultural value and belief of
concentration and diligence
is intended to direct the younger members of the society to their
major task of
learning diligently and single-mindedly rather than to their own
interests, curiosity
and critical thinking. By regulating child readers to preoccupy

themselves with their
learning position and to identify themselves with hard work, the
discourses avert
possible challenges to the present social order and dominance.
Respect for authority is a traditional cultural value and belief
reselected and
reconstructed in the textbooks. In the current discursive
construction complicated
social relations are reinterpreted and diluted into broadly
defined unequal power
Concentration
and diligence
Respect for
authority
Modesty and
tolerance
Collective
spirit
Honesty n
Figure 1. A template of cultural values and beliefs

relations between government leaders and the ordinary people,
between the working
class and cultural elites and between the old and the young. Put
simply,
government leaders, cultural elites and elders are constructed as
people who have
social power. To avoid directly contradicting the overt claim of
the current
government that the present social transformation is to build
eventually up an
egalitarian society that will benefit the majority of the Chinese
people, the discourses
have translated the overt emphasis on inequality in the
Confucian tradition into
covert versions to do the same job. Instead of ‘‘submission’’,
frequently used in the
Confucian texts (Chen, 1990), ‘‘respect for’’ is selected to serve
the same purpose in
the new discourses. As shown in the analysis, through a range
of generic,
grammatical, rhetorical choices the unequal power relations are
portrayed as
common knowledge. How these unequal power relations can be
enacted, or what

social behaviours are deemed acceptable, is demonstrated
through the activities of
characters in the stories. The people to be respected are indeed
the power-brokers
who rule society and benefit most from the newly implemented
capitalist economic
order.
Interrelated with the unequal power relations certified by the
discourse of respect
for authority, the discourse of modesty and tolerance is
constructed to further
regulate the child reader’s social behaviour. The child reader is
positioned to accept
the existing social order, to refrain from a desire for change,
and to tolerate unfair
social treatment. As shown in the above analysis, the discourse
is constructed in such
a way that there is a distinct binary divide between modesty and
arrogance and
between tolerance and jealousy. The social behaviours of
modesty and tolerance are
portrayed as enduring, self-beneficial, and contributive to social
harmony, while the
social behaviours of arrogance and jealousy are presented as

short-lived, self-
detrimental, and harmful to society.
The unequal power relations and the social behaviours of
deference and self-
preservation are further buttressed by the cultural value and
belief of collective spirit
in the textbooks. The discourse of collective spirit emphasizes
that selflessness is a
virtuous form of behaviour; in other words, it is ideologically
correct to attend to
others before pursuing one’s own interests. By the same logic,
any preoccupation
with one’s own interests is strongly equated in the discourse
with the concept of
egotism and selfishness. The value of the self or individuality is
totally ruled out of
the discourse of ‘‘collective spirit’’. An extreme version of
collective spirit was in fact
selected and reconstructed by the government throughout Mao’s
rule. It is evident in
the slogans ‘‘serving the people’’, ‘‘pursuing selflessness’’, and
‘‘sacrificing for the
people and the country’’ that dominated the public media of that
time. In Mao’s time

this cultural value and belief used to go together with
elaborated practices of self-
improvement, ranging from dress, diet, and living conditions to
almost daily rituals
of avowals of faith in an egalitarian utopia embodied in
devotion to collective work.
Such practices no longer operate in China’s new free market
order. In the new order
individuals pursue, and are encouraged to pursue, their own
interests in competition
with others. So the cultural value and belief constructed in the
textbooks is nothing
28 Y. Liu
but a fabricated version of the socio-economic reality. The
fabrication, in fact, overtly
violates the rules of the game set up by another discourse
‘‘honesty’’.
Honesty, as a human quality, is the foundation stone of
constructive human
relations and, therefore, is cherished by any community or
society. The problem is
the ways in which cultural values and beliefs are presented in

the textbooks. As noted
earlier, the discourse builds up a version of the world where
adults perform honest
behaviour, children are likely to go astray and, hence, adults
have the power to
supervise children’s behaviour. In reality, it is some adults (for
example government
officials) who are dishonest, abusing their powers and acting
corruptly in China.
In conclusion, the analysis in this study has revealed that the
selective versions of
cultural values and beliefs are constructed in a manner
congruent with the interest of
the government and its cultural elite. It has shown that the
discourses position the
child reader to conform and to be self-restrained and obedient
citizens, while
omitting or even condemning children’s interest, curiosity, and
critical thinking. The
analysis also suggests that the selective versions of cultural
values and beliefs are
motivated by the ideological and political interests of the
government to address the
‘‘ideological crisis’’, but argues that they are constructed

contrary to the current free
market social order. Overall, it is argued that the discourses are
constructed to
legitimate social control rather than children’s interests.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Allan Luke, Victoria Carrington and the
external referees for their
corrections and insightful comments on earlier versions of this
article. This article is
a part of my doctoral research on the discursive construction of
cultural knowledge
and ideology in Chinese language textbooks. The research was
funded by an
International Postgraduate Research Scholarship at the
University of Queensland.
References
Apple, M. W. (1988). Teachers and texts: A political economy
of class and gender relations in education .
Boston, MA: Routledge.
Apple, M. W. (1999). Power, meaning, and identity: Essays in
critical education studies . New York,
NY: Peter Lang.

Apple, M. W., & Christian-Smith, L. C. (Eds.). (1991). The
politics of the textbook . New York, NY:
Routledge.
Chen, J. P. (1990). Confucius as a teacher: Philosophy of
Confucius with special reference to its education
implications . Beijing, People’s Republic of China: Foreign
Language Education and Research
Press.
De Castell, S., Luke, A., & Luke, C. (Eds.). (1989). Language,
authority and criticism: Readings on
the school textbook . London, UK: Falmer Press.
Eaton, J. S. (1999). China update: Economic reforms and
political realities. Social Education ,
63 (2), 10�/74.
Fairclough, N. (2002). Analysing discourse: Text analysis for
social research . New York, NY:
Routledge.
Hall, S. (1989). Cultural identity and cinematic representation.
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jingji shehui wenti [Pitfalls of

modernization: Economic and social problems of contemporary
China]. Beijing, People’s
Republic of China: Jinri Zhongguo Chubanshe.
He, X. (1996). Zhonghua fuxing yu shijie weilai [The revival of
China and the future of the world].
Chengdu, People’s Republic of China: Sichuan Renmin
Chubanshe.
Hu, A. G. (1999). Zhongguo fazhan qianjing [Prospects of
China’s development]. Hangzhou,
People’s Republic of China: Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe.
Liu, F. (1995). Zhongguo jiaoyu de weilai [The future of
Chinese education]. Beijing, People’s
Republic of China: Renmin Jiaoyu Chubanshe.
Liu, Y. B. (2003). The construction of cultural knowledge and
ideology in Chinese language textbooks: A
critical discourse analysis . Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Queensland.
Luke, A. (1988). Literacy, textbooks and ideology: Postwar
literacy instruction and the mythology of Dick
and Jane . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Luke, A. (2002). Beyond science and ideological critique:
Developments in critical discourse

analysis. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , 22 , 96�/110.
Naughton, B. (2000). The Chinese economy: Fifty years into
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China briefing 2000: The continuing transformation (pp.
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Ochs, E. (1997). Narrative. In T. A. Van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse
as structure and process, (vol. 1,
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Pinar, W., Keynold, W. M., Strayttery, P., & Taubman, P. M.
(1995). Understanding curriculum: An
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30 Y. Liu

FACTSET & EDGAR:
For the earnings quality project, all the information you need
should be available from the two sources listed above.
FACTSET offers a wealth of information about individual
companies listed in the screens below. They are also
dwnloadable for easy analysis. Probably the one big missing
piece is the annual report detailing accounting policies etc. for
which you will need to go to EDGAR. Between these two
sources, you have all the raw material needed to comment on
earnings quality. With FACTSET, you will have more than raw
material; you will have some excellent pre-packaged analysis,
but you have to interpet those analyses.
OVERVIEW
ESTIMATES
VALUATION
RATIOS
STATEMENT ANALYSIS
DEBT

NASDAQ: SQ
Team 1
Company Overview I
Company Description
● Founded in 2009
● Purpose: give sellers “economic empowerment” by
providing them with quick and dependable services
throughout a business’s entire development
● One of the largest players in the mobile processing
market and has garnered an impressive reputation
● Products and services to include affordable tools for
smaller businesses to give them the same benefits as
larger companies
● Seamless point-of-sale (POS) solutions to sync your
online, mobile and in-store credit card transactions.
Ratio AnalysisCompany Overview Industry Analysis Valuation
Accounting
Implications
82%Transactions
2% Hardware18%
Subscription
& Service

Company Overview II
● CEO of Twitter and Co-Founder of both
companies
● Took Square public in 2015
Accounting
Implications
Jack Dorsey - CEO, Chairman, and President (2009-Present)
Financial Overview
Market Data (in USD Millions)
Share Price (11/19) $70.40
Shares Outstanding 395,194 shares
Market Capitalization (11/5) $30,224
Cash $219,087
Debt $2,851,224
P/E $(440)
Recent Acquisitions
Industry
Analysis

STRENGTHS
S.W.O.T. Analysis
Accounting Implications
● Great performance in new markets
● Robust brand portfolio
● Successful track record of developing and implementing new
products
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
● Gaps in product range marketed by company
● Limited success outside of core business
● Investment in R&D is far below the fastest growing players in
the market
● Market development lead to dilution of competitor’s
advantage
● Expanding into international markets
● Stable free cash flow
● Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global markets
● New technologies developed by competitor or market
disruptor
Porter’s Five Forces

Industry: Merchant Payment Services
Threat of Entry Low
Threat of Substitutes High
Supplier Power Low
Buyer Power High
Existing Rivalry High
Industry Competition
(Payment Processing)
History Market Share
20 Years 8 Years 9 Years
Years Active
Acquisitions
16 5 13
62.8%

19.7%
2.2%
15.3%
(Out of 1,270,057 Domains World-Wide)
Ratio
Analysis
Ratios
● Current Ratio: 1.83
● Quick Ratio: 1.66
Liquidity Solvency
● Liabilities-to-Assets: 0.64
● Financial Leverage: 2.78
● Interest Coverage: 6.41
Quick Ratio
Current Ratio
Debt-to-Equity
Liabilities to Assets

Interest
Coverage
Ratios
● Gross Margin: 37.90%
● Net Profit Margin: -2.84%
● ROA: -3.70%
● ROE: -9.22%
Profitability
● A/R Turnover: 4.70
● Inventory Turnover: 90.16
● Asset Turnover: 1.30
Turnover
Valuation
Free Cash Flow to Equity

CAPM/Expected Rate of Return
Growth Rate of FCFE and Terminal Growth
Valuation and Sensitivity
Accounting
Implications
Revenue Recognition Overview
A company recognizes revenue when:
○ A persuasive evidence of an agreement exists
○ The delivery of obligations to its customers has occurred
○ The related fees are fixed or determinable, and collectability
is reasonably
assured
Square, Inc. charges retailers a transaction fee based on a

percentage
of the total amount of the payment that is being processed.
○ Transaction fees recognized as revenue on a gross
basis.
Square - Primary obligor to seller
○ Responsible for processing payment
○ Has latitude in establishing pricing with respect to sellers
○ Assumes credit risk for service
Revenue Recognition
● Recorded net of returns
● Recognized upon delivery of hardware
to end customer
○ Delivery occurs once title and risk of
loss transferred to customer
Hardware
● Recognized as right of access is utilized
● Net of returns
Subscription/Service Based
● Generated from sales of:
○ Contactless chip readers
○ Physical card readers
○ Square Stand

○ Square Register
● Generated from:
○ Instant Deposit
○ Square Capital
○ Various software as a service
products
Caviar
● Caviar is an integrated food ordering platform
that facilitates food delivery services for
restaurants.
● Revenue consists of fees charged to
restaurants, as sellers, and delivery and service
fees charged to customers.
● All of these fees are recognized as revenue
upon delivery of the food, net of refunds
Weebly
● Weebly is a website editor that allows
you to drag-and-drop features onto your
page, eliminating the need for previous
coding knowledge.
● Subscription based

Acquisitions
References
Jiang, Li. “I Can't Circle Square ($SQ)'s Valuation – Li Jiang –
Medium.” Medium.com, Medium, 2 Aug. 2018,
medium.com/@lijiang2087/i-cant-circle-square-sq-s-valuation-
9a8729c88aba.
“Square's Financials.” MarketWatch, MarketWatch, 2018,
www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/sq/financials.
“Square, Inc. Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31,
2017.” EDGAR. Securities and Exchange
Commission, 2017,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/00015126731
8000004/a10-kfilingsq
uarein2017.htm.
Commission, 2016,
7001754/a10-kfili
ngsquareinc2016.htm.
Commission, 2015,
600
0002/a10-kfilingsquareinc2015.htm.
“Square Inc (SQ) People.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 2018,

www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-officers/SQ.
8000004/a10-kfilingsquareinc2017.htm
6000002/a10-kfilingsquareinc2015.htm
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3 . cultural values and beliefs
You are to discuss in 3 to 5 paragraphs (No more than 5)
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