For me, Lim's discussion of China's "patriotic education" campaign stirred some specific memories from my years teaching English at a university in China. One such memory involves the time I was asked to help edit a textbook for Chinese high school students studying English. Each chapter in the book included two extended reading passages. I remember being struck by the fact that in every chapter one of the reading passages always related to China in some way. For example, I recall one reading passage which discussed the great technological achievements of ancient China. I felt this focus on China in an English textbook to be rather odd, for I did not remember even once reading anything about the United States in my French textbooks in middle school and high school. Instead, our textbooks focused exclusively on France or other French-speaking countries or regions.
Another memory relates to my students' annual "military training." Every year, usually in the fall, the freshman students at my university were required to undergo two weeks of so-called military training. This always messed up my planning for the semester because no one could tell me beforehand when this training was scheduled to take place. On one occasion, out of curiosity I asked my students what had happened during their "military training." Evidently, their training had largely consisted of learning how to march and singing patriotic songs. It became obvious to me that this "training" was intended primarily to inculcate a proper "patriotic" attitude in the students, not so much to equip them with actual military skills.
The sort of "patriotic education" that Lim discusses and that I encountered in China is rather disturbing. For one thing, I feel it encourages an unhealthy sort of love for one's country. For me, a healthy patriotism is analogous to the love we have for our family members and friends. We feel a certain affection for them and hope for their well-being. However, our love for relatives and friends does not (or at least should not) make us blind to their shortcomings, or prevent us from disagreeing with them or criticizing them when we believe they are wrong. I believe our love for our own country should be the same--we should have affection for it, but we should also being willing to admit its shortcomings and point out its failures in the past (such as the toleration of slavery in the United States). An unwillingness to acknowledge the darker chapters in a nation's history (which seems to characterize China's "patriotic education" campaign) is fundamentally dishonest and may prevent its people from learning from the past. Moreover, such "patriotism" can lead to an attitude of superiority toward other nations and even xenophobia. Finally, the distorted love of country that China's "patriotic education" campaign seem to promote makes the country--and by extension the government and the ruling party (for in China people are taught to view the country and the state and the Communist Party as being one)--into a sort of idol, an idol that is to be blindly worshipped. Thus, the country is put in the place of Him who alone is worthy of worship, our Creator, and this is a very dangerous thing to do.
Image of Louisa Lim from Wikimedia Commons