CHINESE CHARACTERS AS MEANS OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN CHINA

Abstract

The issue of «citizenship education» is today at the forefront of pedagogical intelligence as to its relevance. Pedagogical systems of the world use a variety of means to activate and direct all the processes related to the citizenship education of the citizens of their countries, as well as to adapt migrants to the civic traditions of a particular society: from art events to thematic lectures and conversations, and up to inclusion them into practical activities. China, using hieroglyphic writing, has an additional unique tool that is productively used in the civic-ideological aspect of educational activity in the country. The aim of this study is to present the Chinese character as a means of, in particular, civic education in the PRC, based on the notion of the «internal content of the character» and its appeal to archiptypical social concepts. The methodological basis of the study is formed by laws and categories of scientific knowledge; dialectical theory of interconnectedness, interdependence and integrity of phenomena in nature; principles of priority of human values, development, scientific, purpose, historicism, determinism, activity, unity of theory and practice, which ensure objectivity in the study of objects and phenomena of existing reality; principles and methods of a systematic approach to cognition that require the study of phenomena, facts, processes in relation to, and connections with, other social systems (political, economic, ideological, etc.); principles of cultural and personal-activity approaches, under which the phenomenon of «character» and «citizenship education» are considered in the context of culture development and activity; linguistic comparativism and juxtaposition to identify differences in the direct and hieroglyphic meaning of the character.

Scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time in Ukrainian pedagogical literature a character is seen as a means of education in general and citizenship education in particular. On the basis of the research made the following conclusions were made:

1) Chinese characters is a unique graphic phenomenon that, on the one hand, reflects the concept entirely (a person at a glance covers the word entirely), and on the other – its components themselves provide additional (most often – emotional) color to the basic concept;

2) Chinese character, through the image, in some way encodes the relation of a person and society in general to the reality it denotes. The invariance of the character makes it impossible to distort the content of reality and the positive / negative attitude towards it, and this attitude does not depend on the change of historical or economic and political situation in Chinese society, guaranteeing the concept of citizenship and ideological continuity;

3) through the selection of characters it is possible not only to convey the meaning of a concept or phrase, but also to form an emotional background for a particular social reality.