Comparing the Cultural Contents of Mandarin Reading Textbooks in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan

In China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese is considered the official language (or one of the dominating languages). The four geographical areas have been organized around relatively independent political and administrative systems for the past century. Even after Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, the special administrative area has maintained a level of autonomy in many aspects, including its educational system. This paper has two primary aims: first, to analyze the reading curriculum and textbooks that are employed in these four locales and explore to the extent to which the same language, Mandarin, is taught differently in each educational system; and second, to investigate and discuss how the design of the reading curriculum and textbooks differentially reflects core aspects of the society, culture, and political ideologies in each setting.