NYU Shanghai’s Chinese students set to take compulsory ‘civic education’ course next month
- Patriotic training mandatory for students born in mainland China
- Last year’s syllabus included a trip to a martyrs’ cemetery and watching ‘socialist’ videos
Chinese students at New York University Shanghai will soon be taking a break from their courses to learn about the history and heroes of the Communist Party, as part of a government push to provide compulsory “civic education” to the nation’s young scholars.
The scheme was launched in December last year, and in line with Beijing’s requirements, a second batch of students from the east China satellite of the prestigious American university will next month be attending a series of discussions and site visits.
“As NYU Shanghai is in China, our Chinese citizen students are required to take this course,” a spokesperson for the university said, adding that it was not a requirement of the organisation itself.
While the person did not say what the course would comprise, a copy of last year’s syllabus was recently published by Motherboard, Vice’s tech-focused online magazine. Provided by a former student, it showed the eight-day course included trips to patriotic sites like the Longhua Martyrs’ Cemetery in Shanghai, which honours those who died for the communist’s revolutionary cause, and watching videos about the “development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics”.
“The course is taught during winter break,” the spokesperson said. “[So] it does not interfere with and bears no relation to our students’ regular NYU academic course load and hence to academic freedom.”