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China warns history subject decline may fuel pseudo-history risk
An academic at Beijing Normal University urged policymakers to address the marginalization of history in secondary schools, saying it is tied to preserving national and cultural identity.
China’s secondary school students are increasingly dropping history as an exam subject, a trend that an academic warned could leave the public more vulnerable to distorted narratives in the future. In a commentary published in the state-backed China Teacher Paper, Liu Linhai, dean of the school of history at Beijing Normal University, said history education in secondary school is an important way to preserve historical, cultural, ethnic and national identity.
Liu said the subject’s “weakening and even marginalisation” should be a matter of urgent concern and called for coordinated measures to address structural problems affecting the discipline. The warning comes as Chinese authorities step up efforts to counter what they call “historical nihilism,” narratives that contradict or undermine the state’s official historical line.
The topic has also appeared prominently in state-linked coverage, with a newspaper published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences running two front-page pieces on Thursday that framed pseudo-history as a “new variant” of historical nihilism.