Celebrating Violence? Children, Youth, and War Education in Maoist China (1949–1976)

War culture has had tremendous power in shaping modern Chinese understandings of the nation—although the role of children's education in the creation of Chinese war culture in the Mao era (1949–1976) has received scarce attention. Analyzing school textbooks as well as pedagogical and media publications, this study highlights the existence of competing visions of children's roles in military violence throughout the period. The findings of the article challenge the thesis that childhood in Maoist China was ultra-militarized. Furthermore, they undermine the assumption that during the Cold War era, countries on different sides of the divide held starkly contrasting notions of the young.