A Preliminary Study of Creativity among Chinese Students
April, 2006
Introduction:
Creativity, an important component in human civilization, has been a major topic of scientific research in recent years. Due to the multi-cultural nature in today’s world, cross-cultural study on the topic of creativity has become particularly significant in the field of education.
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There are many questions concerning creativity among Chinese students: Are Chinese students considered to be creative? Are they supposed to be creative? How are Chinese students compared to their Western counterparts in the area of creativity? What is the value of creativity in Chinese education? What should be done to foster creativity in Chinese classroom? To examine the above questions, plenty of comparative studies have been done by educators on creativity between Chinese students and students from the West. The author, being a composer and teacher of music composition in Hong Kong, is particularly interested in this topic.
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This paper is a preliminary investigation on creativity among Chinese students based on a cultural context. At the beginning, the term of creativity is defined. Then, the factors affecting creativity are discussed. A substantial portion of this paper is devoted to the conflict between creativity and Chinese education. Later on, solutions for fostering creativity among Chinese students are proposed.
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Creativity:
What is “creativity?” According to Lubart, most (Western) authors define creativity as the capability to produce novel, original work that fits within task constraints. Work refers to all types of ideas and productions. This work must be novel in the sense that it goes beyond a replication or copy of that which exists. The extent to which the work produced is novel can vary from being original only for the person who completed the work to being original for a limited social group, to being original to all humanity. The second component in the definition concerns the fit with constraints. We distinguish creative ideas from bazaar ideas, which are also novel, because creative ideas take into account the parameters of a situation, the constraints. Depending on the field of endeavor, such as art, science, literature, or engineering and design, the weight given to the two components, novelty and constraint satisfaction, varies.[1]
Factors affecting creativity:
There are several factors affecting creativity of a child. First there are personal traits, which include the qualities of risk taking, openness, individually perseverance and tolerance of ambiguity (Sternberg & Lubart 1995).[2]
The first two qualities, risk taking and openness are essential to creative individuals. Clifford’s study indicates that risk taking happens at an early age of children but declines as the children grow older are more aware of the possibility of failure. This is so-called “the investment approach to creativity” (Sternberg & Lubart).[3] On the other hand, openness to new experiences emerges only after a certain level of cognitive development has been attained in the adult population (McCrae, 1987).[4]
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The second factor is motivation. Motivation refers to the force that drives an individual to engage in a task. Intrinsic motivation involves curiosity and the enjoyment gained from expressing one’s self; extrinsic motivation involves social recognition from peers or teachers. Intrinsic motivation is considered more conductive for creativity although extrinsic motivation can also contribute in certain circumstances (Amabile, 1996)[5].
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The third factor is physical and social environment of the child, which basically involves family and school. Family provides cognitive and affective support as well as physical setting for the child. Different approaches of parental ruling such as rigid rule, flexible rule and lack of rules, tend to affect children’s creativity. The more rigid the rule, the less creativity is allowed; the more flexible the rule, the more creativity is allowed.[6]
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School mainly provides cognitive support. The transmission of knowledge through convergent thinking, such as giving the correct answer, is the norm. On the other hand, divergent thinking, such as allowing students to struggle with ill-defined problems, is also applied in some schools. Teachers may value or de-value the expression of creative ideas in the classroom.[7] The school also structures children’s lives and serves as an important context for socialization. Changing from elementary to secondary education requires a major adjustment for a thirteen-year old child who begins adolescence, a period specially marked by peer pressure and identity development.[8] Besides school setting, macroscopic social environment conditions creative development in numerous ways, such as cultural activities, eminent role models, geographic locations, etc. (Simonton, 1984).[9]
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Creativity and Culture:
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Creativity must be examined in cultural context. So, what is “culture?” According to Ruben and Triandis, culture refers to a shared system of cognitions, behaviours, customs, values, rules, and symbols concerning the manner in which a set of people interact with their social and physical environment. Culture is learned and socially transmitted from generation to generation; cultures are dynamic and may vary overtime. Cross-cultural analyses suggest that the definition of creativity, the level of creative activity and the domains in which creativity is promoted vary across cultures.[10]
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Generally speaking, individualist cultures such as North American and Western European cultures value independence and self reliance; collectivist cultures such as Asian cultures emphasize obedience, cooperation, duty and acceptance of in-group authority. So, it appears that individualist cultures value creativity more so than collectivist cultures do. However, the West and the East have different concepts in creativity. Judging creativity in the East by Western standard might seem unfair.
Western concept of creativity focuses on discovery without previous knowledge. On the other hand, Eastern concept of creativity requires initial mastering of existing ideas in order to refine, extend or rework theses ideas (Gardner, 1997).[11] Western cultures view creativity as output of innovative products; Eastern cultures view creativity as authenticity of the discovery process.[12]
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Some recent studies show that Chinese and their Western counterpart share many similar views on the qualities of creativity, such as “clever, talented, good thinking, quick in response, has wisdom” (cognitive characteristics), “energetic, willing to try, self-confident, quick in doing things” (motivational characteristics), “bold, brave, innovation, observant, independent, imaginative, and curious “(other personal traits). However, there are some differences. Three characteristics of creativity which appear in Chinese concept that are not appear in Western studies: “contributes to society’s progress, improvement, and betterment”. On the other hand, two qualities considered to be significant characteristics of creativity by the West: “humour” and “aesthetic taste,” are not considered by Chinese as being creative.[13]
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Culture can stimulate or hinder development of creativity[14], and it can channel creativity into some domains.[15] A study shows that when Chinese university undergraduates were asked to nominate Chinese people outstanding for creativity, they selected politicians, scientists or inventors, both historical or modern figures, and rarely considered artists, writers, composers, for this purpose (Yue & Rudowicz, 2002).[16]
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Conflict between Creativity and Chinese education:
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Chinese education is dominated by Confucianism which stresses on the importance of moral reasoning, intellectual development[17], and social responsibilities of citizens. However, Chinese culture is also deeply rooted by Taoism and Buddhism which deal with harmonious nature and spiritual pursuit. Nevertheless, individuals are not considered as important as the society in Chinese culture. Many Chinese creations do not bear the names of the creators because in Chinese culture, creators should not take credit for what he has “created.” Humbleness is considered a virtue. Displaying confidence and pride is considered arrogant. Also, artistic expression is considered a way of moral education rather than self expression.
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In a traditional Chinese family, parents control their children’s lives, including what schools their children attend and what they learn. It is important that their children enroll in a prestigious school and get high grades in order to bring pride to the family. Even in college level, the parents still try to control the students’ major and their career future. Most parents would want their children to be in medicine, law, or business, but not in fine arts. It is not uncommon that Chinese students who are interested in music are forced by their parents to major in other subjects. Independence is discouraged.
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A traditional Chinese classroom, based on Confucian principles, discourages individual ideas and creativity. Teacher is the authoritative figure. Students must obey the teacher without questioning his or her authority.
Followings are some typical behaviors of Chinese students in a classroom: Chinese students like to conform to group activities; they do not want to be singled out as individuals. Chinese students rarely ask questions in class. They are quiet even when teachers ask questions. First of all, they are afraid of giving a wrong answer, which would be very embarrassing. Even if students know the answer, they still would not open their mouths to “show off” what they know, definitely not the first ones to do so. Expressing individual opinion in public requires a great deal of courage among Chinese. Outspoken individuals are usually considered “outcasts” by the society. Such individuals are often alienated by their peers.
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Being quiet is good; making noise is bad. The author recalls childhood experiences of being criticized or punished by parents for saying “wrong things” or making mistakes. Persecutions of diverse political opinions are well-known in Chinese history. One must be careful of what to say. The concept of “right or wrong,” on one hand, is an ideology deeply rooted in culture, something which everyone in the culture knows. On the other hand, it could be redefined, reinforced and dictated by the authorities. Over-emphasis of “right or wrong” prohibits critical thinking and discourages creativity.
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The exam-oriented system in Chinese education reinforces convergent thinking. Obtaining high marks in examinations has been the goal of education. Whether the students understand the materials, whether the students learn anything, whether the students could apply the knowledge to real-life situations, or whether the students even enjoy the learning do not matter. The parents only want their children to get high marks; that is the pride. Getting low marks, on the other hand, is a shame. The fact that some F. 5 students commit suicide for failing the HKCEE reflects the unhealthy exam-oriented educational system.
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Even in today, as creativity is more encouraged than ever in Chinese classroom, creative students are not considered good students by teachers; they are the “trouble-makers.” An ideal student usually attains the following virtues: being honest, responsible, self-disciplined, unselfish and respectful towards their parents[18]. As long as the teacher wants to maintain an authoritative figure in the classroom, and the traditional concept of “good” student prevails, students displaying creative ideas would never be fully encouraged, no matter what kinds of “creative activities” are conducted in class.
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Problems adopting creativity in Chinese classroom:
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Modern Chinese classrooms tend to adopt new models of creativity from the West without considering the compatibility between the models and the culture. Therefore, the outcomes are not satisfactory.
First of all, many teachers are not psychologically prepared to change the role from an authoritative figure to a facilitator, as mentioned in the previous section. They still expect the students to be obedient and not to voice their own opinions. This continues to discourage creativity. Furthermore, trying to fit creative activities into current curriculum which still focuses on public examinations would be a challenge for teachers. Changes mean plenty of extra work. In order to save trouble, teachers would prefer not to change the situation.
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On the other hand, some teachers are willing to change their role and teaching methods, but the students are confused. Students have long expected teachers being authoritative figures; they would consider a “nice” and “friendly” teacher being “weak” and not respect the teacher. Once the students feel that way, class discipline will be a problem. Chinese students are accustomed to respect the teachers out of fear.
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Western model of creativity is based on the principle of discovery without previous knowledge, which is foreign to Chinese children’s upbringing. Some students would not know what to do in a creativity project unless they are given more solid instructions. The projects may appear to be chaotic, without constraints. Therefore, it does not fit the definition of creativity. Some students would even consider the creativity project troublesome and lose interest in trying. The author was recently involved in a pilot study of music creativity in elementary school, and discovered the above-mentioned problems.
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How to bring creativity into Chinese classroom?
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Bringing creativity into Chinese classroom is still in an experimental stage. The above problems do not come as a surprise. Identifying the problems is the first step to solve the problems.
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In order to produce creative students, the teachers first need to be creative. Recent studies have shown some successful attempts from teachers applying creative teaching methods in Chinese classroom[19]. A recent study in Hong Kong (Zhang & Sternberg, 2002) revealed that teachers with certain thinking styles, for example, legislative thinking styles, are more likely to teach creatively. This study also found that six teacher characteristics – gender, professional work experience outside school setting, degree of enjoyment in adopting new teaching materials, tendency of using group projects in assessing student achievement, perceived autonomy for determining teaching contents, and rating of student quality – are significantly correlated with the thinking styles of the teachers.[20] A study in Taiwan (Chen, 1995) found that there are significant multivariate relationships between six motivational orientations and innovativeness of high school teachers.[21] Teacher training is also proven to be helpful.[22]
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There have been some successful cases that Asian teachers adopt a variable approach towards the students: A teacher can be an authoritative figure in the classroom as well as a friend with the students after class. This way, the teacher not only can maintain control of the learning process in class, but can also attend to students’ needs.[23] This type of close and warm relationship between teachers and students would allow room for open discussions on creative ideas.
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Cultivating a suitable school environment to allow room for creativity have been investigated and programs for developing creativity have been carried out.[24]
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Alternative views to Chinese culture can open door to creativity within the culture. Besides Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism also dominate Chinese culture. Even though these two ideologies are not emphasized in Chinese classroom, they have long been influential to Chinese daily life. Eastern philosophies have also been quite influential to Western culture for the past few decades. American innovator, John Cage’s idea of chance music in the 1950s came from I-Ching (Book of Change). In the 1960s, even Western pop stars such as the Beatles were influenced by Eastern philosophy and practiced meditation. While the East tries to learn advanced technology and systems from the West, Westerners are seeking spiritual enlightenment in life through Eastern philosophy. If Chinese education can take a fresh look into its own culture and apply an alternative approach to education, creativity could be cultivated in a more natural way. Kuo (1996) commented that Taoist creativity involves incubation, syntactic thinking and the unification through the opposites. Holt and Chang (1992) have successfully used the Book of Change as a source of generative metaphors for fostering creativity of university students.[25] Buddhist meditation can help teachers and students better focus their minds and relax from stress. A refreshed mind enables high level of productivity and creativity.
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Creativity in Hong Kong Music Classroom:
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In order to implement creativity development, changes in school curriculum have taken place in Chinese societies in recent year. In Hong Kong, the Curriculum Development Council prepared a new school curriculum which highlights five Essential Learning Experiences including Moral and Civic Development, Intellectual Development, Community Service, Physical and Aesthetic Development and Career-related Experiences, as well as eight Key Learning Areas including Chinese Language Education, English Language Education, Mathematics Education, Personal, Social and Humanity Education, Science Education, Technology Education, Arts Education, and Physical Education. Creativity is one of the nine generic skills to be gained through this curriculum. The nine generic skills correspond with Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.[26] Being able to acquire all the generic skills can ensure whole-person development. Music belongs to Arts Education. Students gain rich and comprehensive music learning experiences through the integrated activities of creating, performing and listening, and achieve the Four Learning Targets of the Music Curriculum.[27]
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The Proposed New Senior Secondary Curriculum and Assessment Framework: Music requires students to attain the abilities to respond critically, perform and create music. A minimum of 20% of the assessment is designated on music composition. Students who are interested in creating music can take another module on Creating as elective (a total of 40%.) Such big proportion on creating has never occurred in public music examination. If this plan of encouraging music creativity is successful, there will be many more composers in Hong Kong in the future.
The major problems lay ahead will be systematic training of many qualified teachers who are capable of cultivating creativity among students and assessing students’ creative works, as well as assessment of teachers’ performance. Since implementing creativity in Chinese school education is still a fairly new area of study, much more research need to be done in order to yield successful results.
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References
Gardiner, H.W. & Kosmitzki, C. (2002). Live Across Cultures: Cross-Cultural Human Development. 2nd ed., Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon
Lau, S., Hui, N. N., & Ng, Y.C. (2004). Creativity: When East Meets West. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
The Curriculum Development Council (2003). Arts Education Key Learning Area: Music Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 to Secondary 3)
The Curriculum Development Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (2005). Arts Education Key Learning Area: Proposed New Senior Secondary Curriculum and Assessment Framework: Music, 2nd draft.
Zhou, W. (1995). The Cognitive, Motivational, and Environmental Contributions to Academic Engagement and Achievement among Chinese High School Seniors and College Freshman. Ph. D. dissertation, The University of Michigan.
[1] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 25.
[2] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 29.
[3] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 30.
4 Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 31.
5 Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 31.
[6] Lau, Hui & Ng, pp. 32-33.
[7] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 33.
[8] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 34.
[9] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 34.
[10] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 35.
[11] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 42.
[12] Lau, Hui & Ng, pp. 36-37.
[13] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 65.
[14] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 45.
[15] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 47.
[16] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 69.
[17] Zhou, p.51
[18] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 67.
[19] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 147.
[20] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 147.
[21] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 147.
[22] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 147.
[23] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 108.
[24] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 148.
[25] Lau, Hui & Ng, p. 149.
[26] Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences include Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal
[27] Music Curriculum Guide, p.12