The Study of Individual Identity Construction under the Rudimental Chinese Education in Light of Invisible Man

Prof. Tian Hua Wang, China, ID CLEaR2017-416;      Abstract: This paper is aimed at understanding the rudimental Chinese education system’s impact on each individual student’s identity-building process. Inspired by Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, this paper attempts to recreate social circumstances the protagonist faced during his intricate self-realization process to examine whether they apply in the Chinese education system. Although scholars have previously explored the relationship between education and identity on a political and theoretical ground, this paper employs the ethnographic method of semi-structured interviewing to provide an evaluation of the system’s efficacy in identity cultivation directly through the lens of Chinese students. An empirical analysis is presented after each group of interview segments. This paper concludes with a summery of the Chinese education system’s influence on individuality and suggestions for future development.

Key words: ethnography; semi-structured interview; identity construction; the Chinese education system; Invisible Man