Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China

This study conducts a social semiotic analysis of six sex education picture books for preschool children in the People’s Republic of China. Following van Leeuwen’s framework for analysing the discursive construction of social actors, this paper examines two types of social actors directly associated...

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Main Authors: Liang, J., Tan, Sabine, O'Halloran, K.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31153
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author Liang, J.
Tan, Sabine
O'Halloran, K.
author_facet Liang, J.
Tan, Sabine
O'Halloran, K.
author_sort Liang, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study conducts a social semiotic analysis of six sex education picture books for preschool children in the People’s Republic of China. Following van Leeuwen’s framework for analysing the discursive construction of social actors, this paper examines two types of social actors directly associated with the education of human sexuality: the physical body of human beings and the institutional, disciplinary body of the family. The analysis of the linguistic and visual representations of the two types of social actors reveals a significant compromise of biosexuality to the complicated psychosexual and sociosexual concerns in the People’s Republic of China. The introduction of biological knowledge about human reproduction is conducted in such a manner that aims to instil the appropriate moral values and behaviours that are regarded as the norm in contemporary Chinese culture as well as ensuring the sound physical and psychological development of young children.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:22:16Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Routledge
recordtype eprints
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-311532017-09-13T15:14:32Z Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China Liang, J. Tan, Sabine O'Halloran, K. This study conducts a social semiotic analysis of six sex education picture books for preschool children in the People’s Republic of China. Following van Leeuwen’s framework for analysing the discursive construction of social actors, this paper examines two types of social actors directly associated with the education of human sexuality: the physical body of human beings and the institutional, disciplinary body of the family. The analysis of the linguistic and visual representations of the two types of social actors reveals a significant compromise of biosexuality to the complicated psychosexual and sociosexual concerns in the People’s Republic of China. The introduction of biological knowledge about human reproduction is conducted in such a manner that aims to instil the appropriate moral values and behaviours that are regarded as the norm in contemporary Chinese culture as well as ensuring the sound physical and psychological development of young children. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31153 10.1080/10350330.2016.1161117 Routledge restricted
spellingShingle Liang, J.
Tan, Sabine
O'Halloran, K.
Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title_full Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title_fullStr Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title_full_unstemmed Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title_short Representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary China
title_sort representing sexuality and morality in sex education picture books in contemporary china
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31153