Gifted and Talented Education in China

Abstract

The year 1977 was significant in the modern history of China because that year marked the dawning of a new era. For the previous 20 years, China had closed its doors to the outside world, but from 1977 onward, with a new Chairman, Deng Xiaoping, the country opened its doors again. With the opening came the call for modernization of the country. Under the slogan known as the Four Modernizations, the Chairman challenged the country to modernize in four areas: agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology. In order to carry out this challenge, education became important again and the need to produce “rencai” or “people of abilities” to help with the modernization was critical. With this call for training contributing citizens to help build the country, there was a revival for gifted and talented education in various forms. This article will briefly introduce some of the work being done in gifted and talented (g/t) education in today's People's Republic of China and to offer some suggestions as to how the work in China can be expanded.