When the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child meets Confucianism: Chinese parents' understanding of children’s right to play

Liu, Chang; Xu, Yuwei

Abstract

This study employs a poststructuralist theoretical framework to explore parents’ attitudes towards children’s right to play in Shanghai, China. It adopted mixed methods of online questionnaires (N = 880) and semi-structured interviews (N = 11). The findings suggest that participants struggle with embracing and practising children’s right to play as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), reflecting culturally-sensitive and -contextualised concerns around their children’s future success. Those concerns are connected with the hegemony of Confucianism in shaping educational values in Chinese education. In the context of globalisation, this paper points to the empowerment of parents in practising children’s rights to play in China.

Citation

Liu, C., & Xu, Y. (2023). When the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child meets Confucianism: Chinese parents' understanding of children’s right to play. Childhood, 30(2), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682231151848

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 13, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Deposit Date: Jan 4, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2023
• Journal: Childhood
• Print ISSN: 0907-5682
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 177–193
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682231151848
• Keywords: children’s rights; parents; right to play; global south; UNCRC
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/15504830
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09075682231151848