* This paper was originally written as a Certificate Essay for the East Asian Institute, Columbia University. I am particularly grateful to Michel Oksenberg for his guidance and to Andrew J. Nathan for his encouragement and informed criticisms of successive drafts.

1. The textbooks used were elementary school reading texts for grades one to five. Taiwanese textbooks: National Elementary School Language Textbooks (Kuo-min hsiao-hsüeh-kuo yü) (Taipei: Provincial Government, Office of Education, 1970), vols. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.Google Scholar Chinese textbooks as translated in Doolin, Dennis J. and Ridley, Charles P., The Genesis of a Model Citizen in Communist China: Translation and Analysis of Selected Chinese Communist Elementary School Readers (Stanford: Stanford University, Hoover Institution, 06 1968), vols. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.Google Scholar The publication dates of the Chinese textbooks range from 1957 to 1964. For the date of publication of each volume see Doolin, and Ridley, , pp. 3–5.Google Scholar The Chinese set is a complete set, vols. 1–10, with two volumes used for each of the five academic grades. A complete set of Taiwanese texts for the same grades was obtained. The odd numbered volumes, those used during the first semester of each grade in both China and Taiwan, were chosen as the sample for analysis. Content analysis of the texts was done on the basis of 36 indicators. The stories, 168 in the Chinese readers and 128 in the Taiwanese readers, were read and coded for the presence of particular indicators. The occurrence of an indicator was coded both quantitatively and qualitatively, giving each indicator a statistical measure of its appearance and a content description of each incidence. (The statistical results are shown in the appendix to this article, pp. 261–62.) Due to financial restrictions, the stories were analysed by only one coder, myself. The coding was checked once.

2. Dawson, Richard E. and Prewitt, Kenneth, Political Socialization (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), p. 100.Google Scholar

3. Ibid. p. 102.

4. Ibid. p. 100.

5. Ibid. pp. 146–75.

6. It should be noted that I make no attempt in this article to measure the actual success of socialization.

7. Langton, Kenneth P., Political Socialization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 8.Google Scholar

8. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 3. “Old Lai-tzu” is one of the 24 models whose story appears in the The Classic of Filial Piety (Hsiao Ching).

9. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 29.

10. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 1, stories 1 and 2.

11. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 6, story 5.

12. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 9, story 1.

13. Ibid.

14. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 26.

15. Ibid.

16. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 36.

17. It is important to note their appearance in the texts, as both Ai-li Chin and John Lewis found these behavioural patterns to be of importance in their respective studies of Chinese socialization. See Chin, Ai-li S. (A. S. Chen), “The ideal local Party secretary and the ‘model’ man,” The China Quarterly (CQ), No. 17 (1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Lewis, John W., “Party cadres in Communist China,” in Coleman, James S. (ed.), Education and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

18. See Lewis, , “Party cadres,” passimGoogle Scholar; McClelland, David, The Achieving Society (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and McClelland, David, “Motivational patterns in Southeast Asia with special reference to the Chinese case,” Journal of Social Issues, Vol. XIX No. 1 (1963).Google Scholar

19. Lewis, , “Party cadres,” p. 430 and passim.Google Scholar

20. Taiwanese texts, introductory Vol., p. 51. (This story was not included in the quantitative analysis.)

21. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 3.

22. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 4.

23. Chinese texts, Vol. 9, story 22.

24. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 15.

25. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 14.

26. Chinese texts, Vol. 1, story 30. For further discussion of this point see Solomon, Richard, “Educational themes in China's changing culture,” CQ, No. 22 (1965), pp. 154–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27. These findings contrast with those of Wilson, Richard in his monograph, Learning to be Chinese: The Political Socialization of Children in Taiwan (Cambridge, Mass, and London: M.I.T. Press, 1970).Google Scholar Wilson maintains that the development of a strong group consciousness is the most important theme of childhood socialization on Taiwan. Here, in comparison with the Chinese texts, the Taiwanese texts were not found to place any noticeable emphasis on group consciousness. Wilson's findings, however, were drawn from a much larger data base than simply the analysis of texts, including the direct observation of group interaction on Taiwan. Also, Richard Wilson includes the family unit and interaction therein in his consideration of group socialization, while this article restricte the use of “group” specifically to peer units.

28. Chinese texts, Vol. 5, story 12.

29. Chinese texts, Vol. 5, story 37.

30. Chinese texts, Vol. 5, story 6.

31. For example, Vol. 5, story 22 and Vol. 7, story 6.

32. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 1, story 2.

33. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 9, story 1.

34. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 9, story 7.

35. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 22.

36. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 5.

37. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 15.

38. Ai-li S. Chin makes this point in her article, “Family relations in modern Chinese fiction,” in Freedman, Maurice (ed.), Family and Kinship in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), p. 118.Google Scholar

39. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 15.

40. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 3, story 12.

41. Chinese texts, Vol. 1, story 37.

42. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 1.

43. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 7.

44. Chinese texts, Vol. 1, story 39.

45. Chinese texts, Vol. 1, story 42, Ai-li S. Chin and Richard Solomon similarly found manual labour to be a very important theme of Chinese publications. See Chin, , “The ideal local Party secretary,” pp. 234–38Google Scholar, and Solomon, , “Educational themes,” p. 164.Google Scholar

46. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 3, story 19.

47. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 27.

48. The absence of stories set ira an urban environment is surprising in that, according to Doolin and Ridley, the texts were used primarily in the Peking and Shanghai areas. See Doolin, and Ridley, , Genesis of a Model Citizen, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

49. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 1, story 7.

50. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 3, story 6.

51. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 16.

52. Chinese texts, Vol. 9, story 8.

53. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 7.

54. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 9.

55. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 26; Taiwanese texts, Vol. 7, story 2.

56. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 29.

57. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 5, story 5.

58. Chinese texts, Vol. 9, stories 28 and 29.

59. Munro, Donald, The Concept of Man in Early China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969), p. 167.Google Scholar

60. An identification of government with the political personalities of Sun and Chiang was found by Richard Wilson to be highly developed in Taiwanese children. See Wilson, Richard, “The learning of political symbols in Chinese culture,” Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. III, Nos. 3–4 (07–10 1968).Google Scholar

61. Taiwanese texts, Vol. 7, story 29.

62. Chinese texts, Vol. 9, story 11.

63. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 9.

64. Chinese texts, Vol. 7, story 12.

65. Chinese texts, Vol. 3, story 11.

66. This is a common literary theme in China, see particularly Chin, Ai-li S., “The ideal local Party secretary,” pp. 232–33, 239Google Scholar, and Solomon, Richard, “Mao's effort to reintegrate the Chinese polity; problems of authority and conflict in the Chinese political processes,” in Barnett, A. Doak (ed.), Chinese Communist Politics in Action (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969), pp. 329–30 and passim.Google Scholar