To Learn or Not to Learn: Ideology of English Among Chinese Social Media Users

Abstract

During China’s 2021 National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (NPC & CPPCC) sessions, Xu Jin, a CPPCC member, proposed the removal of English courses as a core subject in primary and middle schools. This proposal reignited the debate over the necessity of learning English in China, sparking heated discussions about its importance for Chinese individuals and the nation’s development. This research collects and analyzes discourses responding to this proposal posted on Zhihu, a popular question-and-answer social media platform, to examine the ideologies concerning the English language among Chinese social media users. The findings reveal that opponents of Xu’s proposal significantly outnumber its supporters. User views reflect significant concerns over the necessity of English learning, the impact of machine translation technology on English education, and the importance of English education for educational equality.