Practice and analysis of the teaching experience of the course «History of Chinese Music» in higher education in China

Abstract

The course «History of Chinese Music» holds the status of a compulsory professional discipline in the training of musicians and music teachers at universities of the People's Republic of China, yet its didactic potential is realised unevenly: the historical-factual layer dominates, while the value-related and the methodological-translational components remain on the periphery of the educational process. The discrepancy between the rich subject content and the predominantly chronological-reproductive mode of its mastering forms the central contradiction addressed in the study. The aim is to describe the established practice of teaching the course and to propose a structural model that orders its didactic components. The study relies on conceptual-categorial analysis, comparison of curricula and core textbooks, structural-functional modelling, and content analysis of the normative documents of Chinese music education in the editions valid for 2025-2026. A three-contour model of the course is constructed, distinguishing the historical-factual, the cultural-value, and the methodological-translational contours and specifying their functions, content, and educational outcomes. It is shown that the typical teaching difficulties – the fragmented placement of the discipline in the curriculum, the shortage of classroom hours, the prevalence of large-lecture format, and assessment oriented towards the memorisation of dates – are rooted in the misalignment of the three contours rather than in the subject content. The asymmetric elaboration of the contours, in which the methodological-translational component is built around the historical-factual core and draws support from it, ensures the transition from the reproductive assimilation of chronology to the formation of the graduate's ability to convert historical-musical knowledge into instructional content.