Taiwanese Youth's Language of and Thought on Creativity

Creativity is currently one of the hottest issues in educational and social movements. But little attention is being paid to some fundamental questions. For example, by what or whom is the creativity of the general population, and more specifically of the young people, stimulated and enhanced? And, after all, how could we even define what the young people in a given society mean by "creativity"? This study combines the use of a survey with qualitative and statistical methods to examine: (1) the words used by Taiwanese aged 6-19 for "creativity" and the thought embedded in these words; and (2) the extent to which, compared with adult Anglo-American academics, these Taiwanese subjects seem to agree on the means of the "creativity words" they commonly use. The findings were as follows: (1) the areas of greatest agreement on the meaning of creativity (including its states and characteristics) for the Taiwanese subjects were for the most part different from the areas of greatest agreement for the Western academics; (2) for the Taiwanese subjects, there is a general agreement that creativity miraculously exists in each individual, appears as a capacity, feeling, sudden or unexpected imagine or fantasy, as a playful, rich and changeable idea, or shows itself through novel, interesting or cute things or discoveries, through free concrete; (3) the Taiwanese thinking about creativity seems very polycentric, reflects images appropriate to the subjects' age (6-19), and tends to emphasize the idea of amusement, while for Western academics creativity is defined based on the adult's experience on socialization, their peculiar pragmatic expectations, and the assumed images or thinking of a modern, rational elite; (4) the language used by Taiwanese subjects to describe the states and characteristics of creativity is significantly influenced by their own gender, age, and educational degree.