Enacting Lifelong Learning in China: Historical and Future Perspectives

In the last few decades, lifelong learning has gained favour as an educational paradigm. Inevitably, embedded in social, cultural, and economic contexts, the conceptualization and implementation of lifelong learning across the globe is far from homogenous. In China, although the notion of lifelong learning can be traced to Confucius, the term was introduced more formally in the late 1970s after the Cultural Revolution. In the present article, the authors engage in a critically reflective discussion of the lifelong learning in China. The authors offer historical and future perspectives on lifelong learning and how it is enacted in relation to labor distribution, skills, training, and future needs.