Labour education has been an integral part of Chinese education system since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. This education concept is based on Marxism and aims at cultivating students with “all-round physical and mental development” (Fan and Zou,p169, 2020) in the forms of daily-life labour education, productive labour education, and service-type labour education. Labour education functions to the development of technical expertise, innovative thoughts, and morality through intentional labour training imparted by professionals (Teng et al, 2008). Most Chinese educationalists have advocated the promotion of labour education as it is believed to meet the national vision by shaping students into citizens who can further develop China’s society(Wen,1995).
The concept of labour education in China has different meanings from the professional training referred to by labour union’s members and representatives (Spencer,2003) under worldwide trade union movement(Cunniah, 2007) or the “re-education through labour”(Laogai劳改) for adults committing crimes as a sort of punitive tool in Chinese penal system (Human Rights Watch 2008). Labour education in this project is mainly taught in school context with its own systematic requirements and syllabus and can be practiced in educational institutions from primary to higher education, home, and the wider society .