Citizens wrote family instructions during a family culture festival in Shanghai. Scholars pointed out that traditional family instructions, ethical principles and etiquette as well as parental teaching and influence are conducive to the cultivation and implementation of core socialist values.

More than 100 experts and scholars highlighted the role of traditional Chinese family culture in promoting socialist construction during a forum from Sept. 22 to 24 in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Ge Chenhong, a professor from the Center for Ethical Studies at Renmin University of China, emphasized the function of family in driving national development and social governance. Chen Yanbin, a professor of the Institute for Chinese Family Culture at Jiangsu Normal University, said that family instructions, ethical principles and etiquette as well as parental teaching and influence are conducive to the cultivation and implementation of core socialist values.

Zhai Bo, editor-in-chief of the China Education Press Agency, said that family plays a unique and irreplaceable role in the formation of personal morality, ethics and values. At present, it is urgent and necessary to integrate core socialist values into family education, he added.

Family culture with Chinese characteristics should reflect the peculiarities and ethos of the Chinese nation, Chen said, adding that we should absorb the essence and discard the dross of traditional family culture while adapting to new requirements of the times to better serve socialist construction.

Zhao Zhen, a professor of the School of History and Culture at Henan Normal University, pointed out the need to select educational content that is relevant to the lives of the educated while adopting easily accepted educational methods.

Ge said that family construction is not a private affair of a single household but a cause that requires the participation of all of society, which will lay a foundation for family happiness, national progress and social harmony. She suggested combining traditional family culture with core socialist values in family education. Moreover, researchers should strengthen theoretical studies while solving real problems to carry forward traditional family virtues, she said.