JAMES C. KAUFMAN WEIHUA NIU
Introduction to the Special Issue on Chinese and American Creativity: Theoretical Perspectives In August 2010, we co-chaired an invited symposium at the American Psychological Association devoted to the creativity of Chinese people and their Western counterparts. The exciting work presented and the lively discussions convinced us to continue our work on this topic and bring together many of the same participants (and some new ones) for two special issues of the Journal of Creative Behavior. In this first special issue, we feature three theoretical papers that center on Chinese and American creativity. Mainland China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world for the two following reasons: First, from the policy level, there is a great emphasis on promoting the development of creativity from the top leaders of the country in the recent decade (Niu, 2006; Peng & Plucker, this issue; Wu & Albanese, 2010). Most recently, China’s president Hu Jintao spoke at the opening of the National Scientific and Technological Innovation Convention in which he made the promotion of creativity as the top priority in China’s next decade’s strategic development (Xinhua News Agency, July 7, 2012). Second, at the academic level, there is increasing interest in the past decade in studying creativity using participants from Mainland China (Wu & Albanese, 2010). Three of the seven papers are theory-based reviews of the literature. We start with Peng and Plucker’s (this issue) powerful review of the last two decades of Chinese policy changes with regard to creativity education. They highlight the many accomplishments and changes that have helped to develop Chinese creativity but also point to valuable avenues for future work. Second, Niu (this issue) examines Confucian ideology and how it continues to influence Chinese people’s perception of creativity to this day. Third, Lan and Kaufman (this issue) explore the similarities and differences between American and Chinese as they define and evaluate creativity products. In the next issue, we will present four empirical studies about Chinese and American creativity. We believe that the integration of theory and research is necessarily to inspire future work. We hope that you both enjoy these papers and find them as thought-provoking as we have found.
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The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 46, Iss. 4, pp. 245–246 © 2013 by the Creative Education Foundation, Inc. © DOI: 10.1002/jocb.16
Special Issue on Chinese and American Creativity
REFERENCES Lan, L., & Kaufman, J.C. (2013, this issue). American and Chinese similarities and differences in defining and valuing creative products. Journal of Creative Behavior, 46(4), 285–306. Niu, W. (2006). Development of creativity research in Chinese societies: A comparison of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In J.C. Kaufman, & R.J. Sternberg (Eds.), The international handbook of creativity (pp 374–394). New York: Cambridge University Press. Niu, W. (2013, this issue). Confucian ideology and creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 46(4), 274–284. Peng, W., & Plucker, J. A. (2013, this issue). Recent transformations in China’s economic, social, and education policies for promoting Innovation and creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior, 46(4), 247–273. Wu, J.J., & Albanese, D. (2010). Asian creativity, chapter one: Creativity across three Chinese societies. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 5, 150–154. Xinhua News Agency. (July 7, 2012). Further deepen the reform of the science and technology management system, keynote address by President HU Jintao, at the National Science and Technology Innovation Conference. Available from: http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2012/0707/c1024-18466493-2.html. James C. Kaufman, California State University at San Bernardino Weihua Niu, Pace University Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to James C. Kaufman, California State University at San Bernardino. E-mail:
[email protected]
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