A comparative analysis of musical creativity contents in China and Taiwan elementary school textbooks / Yuan Qian Yun

Objective: This study compares the percentage of creative contents in four versions of music textbooks for grade 5.6 in Taiwan and China, and analyzes the musical elements and mediums used, and discusses them with past studies. Methology: Using Taiwan: Kanhsuan Educational Publishing Group and Han Lin Publishing Co., Ltd. art textbooks, and China: People’s Music Publishing House and People’s Education Press music textbooks as research materials. The content analysis was used to analyze the musical creativity contents, the frequency and percentage of musical elements and mediums used in each version, and the statistical analysis was conducted in Excel 2021. Results: By comparing a total of four versions of textbooks from China and Taiwan, it was found that the highest percentage of musical creativity contents was in the Kanhsuan Educational Publishing Group of the textbook, and the lowest was in the People’s Education Press of the textbook. The musical elements used are mostly expression, rhythm and melody, and less used are dynamic, harmony, articulation, texture and form. The musical mediums used are mostly vocal, body, instrument and notation, and less used are graphics/ tone painting and digital. Conclusion: Compared to China's music textbooks, Taiwan's textbooks contain more creative contents, indicating that Taiwan attaches more importance to musical creativity education. It is recommended that future researchers can continue to compare the new version of the textbooks released after the double reduction policy in China.