This study is situated within the historical context of the development of modern and contemporary aesthetic education in China. It systematically examines the process through which aesthetic education has shifted from a traditional rationalized educa...
This study is situated within the historical context of the development of modern and contemporary aesthetic education in China. It systematically examines the process through which aesthetic education has shifted from a traditional rationalized educational model toward a modern sensory-oriented paradigm. The research elucidates the historical necessity, theoretical logic, and practical pathways of this transformation, and constructs a theoretical framework of sensory aesthetics in aesthetic education with distinctive Chinese characteristics.
With regard to research background, current practices of aesthetic education in China commonly tend to equate aesthetic education either with the transmission of aesthetic knowledge or with the simplified training of artistic skills. Such rationalized and technicized conceptions deviate from the essential nature of aesthetic education as a form of sensory education. The root of this problem lies in misconceptions surrounding the sensory characteristics of aesthetic education and in the lack of systematic theoretical research on the sensory turn in aesthetic education. From the perspective of sensory aesthetics, this study adopts a research approach that combines historical review with theoretical interpretation, and systematically addresses fundamental questions concerning the sensory nature of aesthetic education, the ways in which aesthetic education realizes a sensory turn, and the guiding significance of this turn for contemporary aesthetic education practice.
In terms of research content, this dissertation constructs an analytical framework consisting of theoretical genealogy, local activation, modern reconstruction, and practical transformation, and develops its argument across seven chapters. The introduction clarifies the research background, significance, current state of scholarship, and research methodology. Chapter Two systematically traces the eastward transmission of Western sensory aesthetics, providing in-depth analyses of the core theories of Alexander Baumgarten, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Schiller and their influence on modern Chinese aesthetic education. It reveals how Western sensory aesthetics furnished Chinese aesthetic education with epistemological foundations, psychological bases, and sociological objectives. Chapter Three proceeds from Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist aesthetic traditions to excavate the rich sensory-aesthetic dimensions embedded in Chinese classical aesthetics. It demonstrates the sensory manifestation of Dao in Laozi, the sensory freedom in Zhuangzi’s aesthetics, the sensory liberation of Wei–Jin metaphysics, the intuitive enlightenment of Buddhist aesthetics, and the affective ontology of Confucian aesthetics. It further examines how modern thinkers such as Wang Guowei, Cai Yuanpei, Zhu Guangqian, Zong Baihua, and Feng Zikai inherited and developed traditional sensory-aesthetic thought, thereby revealing the historical trajectory of the integration of Chinese and Western sensory aesthetics.
Chapter Four constitutes the theoretical core of the dissertation, systematically analyzing the processes through which modern Chinese aesthetic education has absorbed and reconstructed Western sensory-aesthetic theories. It first examines the developmental trajectory from German classical aesthetics to modern aesthetics, with particular emphasis on the affinity between the theory of aesthetics of appearance and Chinese aesthetic education. It demonstrates how this theoretical emphasis on the immediacy and generativity of aesthetic experience provides a foundation for aesthetic education practice. Subsequently, this chapter innovatively introduces Pop Art as an analytical object and explores its role in deepening the sensory turn in Chinese aesthetic education. The study finds that Pop Art—by dissolving the boundary between art and everyday life, emphasizing the immediacy of visual sensibility, and advocating the egalitarianism of mass aesthetics—forms an intrinsic connection with phenomenological aesthetics, thereby offering new theoretical dimensions and practical insights for the sensory turn in Chinese aesthetic education. Since its introduction into China in the 1980s, Pop Art has exerted a profound influence on contemporary Chinese art, promoting the transformation of aesthetic education from elitism to popularization and from rationalization to sensory orientation. This chapter constructs a theoretical paradigm of Sino-Western integration, elucidates the pedagogical principles governing the interaction between sensibility and reason, and demonstrates theoretical innovations concerning aesthetic education and personality formation, thereby establishing an integrated theoretical framework for modern Chinese aesthetic education.
Chapters Five and Six translate theoretical inquiry into practical exploration. Chapter Five systematically reviews the current state of art education in Chinese higher education institutions and diagnoses existing problems from a sensory-aesthetic perspective, including the over-theorization of teaching content, the homogenization of teaching methods, and the skills-oriented bias of evaluation systems. Through international comparison, it further reveals deficiencies in sensory cultivation within Chinese university art education. On this basis, the chapter constructs the theoretical foundations for a sensory turn in higher art education, encompassing sensory interpretations of learning theory, developments in sensory-oriented art education theory, and a theoretical framework for sensory-based art education. Chapter Six constitutes the empirical innovation of the study, employing the IPA–Kano model to conduct optimization experiments on sketching courses in Chinese universities. Selecting sketching courses from the disciplines of fine arts, art and design, and public art as research objects, the study establishes an evaluation system incorporating sensory cultivation elements, collects quantitative data, and conducts quadrant analyses to scientifically determine priorities and pathways for course optimization across disciplines. By integrating qualitative theoretical research with quantitative empirical data, this empirical study provides an operational model for the sensory-oriented reform of aesthetic education curricula and achieves methodological innovation.
The study finds that the sensory turn in modern and contemporary Chinese aesthetic education is a gradual historical process, characterized by a paradigmatic shift from traditional ritual-music education to modern aesthetic education. The internal logic of this transformation is manifested on three levels: at the epistemological level, a shift from knowledge transmission to sensory experience; at the methodological level, a shift from rational analysis to intuitive apprehension; and at the axiological level, a shift from instrumental rationality to aesthetic rationality. This process has been profoundly influenced by Western sensory-aesthetic thought while remaining deeply rooted in Chinese traditional aesthetics, thereby forming a distinctive theoretical configuration that integrates Chinese and Western traditions and connects antiquity with modernity.
The theoretical contributions of this study are threefold. First, it systematically constructs, for the first time, a theoretical framework for the sensory turn in Chinese aesthetic education, enriching the theoretical foundations of aesthetic education studies. Second, it innovatively incorporates Pop Art into the field of Chinese aesthetic education research, revealing its role in deepening the sensory turn and expanding the theoretical horizons of aesthetic education. Third, by applying the IPA–Kano model to empirical research in art education, it provides a methodological exemplar for innovation in aesthetic education research.
The practical significance of the study lies in providing historical reference points and theoretical guidance for contemporary reforms in Chinese aesthetic education, offering scientific foundations for the sensory-oriented design of aesthetic education curricula, and supplying a reference framework for the construction of evaluation systems that emphasize sensory experience and aesthetic literacy. The study demonstrates that the essence of aesthetic education resides in promoting holistic human development through sensory aesthetic experience. Consequently, contemporary reforms in aesthetic education should adhere to a sensory-oriented direction, emphasize the cultivation of students’ aesthetic perception, emotional experience, and creative imagination, and realize a fundamental transformation of aesthetic education from knowledge-based instruction to affective education, and from skills training to the cultivation of character.