Abstract

This study applies the Framework for Analyzing the Representation of Cultures in English Textbooks to conduct a textual analysis of Chinese cultural content in a representative higher vocational English textbook and collects data from English teachers who use the textbook through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The main findings are as follows: first, there is a significant imbalance in the representation of different types of Chinese culture, with advanced socialist culture accounting for a large share and revolutionary culture represented to a very limited extent; second, in terms of presentation intensity, the portrayal of cultural products is the most prominent, followed by cultural persons and cultural practices, while portrayals of cultural perspectives and cultural communities are comparatively lower; third, the modes of presenting Chinese culture are diverse, with explicit and implicit presentations coexisting in multiple concrete forms, but overall explicit presentation predominates. Building upon these findings, the study proposes a set of strategies to optimize the presentation of Chinese culture in higher vocational English textbooks by balancing the presentation of three types of Chinese culture, balancing the presentation of explicit and implicit culture, highlighting the characteristics of intercultural com-parison, and innovating in the mode of cultural presentation.