Etiquette in China? Whaaaa?

This article in BBC Online caught my eye this morning:

China sets classes in good manners for schoolchildren

Now, I know what some of you are probably thinking: "Oh, this is just more mind-control propaganda put out by the Communist Party to indoctrinate the children of the country." I have no doubt that there is probably a ton of propaganda shoved into these lessons. Even though communist ideology is fast-fading in China (if it is not already gone), is still a strong sense of nationalism that pervades anything even touched by the government. Mind you, we do that in the United States as well. A good chunk of schooling is dedicated to the indoctrination of children to mold them into "upright citizens" (to borrow a quote from Carina, "What do you think social studies classes are for?"). With this, of course, come the dangers of "group-thought", diminished creativity on the part of the individual, and the possibility of damage to the individual identity.
It also gives us a standard of interaction.

A good portion of my philosophical work is dedicated to fleshing-out Confucianism and one of its most fascinating aspects is the near-obsession (okay, it really is obsession) with human interaction on the levels of language, sympathy, and even simple courtesy. Confucius was all about this concept called "li", often glossed as ritual or propriety, which seems to embody a number of the conventions, customs, mores, and even morals of society (yes, I know how redundant that all sounds, but I make the list for the sake of clarity). It was also supposed to provide a guideline for behavior in general.

Granted, my interpretation of Confucianism is a loose, liberal one, but I think this idea of attending to li has merit. After all, if we try to coordinate our behavior to accord with the standards that are agreed upon as socially acceptable, does that not heavily reduce the odds of violent confrontation? If we are all able to communicate effectively and engage sympathetically, are we not less likely to come to blows?

Apply this thinking to China, a massive country with an even more massive population that frequently ignores any rules of custom or etiquette. By enculturating (is that a nicer word for you?) children from an early age to follow these rules of propriety, these ritual customs such as respecting your elders, it seems they will be far more likely to grow into polite, maybe even sympathetic and reasonable human beings. This logic is not so different from our own in the US, where we try to teach children "right" and "wrong" from an early age (at least we used to).

The fact is that these programs are not foreign to us and they are not foreign to China. The question is: Will these programs enable the students to extend their limited education to the rest of the world, or will it just be more rote learning?