This article is about changes in Chinese early childhood education in recent years. The content, process and outcomes of reform in early childhood education in China have been affected by the national goals of reform, the social context of early educational institutions, their organizational characteristics, family structure, family policy, the specific professional culture of teaching and learning, as well as the global influence. The previous welfare model of kindergarten, which was regarded as one of the outcomes of a socialist system, is being transformed into a new market competitive model to meet a political demand for the marketisation of society. The curricula of early educational program, teachers� attitudes to children, and their professional activities have been re-shaped according to new ideas about the needs and abilities of children, new conceptions of child development and, not least, the new modernisation �knowledge� that gained ascendancy in China.