This study explores how the government of mainland China values Chinese nationalism as a component of its historical memory and traces its relationship with music education from the twentieth century to the global age within broader social contexts. In a rapidly commercializing and modernizing China, nationalism remains the main driving force shaping Chinese music education, while historical nationalism and familial relationship have been reinforced by the current regime's educational socialization. Love for country and family and an emphasis on nationalism and Confucianism are the pragmatic tools employed by Chinese authorities to maintain their primacy in and power over education, particularly song teaching.