The term ‘scientific literacy’ was regarded as a central goal in science curricula in the latest round curriculum reform in the P. R. China. The purpose of this study was to examine the distribution of the aspects of scientific literacy in high school chemistry curriculum in China. By way of the review of literature, the analytical framework was sorted out. Scientific literacy was divided into four themes: (a) the knowledge of science, (b) the investigative nature of science, (c) science as a way of knowing, (d) interaction of science, technology, society, environment and human. On the basis of analytical framework, content analysis was employed to analyze High School Chemistry Curriculum Standard, chemistry textbooks before curriculum reform and chemistry textbooks arising out of curriculum reform used in high school. Results are the followings: (a) in High School Chemistry Curriculum Standard, ‘science as a way of knowing’ is deficient. Furthermore, the percentage distribution of the aspects of scientific literacy is quite different among curriculum objectives, teaching objectives and activities, (b) the percentage distribution of the aspects of scientific literacy in three editions of new high school chemistry textbooks has the same trend. All of the three editions cannot deal with ‘curriculum balance’ well, (c) as far as ‘curriculum balance’ is concerned, Lu Ke edition and Su Jiao edition are slightly better than Ren Jiao edition among the new textbooks. High School Chemistry Curriculum Standard deals with ‘curriculum balance’ slightly better than the new textbooks, (d) ‘the investigative nature of science’ and ‘interaction of science, technology, society, environment and human’ are enriched in the new textbooks. Compared with traditional ones, the level of ‘curriculum balance’ has been promoted in the new textbooks; (e) in view of ‘atomic structure’ and ‘sulfur and its compounds’, we may know, ‘theoretical chemistry’ deals with ‘curriculum balance’ better than ‘descriptive chemistry’ in both traditional and new textbooks. The problem of the unbalanced distribution of the aspects of scientific literacy which emerges in ‘descriptive chemistry’ in the traditional textbooks has not been resolved in the new textbooks. We may know from the results that the distribution of the aspects of scientific literacy in high school chemistry curriculum in China is not satisfactory. Key words: Scientific literacy; Chemistry curriculum; Curriculum balance; Nature of science; Content analysis