<p>This study explored how Chinese kindergarten parents (<i>n</i> = 16) perceive the relationship between arts education and educational competition, how their attitudes and practices toward arts education are shaped by competitive pressures, and the strategies they adopt to navigate these conflicting priorities. Drawing on the concepts of educational involution, meritocracy, and Bourdieu’s cultural capital, the study conceptualizes arts education as both a developmental practice and a strategically mobilized resource. The findings revealed a paradoxical orientation: parents constructed a hierarchy privileging academic subjects while positioning the arts as optional yet simultaneously engaged in arts education as a form of competitive and cultural capital necessary to remain competitive. Although some parents recognized the intrinsic value of the arts for creativity and emotional development, these values were often subordinated to instrumental goals. Parents adopted strategies such as delayed competition, minimal participation, and constrained resistance, reflecting structural pressures and ambivalence. This study advances current research by showing that the instrumentalization of arts education emerges in early childhood, a stage often overlooked in studies of educational competition. It also highlights how parental anxieties, policy structures, and entrenched meritocratic values contribute to the marginalization of arts education in this context.</p>