Interest is vital for students' learning in mathematics. Over the course of the Chinese mathematics curriculum reform in the past 30 years, cultivating students' positive emotions, attitudes, and values has gained growing attention. In the current study we examined the trajectory of Chinese mathematics textbook development by analyzing textbook content that stimulated students' mathematics learning interest through the curriculum reform in the past three decades. First, we selected textbooks that represent each phase of the curriculum reform (the Incubation Phase, the Reform Phase, and the Conditioning Phase). Then, taking eighth grade as an example, we used Hidi and Renninger's model to identify content that focus on stimulating students' learning interest. Finally, we explored the trajectory of textbook development in this aspect within the scope of curriculum reform. Results show that attention to strategies developing positive emotions and values towards mathematics has been emerging in recent times. Interest-stimulating strategies directed toward the triggering and maintaining of situational interest have been integrated more frequently into textbooks since the Reform Phase, while text content employing strategies that may lead to rote memorization is generally decreasing. Using Chinese curriculum reform as a context, this study demonstrates how mathematics textbooks have been revisioned and revised with a focus on stimulating students' learning interest. The reform of mathematics education has been successfully implemented in more than thirty provinces in China, despite significant differences in geographical, cultural, and economic development. It is hoped that this study can provide practical evidence of interest stimulation in mathematics for the international education community.