Chapter 50 A Correct Understanding of the Reality of China's Weak Culture

American scholar Remo spent a lot of space in his "China Image" expressing his thoughts on "China's image in an extraordinary period".I don't know what factors constitute a country's external image? The external image of a country is composed of many factors, and the evaluation of comprehensive national strength is the basis of the external image.There are both material and spiritual factors in comprehensive national strength.The relationship between material factors and spiritual factors is a dialectical unity rather than a simple correlation.Generally speaking, strong strength will definitely promote the spread of culture, but if the cultural values ​​are not appropriate, the effect may not be positive, and may even be counterproductive.The only superpower, the United States, is now unrivaled in power, but its image in the world has deteriorated after the Iraq War, because it wants to export democracy by force, showing a strong sense of hegemony and superiority.From a cultural perspective, China's image in the world ultimately depends on what values ​​it advocates.For example, during the "Cultural Revolution" period, China took "world revolution" as its value orientation and appeared as a "rebel" in the international community.After the reform and opening up, China took "peace" and "development" as its value orientation, and established the image of "participant", "cooperator" and "responsible major country" in the international community.Image is the appearance of foreign strategy, and cultural values ​​are its connotation.

Because Chinese society has been in the process of internal and external shocks and rapid changes for a long time, there has been considerable confusion in the promotion of cultural values, which not only affects domestic identity and cohesion, but also damages external persuasiveness and attractiveness.At least I read the following assertion in "The Age of Sickness" by Ross, the founder of American sociology: "For centuries, the Chinese have been psychologically unable to accept innovative ideas. This nation stubbornly believes that the wisdom of ancient sages is It is supreme, so asking them to drop talents in an eclectic manner is simply counting on the blossoming of iron trees. Just as new thinkers want to put forward new ideas, they have been coerced by the heavy pressure of conservative ideas to lose their courage. All in all, the social atmosphere has become extremely dull and depressed, lacking Oxygen that inspired people to innovate. Long ago, this country also invented gunpowder, movable type, paper money, porcelain, the compass, waterproof boat cabins and the rickshaw.”

Since the West opened the door of China with cannons, Western culture has posed a huge challenge to Chinese culture.Cultural debates and the struggle to save the nation are intertwined, making it difficult for Chinese people to think about cultural issues calmly.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, respect for Marxism and closeness to the socialist camp of the Soviet Union painted a new background color for China's cultural understanding.During the ten years of catastrophe, the "opposition to feudal capitalism and revisionism" and the great cultural revolution resulted in extreme cultural nihilism and ignorance.After the reform and opening up, China shifted from a planned system to a market system and fully integrated into the world system. All cultures in the world flocked to it, and people's understanding has undergone earth-shaking changes.In such a short historical period, the cultural trend has changed so much, so quickly, and spread so widely, which is rare in the world.In the case of lack of values, controversy or even confusion, it is urgent to study what values ​​should be advocated.

At present, there is a fairly common view that although China is a developing country, it has a long history of culture and abundant resources, and its strong culture can fully make up for its lack of strength.What is your comment on this? This view is not correct.China has historically had a strong cultural advantage.Now China is a cultural power, but not a cultural power.This judgment should be said to be tenable. The reality is that China is culturally weak, and its foreign strategy can only be based on realistic and objective analysis. A strong culture needs the support of strength, which is self-evident today.Globalization has enhanced cultural interaction. Commodities, entertainment, and tourism are all means of spreading culture, not to mention various media and cultural industries, which spread cultural values ​​all the time.From the perspective of the status of information and cultural products in the international market, the United States takes the lead, and the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany also occupy a considerable share.Its greatest impact has been that the homogeneity of mass cultural consumption developed in the West has also spread to wealthier classes in developing countries.Of course, this phenomenon also stimulated the revival of local culture and national culture, although it was still relatively weak.The influence of the cultural industries of Japan and South Korea in Asia and the world is far greater than that of China, and it is also related to the level and strength of economic development.

In your co-authored book The Powerful Invisible Force: The Role of Culture in Contemporary International Relations, you emphasized that "Western culture has a solid material foundation and cultural values ​​that have spread throughout the world , coupled with strong institutional support, is indeed in a strong position. It is an indisputable fact that the culture of developing countries is in a weak position, and it will not change fundamentally for a considerable period of time." Just now you said: "From the perspective of information and cultural products in the international market In terms of its position in the world, the United States takes the lead, and the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany also occupy a considerable share. Its greatest impact is that the homogeneity of mass cultural consumption formed in the West also spreads to the more developed countries. Wealthy classes.” So, has our vulnerability directly contributed to the insecurity of our culture and the great threat to our reality?

Being culturally weak does not mean doing nothing, let alone that our country is facing the threat of "cultural security".There have been a lot of papers discussing "cultural security" recently, and I think there are several concepts that are confusing and worth clarifying.One is to confuse the colonial period with the post-independence period.When many people talk about "cultural assimilation" or even "cultural extinction", they cite examples from the colonial period.In fact, after the victory of anti-colonialism, all sovereign countries will protect their culture, and "cultural assimilation" or "cultural extinction" is basically impossible.The history of Chinese culture is profound, and the 1.3 billion Chinese people rely on their own culture to prosper, so it is impossible to be "fully Westernized".India has been colonized by the British for 150 years, English has become the official language, and Indian culture has not been assimilated, which is a good example.The second is to equate "information security" with "cultural security".The information society has had a profound economic impact, both positive and negative.The more a country participates in globalization, the more serious the "information security" problem it faces.Destroying military or civilian command systems or key departments through information technology means is no longer science fiction but reality.Information asymmetry already poses a threat to the security of many countries.There is cultural support behind information, or information is also a manifestation of culture.However, the meaning of culture is much bigger than information, "information security" is not equal to "cultural security".

So, how can Chinese culture get rid of its disadvantaged status? The only way for Chinese culture to get rid of its disadvantaged status is the modernization of Chinese culture.One of the tasks of Chinese cultural modernization is the recognition of modern values, which will be a long-term process.The confusion and rupture in the inheritance, development and dissemination of values ​​in China is a very rare phenomenon in the world.Of course, after the reform and opening up, the government and intellectuals have made great efforts to build spiritual civilization, establish social morality, professional ethics and family morality. effect, but not fundamentally improved.

Just yesterday, when Comrade Jin Tao met with national moral models in Beijing, he also emphasized that in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way and accelerating the socialist modernization process, we must always attach great importance to and earnestly strengthen the construction of socialist morality, vigorously promote social morality, Professional ethics and family virtues provide a strong ideological and moral guarantee for my country's economic and social development. From the perspective of the underlying reasons, China's current degree of modernization is still in its infancy, has just stepped into the threshold of a well-off society, and has not been able to complete the integration and refinement of cultural values ​​from east to west, from ancient to modern.With the establishment of a moderately prosperous society in 20 years and moderate modernization in 50 years, the ethical and moral standards of the people will be greatly improved, and their recognition of values ​​will reach a new height.

Don't you think that the dialogue ability between Chinese culture and other cultures in the world is also weak? The time for modern China to enter the international system as an equal is still short, and its ability to engage in dialogue with other cultures in the world is indeed weak, and it has not yet found an effective way to combine its own cultural characteristics with the mainstream culture of the world.The contemporary international system is basically born out of the European system and values, and the United States later played a big role.If developing countries want to exert influence on the international system, they must not only take into account the existing foundation, but also put forward their own unique proposals.For example, in recent years, Iran has proposed a "dialogue of civilizations", which has been adopted by the United Nations, which is a major contribution.But Iran itself has not done enough to modernize Islamic culture, so its persuasion is not strong and its influence is not obvious.China's foreign strategy has put forward many new ideas in recent years, but few of them have been accepted and recognized by the international community.This should be an issue for future research.

Now some people describe strong culture as pervasive and omnipotent, and believe that although colonialism no longer exists, cultural imperialism exists, and cultural hegemony is maintained in a more covert way. This argument is not comprehensive.Take the dominance of American TV in the global market, for example, it does reflect a strong culture, but it is not without competitors.Brazilian and Mexican television companies not only succeeded in capturing the domestic market, but also exported television programs to other Latin American countries, European countries and the United States.In addition, it can be observed that although American TV programs exist in many countries, domestic programs in many countries still rank first in ratings.It can be seen that as long as countries pay more attention to management, cultural competitiveness will gradually increase, national culture will not decline as some people predicted, national culture itself will not be fundamentally threatened, and weaker cultures will also have considerable penetration.If competition is not a zero-sum game in other domains, it is even less so in the cultural domain.Economic globalization has created opportunities for countries to catch up and surpass, as well as opportunities for weaker cultures to strengthen themselves.Only by studying all the achievements of human civilization with a more open mind can we better complete the process of cultural modernization, and the inheritance and development of Chinese culture can be more guaranteed.I argue that as globalization unfolds, there arises an adaptive pressure and an efficiency pressure that requires all local cultures to move in a direction that is largely predetermined by global actors.The West had and still has a historical advantage, but it is no longer a monopoly.Flexibility, desire for reform and speed of change become sociocultural conditions for international competitiveness.But in many non-Western countries, local cultural traditions are not yet in line with the development trend of the times.To some extent, cultures and societies that are open to learning have a greater chance of success.East Asian countries and regions have many successful experiences, among which cultural openness and learning is the most important experience.After liberation, China was first partially opened, only to the socialist camp, and later completely closed itself under the ultra-left trend of thought, resulting in protection and backwardness.Since the reform and opening up, China's all-round opening to the outside world has greatly promoted the change of people's ideas and concepts, and promoted the renewal of culture.From a practical point of view, a country with a higher degree of modernization is generally more open, and the better it preserves and develops its cultural traditions.