Maciamo
Oct 20, 2004, 15:41
BBC News : Looking for China's culture (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3756248.stm)
China is the proud owner of the world's oldest continuous civilisation.
As recently as the 17th century, it had the largest and most sophisticated empire on Earth, one that used its cultural prestige to hold diplomatic sway over much of Asia and beyond.
...
So you might think China would have a good cultural base, given its current economic clout, on which to build a possible new superpower career.
The United States, after all, has successfully flooded the world with its own culture - mainly in the form of films and TV programmes, pop music, soft drinks and hamburgers.
But while a lot of foreigners like the occasional Chinese meal, the only Chinese arts we are likely to have heard of are martial ones, and there is no sign of many of us showing any aptitude or appreciation for the glories of China's traditional culture.
The trouble is, not many Chinese are these days either.
But most locals prefer Disneyland to the Ming decorative arts. Just as the "open door" reform policy has brought economic opportunities, so it has brought cultural ones.
"I do like some Chinese as well as Western movies," said Dolphin Xie, a 24-year-old assistant TV producer. "But I like romantic films the best. And Western films are much more romantic."
Like all young urban professionals, Miss Xie carries a business card, with one side in Chinese and the other in English. Her name is given in English as just Dolphin, without even so much as a Chinese surname.
...
"There's more Ikea these days than traditional Chinese furniture," noted Jiang Xin, a young office worker in Beijing.
The Western brands in the smart new shopping plazas use not just Western writing but Western models in their window displays.
China is becoming as Westernized as Japan without US occupation and without a government eagerly and openly copying Western political, economical and educational systems like in Meiji's time.
Indeed, why would the US with 200 years history be so much more of a world cultural influence that China, with 5000 years history ? The reason I see are :
1) Chinese culture is no more a direct 5000 years continuation than Europe or the US are a direct continuation of Ancient Greece and Rome. China suffered particularily from the so-called Cultural Revolution under Mao. So say it was no cultural, but I'd rather say that is was not a revolution (which could imply positive change), but just a "cultural anihilation".
2) China has always been self-centered throughout its history. Its name itself 中国 (Chungkuo) means central country because they never realised or admitted that there were important countries beyond their immediate neighbours. In comparison, the US has been aggresively expansionist ever since its creation, passingfrom 13 to 50 states and obtaining colonies of its own in the Pacific and Carribean. The US are eager to influence the world, place puppet goverment wherever they can and extend their business wherever they can. This difference of centrist vs expansionist approach make a lot of difference.
3) Something that always intrigued me with China and Japan is that throughout their history, architectural styles, clothes, music, literary styles or even the basics of government and society have changed very little over the centuries and millenia. In Europe, Renaisance, Classic, Baroque and Romantic, Impressionist and Modernist movements have created more different styles in 500 years than China in 5000 years.
No wonder Chinese people shouldn't be using Ming porcelain or build temples with dragons and curbed roofs. Do Westerners dress with wigs or travel in horse-drawn carriages nowadays ? The problem is that China hasn't been able to create its own modern culture, and has to import Disney and Hollywood from America, Anime and Video Games from Japan or perfumes and brand bags from Europe, because it hasn't developed anything as good of its own in the 20th century.
China is the proud owner of the world's oldest continuous civilisation.
As recently as the 17th century, it had the largest and most sophisticated empire on Earth, one that used its cultural prestige to hold diplomatic sway over much of Asia and beyond.
...
So you might think China would have a good cultural base, given its current economic clout, on which to build a possible new superpower career.
The United States, after all, has successfully flooded the world with its own culture - mainly in the form of films and TV programmes, pop music, soft drinks and hamburgers.
But while a lot of foreigners like the occasional Chinese meal, the only Chinese arts we are likely to have heard of are martial ones, and there is no sign of many of us showing any aptitude or appreciation for the glories of China's traditional culture.
The trouble is, not many Chinese are these days either.
But most locals prefer Disneyland to the Ming decorative arts. Just as the "open door" reform policy has brought economic opportunities, so it has brought cultural ones.
"I do like some Chinese as well as Western movies," said Dolphin Xie, a 24-year-old assistant TV producer. "But I like romantic films the best. And Western films are much more romantic."
Like all young urban professionals, Miss Xie carries a business card, with one side in Chinese and the other in English. Her name is given in English as just Dolphin, without even so much as a Chinese surname.
...
"There's more Ikea these days than traditional Chinese furniture," noted Jiang Xin, a young office worker in Beijing.
The Western brands in the smart new shopping plazas use not just Western writing but Western models in their window displays.
China is becoming as Westernized as Japan without US occupation and without a government eagerly and openly copying Western political, economical and educational systems like in Meiji's time.
Indeed, why would the US with 200 years history be so much more of a world cultural influence that China, with 5000 years history ? The reason I see are :
1) Chinese culture is no more a direct 5000 years continuation than Europe or the US are a direct continuation of Ancient Greece and Rome. China suffered particularily from the so-called Cultural Revolution under Mao. So say it was no cultural, but I'd rather say that is was not a revolution (which could imply positive change), but just a "cultural anihilation".
2) China has always been self-centered throughout its history. Its name itself 中国 (Chungkuo) means central country because they never realised or admitted that there were important countries beyond their immediate neighbours. In comparison, the US has been aggresively expansionist ever since its creation, passingfrom 13 to 50 states and obtaining colonies of its own in the Pacific and Carribean. The US are eager to influence the world, place puppet goverment wherever they can and extend their business wherever they can. This difference of centrist vs expansionist approach make a lot of difference.
3) Something that always intrigued me with China and Japan is that throughout their history, architectural styles, clothes, music, literary styles or even the basics of government and society have changed very little over the centuries and millenia. In Europe, Renaisance, Classic, Baroque and Romantic, Impressionist and Modernist movements have created more different styles in 500 years than China in 5000 years.
No wonder Chinese people shouldn't be using Ming porcelain or build temples with dragons and curbed roofs. Do Westerners dress with wigs or travel in horse-drawn carriages nowadays ? The problem is that China hasn't been able to create its own modern culture, and has to import Disney and Hollywood from America, Anime and Video Games from Japan or perfumes and brand bags from Europe, because it hasn't developed anything as good of its own in the 20th century.