Modern Chinese Culture course paper (1800words)

Modern Chinese Culture

Outline:

1. Modern? [Contemporary?] Chinese? Culture?

2. Modern history and contemporary Chinese culture a. “Road to Revival” b. Time-line of key historical events in modern and

contemporary China c. The “China Dream” and individual dreams

3. Next week: Guest speaker beginning of class on Monday Positioning Chinese culture

Modern Chinese Culture

1. Modern? [Contemporary?] Chinese? Culture?

Modern: • In Chinese history this usually refers to the late imperial period

from about 1842 up to about 1949

Contemporary: • In most cases this refers to the period of Communist Party rule

since 1949

• In this course it will often refer to the period since the beginning of reforms and opening from 1979 and the early 1980s

Modern Chinese Culture

1. Modern? [Contemporary?] Chinese? Culture? (Cont’d)

Culture? • A way of life underpinned by particular values and traditions

• The expression of those values and traditions through writing, music, visual, and performing arts, or through rituals, festivals, social values, etc.

• The intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development that distinguishes humans from animals

Chinese? • Intersections between, location, ethnicity, nation and

nationality…?

Modern Chinese Culture

2. Modern history and contemporary Chinese culture Reading:

Denton, K. A. (2014) China dreams and the “Road to Revival”, Origins 8 (3), pp. 1-2.

Consider the following questions:

a. What is the author’s key point in his analysis of the “Road to Revival”?

b. What key historical events are used to support his arguments?

c. What is the China Dream (中国梦 Zhōngguó mèng)?

Group discussion

Modern Chinese Culture

2. Modern history & contemporary Chinese culture (Cont’d) Ques. a. Author’s key point in his analysis of the “Road to Revival”?

Present day “capitalist” China is the new endpoint of the national narrative – past must be “retooled” [retold] in line with this new endpoint.

• Happy nostalgia for Republican era (1911-49) as historical foundation for socialist market economy

• Silencing of Mao era class struggle – violence & trauma of mass movements & collectivization – to re-fashion Mao from radical leftist to modernizer

• Thus, today’s “socialist market economy” was not possible without Mao-era socialist construction

• “No bumps” on the Road to Revival

• Ancient glory of the past reflects new global aspirations – restoration of Confucianism

Modern Chinese Culture 2. Modern history & contemporary Chinese culture (Cont’d) Question b. Key historical events? Build a time-line…

1839-42 1st Opium War – Treaty of Nanjing; backwardness & humiliation

1911 End of the Qing Dynasty; Nationalists and the Republican period

1937-45 World War II – against Japanese aggression

1945-49 Resumption of Civil War – Communists vs. Nationalists

1949 Revolution; Liberation; Mao Zedong and “class struggle”

1957-58 Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Anti-Rightist Movement

1958-62 Great Leap Forward and famine

1966-76 Cultural Revolution; death of Mao

1978-79 3rd Plenary of the 11th Central Committee of the CCP – Deng Xiaoping; 4 modernizations; beginning of reforms and opening

Modern Chinese Culture 2. Modern history & contemporary Chinese culture (Cont’d) Question b. Key historical events? Build a time-line… (Cont’d)

1989 Tian’anmen and the conservative backlash

1992 Deng’s “Southern Tour” – re-affirmation of reform and opening

2001 World Trade Organization; Jiang Zemin – “3 Represents” (2002)

2008 Beijing Olympics; Hu Jintao – “Harmonious Society” (2005)

2012 Xi Jinping – “China Dream”; Anti-corruption; One Belt, One Road

2014 Continued widening and deepening of new forms of social identity through various media especially the internet and social media

2017 China, globalization, free trade, soft power and culture; 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Oct. 18th)

2018 ??

Modern Chinese Culture 2. Modern history & contemporary Chinese culture (Cont’d) Question c. What is the China Dream (Zhōngguó mèng)?

“Taking the Path of Socialism with Chinese characteristics” • Dreams of individual citizens linked to China’s development as a nation • Personal dreams realized only through revival of the Chinese people as

a whole • China Dream means dream of a people & dreams of each person

• China Dream – My Dream! • Dreams fueled by mass media • “…not just a vision for the future,

but a thorough re-writing of the Chinese past.”

Questions?

Modern Chinese Culture 3. Next class – Guest speaker beginning of class on Monday

Positioning Chinese culture (Please read): • Zhang, N. (2007) The basic features of contemporary Chinese culture, World

literature today 81 (4), pp, 12-14.

• Ye, X. (2008) Introduction: Building contemporary Chinese culture in the context of globalization, Social sciences in China 29 (4), pp. 174-175.

Consider the following questions:

1. According to Zhang, what are the basic features of contemporary Chinese culture? Consider what Zhang outlines as the “three coexisting cultures” and the tensions between each of them.

2. How do the author’s see Chinese culture in relation to globalization generally and, more specifically, to the economic and political rise of China internationally?