Cultural Identities in China

One of the oldest continuous civilizations in history and the dominant cultural center of East Asia is China, where the place full with flourishing philosophical, political, economic, artistic and scientific traditions. Moreover, China has opened up an intense cultural identity as a widespread civilization. In the last century, China has been struggled on the challenge of smiting a brand new identity in the world of nation-states and re-determines its cultural values in a modern world.

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The tension between tradition and modernity of Chinese has been turning to Confucius for possible ways to a latter-day social illness that related with commercialization and sudden economic growth inevitably spotlights by China. Chinese’s are subject to change their conservation and traditional values. In spite of their persuasiveness and persistence, the major Confucian orientations do not give any rise to a rigid, conform and closed system. China generates imperfect harmony but progress problematic. The increase of new modus of social organization and activities implied the new understanding on many of the traditional beliefs and organizational precondition. Overall, cultures will often adapt into their core elements appropriately.

Now, the increase of a consumer society has defiance many of the Confucian’s philosophies. The emergence of a rich consumer class and the increase of prevalent culture has usher in a set of values constantly related with the concept of “modern”. Industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization, democratization, universal education, mass-consumption and fast communication celebrates modernity. These ideas have been recruiting into latest Chinese society and become part of the Chinese cultural identity. Hence, Chinese cultural identity consist both traditional modernity. Any traditions must be comprehended as a chosen version of the former filtered from the desires, experience and current concerns. In the early of 20th Century, China’s modernization project has left an imprint in the values of Chinese culture.

Cultural identity in a specific filmic signification can help to lighten the problem of cultural identity have been claims through empirical. The main issue is not certainly attributable to the film’s Chinese identity, if this matter exists in most developing countries. Chinese characteristics and Chinese identity was actually brings up by the latter Chinese film where grounds the problem on a concrete Chinese soil.

The classical Confucian principles were frowned upon the side of human desire and activities which related to money. An identity that has struggled to balance between tradition and modernity in the contest between Confucian moral tradition and mainland Chinese’s newly-discovered economic freedom in a post socialist society are captures well the indistinct and uneasy cultural identity of contemporary China.

The diverse ideas are contend with one another for interpretative legitimacy is known as the subjective process to evaluate the cultural identity in a cinematic text. The exercise of identity identification will involves the allocation of special set of significances and the overture to involve or avoid the capacity diffusion of other significances.

China’s Enculturation Process

According to A. Scott Moreau, enculturation can be seen as “the learning of a culture through growing up in it. Enculturation is the process that begins from the moment of birth in which cultural rules and pathways, values and dreams, and pattern and regulations of life are set on from one generation to the next”. People who live with their own culture will become ‘enculturated’ as if they internalize their cultural pattern.

There were clearly states that every human are born without culture. The cultural will exist as if the children have go through the enculturation process, because the children has internalized or drawn the environment of culture.

Thus, the enculturation process will happen without any realization by the children. The children will learn and form their own ‘self’ according to their own cultural, which this is another process of enculturation known as the active self-conscious process.

Moreover, enculturation involves and brings up the indigenization. Christian’s enculturation believe that Chinese culture actually includes in the ‘leadership and the incarnation of the Church’ among the circumstances of current social realities, whereby it indicated ‘facing the political situation creatively’ in a brand new cultural setting. The Chinese once fit by the outliers, they can start to combine Chinese cultures, values, ideals, teachings and orientation of the gospel and church tradition.

China’s Assimilation Process

The continuous of dynasties facilitated China’s boundary firmly southward and the empire was stranded frequently by aggressions and migrations of northern “savage”. These people were recruited into Chinese culture through a process of assimilation and it was not irregular for the empire to be excluded by a dynasty of non-Chinese origin.

Similarly, people who are out from the religion of Buddhism was adjusted and assimilated to Chinese traditions. In the Roman and other empires, assimilation was very less intensive. The cohesiveness and longevity of Chinese Empire are most important condition as the development of the Chinese bureaucracy and the creeping influence of its Confucian ideology everywhere in Chinese society. Confucianism, was originated as it was in the old Chinese traditions, learned from academies and trained in Chinese families, and finally increased by its own positions as the core disciplines of the civil service examinations, penetrated in Chinese society at all standards and shaped the cement that retained it together, during periods of political decomposition or the adjudication dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Chinese culture, especially Confucianism was proved intensely that it radically penetrated in Vietnam, which China predominant for many centuries. Even surrounding countries such as Korea, where Korea was under Chinese predominant for only short time, as well as Japan, which was never be one of the Chinese Empire.

In order to enrich their own societies in Chinese culture and institutions voluntarily, the predominant elites of these countries must be part adopted or adjusted in Chinese culture, even as if they against the Chinese political control.

For the new era of East Asia today, this cultural legacy has proven and it will continued to be even more lasting than the previous empire that generates it.