Create a new culture that matches Chinese path to modernization China | culture | new culture

Author: Wang Xuedian

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly grasped the law of the development of human history, comprehensively understood the historical details of Chinese civilization, and constantly deepened his forward-looking, overall, and strategic thinking on cultural construction. he has put forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints and new conclusions, and comprehensively deployed and promoted the building of a socialist cultural power to achieve historic achievements and historic changes. At the symposium on cultural inheritance and development, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued a great call to "strengthen cultural self-confidence, assume mission, work hard, and work together to create a new culture that belongs to our era and build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation.

A Scientific Answer to the Controversy between China, the West, Ancient and Modern in Modern Times

After 1840, the Chinese nation faced unprecedented and severe challenges, facing a huge crisis of "national extinction", and embarked on a difficult transformation from traditional society to modern society. As Mr. He Lin said, "The crisis in China over the past century has fundamentally been a cultural crisis." In the arduous and significant exploration, how to understand the relationship between tradition and modernity, as well as between local and Western cultures, that is, how to evaluate and position our cultural traditions, has become an important issue related to "where China is going.". Countless people with lofty ideals have been searching up and down, either sticking to tradition and advocating for the use of the Chinese style in the West; Or refuse to reconcile and advocate for "complete Westernization". In fact, whether conservative or radical, these two attitudes mechanically view cultural traditions as unchanging and solidified entities, separating and opposing "tradition" and "modernity", "locality" and "the West", and ignoring or denying the possibility of the development and innovation of cultural traditions.

"If we do not understand China from its long-standing historical continuity, it is impossible to understand ancient China, modern China, and future China." The great historical and contemporary practice of the Chinese nation eloquently proves that we cannot simply copy the West or tradition. When dealing with cultural traditions, we should "review the old and learn the new" and "innovate through the old". Innovation is the best inheritance. The outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization determine that we must draw nutrients from historical accumulation, explore and innovate from traditional culture, and follow a development path of upholding integrity and upholding innovation.

A profound summary of the relationship between Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture

Integrating the universal truth of Marxism with the specific realities of our country is a summary of the historical experience of our party's ability to lead the people to achieve great achievements in the New Democratic Revolution, Socialist Revolution, Reform and Opening up, and Socialist Modernization. This basic conclusion has been accompanied by new developments in the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Twenty years ago, Mr. Fei Xiaotong proposed, "We often talk about socialism with Chinese characteristics, which refers to the result of the combination of Marxism and Chinese practice. Therefore, after Marxism entered China, it became Mao Zedong Thought, and later developed into Deng Xiaoping Theory. Behind this must be the characteristics of Chinese culture at work, but we cannot explain what these cultural characteristics are and how they work."

Especially the combination of Marxism and excellent traditional Chinese culture is another ideological liberation, allowing us to fully utilize the precious resources of excellent traditional Chinese culture in a broader cultural space and explore future oriented theoretical and institutional innovations.

Greatly expanding the cultural connotation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation

Since modern times, we have gradually realized that a nation should have "cultural consciousness".

This marks a historic milestone for Chinese civilization as it undergoes modernization and transformation. The completion of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation will become a glorious symbol of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The new era conditions determine that we must create a new culture that matches the Chinese path to modernization. We must adhere to the modernization of Marxism in China, inherit and develop China's excellent traditional culture, promote the localization of foreign culture, constantly cultivate and create the "cultural form of Chinese path to modernization" at a new historical starting point, and finally build the "modern civilization of the Chinese nation.". To build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation, it is necessary to "strengthen cultural confidence, adhere to our own path, based on the great historical and contemporary practices of the Chinese nation, summarize Chinese experience with Chinese principles, elevate Chinese experience into Chinese theory, and achieve spiritual independence and autonomy.". To create a new culture of our time, the first thing we need to do is to build China's independent knowledge system and build a new cultural form that matches Chinese path to modernization.

To create a new culture that matches Chinese path to modernization, we should adhere to the spirit of being upright and not conservative, respecting the past and not returning to the past, and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture through the re sorting, evaluation, sublation and reconstruction of traditional culture. At the same time, it is necessary to localize and integrate the ideological concepts and theoretical systems transmitted from other civilizations around the world. Reviewing the source of culture, inheriting the lifeblood of culture, integrating the essence of ancient and modern times, and embracing Chinese and foreign elites, only after such a sublimation and treatment can we create a new culture that matches Chinese path to modernization and build the modern civilization of the Chinese nation.

Guangming Daily