(Reporter Chen Jingxia) Why did Chinese feel inferior in culture for a hundred years? Why does China lack cultural soft power today? At the seminar on how to improve China’s cultural soft power held by Capital Normal University recently, the new book "Deciphering the Theory of Progress-Correcting the Name of China Culture" by scholar He Qing aroused heated discussion among experts and scholars.
Regarding the above problems, He Qing believes that the general root is that Chinese accepted the western "progressive theory". The theory of progress is to measure the progress and backwardness of a society by the standard of material economy. "China is backward in material economy, so the whole culture of China, including political system and even language, is backward. This has constituted the habitual logic of modern China cultural people who believe in progressivism. " The progressive theory, which originated in the west at the end of 18th century, is essentially a kind of western centralism: the west is set to be the most advanced, while other non-western regions are in the stage of barbarism. The west is equivalent to "modernity", while non-western regions are in "pre-modernity". Therefore, the progressive theory first denies non-Western culture and China culture in the sense of time or times. In addition, the progressive theory also assumes that this "advanced" western culture is universal, which leads to a western-centered cosmopolitanism and denies China culture in a spatial or national sense. Under the double negation of China’s culture by the theory of progress, China intellectuals often think that the western social culture has reached "modernity", while China is still in a "feudal" and "autocratic" environment. It can be said that the theory of progress has caused the profound cultural inferiority of China intellectuals in the past century, and the theory of progress has become the spiritual opium of some China intellectuals. He Qing pointed out that the relationship between China culture and western culture is not a "gap", but a "difference", and he called for re-affirming the value of China culture and rectifying the name of China culture. "To achieve national rejuvenation, China must have its own core cultural values. China’s three core values of "benevolence, righteousness and serving the people",It is completely equivalent to the western values of human rights, freedom and democracy. "
It is reported that "The Theory of Cracking Progress" is the first book in the series "Returning to China" published by the Central Compilation and Publishing House. The purpose of this series is to break the superstition of Chinese people about western left or right utopia, and to look at western cultural history and China cultural history again.
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