Culturing the Mind: China as a Glocal Site of Epistemological Innovation

Abstract

Modern scientific psychology came into being with a pursuit of universalistic knowledge. As an analytic category, culture was a latecomer and it presents a new set of questions for psychological research. This special issue addresses questions surrounding cultural psychology using interdisciplinary insights based in China and the Chinese diaspora. Contributions to this special issue are organized around the central idea that China is a glocal site, namely one that simultaneously displays both global and local characteristics. This is the case in the historical formation of Chinese psychology through its distinction from, as well as interaction with, Western psychology. Colonialism, another source of glocality, has left an enduring impact on China’s nationhood as well as on how Chinese individuals maintain their mental health. Meanwhile, colonialism also gives rise to the question of how scholars should address Chinese psychological phenomena without making orientalist assumptions. Glocal China as a diverse phenomenon could be conceptualized in terms of a spectrum, in which both creative inter-cultural belonging and racist exclusion are to be found. The diversity of glocal China further requires deconstructive reflection on how the unitary concept of China/Chinese might be misleading. To move forward, Chinese cultural psychology could use existing interdisciplinary resources to further explore how culture and power relations intertwine.