Modern Chinese National-Cultural Identity in the Context of Globalization

Abstract

When modern China first entered the progression of globalization, it was faced with a strong "other" in the Western developed countries. The country’s backwardness on economic, political and military levels spawned a predicament for modern Chinese national-cultural identity. On the one hand, to stand out in the world, it must seek modernity; on the other hand, to maintain the nation’s independent traits, it must be alert to the dangers of a Western-centric modernity. China has a conflictual relationship with globalization dominated by Western countries and with its own cultural tradition. This double bind, with conflicts between the self and the other, on the one hand, and tradition and modernity, on the other hand, has contributed to the formation of the ambivalent characteristics of modern Chinese national-cultural identity.