ABSTRACT:
In the rich and complex history of China, Western culture [in Umberto Eco’s sense] has been a significant reference point and trigger for China ’ s extensive and often painful national self-reflection in which the tensions between traditional Chinese values and Western cultural paradigms (or "the alien other") determined the radical repositioning of the Chinese cultural self. China ’ s preoccupation with Western culture [Modernism] peaked in the 1920s and 1930s and again in the 1980s under Deng ’ s ambitious vision of China ’ s new national identity [middle kingdom] which resulted in the globalisation of market and cultural life. While China ’ s economic success has attracted considerable interest in the West, the social and cultural problems resulting from it domestically require wise and courageous solutions since the hope that globalisation will ensure equity, justice and democracy in China, and in the world at large, is identified by some scholars as utopian (Wang Hui) or a "fairytale" (Naomi Klein). The proposed paper attempts to elucidate the impact of globalisation on China ’ s cultural and intellectual life, identifying potential dangers of cultural dislocation and loss of cultural identity. Attention will also be given to recent research in which China ’ s globalisation agenda is questioned.
