Comparison Between Development Concepts of American Democratic Culture and Chinese Social Culture〔*〕

Li Yanye

(School of Foreign Studies　Xinxiang University,Xinxiang　Henan　453000)



Comparison Between Development Concepts of American Democratic Culture and Chinese Social Culture〔*〕

Li Yanye

(School of Foreign StudiesXinxiang University,XinxiangHenan453000)

Ⅰ.Differences in the development concepts between the US value of individual supremacy and the China’s collectivism

1.Differences in the development of principles between the US value of individual supremacy and the China’s collectivism

Edified by the democratic social culture,the US mainstream social values identify with the social spirit of individualism supremacy and the individualism principle that the individual value shall be achieved on one’s own efforts under the social condition with equal opportunity.〔1〕Emphasizing on the individualism,the society and the government will be active to provide corresponding public services and social licensing for the realization of the individualism.In this value system,the individual value shall be respected to seek for the individualized development and achieve the self-realization in a free social environment to become a real support for the principle of the American individualism supremacy.

In China’s social structure,collective will is usually higher than the individual consciousness that individuals have to keep the mutual consistency between the individual and the social needs when striving to seek for the self-development.The tight combination of the principle of collectivism and the individual development prompts that the existence of the social members must depend on collectives.And the individual and collective development goals shall be closely combined to determine the direction for individual social member to go forward.

2.Differences between the value of respect to individuals and the value of China’s compliance with the collective interests

Democratic social and cultural environment respects the individual values of the social members and carries out adequate laws and systems to protect their basic rights and freedoms.〔2〕In its social context,the individual value is the foundation of the society while the recognition and respect of the legitimacy of individual value is the core of the social value system of the US.Individual values are respected and protected by the constraints of laws,policies and morality.Legitimacy given to the individual value and the social system designed to completely protect the individual interests are an important part of the American democracy.

Under the social consciousness intensifying the collectivism,the individual interest in the Chinese society is usually requested to be compliant with the collective interest,or even to be given up to maintain the collective interests in the practical process of distributing the interest patterns due to the social moral and cultural inertia.Emphasizing on collective consciousness and individual consciousness complying with the practical needs of the collective will make the collectivism in China’s social development and cultural concept to be the value pursuit of the mainstream society.Such pursuit has not only become a moral requirement but also reflected in system design.

3.Social difference between the concept of liberalism and China’s rules of morality education

In the American society where the democratic system is matured day by day and the democratic program is increasingly improved,the concept of liberalism has become a general consensus of the majority of the social members.〔3〕In the social dimension with the concept of liberalism,morality and ethics,social politics and legal system support each other and jointly form the social foundation of liberalism.Morality and ethics of liberalism grant the legitimacy to the level of the social morality;the system at the social political level supports and ensures the free expression and exercise of the political rights;and the free definition on legal system guarantees the legitimacy and seriousness of the freedom by the national will.American concept of liberalism has created a social formation of free expression,free development and free choice of an individual citizen.With the support of the concept of liberalism,the individual value of life tends to be diversified and complicated.

What China’s social and cultural development concept shows is strong social morality education that the moral constraint of the social culture has actually become the social behavior norms to standardize the behaviors of the social members and adjust the relationships among the social members in the social environment where the construction of the social rules of law is still under the in-depth reform.

Ⅱ.Difference of the social development under the US democratic theory and China’s traditional spirit of rites

1.American democracy and China’s tradition of family-core concept under the principle of equality

The primary principle for the practical support of the American democracy is the universal social equality.Equality is a target to be achieved by the social democracy and also a prerequisite for the achievement of the social democracy.In the overall social environment of the US,equality means that all social members are equal in terms of their social status,civil rights and the channel to participate in public affairs.〔4〕Under the principle of equality,the American democracy has guaranteed the relative fairness of the society and the stable development of the social development to a considerable extent.

The social concept taking the family as the core remains to be the most mainstream social ideology in its social development process.According to the social concept focusing on family formed based on the genetic connection,the social hierarchy based on the observation to the tradition,morality-like social discipline and pecking order has resulted in rather subtle social relationships among the Chinese social members.〔5〕However,the concept of seniority and the concept of superior and subordinate relying on the traditional cultural concept adjust the relationships among the social members and remain the family tradition of Chinese family-core concept.

2.American social norms of law supremacy and Chinese moral concept of patriarchy

In the US,law supremacy in norms has become the most universally recognized principle for the social governance pattern.The American legal system is the legal base for the cornerstone of the American democracy.It standardizes the code for daily behaviors of the American citizens with its complicated contents and the strict system.The American society is actually a society ruled by law which has played a coordinating role for all citizen behaviors in the American social public life.

The concept of law supremacy is an important principle for current China to deepen the judicial system reform.However,in addition to the basic requirements of laws,China’s traditional moral concept of patriarchy in the part of social governance has constrained the individual behaviors of the social members.Due to the long-term existence of China’s feudal society,the evolution of patriarchy in social morality has formed a patriarchic social utterance structure centering on “filial piety” and “compliance”.The core position of a father in a family and the traditional concept of “obeying husband after a marriage” have resulted in the dual social constraints of law and morality.Contradiction may even appear between them under extreme conditions

3.Difference between the American principle of democratic spirit and Chinese ethic of Confucianism

There are great differences in the historical experiences,real levels of development,national constitution and other basic factors between China and the US,which will result in a huge difference in their orientation of social and cultural concepts.The US continues the spirit of democracy in social practice and improves the democratic system taking the spirit of democracy as the core and laws,human rights and free choice as the support through the deconstruction and reconstruction the social culture.Such system has played an important role in assuring the basic rights of the American citizens and promoting the social progress and development.It has become a proud symbol of American culture.

However,China,as a country with long history and profound culture,has been deeply affected by its ancient thoughts and cultures,especially the Confucian culture.As a result,citizens are carrying with strong imprint of Confucian thoughts in their thinking patterns and value judgments.It is impossible for them to completely abandon the classical Confucian culture and reconstruct the social ethical and moral system in the process of promoting China’s social development.“Do not do to others what you would not want them do to you” and “The benevolent loves others” have been the orientation of the social value for China’s social culture.

Ⅲ.Promotion of democratic construction and constitution of China’s social and cultural development based on lessons drawn from American democracy

1.Enhance the confidence in culture and constitute the development kernel taking outstanding national tradition as the core

First,China’s excellent cultures shall be sorted for the construction of the development kernel taking the outstanding national tradition as the core.We shall widely draw useful nutrition from the traditional cultures and continue to deepen the understanding of the traditional cultures in the process of reviewing the history to form the social and cultural development concept with distinctive national features and Chinese Characteristics.〔6〕Second,standing in the teeth of the storm,we shall actively screen and get rid of the cultural dross which can’t adapt to the social development from the national cultures.The concept of rites and hierarchy of the traditional social morality shall be resolutely remolded by modern spiritual civilization.We shall grasp the trend of the Chinese cultural development with positive attitude all the time and endeavor to combine the cultural development and era progress tightly and ultimately form the interaction between them in order to achieve the continuous progress of China’s social and cultural development.〔7〕Third,we shall enhance our confidence in cultures and take the initiative to accelerate the development and promotion of China’s Confucian Institute in other countries all over the world in order to drive the prosperity of the world’s culture and promote the world’s progress and development by the China’s outstanding traditional cultures.

2.Advance the political system and social system reform of the Chinese society in depth based on the lessons drawn from the American democracy

The political system and social system reform of the Chinese society shall be deeply promoted to accelerate the realization of the Chinese dream.Therefore,we shall learn from the democratic system and democratic achievements of the western countries represented by the US.Based on China’s conditions,actively learning from the beneficial achievements in terms of democratic progress,system design and relevant democratic theories,we shall systematically analyze and screen foreign achievements to learn,digest and absorb the beneficial experience consistent with China’s conditions and carry out the reform combining with the unique national cultural resources in China’s social development cultural concept to form the social and cultural development concept with Chinese Characteristics.

3.Strengthen the exchanges between China and the US and deepen the understanding and promotion of the multicultural coexistence in practice

In spite of the great social differences between the American social democratic culture and Chinese social development cultural concept in terms of many aspects including the social concept,theoretical basis and social environment,the conceptual differences between them are not irreconcilably antagonistic.They are social development concepts with widely different style due to development of their own national conditions and historical traditions.Such difference will form the divergence between them on the one hand and provide the possibility for the diversification of the world’s development on the other hand.

The numerous differences between them have resulted in the opposite and mutually misunderstood communication pattern on values.As the misunderstanding continued to be deepened,the barriers between China and the US has been increased day by day,which will make it difficult for China and the US to reach a consensus in many international matters and thus affect the development of the international relationship between them.Therefore,cultural communication between China and the US needs to be strengthened in order to deepen the mutual understanding of their cultures in the practical communication process.In this way,the multicultural coexistence can be advanced based on the principle of seeking common points while reserving differences in order to achieve the diversified development of the world.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

China has different cultural backgrounds and social backgrounds;Thus its development concepts and social-cultural system for the social development concept are totally distinct from the American democratic culture.Differences between individual supremacy and collective concept and between the spirit of democracy and tradition of rites have constituted the basic difference of the social and cultural properties between them.〔8〕Therefore,the promotion of the practical social reform and political reform shall,based on the current national conditions of China,actively absorb the democratic thoughts and assist China’s social practice to deepen the reform in order to constantly advance the favorable development of China’s society and drive the successful realization of the Chinese dream.

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The cornerstone of the US social development lies in the general consensus about the mainstream social values of the democratic culture.The differences of the development concepts between its value of individual supremacy and the China’s collectivism result in the different social development patterns in China and the US.The individual value and liberalism lead to the convergence in the group formed under the Chinese moral education and supported by the values,which will generate the divergence of the core concepts about the directions of the two kinds of social cultures.The difference of the social development under the US democratic theory and China’s traditional spirit of rites makes them a pluralistic existence which can be enriched and improved in the exchanging and mutual learning process rather than an existence of antagonism.

democratic culture;social development;values;pluralistic existence

About the author：Li Yanye,associate professor at School of Foreign Studies,Xinxiang University.

〔*〕The paper is one of the phased research results of 2014 National Social Science Fund Project “Research on Automatic Evaluation System for the Discourse Coherence of English Learners in Written Language” (Project number:14BYY084).