Ma Rong: Why does China not have the soil that produces Western nationalism?|

not

Westerners are worried that after China develops

That's their own moral ethics guidelines

To speculate that another kind of civilization is completely different

Author: Professor of the Department of Sociology, Ma Rong Peking University

Number of full text: 5828

Estimated reading time: 20 minutes

In modern society, everyone's gender, occupation, religious belief, nationality, ethnicity or ethnic identity, will become his identity label in social exchanges. Psychological studies have shown that humans recognize and find people who share some commonality with themselves in society and have some emotional identity with them. In the current diverse and flowing world, the identity of nationality and nation seems to have become a sensitive and complicated issue in people's lives.

Can people with different identities get along in harmony? How is the common identity between people be established? Can people with different ethnic identities, between different political and economic systems can act, inspire each other and bring cooperation?

Many of the facts in the process of human history explained that the group with differences has both the motivation and potential of cooperation in the communication. People of people may not only lead to cracks and conflicts, but also see each other's strengths in the differences. Improve and improve itself in benign interaction, thereby promoting cooperation or even a certain degree of integration.

Between people with cultural differences, if you want to have a benign interaction and develop in harmony with the CCP, the most critical point is to acknowledge and respect the diversity. At the same time, strive to overcome your own weaknesses. If both parties take such positions and basic attitudes in the interaction, they will produce a benign interaction between the two parties and achieve the result of "win -win".

Mr. Fei Xiaotong has a wide range of words, "Beauty and beauty, beauty of beauty, beauty with the United States, the world, and the world." In the relationship between people, nations, nations, and countries, this is of course the most ideal state and interactive model, but the realistic state is still far from such an ideal state. Unfortunately, the ideological methods and interactive models of "zero -sum games" and "Xiu Cataldide Trap", which are popular in Western countries and vicious competition, are still popular.

My identity: herdsmen, doctors, teachers

If you choose three words to describe my identity, then the first identity is herdsmen. As a Beijing educated youth, I have been cut in the pastoral area in Inner Mongolia from 1968-1973 to put the sheep in a Mongolian production team for five years; second I am a doctorate. I obtained a doctorate degree in sociology from the Western education system that is completely different from domestic universities. He is a teacher at Peking University.

The life of grassland herdsmen from 18 to 23 years old has a profound impact on my identity. My production team is at the junction of Mongolia. There are only individual Han people in the local area, and herders do not understand Chinese. Beijing educated youths form a Mongolian bag of 4-6 people, respectively. There are more than 2,000 herds responsible for grazing. We live in the Mongolian bag, learn Mongolian, and learn how to live and graze on the grassland.

The local Mongolian herdsmen treat others very enthusiastic and simple. They receive middle school students from Beijing like their children. Herders Lao Er Ji sews the Mongolian robe and teaches us to slaughter sheep, pick up lambs, move, cut hair and other grasslands. And labor skills. In the past few years, we all had the smell of sheep. Because of riding every day, their legs became romant, and their faces were spent because of exposure and frostbite. On the way back to Beijing to visit relatives, everyone recognized us as "Mongolians", and we are also proud.

The identity of herdsmen, I believe it will accompany these educated youths in Beijing for life. Although they finally returned to the city, even if more than 40 years later, the educated youths in Beijing still kept closely linked and exchanges with the local Mongolian herdsmen. My personal understanding of the grass -roots society of Chinese ethnic minorities started from these five years of pastoral life.

My second identity is a doctorate in sociology. In 1982, I was fortunate to receive scholarships and went to the Department of Sociology at Brown University in the United States to study population. Brown University is a private Ivy Learning University. The school management system, teaching methods and learning content are very different from the domestic universities at that time. The library is completely open, and the graduate course is guided by the teacher to read and discuss. The 5 -year study time has laid the foundation for me to be engaged in academic research and teaching at university.

After the defense was completed, I returned to China to teach at Peking University. At that time, Mr. Fei Xiaotong founded the Institute of Sociology at Peking University. One of the major national topics he led was "the development of the frontiers and ethnic minorities". Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and other places conducted field investigations. At the same time, since the fall of 1987, I have opened graduate courses such as "National Sociology" in the Department of Sociology of Peking University. They have guided master and doctoral students, and the students who have guided them came from 14 ethnic groups. In my life, the most important identity is the teacher.

Chinese identity: Community of Chinese civilization

At present, the main European and American countries have Christian cultural traditions, including Catholicism, Protestant and Orthodox Church. Religion is the spiritual pillar of its cultural system. The fear of "doomsday trials" and believe that "human nature", he needs to repent and atone for life. Islam also comes from the same god of religion. The most important characteristic of the concept of God ’s religion is to regard“ believers ”and“ pagans ”as two very different groups. The historically frenzy religious trend has led to a cruel slaughter of“ pagan ”. The "evolution theory" popular in modern Europe outlines the evolutionary process from apes to man. Affected by "Social Darwinism", Europeans once regarded Asians, Africans, and indigenous peoples as "inferior races" on the evolutionary ladder. Today, when we understand the identity politics of Western society, "rejecting pagans" and "racial superiority" are two core elements that cannot be ignored.

The Chinese traditional identity view belongs to another completely different civilized system. First of all, in terms of the relationship between human beings and nature, Chinese sages advocate "the unity of heaven and man" and "the Taoism nature", unlike Europeans regarding nature as the object of human acquisition resources. Secondly, the most important basic characteristic of the Chinese civilization system is secular compared with the god civilization. Confucius said: "If you have no one, you can do ghosts." Therefore, the Chinese never have the concept of "pagan". In the end, when the Chinese culture tradition treats the interior and surrounding people, the basic concept is "brothers within the four seas", "harmony", "no class" and "do not do what you want to do." The so -called "Huayi Different" is about the differences in ethical and moral standards, not physical or language differences.

Calligraphy works- "Different and Different". Zou Xian Photo by China News Agency

Therefore, the basic characteristics of Chinese civilization are the worldwide of the atheist, neither the strong "zero -harmony structure" and "dual standard" exclusiveness of the deed civilization, nor the western racism concept based on constitutional differences. Non -favically secularity shows rare tolerance for internal diversity and external culture, and can dynamically and dialectically understand the evolution of group identity. Therefore, the basic characteristics of Chinese civilization are essentially different from the religiousness and rigidity of the Western deeds that respect and rigidity-language differences.

German sociologist Max Weber pointed out: "Confucianism is purely a vulgar moral in the world. It is even more inspiring to compare with Buddhist forms that Confucianism requires adaptation to the vulgar and its order and customs. A large codes for establishing political norms and social etiquette for the educated world. "Bai Luyu, a well -known Sinologist in the United States and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes that" China is a community of civilizations disguised as a nation -state. "Fei Zhengqing in" The book of the United States and China pointed out: "There is no doubt that this kind of thought that considers the four seas of Confucius and Mencius means that Chinese culture (lifestyle) is more basic than nationalism ... A person only needs him as long as he wants him Familiar with the scriptures and can be handled in this way, his skin color and language are irrelevant. "

Therefore, there is no western "nationalism" idea in Chinese cultural soil. The current "national" and "nationalism" are the concepts introduced from the West after the Opium War. The Chinese nation's community is neither an empire based on the Western feudal system nor the nation -state centered on modern nationalism. China, which lasted for thousands of years, is a political-cultural community that is constantly changing on the edge of the population. No matter what kind of ethnic background or language, as long as they agree and accept Chinese culture, they can become part of the Community of the Chinese nation; regardless of the central government, no matter the central government How to replace the dynasty, the context of traditional Chinese culture has continued. This is a cultural interpretation of the Chinese nation's community.

In the past, Chinese did not have the term "nation". The "National" concept of Western identity system was not introduced into China until modern times. In the Sino -Japanese War of the Sino -Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was defeated, and the Chinese began to learn "reform and renewal" from Japan. In 1905, the Qing Dynasty "abandoned science and new school". The textbooks for new schools in China include history and geography. They are directly translated from Japanese textbooks. At that time, the Japanese and Europeans cried different parts of the Qing Dynasty in the name of "nation", called "Mongolian nation", "Manchuria nation", "Tibetan nation", and "Han nation". After the popularity of these concepts, the traditional Chinese group names completely disrupted, and it also impacted the traditional Chinese "identity system" and ethnic relations.

In today's Chinese society, another important factor in the identity system of "nation" has become highlighted. It is the "national identification" of the government under the influence of the Soviet system and policies after the founding of the New China. China has identified 56 "ethnic groups", each citizen has a "national" identity, and based on the population scale and traditional residence of various ethnic groups, an autonomous region, autonomous prefecture, and autonomous counties have been established to implement the ethnic regional and autonomous system. Ethnic preferential policies with different content and levels have also been implemented. The implementation of this formal identity and corresponding institutional policies has gradually formed a new identity system and corresponding recognition consciousness system in Chinese society.

The 56 national unity image representatives were in the Potala Palace of Lhasa, Tibet to welcomes the National Day. Photo by Li Lin, a reporter from China News Agency

Western misunderstanding of the Chinese social system

Western society always uses its own culture and thinking habits to interpret and predict China, and believes that "national strength must be dominated". When China's national strength is strong, it will definitely impact the dominance of the United States and Europe. This shows that they do not understand the tradition of Chinese culture at all, nor do they understand the positioning of themselves in the Chinese Social rule group and the people's expectations for the rulers. In the evaluation of the translation of "Social Term", Mr. Yan Fu compared the identity and function of the Chinese emperor and the European emperor: "The king of the Western Kingdom, the matter is only dedicated to the monarch." There are many problems in the society, and the public can want the government to assist in solving, but there is no right to "accountability". "The Chinese emperor, as a monarch, is also a teacher, and its society, the society of the solid law, is also said to be the parents of the people." Natural disasters such as drought, floods, plague, natural disasters, and earthquakes often occur, and the court must bear the moral responsibility of "taking care of the people". Therefore, the emperors of the calendar dynasties will treat traditional agricultural areas, handle droughts and floods, and soothe the people as the goal of governing the country.

The ideal world of the Chinese people is as stated as the Book of Rites: "The trip to the avenue is also the public. The world is the public. Choose the wise and the ability. It is useful, there is a director, and those who are lonely and lonely abandoned are raised, men have points, and women are returned. You don't have to do it for yourself. It is because of the closure and unwillingness, the theft and the thief, so the foreign households are not closed, which means Datong. "

Even today's Chinese society, government officials are still regarded as "parental officials" to a certain extent. Social security, moral security, and even environmental ecology have problems. The public will accuse government departments of negligence, and government officials will be held accountable. It seems that officials are still "responsible for the heavens, earth, monarchs, relatives, and teachers." Today, the Communist Party of China takes the people's longing for a better life as the goal of struggle, which is in line with the traditional moral concept of Chinese people.

In 2011, the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrator held up the slogan of "the world". Photo by Li Yang, a reporter from China News Agency

Therefore, when understanding the ancient Chinese society in ancient times, we must recognize the essential differences between the Chinese government and the Western government.

Western traditional empires and modern national countries have strong aggression. The era of colonialism was opened by Westerners. Northern and South America and Australia's indigenous residents were slaughtered and expelled, and Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia became colonies.

If you sort out the history of China, you will see that the Chinese emperor takes care of the vast land. Even when the emperors of China have rarely used force when they are strong in their national strength. The reason is that the first is that the war would cause the soldiers to die, erode national financial resources, and tend to "far people's dissatisfaction, then cultivate the German" " The soldiers of the crowd, the good are good "; the second is that if the external territory is occupied and the local residents become the" subjects "of the dynasty, the court will bear all the responsibilities of taking care of them. Usually this is a heavy burden. After Zhuge Liang defeated the Nano Tribe, he did not set up a county and county garrison in the local area. It was only due to this consideration.

In contrast, Western colonists do not treat Africans and indigenous people as equal people at all. They are already kind without killing them, and they will be responsible for their livelihood.

The Ming Dynasty was once strong. When Zheng He went to the west, China's shipbuilding skills surpassed Spain, Portugal and other countries. However, Zheng He arrived in various places to visit and carry out trade, and then stopped because the sailing cost was too large. Compared with Zheng He's fleet, the purpose of Europeans to other mainland is to establish colonies, plunder local wealth and slavery local residents. From this comparison, we can also see the essential difference between Chinese culture tradition and Christian civilization. Westerners are worried that after the development of China, the "national strength will be dominated", which is their own moral ethics guidelines to speculate on another kind of civilization.

The concept of freedom and democracy cannot be absolutely

Westerners are easy to absolute two concepts. One is freedom. It is believed that personal freedom is infinite and no taboos. It is talent human rights. In the United States, there is even a freedom to buy guns and carry guns. Everyone's personal information and whereabouts belong to "privacy". Understanding. This is related to the history of social development in European countries, especially the United States, and the government's authority has been limited by hereditary feudal traditions and religious rules.

Since China, especially after the Qin Dynasty established a unified regime, the vast land has often faced major natural disasters such as floods, droughts, locusts, and plague. The control of these disaster must be managed by the government unified, otherwise society will lose order and chaos. The public also knows this. Therefore, when the government fulfills its responsibilities of managing society, the public accepts some government management methods, such as people traveling and receiving mobile phone positioning and "itinerary" management during epidemic prevention. If these social management methods are placed in Western countries, the public feels that the government interfere with individual freedom.

The other is democratic elections. Western society absolutely believes that this system can only realize the democratic rights of citizens only by implementing one person, one vote, and most of them. However, the people's votes are easily guided by some accidental events and emotional expression. Even if the Western election system does reflect the attitude of people at that time at a certain point in time, the mass media can largely guide the people's attitude and attitude and the attitude and The position of voting, and the media is often controlled by some interest groups, so the voting results may not reflect the long -term interests of most people. For example, the result of the Brexit "Brexit" referendum, the decision made by the gap between one percent and two, may not meet the overall interests of the whole society, but will cause society to tear and conflict, and ultimately damage the interests of most people. In terms of processing identity differences and rearraging common identities, some countries also have some successful cases. For example, in the "civil rights movement" in the 1960s, the United States officially abolished the racial isolation system in the school through a series of bills, so that some talented black students entered excellent middle schools, and adopted preferential policies to absorb ethnic minority students into Harvard to enter Harvard. Famous universities, such as former US President Barack Obama, is a PhD in Harvard School. These measures actually improved the opportunities for ethnic minorities to enter the upper society and create opportunities for their upward flow in the social layered structure. The emergence of a group of ethnic minority social elites has played a positive role in improving the recognition of ethnic minorities in national and mainstream society.

In modern rule of law countries, no matter which ethnic group is born and what language is the mother tongue, the most important identity is still the citizenship of this country. Under the country's overall legal system, the rights of each citizen should be equal.

In the process of human society, there is both conflict motivation and potential for cooperation. In this process, the difference between "identity" between people can be used as a label to strengthen the differences between each other and promote the deterioration and conflict of the relationship; The "multi -integrated" pattern. Here, "multiple" is identity differences and individuality, and "one" is the common interests and commonality of both parties.

Today, the population of the world is growing. Human beings are facing a series of problems such as climate change and energy shortage. As a whole, humans have common destiny and have the common homeland of the earth. How to live in harmony with each country and all nations and work hard to improve and solve various problems together are the tests of all mankind.

At this historical moment, the traditional wisdom of Chinese civilization may provide some inspiration, that is, treat nature, "the unity of heaven and man", learn to appreciate and treat other countries and nations, "beauty of beauty", seeing each other differences, but "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" and "and" The different "attitudes look for common interests, and follow the basic criteria of" do not do what you want "when dealing. This can gradually" be beautiful and the United States "and eventually reach the ideal state of" the world in the world ". This is the case as a person, as a nation and a country, so that it is necessary to respect their own culture and be good at absorbing their own virtues and talents from others and other countries. Only through this benign interaction can we realize a truly harmonious international community and build a community of human destiny.

About the Author:

Ma Rong, a professor and national theoretical scholar at the Department of Sociology of Peking University. Born in March 1950, Hui, native of Shanghai, cut into line in Dongwuqi, Inner Mongolia from 1968-1973. In 1987, he was a PhD in Sociology of Brown University and returned to teach at Peking University in the same year. Former director of the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology of Peking University, director of the Department of Sociology, and currently a professor of Boya Chair at Peking University. The field of research is the development of ethnic and frontier, education research, and population migration. Published "Ethnic and Social Development", "Chinese Nation's Cohesion Formation and Development", "National Sociology", "Population and Society in Tibet", "Application of Sociology", "Ethnic, National Construction", "Population Migration and Ethnic Group: Inner Mongolia's Chifeng Survey "" Chinese National History and Chinese Common Culture "," Status and Prospects of Chinese Ethnic Relations "," Chinese National Discourse in History "," Population and Society in Contemporary Tibet "," Ethnic Relations in China "and so on.

Text Editor: Cui Bailu, Wen Longjie, Wang Singing

Image editor: Xu Xizhen

- END -