Cultivation of Socialist Core Values in the Context of Globalization and Internetization —— from the Perspective of Cultural Consciousness〔*〕

Huang Yiling(School of Marxism　Southwest University of Political Science and Law,Chongqing　401120)



Cultivation of Socialist Core Values in the Context of Globalization and Internetization
—— from the Perspective of Cultural Consciousness〔*〕

Huang Yiling
(School of MarxismSouthwest University of Political Science and Law,Chongqing401120)

In the era of globalization,as for cultivation of socialist core values,its culture form and cultural ecology have been restructuring by integration and collision of different cultures as well as western cultural hegemony;meanwhile,advancement of network technology has expanded the time and cultural spaces of socialist core values.It can be said that globalization and internetization mutually form the context that cultivation of socialist core values is in.Under such a context,socialist core values education should restore the true color of “culture-ideology” system and embark from the perspective of cultural consciousness.

socialist core values;globalization;internetization;cultural consciousness

Ⅰ.Connotations and formation of globalization and internetization context

In terms of the theory of structuration,globalization is now working on reshaping a brand new social structure,which further reshapes people’s mind and behavior.And,the latter makes contributions to consolidate the former too.It is no doubt that globalization has great influence to modern society without any country and nation that can resist against it.Globalization process definitely provides new agenda,new theme and new space for socialist core values as well as brings new challenge at the same time.To a great extent,globalization refers to the process that the United States coupled with other western countries expands their social and economic systems,cultural modes and life styles to the rest of the world.Therefore,globalization indeed carries with itself the brand of Americanism.What’s more,the penetration of western ideology,accompanying with globalization severely impacts the ideological security of China and the predominant position of Marxist theory.This is the biggest challenge faced by cultivation of socialist core values under a globalization context.However,the deeper influence of western ideological penetration lies in culture.The process of globalization also means cultural globalization.Human cultural practice is facing with trials and challenges from multiculturalism and cultural hegemonism,etc.Cultural globalization process actually exerts huge influence to activities such as construction and acknowledgment of mainstream culture,enhancement of people’s cultural confidence,realization of cultural self-independence and promotion of cultural security.Cultural globalization further awakens cultural consciousness of a number of nations and countries.As a result,globalization presents to be a practical context and a real challenge to the cultivation of socialist core values.

The cultivation of socialist core values is unfolding in a specific social circumstance.Thus such activity is attached with the nature of openness,which in turn raises the importance of the environment that the cultivation activity is in.Currently,cultivation of socialist core values faces an environment featuring cultural exchange and competition as well as cultural mixing and conflicts brought by globalization.Under such an environment,the booming of on-line culture and the spread of diverse network values led by internetization also impact the dominant position of Marxist ideology.Being faced with all of these conditions,cultivation of socialist core values must grasp the overall contextual ecology of globalization and internetization so that it can move forward smoothly and soundly.

Ⅱ.Cultural ecology of the cultivation of socialist core values

It is widely known that culture has an inseparable connection with human beings’ development.From ancient times to now,sages and scholars hold different points of view toward the connotation of “culture”.As a result,there are over 200 definitions that exist now.Of all those definitions,one of the comparatively influential one is which put forward by British scholar Tayler who is honored as “Father of Anthropology”.He pointed out that culture is a compound entity containing knowledge,faith,art,ethics,law,custom as well as other abilities and habits that an individual must possess as a member of the society.〔1〕The function of culture lies in establishing a “meaning world” of spirits for mankind.After examining relationships among rise of capitalism,ideology and culture,Max Weber,the famous sociologist in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism concluded that culture and spirits are highly more important than historical materialism.〔2〕Culture is the carrier of values while the latter present the former.Culture can provide education and bring civilization for people.The cultivation of socialist core values is always practiced in a specific cultural environment.Thus,cultural ecology can be regarded as an important factor that affects the cultivating practice.

The cultivating process of socialist core values is also a process for establishing and spreading dominant socialist ideology.The cultivating activity is derived from the requirements of using ideology to integrate the society and of maintaining national ideological security.With a certain kind of value at its core,ideology has a function of value guidance.It can guide the behavior of society members.Therefore,the integrating ability of an ideology in a society can exert great influence to the standardization of social member’s behavior and maintain social steadiness.Gramsci emphasized that ideology serves as cement in keeping thoughts uniformity of social group as a whole.〔3〕The cultivation of socialist core values bears not only cultural connotation but also function of ideological education.The importance of such cultivating activity to social steadiness and national ideological security is out of question.In consequence,to treat socialist core values cultivating system (consists of educating subject,object and transmitter) as a “culture-ideology” propagating system is both necessary and reasonable.We need to unfold socialist core values cultivating activity from the perspective of defending national security.

Ⅲ.Unfolding cultivation of socialist core value on the basis of cultural consciousness

1.Strengthening cultural consciousness and stressing construction of cultural soft power

Compared with the cognitive paradigm of “ the west-centered ” theory which has obvious limitations,cultural consciousness is no doubt a self-expression based on cultural stances and cultural meanings.It abandons the Cold War mentality.Cultural consciousness helps to construct the subjectivity of a culture on the basis of comparison and analysis with other cultures and meanwhile learn from them.It reflects people’s pursuit for cultural transmission and development as well as a global mentality featured by openness and inclusion.“Both history and reality manifest that a nation’s awakening must first happens to culture;a political party’s power,to a great extent,is decided by the nation’s cultural awakening degree”.〔4〕With the renaissance of its economy,China also needs to reflect on its development from the perspective of culture.Such reflection would lead to the formation of cultural consciousness.

Culture is called the gene of a nation and the foundation of a country’s existence.A country’s developing potential and prospect is largely decided by its cultural development.The United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization points out that “the definition of development should be decided in terms of cultural elements.The prosperity of culture should be set as the supreme goal of development”.A powerful nation must be strong in culture for without the underpinning of culture,it is almost impossible for a country to seek for long-term development and endurable prosperity.With the acceleration of globalization process,cultural has already became an important part and a key factor in the competition of comprehensive national strength among countries.The competition among countries increasingly presents to be rivalry which considers cultural soft power as the commanding height.

2.Carrying forward Chinese traditional excellent culture as enhancement of cultural foundation for cultivating socialist core values

As a foundation for a nation’s survival,culture is the basic clue for a country to position itself in the world national forest and in the cultural globalization tide.Meanwhile,it is also a key for a nation to get self-respect and confidence.Nowadays,multi-culture and various values mix together in the context of globalization and internetization.The globally overwhelming spread of western cultures exerts great influence to cultures of developing countries and makes the latter growing similar to them by sacrificing their local cultures.〔5〕Under such a cultural ecological circumstance,we should bear in mind culture consciousness as well as culture self-confidence and continuously inherit and develop Chinese excellent culture with the goal of spreading it around the world.

3.Constructing socialist advanced culture and promoting identity cultivation to socialist core values

Culture possesses the power of affecting other things slowly and silently.Besides,every man has a need for culture.Actually,functions of education lie in initiating people’s cultural consciousness,fostering their humanistic qualities and improving their cultural tastes.Cultural education practice is conducive to people’s spiritual development and their living states promotion.Cultural education is tightly connected with value cultivation.To some extent,core values are the very kernel and the most stable principle as well as value goal in a culture and they can be used to cope with complicated relationships.It is also the foundation for all cultural forms.Therefore,culture should be a carrier for socialist core values,while it should also expand contents and forms of cultivation of socialist core values.Currently,identity cultivation is the key part in socialist core values cultivating process.Except for changing the old ways of socialist core value cultivation and paying attention to gradual inoculation of ideas to the educated,we should also treat the educated as “civilized person” and promote their impression in culture to the level of “cultural consciousness”.In this way,the educated might rationally get an idea about the multi-cultural world in the context of globalization and internetization.Further,an active identification to culture and construction of value system that conform mainstream culture and dominant ideology might be realized in the whole society.

At present,the mainstream culture in China that fosters socialist core values and reflects cultural consciousness is the advanced socialist culture deriving from three types of culture.The first one is Chinese traditional excellent culture.It is the root of the Chinese culture as an integrity and the very source of socialist core values.The second one is Marxist culture,which is the core content of Chinese culture.It embodies the essence and achievements of socialism in China.The third one is the universal culture forming during the developing process of modern world culture.As an important part of socialist culture,the universal culture represents developing rules and achievements of modern world culture.

Advanced socialist culture is the main part of modern Chinese cultural construction activity and the core content of China’s strengthening culture security,building its cultural confidence and constructing the spiritual home for Chinese nation in the context of globalization and internetization.It profoundly reflects rules of cultural construction in China and can contribute to obtain the largest degree of cultural acknowledgment among all nationalities as well as provides cultural support for national rejuvenation.Taking cultural consciousness as one of its foundations,cultivation of socialist core values should devote to the inheritance of traditional culture in modern society,to the transmission of mainstream culture and to the acknowledgment of overall values.The cultivation of acknowledgment to socialist core values should be pushed forward to enhance the cultural basis of “confidence in socialist road,political system and theory”.

In conclusion,cultural consciousness is highly emphasized by multi-cultural exchanges and conflicts in the context of globalization and internetization.Facing this situation,we should form our cultural consciousness and integrate socialist core values into the construction of advanced socialist culture so that a sound cultural ecological environment will be created for people to rationally recognize various cultures in a complicated multicultural context.By this way,people’s cultural consciousness,confidence and creative ability will be improved,which also means a promotion to the effects of the cultivation of socialist core values.After all these have been done,the value foundation for Chinese national rejuvenation is established.

References:

〔1〕黄淑娉、龚佩华：《文化人类学理论方法研究》，广州：广东高等教育出版社，1996年，第9页。

〔2〕向荣：《文化变革与资本主义的兴起》，《世界历史》2000年第3期。

〔3〕宋惠明：《当代意识形态研究》，北京：中共中央党校出版社，1993年，第25页。

〔4〕云杉：《文化自觉 文化自信 文化自强——对繁荣发展中国特色社会主义文化的思考》，《红旗文稿》2015年第15期。

〔5〕〔美〕阿历克斯·英格尔斯：《人的现代化》，殷陆君编译，四川人民出版社，1985年，第244页。

About the author：Huang Yiling,associate professor,School of Marxism of Southwest University of Political Science and Law,master’s Supervisor,research field:Marx doctrine theory and ideological and political education.

〔*〕General Youth Foundation by Chinese Ministry of Education on Humanistic and Social Science (No.13YJC710012);Chongqing Graduate Students Education and Teaching Reform Research Program (No.yjg153106);Project of Chinese Association of Degree and Graduate Education (No.2015Y0106);Specific Project in 2015 of the “ Twelfth Five-Year Plan ” for Educational Science of Chongqing ( No.2015-GX-046).