Confidence in own culture

Foreign girls wait for a tea-drinking ceremony to begin. A total of 48 girls from 46 countries and regions experienced Chinese traditional culture on August 25 at the Oriental Modern Center, an industrial park which manufactures garments and textiles located in Qingdao’s West Coast New Area. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Only through creative absorption can a culture incorporate positive elements from other cultures into its development. Any indiscriminate duplication of outside models, which would reflect a lack of cultural self-confidence, would inevitably result in the forfeiting of its own foundation, says a People's Daily article.

The Chinese civilization is the only one that has experienced uninterrupted development, due to its unique linguistic, cultural and value systems and its capability for ceaseless self-renewal. The vitality of the Chinese civilization comes from its millenniums-long cultural self-confidence and its continuous interactions among its own ethnic groups and with outside civilizations.

However, the wane of Chinese civilization and the rise of Western civilization in modern times has led to the impression some have that Chinese culture is inferior to other cultures and its "backwardness" can only change by faithfully imitating Western culture. A look at history indicates that, compared with its long time prosperity, the decline of Chinese civilization is a transient moment. China's backwardness in modern times is a result of its self-isolation, and we do not need to go to extremes in our efforts to overcome the remaining elements of "cultural insulation" and abandon our own cultural roots.

There is no universal mode of civilization, given that any civilization always bears a historical, relative and ethnic character. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of European civilization, but contemporary Greece has a marginalized position in Europe. The United States and the United Kingdom can trace their cultures to the same Anglo-Saxon tradition, but they have obvious differences in their political systems and cultures.

Only with one's own shoes on and by going one's own way, can a person learn from others. One country's development model cannot be transplanted to another country without any changes.