For Chinese people, “culture” always has multiple meanings ranging from small to large, narrow to wide. For example, in Chinese folk tradition, anyone who has once went to school, been educated, knowing how to read, can be regarded as a person “with culture”. The culture here might have the narrowest sense while academic definition of culture made by scholars usually describes it as “all the material and spiritual achievements of human beings”, covering all material culture, institutional culture and spiritual culture. This broad definition of “culture” becomes an almost all-encompassing concept while in current Chinese publicity and education documents, emphasis is placed on “culture as an ideological form” (Mao Zedong, New Democracy), which is composed of ideological theory, publicity and education, press and publication, artistic performances, leisure and entertainment, cultural relic management and other fields. This is the “medium” culture between the “smallest” and the “biggest”, that is, the “spiritual culture”. Obviously, the concept of culture in its narrowest sense or in its medium sense both belongs to the “sub-concept” of culture in its broad sense. And all of these divisions are just extensions of the concept of culture.

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Foundation of New View of Culture

  • Deshun Li

摘要

For Chinese people, “culture” always has multiple meanings ranging from small to large, narrow to wide. For example, in Chinese folk tradition, anyone who has once went to school, been educated, knowing how to read, can be regarded as a person “with culture”. The culture here might have the narrowest sense while academic definition of culture made by scholars usually describes it as “all the material and spiritual achievements of human beings”, covering all material culture, institutional culture and spiritual culture. This broad definition of “culture” becomes an almost all-encompassing concept while in current Chinese publicity and education documents, emphasis is placed on “culture as an ideological form” (Mao Zedong, New Democracy), which is composed of ideological theory, publicity and education, press and publication, artistic performances, leisure and entertainment, cultural relic management and other fields. This is the “medium” culture between the “smallest” and the “biggest”, that is, the “spiritual culture”. Obviously, the concept of culture in its narrowest sense or in its medium sense both belongs to the “sub-concept” of culture in its broad sense. And all of these divisions are just extensions of the concept of culture.