China’s cultural self-confidence is a topic with profound historical origins. It has experienced a hundred years of changes, and it has depicted a unique and rich course from the suspicion of traditional culture to the firmness of cultural subjectivity. In this historical process, we find that cultural self-confidence is not a simple ideological imitation, but deeply rooted in the subjectivity of China civilization.

As one of the four ancient civilizations, China has formed a unique Chinese cultural system. The historical books that record China’s past show China literati’s confidence in their national culture. For example, during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were historical records describing that Roman messengers were "quick in speech and frivolous in behavior" when they came to China. This reflects the idea that China scholars believe that foreign cultures are different but not superior. This cultural self-confidence laid the foundation for future generations. China literati often describe foreigners as "barbarians", which reflects a strong cultural pride. After the Opium War, China gradually realized the need to learn from western science and technology, but still insisted on the value of traditional culture. This historical accumulation has laid the foundation for Chinese cultural self-confidence. In modern history, from the beginning of 19th century to the middle of 20th century, China faced the blending and collision of Chinese and Western cultures, which resulted in the contention of various ideas. Some people advocate that "middle school is the body and western learning is the use", trying to absorb the Excellence of the West on the basis of traditional culture. The rise of this trend of thought is the product of self-awareness of traditional culture and careful acceptance of western culture. Others advocate total westernization. Rational understanding of cultural differences is the premise of cultural self-confidence. Cultural differences should not be viewed only from the stage of development, but should be comprehensively considered by multiple factors such as region, history and system.

With the development of economy, Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s popularity, the extensive promotion of socialist core values and the return of Chinese excellent traditional culture are all vivid manifestations of cultural self-confidence in the contemporary era. This is not only an affirmation of past history, but also confidence in future development. Cultural subjectivity is the premise of cultural self-confidence, and cultural self-confidence is an important embodiment of cultural subjectivity.

Cultural self-confidence is not exclusive self-confidence, but is based on cultural subjectivity. With its broad and inclusive characteristics, Chinese civilization actively integrates into the exchanges and cooperation of world civilizations. With the mind of mutual appreciation, coexistence and common prosperity, China is showing the vitality and prosperity of the world’s civilized gardens. In the new historical period, we need to continue to strengthen cultural subjectivity and maintain cultural self-confidence. This is both a respect for the past and a responsibility for the future. Only on the basis of cultural self-confidence, can the Chinese nation better integrate into the torrent of world civilization and make far-reaching contributions to the prosperity of human civilization.

In China’s education system, the integration of cultural subjectivity and educational inheritance is a crucial task. Education is not only the medium of cultural inheritance, but also the key channel to cultivate cultural self-confidence. In recent years, China has paid attention to promoting Chinese traditional culture in the reform of education system, integrating it into the curriculum system and conveying it to students through diversified teaching methods. This effort aims to cultivate students’ deep understanding and pride in their own culture, so that they can not only adhere to the local cultural characteristics in the global civilization exchange, but also integrate into the torrent of world culture in an open and inclusive manner.

The mission of education is not only to inherit culture, but also to stimulate students’ thinking and innovation in culture. In the process of cultivating cultural self-confidence, education should urge students to examine the values in traditional culture and guide them to think and innovate independently on the basis of these values. By digging deep into the deep connotation of China traditional culture, students can better understand the complexity and diversity of culture, cultivate the ability of independent thinking, and form a deep recognition of their own culture.

In addition, education should also be devoted to cultivating students’ international vision and cross-cultural communication ability. In the context of globalization, it is equally important to understand and respect other cultures. Educational institutions can offer international exchange programs and introduce multicultural teaching materials, so that students can better understand and engage in dialogue and integration with other cultures while inheriting Chinese culture.

In the deep blending of the relationship between education and culture, we have seen the consolidation and inheritance of cultural subjectivity and witnessed the innovation and guidance of education. Such an education system is not only a training base for cultural self-confidence, but also an important way to cultivate comprehensive talents with global competitiveness. Through the joint efforts of education and culture, China’s cultural self-confidence will be more deeply rooted in the hearts of every student, providing solid support for the Chinese nation to show a more vivid style on the world cultural stage.

To sum up, the historical and contemporary manifestations of China’s cultural self-confidence not only inherit and carry forward traditional culture, but also innovate and develop contemporary culture. Efforts in education, cultural inheritance and cultural self-confidence have blended with each other to jointly build a solid cornerstone of China’s cultural self-confidence. In the future, it is expected that this wind of cultural self-confidence will continue to blow and contribute more abundant and unique strength to the Chinese nation in the world cultural tide.

About the author: Zhang Ruliang, deputy editor of the organ newspaper directly under the National Development and Reform Commission, a researcher of Baijia, an expert on the key topics of the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" of the Ministry of Education, and an expert enjoying the subsidy from the Beijing Municipal Government.

Fund Project: This paper is the research result of the key project of the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" of the Ministry of Education, "Research on the relevant strategies to improve the teaching level of Chinese teaching and research in middle schools" (No.:EDUKY130865).

Source: Guangming Net

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This article comes from Cailian Association.