The selected works of President Xi Jinping on culture offer an insightful look at China's cultural policies.
Governing a country and explaining the theoretical underpinnings of its policies are two different things; in these writings, both are done — objectives are outlined, their foundations explained, and connections drawn to a broader societal vision.
Anyone aiming to understand China's developmental goals should examine the argument on its own terms, rather than evaluate it by its distance from Western models.
To begin with, let's define what cultural policy is. In France, it covers the arts, historic heritage, media and cultural industries.
However, in this book, it also encompasses the cultivation of shared values, the transmission of traditional culture, and the ideas that shape social life.
Its purpose is to help build a socialist society while preserving the continuity of Chinese civilization under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
This involves decisions about educational content, the role of traditions, the values promoted through creative work and how traditional culture is interpreted.
In Xi's selected works, these elements are viewed as part of a unified effort to shape a society capable of pursuing common goals.
While economic development provides material resources, cultural policy shapes beliefs, knowledge and behavior, thereby influencing the kind of society China aspires to become.
This ambition leads to a central assertion: China can modernize without adopting Western norms.
A Western-centric perspective often assumes that countries become modern by gradually tilting toward Western societies. Their economies develop, their social attitudes change and their institutions eventually converge on Western-style democracy.
This view confuses transformation with an inevitable political destination.
Chinese modernization entails advancing science, enhancing industrial capabilities, raising living standards and adapting institutions to the country's needs.
Westernization, on the other hand, implies adopting Western political and cultural models as compulsory benchmarks. The two are distinct.
The book advocates learning from other cultures and adapting their contributions to Chinese circumstances.
The distinction is straightforward: a country can borrow a technology, an idea or a method without adopting every institution of the society that produced it.
Thus, the West no longer represents the future toward which every society must travel.
This plurality of paths is also relevant to BRICS nations, whose cooperation emphasizes sovereign equality and aims to promote a more representative international order.
This creates room to view development as more than just catching up with the West. While their trajectories differ, BRICS nations share no single modernization doctrine.
China's approach combines material progress, common prosperity and cultural development, distinguishing between the means of development and the societal goals they serve.
Xi insists on a path with Chinese characteristics. It means applying Marxism requires consideration of China's history, economic conditions and social characteristics. A doctrine aimed at transforming society must start with the society that exists. He connects the Marxist view of individuals as shaped by social relations with Chinese traditions that emphasize family and collective relationships.
In pursuing China's modernization, two requirements are identified: integrating Marxism with China's realities and enriching Marxism with valuable elements of traditional Chinese culture.
The pursuit of the common good is linked to socialist ideals, and people's welfare is tied to common prosperity. Traditional principles are adapted for contemporary purposes.
The author is a French political scientist and socialist intellectual.
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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