1st Edition

Understanding Chinese and Western Cultures

By Tang Yijie Copyright 2023
    374 Pages
    by Routledge

    374 Pages
    by Routledge

    The title is a collection of essays centering on the topic of intercultural communication between Chinese and Western cultures by Tang Yijie, one of the most renowned philosophy scholars in China.
    Comprised of five parts, the author discusses how Chinese culture should modernize itself through borrowing from Western culture premised on a self-awareness of Chinese culture per se. The book begins by critiquing theories of the so-called clash of civilizations and new empires and argues for the coexistence of cultures and a global consciousness instead. Chapters in the second part revisit contemporary Chinese culture in transition and call for the cultural integration of China and the West, with China defined in both its ancient and modern guises. By providing reflections on the cultural trends of the 1980s and 1990s, the third part illustrates the inevitable growth of diversified cultural development while analyzing cases of cultural dialogue in history, philosophy and religion. The fourth part demonstrates the significance of culture diversity and interaction while the fifth provides thoughts and reflections on some real-life cultural issues.
    This title will appeal to all levels of readers interested in Chinese culture, cross-cultural studies and topics of cultural pluralism.

    Part I The Clash and Coexistence of Civilizations  1. What is Civilization?  2. Appraisal of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations Thesis  3. The Irreversible Trend of Cultural Diversity  4. The Clash of Civilizations and Coexistence of Civilizations  5. Identity of Ontology and Methodology: A New Perspective on Modernistic Diversity  6. New Perspectives on Western Sinology  7. Current Cultural Exchange and Communication between China and the West  Part II Chinese Culture in Transition  8. How to Develop Chinese Culture  9. The Combination of Global Awareness and Root-Seeking Awareness  10. Chinese Culture to Go Global and the Global Culture to be Introduced into China  11. On the Cultural Resultant Force in Cultural Transformation  12. Issues of Cultural Development in China during the Transition Period  13. Looking Forward to Cultural Development in the 21st Century  14. A Brief Discussion on Chinese and Western and Ancient and Modern Controversies in Chinese Culture over the Past Century  15. Chinese Culture under the Impact of Western Culture  16. Cultural Consciousness and Problem Consciousness  Part III Reflection after the Cultural Fever  17. "Modern" and "Post-modern" 18. The Rise of Sinology Fever  19. "Culture Fever" and "Sinology Fever"  20. How Western Scholars in Reflection Look at Traditional Chinese Culture  21. Economic Development Still Requires a Sense of Dedication and Moral Responsibility  Part IV The Meaning of Cross-cultural Dialogue  22. The Significance of Studying Comparative Philosophy and Comparative Religion regarding the Introduction of Indian Buddhism into China  23. On Matteo Ricci's Attempt to Integrate Eastern and Western Cultures  24. On the Comparison of Chinese and Western Cultures Concerning the Pursuit of the Truth, the Goodness and the Beauty  25. Two-way Choice of Cultures  26. Between Walls and No Walls: Are Walls Necessary between Cultures?  27. Reflections on Cultural Issues  28. Two Challenges Facing the Multicultural Development  Part V Ideology, Faith and Culture  29. Cultural Rescue, Preservation and Innovation  30. “Edify the Populace to Achieve a Harmonious Society”  31. How to Cope with the Mankind's Misery: Compared with Thousand Years Ago, Humans are Struggling with Less or More Misery?  32. On the Complementarity of Chinese and Western Cultures

    Biography

    Tang Yijie (1927–2014) was an accomplished professor and an authority of Chinese philosophy at Peking University, China. In the last decade of his life, he spearheaded the monumental Confucian Canon project.