Global IssuesCHINA: THE ECONOMY GROWS WHILE CULTURAL IDENTITY DISAPPEARS
The Maoist revolutionary generation that I met in the World Conference of Students in 1957 was of an impressive austerity. The generation after that was the protagonist of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. During the revolution, it was the students that were the most fanatical destroyers of the old monuments and everything related with the culture of the past. Only with political reform after Mao’s death in 1976 was the celebration of the market and wealth consecrated, writes Roberto Savio, founder and President Emeritus of the news agency Inter Press Service (IPS).
There is a consensus that the differences between the generations of the 80s and the 90s were small. However with the birth of the consumer society, that gap is increasing between the generation of the 90s and the one of the first decade of this century, and that the gap is rapidly progressing.
After the Cultural Revolution, past and history have not yet recovered the lost prestige. It is extremely rare to see people younger than 30 in a Chinese classical music concert.
During my five-week stay in China, I didn’t once hear Chinese music, only western music, basically North American. I asked some of the young Chinese that I encountered, if they believed in the philosophical principles, medical and spiritual culture: the Chi, the internal energy; the Ying and Yang, the two poles that coexist in the human being. For all of them, this was only an ancient superstition.
China will be the major world power, and as a matter of fact, it will be integrated in the western world in an unpredicted way.
A westernized China, will it make the world richer or poorer?
(*) Robert Savio, founder and President Emeritus of the news agency Inter Press Service (IPS).
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service