Deep-rooted Chinese Traditions

    Everyone in China, young and old, acknowledges that Western culture has indeed influenced the lifestyle and values of the younger generation. But to what extent? Have today's young people internalized Western influence to the "dangerous" extent people imagine?

NBA superstar Michael Jordan surrounded by his worshipful Chinese fans. [sohu]

    After reading a media report on the high assimilation rate of Western culture by Chinese youth, student Zhang Yan was skeptical. According to her observations, Western influence is not that strong.

    She and her schoolmates made their own survey of several hundred young people aged between 15 and 30 in seven cities of diverse geographical locations and degree of development, including Beijing, Chongqing, Xining and Weihai.

    Its outcome endorsed her view. In answer to the question "What do you think of Western food," only 10 percent expressed a particular liking for it, while 62.55 percent said that it had novelty value, but that they could take it or leave it.

    As regards attitudes towards the family, only 15.03 percent upheld the Western view of personal freedom and independence as paramount, and 44 percent found it unacceptable.

    This suggests that young Chinese people still espouse traditions of familial responsibility. Zhang Yan's findings are further endorsed by Professor Fang Ning, an expert on Chinese youth at the Institute of Political Science under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

    Professor Fang believes that Western influence on morals and social values as reported by the media is exaggerated.

    In answer to the question "Why you like Western films?" most respondents said they were fascinated by the scientifically spectacular aspect of Hollywood movies and also the insights they bring into psychological interaction, but that was as far as it went.

    All this would indicate that Chinese youth is interested in Western products but not in being assimilated into the culture from which they emanate.

    The extent to which the younger generation accepts Western influence is closely linked to age and place of residence.

    The youth in China's large cities have a greater scope of access to foreign trends, fashion and attitudes than those in middle-sized and small cities.

    They are consequently more likely to subscribe to it. Yu Jun, now in his late 30s, was a college student in the mid-1980s, when liberal concepts born of wholesale Westernization were widely embraced.

    At that time, Yu Jun and his peers led a lifestyle strongly influenced by the West. Says Yu Jun, "Staying single was very much in vogue and some of my former classmates have still not married -- not because of Western influence but because the single life suits them."

    Of people twenty or so years his junior, Yu Jun believes, "On reaching maturity they will reassess and return to tradition."

    Student Zhang Yan's comment conveys a still clearer picture of contemporary Chinese youth.

    "Chinese youth is fundamentally incapable of casting off traditional influence, particularly when it comes to family values. For instance, when my American teacher came to China, he did not bid his mother a formal farewell before getting on the airplane. Could a Chinese person do the same? On the other hand, to many foreigners it seems that Chinese students deny themselves a life of their own. They are appalled at how their Chinese peers study on weekends instead, like them, of spending their free time exactly as they choose. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, Western students are overwhelmingly hedonist in outlook. This may explain why many overseas Chinese students find it difficult to blend into Western society, as it is very hard to break away from traditions formed over thousands of years.

    Some Chinese youth think they know and understand the West and its ways, but their knowledge is superficial. Stanley Rosen, a professor at the Department of Political Science of University of Southern California, said in a lecture in August 2004, "When I ask my Chinese students why they chose to study political science, they tell me it's a visa shortcut. After a year of study many switch to computer science or an MBA as both bring better job prospects. The Department of Political Science is regarded merely as a springboard for Eastern students, and some even start doing a little trade while they are still here. They are very pragmatic." Professor Rosen does not believe there is a similar phenomenon among American students.