What foreign cultures have influenced the history of cultural development in China?

How much influence does foreign culture have on China traditional culture? What is the specific impact on modern middle school students in particular? This is the topic we are going to discuss today.

China is an ancient country that has been repeating itself for thousands of years. If it weren't for the influence of foreign culture, especially western culture, we might still live a life of men plowing and women weaving. Maybe our female classmates will still haunt their feet now. China's traditional culture is based on kindness, filial piety, faithfulness, peace, humility, moderation, conformity, reunion, diligence and self-improvement, etc., and uses this standard to judge society and lead life. This Confucian tradition dominated the Chinese nation in 2000. At first glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with it. If the big powers don't come, we will live like this. This is completely different from our modern life. Obviously, the impact of foreign culture has changed all this, that is to say, the concept of "modernity" is inextricably linked with foreign culture.

First of all, let's take a brief look at the influence of foreign culture on China's traditional culture.

The development history of traditional culture in China, which lasted for thousands of years, experienced two large-scale impacts from foreign cultures. Once happened at the end of the Han Dynasty in the 3rd century. For hundreds of years, the Indian Buddhist culture of neighboring countries in the western regions has been introduced into China. Its influence on China culture involves music, dance, painting, sculpture, literature, architecture and other aspects, and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty (the first time, the second time occurred in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China at the turn of the 20th century. Almost all the western powers represented by the virtues of Britain and France, which had entered the stage of capitalist expansion at that time, seized the absolute superiority of force and forcibly knocked on the door of China. A brand-new "western culture" with modern form has flooded into China, and it took only twenty or thirty years to sweep the unification of traditional culture in China. Of course, let me clarify a concept here. What is the traditional culture of China? What is the traditional culture in our children's minds in the 1990s? I don't think it's 12 women's group wearing sexy high-fork cheongsam playing so-called traditional folk music noisily on the stage. Or do you think that Kong Yiji, who is full of "what" in Lu Xun's works, is an ancient scholar representing China? Is it too late for children in the 1990s to get in touch with the beauty of China's classical poetry from Jay Chou's Direct Answer or her Sauvignon Blanc? In fact, China's traditional culture was gradually created and developed in the long historical process of thousands of years. After several times of construction-deconstruction-reconstruction, she is endless, endless and slowly precipitated. As mentioned earlier, Buddhism was introduced from India, but in the later hundreds of years of development, it produced China's own characteristics and its own way of worship, which was regarded as the culture of China. Williams in Britain once gave three ways to define culture:

(1) is used to "describe the general process of knowledge, spirit and aesthetic development".

(2) Used to refer to "the specific lifestyle of a nation, a period, a group or the whole human race".

(3) used to symbolize "knowledge, especially the practice of artistic activities and their finished products"

Personally, I prefer the second definition. Culture itself is a dynamic process. For example, decades after lighters were introduced to China, China craftsmen carved dragon and phoenix totems on them according to their own designs. Even China's lighters can be regarded as the category of China culture. There is a joke that "once sleepwalking is a kind of nerve, a hundred sleepwalking is a kind of collective nerve, and sleepwalking in a small town is a kind of culture." There is also some truth, which conforms to the norm of "a specific lifestyle of a nation, a period, a group or the whole mankind" Of course, this is a joke.

If we pay a little attention, we will find that foreign culture affects all aspects of our modern life. Take the current middle school students as an example. At least their daily life, from televisions, refrigerators and washing machines at home to fast food and cars for eating out, is imported from abroad. Apart from the couplets posted at home, it seems that there is not much connection with the traditional culture of China. Even the lighter, an indispensable gadget in life, was invented abroad.

Through investigation, it is found that middle school students know little about China traditional culture and have little interest, but they show great enthusiasm for foreign culture, which may be related to their lifestyle. Modern fast-paced lifestyle makes China's traditional culture unable to keep pace. Everyone's choice has its own rationality and some helplessness. For example, there seems to be no large-scale official performance in Zhuhai in recent years (similar to other places), obviously because few people like Beijing opera, and the performance style of Beijing opera is also incompatible with modern life. It seems that Peking Opera will not be eliminated by society without seeking its own changes. Now let's analyze the influence of foreign culture, including literature, social economy and lifestyle.

First, the influence of foreign culture on China's traditional literature.

My personal view has changed in three aspects: first, the movement of overseas students and the corresponding novel translation; Second, the breakthrough of novel translation in vernacular Chinese; Third, realistic literature (in the history of China, realism is pitiful, and I have the impression that I have read A Dream of Red Mansions, which is related) is prosperous in China.

It turned out that after the Second Opium War, China's army was the first to be hit. Faced with the attack of western powers, it has been aging. Strangely, it was not until nearly half a century later that this blow fell on the head of China traditional literature. The difference is that this time, we China people smashed a sledgehammer into our traditional culture, and this sledgehammer is nothing more than a "western novel" that we call a "foreign devil", which triggered the above three changes. The reason why the students I am teaching now can write vernacular instead of traditional classical Chinese and say "good morning" in front of the teacher instead of "I met Mr. Xiao Sheng this morning, and I respect him very much" is also because of the influence of foreign culture. The rise of vernacular Chinese in China is really beneficial to the communication between people, so now some people think that classical Chinese is no longer necessary. However, some people still insist that in the 2 1 century, classical Chinese is more advanced than vernacular Chinese. They gave some common examples. If mom is sick at home, I hope you will go back early. Telegraph:

English: Your mother is very ill. Please hurry home.

Vernacular: Your mother is seriously ill. I hope you can go home as soon as possible.

Classical Chinese: My mother is seriously ill and hopes to return soon.

From top to bottom, the meaning of expression is getting clearer and clearer, but the number of words used is getting less and less. It can naturally be concluded that English is not as good as Chinese, and vernacular Chinese is not as good as classical Chinese. This is a chivalrous comparison, which I personally think is unreasonable, because telegraph belongs to the communication mode that is on the verge of elimination. It is mostly used in military radio stations, and the transmission of military information does not need to add personal feelings. In the case of mother's illness, it will be clearer to call. So vernacular Chinese is more suitable for modern life. Generally speaking, the influence of foreign languages on China literature is more beneficial than harmful.

Of course, the feeling now is that foreign literature has too much influence. Middle school students have basically lost sight of ancient poetry, but there are quite a few love poems written in English. There are few cases of writing by myself (all typing by computer), so more and more people (including me) write typos. Undeniably, the general trend in the computer age is typing and writing articles, because the revision of papers on the computer is always much better than writing, but students' own style can't be reflected without the difference of handwriting, so students are encouraged to write functional pens before college. With a little attention, we can find that the writing level of today's students can't compare with that of the previous generation. They are generally scrawled and illegible, but they are interested in practicing their signatures. In addition, influenced by Hong Kong culture, there are many semi-English and irregular grammars in the composition, which makes many old professors feel deeply.

In this case, we should guide students to read more ancient poems and let them discover the essence of China culture. After all, rhyming poems have their own artistic conception, which is not available in other countries. Poetry is the embodiment of a country's culture, and only those who are proficient in their own language can understand the mystery. So I don't encourage students to read foreign translated poems, because the translated things tend to be distracted. If you want to see it, watch the original, including the movie, not the dubbed version.

Judging from the results of the questionnaire survey, it is a good phenomenon that students now prefer to read traditional literature. The key is how to guide.

Second, the influence of foreign culture on China's social economy.

The invasion of foreign powers brought new culture and new technological revolution to China, followed by the rapid but abnormal development of China's social economy. It's not normal, but at least it's developing. From the Westernization Movement to the private capital in the early years of the Republic of China, and now to the Sino-foreign joint venture, foreign technology and culture have been affecting the social and economic situation in China. It can be said that 90% of the current social and economic take-off is caused by the influence of foreign cultures.

Then why didn't China society make its own changes in economic production? Jones in the United States has a view that once the economy is on track, it will constantly replicate itself. Economic growth is still a natural phenomenon, unless it is derailed by some unreasonable intervention. For China at that time, he thought that the government was a negative force, which failed to provide the necessary framework for the sustained economic growth and hindered the original positive development. He represents a contradictory view: on the one hand, he thinks that the country is too weak to be active; On the other hand, they think that the country is strong enough to veto progress. Scholars in China, on the other hand, have a unified view: China's socio-economic form dominated by agriculture does not have the conditions for the transformation from capital to technology.

Now the production capacity has improved. Unlike 500 years ago, people could only change four or five sets of clothes, but they could buy beautiful shirts at will. Therefore, students nowadays often wear different clothes in the morning and afternoon, and some clothes have more than seven colors. In this case, the atmosphere of comparing with each other will become more and more intense. In order to eliminate this influence, it is a good way to unify school uniforms. Of course, the original purpose of school uniforms is not here, but to unify the external form and express the internal school spirit.

Third, the influence of foreign culture on China's lifestyle.

In fact, the change of lifestyle includes two main aspects: thought and material.

The lifting of the ban on thinking made China people's thinking suddenly active. Now it is not difficult for teachers to find that students now have their own ideas instead of rote learning as we used to. Rebellion, which was popular in the United States in 1960s, is now in full swing in China. You warned the students, "A good beginning is half the battle." As a result, he replied "unfortunately, it is often the least important half", which makes you angry.

Students have different lifestyles. The current teaching is not only very different from the previous private schools, but also there is no corporal punishment (of course, corporal punishment in schools in mainland China is still quite serious). In addition, many students don't eat at home (lunch), saving time to do other things. Society is changing. Take Zhuhai as an example. Now there are very few families who cook by themselves (there are still many in the mainland), because there is no time, and the corresponding fast food restaurants are booming. Of course, fast food restaurants first appeared in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, which reduced the time cost people spent eating and greatly improved the social production efficiency. Through investigation, it is found that middle school students don't particularly like KFC or McDonald's, and Chinese restaurants are also a good choice. After all, China people still prefer Chinese food, but the business form of this fast food is imported from abroad. This shows that foreign culture is more suitable for the rhythm of modern life. Comparison with Japan

Finally, let's compare Japan. The culture of this small country basically originated from China. Before Meiji, almost all characters were Chinese characters. Apart from language, this Yamato nation is almost identical to the Chinese nation. /kloc-the world powers in the 0/9th century also impacted the Japanese tradition. After the Meiji Restoration, in just 30 years, the rapidly rising Japan has already possessed the strength to challenge the powerful Russia. In terms of cultural reform, Japan has been suffering from the impact of foreign cultures, but at the same time, it has continuously integrated its own culture into it. For example, in terms of characters, it invented Hiragana similar to English letters according to its pronunciation habits, which greatly reduced the trouble of reading and writing, and was called Japanese Pinyin in history. The Japanese painting tradition was originally China's landscape painting, which only focused on context and did not seek accuracy, but with continuous innovation, it developed a complete realistic style.

It must be mentioned that the origin of modern comics is also in Japan. It broke through the framework of four-grid comics and tried to interpret comics with the mode of "movie". The famous ones are Toriyama Akira, Tsukimoto Shou, Inoue Takehiko and Masami Kurumada. This generation of children (including me) grew up watching these cartoons in 75-85, and those are considered as masterpieces of cartoons. On the other hand, today's children are not so lucky, because comics are rampant and the quality is generally good. Japanese comics are self-contained, forming their own style and guiding the international trend. You see, this has formed a culture. Therefore, self-created things are the products that are the easiest to form culture. China also has his own animation style, but the number is too small to carry forward.

Now most junior high school students are post-90s. In their childhood, there are no good children's cartoons to guide their world view, so there will be a vacuum in the education stage. Good animation works can give correct guidance when children need perfect personality most. Haven't you been criticizing CCTV's cartoon "The Biography of the Seven Heroes of Lan Tu" for being full of bloody violence recently? There are even children who want to imitate the plot and cut off the artery, which is also a problem that educators should think about.

Let's talk about Japanese clothes. Forget the old kimono. Let's talk about the popular Japanese school uniforms, especially the styles that girls wear skirts, bow ties and long socks, so that people all over the world can distinguish them from people all over the world at a glance. This is Japan's own clothing style. It should be said that the effect is good. In fact, China can learn from this creative way. Some time ago, I saw on the Internet that some people advocated changing China's bachelor's clothing into a Hanfu style that conforms to the Asian figure. I think it will be good. If the design is successful, wouldn't it be the culture of China?

Japanese traditional culture is also facing the crisis of extinction when it is impacted by foreign culture, but they combine the two well, thus deriving their own new culture and promoting it to the outside world. China has not done enough in this regard. Don't we feel a little ashamed to see middle school students full of "Hari" and "Hahan"? To tell the truth, I don't like Japan from the bottom of my heart, but I still think some of their practices are worth learning from. As mentioned above, we can see that popular culture has a great influence on middle school students, and the current lifestyle of middle school students is a way of paying great attention to "self". Simply put, it is naive thinking and mature behavior. Without the hardships of childhood, middle school students in Zhuhai are generally spoiled, with poor self-care and self-control ability and poor manners. This can't be entirely blamed on them. Parents' doting and teachers' connivance are responsible. In addition, China's traditional culture lacks innovation. In an era when people need faith and norms, China's traditional culture can't provide relevant ideological services or popular factors, and middle school students are most likely to be interested in novelty, which directly leads them to like foreign cultures such as KFC, street dance and hanbok, because in contrast, traditional slow-paced Chinese food, Tai Ji Chuan, Chinese tunic suit and so on. Do not meet the needs of life.

Now some older people are pessimistic, thinking that once traditional culture dies, China will not be China. Actually, it is not. As I said, culture is a dynamic thing, and things change with time. Compared with 20 years ago, the culture in China is very different now. Middle school students go roller skating, taking stickers, karaoke and other activities on holidays, which can not be regarded as a combination with the trend of traditional culture. The traditional culture of China must be changed according to the needs of society. Of course, the original can also be kept. Classical Chinese, for example, can be regarded as an evolutionary version of classical Chinese, which is a popular trend. However, classical Chinese itself should be preserved, and special subjects can be set up to send people to study, so as to continue. However, this document form that is not suitable for modern life cannot force everyone to learn. Japanese kungfu culture and sumo culture can last for more than a thousand years, but not China? As long as it can be changed, China's traditional culture will certainly arouse the interest of middle school students, thus guiding new trends.

An innovative nation is a nation with vitality. It seems that we educators should also pay attention to guiding the trend of traditional cultural changes while teaching students at ordinary times.

Excerpted from Baidu netizens, thank you.