What are the changes and characteristics of modern Chinese etiquette?

We say that the etiquette of feudal society was the most complicated and hierarchical period. In order to maintain their position as the supreme ruler, the feudal rulers made themselves the "true son of the emperor", who was absolutely supreme, and they had to kneel three times and kowtow nine times to see the emperor. This kneeling is the most common courtesy of the subjects to see the emperor. Kneeling is the original primitive society, people greet each other posture, to the feudal society has evolved into a kind of expression of submissive etiquette and increasingly complex, standardized. Kneeling has "long kneeling", "worship", "pause head", "bow", "empty head", different people meet, kneeling ceremony naturally have different. The rites of the courtiers to congratulate the emperor and the empress were different. This feudal etiquette is closely related to the political system of the feudal landlord class. It can be seen that the etiquette culture of each era is also for the service of the times.

With the emergence of capitalism, especially by the Western bourgeoisie, "freedom, equality, democracy, fraternity" and other ideas, China's traditional culture of etiquette has also been impacted. The invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, China was reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, feudal etiquette and morality was covered with a layer of "beautiful" Western etiquette warm veil, so the rulers held up the banner of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, under the guise of a hypocritical and beautiful veil, to do more cruel, bloody hooks. The etiquette at this time was a hodgepodge of Eastern and Western rituals, and the rulers used the power in their hands to their advantage, adopting an absolutely foolish policy towards the common people.

By the early years of the Republic of China, especially with the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Western civilization was, after all, a powerful impact on the ancient culture of the East. This impact naturally affected all aspects of people's lives, and the culture of etiquette also bore the brunt. Due to the changes in the political system, people's life style, customs and etiquette also changed profoundly, the Western civilization drove in, some of China's ancient red tape was completely abandoned. For example, the history of the time recorded a lot of information about how people have cut the braid to stay short hair to show the revolution, Lu Xun's Q is a reflection. And also took off the robes and coats, put on a western-style clothes, how women let go of the small feet and big feet, kneeling ceremony was also eliminated at this time, instead of bowing and shaking hands, and so on.

These changes in the style of etiquette reflected the progress of the times and the good intentions of the Chinese bourgeoisie at that time to use the rational ideas of the Western bourgeois revolution as a weapon to get rid of the stereotypes and bad habits. To a certain extent, this breaks the old rituals of some feudal and backward ethical and moral concepts, and promotes the development of etiquette and culture.