The Characteristics of the Transmutation of Social Customs in China in the Hundred Years

The reason for the change of social customs in modern China is that the transmutation of social customs in modern China, which emerged in the late Qing Dynasty and rose in the Republic of China, was not instantaneous, but was caused by a combination of factors in the political, economic and cultural development of the society at that time. First, the root of the change - - social variability of social inheritance and historical inheritance so that human society is constantly "replicating" the history, but the variability of society can constantly make it new. It is under the impetus of this force that modern Chinese social customs have begun to emerge in new fields. As far as the transmutation of social customs in modern China is concerned, this force originated more from the mutual collision of Eastern and Western civilizations. As we all know, after the Opium War, with the entry of foreign missionaries and invading armies into China, the material and spiritual civilizations of the West also came with them. Whether the Chinese accepted the Western civilization actively or passively, the Chinese culture had to respond. Thus, the foreign affairs school appeared and the reformist school came into being, and they continuously made use of their political advantages and academic expertise to start a cultural movement under the slogan of "using the Chinese body and the West", with the inheritance and development of the traditional academic culture as the main body, and paying attention to the absorption of the Western culture. In this way, in the conflict and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, in the old and new things discarded and absorbed, social change, the culture of enlightenment, and as one of the constituent elements of social life of social customs will naturally have another new scene. Second, the tendency of change - - political orientation of social customs as a reflection of political life, and often associated with the political orientation, government policy. A government often interferes with the customs of the people from the point of view of maintaining its rule. As early as the 1960s, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom took a series of measures against the old customs; at the same time, they also carried out reforms in the area of etiquette and customs, including regulations on dress, etiquette, religion, marriages, funerals, titles, etc. By the time of the Qing Dynasty's "Preparatory Legislature", it had become the most important part of the government's political life. During the period of the Qing Dynasty's "Preparatory Constitutionalism", the Qing government also took a series of measures to change customs and traditions, including the abolition of the ban on intermarriage between Manchus and Han Chinese, and so on. After the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionaries led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen issued a series of rules and regulations for reforming customs from the perspective of safeguarding the achievements of the revolution and eradicating feudalism and autocracy, covering such aspects as banning the sale of human beings, prohibiting corporal punishment, protecting civil rights, banning opium, prohibiting gambling, controlling prostitutes, reforming calendars, changing the name of the people, cutting the plait in a limited period of time, urging the banning of foot-binding, reforming etiquettes, and setting up a new style. At the same time, under the strong impetus of the government, social organizations aiming at the improvement of customs emerged in response to the government's policy, and their propaganda echoed the government's policy. For a time, there was a powerful trend of changing customs and removing the old, and the social outlook and customs were greatly improved. Third, the catalyst of change - - the commercial development of the tendency to profit after the Opium War, under the influence of Western concepts, "mercantile" policy began to be implemented, so many people abandoned agriculture for business, and even appeared in the country's business trend, the world mercantile once became the leading trend of the fashion. The world's emphasis on business once became the leading trend of fashion. The ancient motto of "righteousness over profit" was left behind, replaced by the pursuit of "profit-oriented"; honest and trustworthy way of doing business is also gradually faded, talk about ostentation, more than luxury and pleasure in time to become a momentary trend. The phenomenon of social comparison is becoming more and more serious, this social climate makes many people start to pursue a new way of life, which to a certain extent also contributed to the change of social customs at that time. The 30 years from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century were a period of great revolution in China's intellectual world. The invasion of advanced Western countries, the entry of advanced civilization, the introduction of the "theory of evolution", all in the Chinese intelligentsia have had a great impact on the community of China's intellectuals, and become the "catalyst" of the Chinese intellectual community. The defeat of several wars, the exercise of the foreign affairs movement, and the lessons of the Hundred Days' Reform have led to the emergence of a new type of intellectual group in China. They propagated a new bourgeois concept of life. This new cultural value became the crucial ideological foundation for the transmutation of modern Chinese social customs; infused with these bourgeois ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity, a brand-new social custom began to emerge. V. Inducement of change - - Missionary guidance After the Opium War. Due to the signing of unequal treaties, more foreign missionaries began to enter China. From then on, remarkable changes took place in the field of thought in China. As a result, churches and chapels became not only holy places for them to propagate their religion, but also temples for them to spread modern scientific and cultural knowledge. They often guided people against superstition, propagated science, and criticized all kinds of bad habits by publishing books and magazines, opening institutions such as academies, nurseries, orphanages, almshouses, and shelters for opium-smokers, encouraging people to discourage opium, advocating heavenly feet, and opposing concubinage. Characteristics of Changes in Modern Chinese Social Customs Social customs, as an integral part of social life, in the process of parallel development with politics and economy, not only reflect the ****same characteristics of the society in the same era, but at the same time, it presents many distinctive own characteristics. First, compared with the change of ancient social customs, the change of modern Chinese social customs has a sharp social customs in China's thousands of years of history has been sending out a new breath, but the power of the meager, weak changes, the speed of the slow, and the transmutation of modern social customs compared to the rapidity of the transmutation of the pallid and powerless. Starting from the 1960s, the propaganda and action for the improvement of social customs went through the initial stage of the foreign affairs movement, the depth of the reform and reform, and finally reached the climax of the Xinhai Revolution; in this short period of several decades of social development, although there were social upheavals and the change of government, this trend continued to develop and grow, and swept through all classes of the society. Moreover, this trend affected all aspects of people's lives, including not only the improvement of people's material life, but also the liberation of people's spiritual life, involving people's clothing, food, housing, transportation, manners and speech, etiquette, human accidents, and many other aspects. Secondly, compared with the political changes at that time, the change of modern Chinese social customs had a lagging effect. After the Opium War, there were very obvious changes in Chinese society. In social life, the old and the new forces played the roles assigned to them by history according to the needs of their own interests. In the interaction of various forces, social life showed diverse characteristics, and the transmutation of social customs also reflected the characteristics of the era of the alternation of the old and the new, and was branded with the color of transition. However, due to the obstruction of conservative forces, although the socio-political system of modern China has undergone great changes, the fact of transmutation of social customs is not very optimistic. It was confined to the cities and the upper classes, and no marked change had yet been made among the general public. Thirdly, in the process of the eastward gradation of western customs, the change of social customs in modern China has an accessory nature Chinese social customs were transmuted under the inculcation of western culture. This undoubtedly determines to a large extent that the transmutation of modern Chinese social customs will have a strong color of Western culture, with the distinctive characteristics of subordination to Western culture. Of course, the transmutation of modern Chinese social customs should be recognized for its progress. Fourth, from the point of view of dissemination and development, the change of modern Chinese social customs is unbalanced social customs in the process of its transmutation, due to the differences in political speech in different parts of the world. The political and economic development of the very different, cultural awareness of the differences between different regions, it is not the same, it has an unbalanced nature. First of all, in the southeastern coastal areas, trading ports and open cities, people's minds are more active due to more contact with the outside world, which makes it easier for people to accept new things. Meanwhile, in the urban and rural areas and remote mountainous regions, especially in the relatively backward areas of the southwest, northwest and northeast, advanced ideas and speeches are difficult to reach these areas due to the remoteness of the terrain, and people here are influenced by their regions and traditions, making it difficult for them to change their stubborn ideas. Secondly, the groups of people who accepted this transmutation were also different. The revolutionaries and the enlightened upper class of the society had a "natural bias" in the process of accepting this new thing due to their ideological and political superiority, whereas it was difficult for the common people to come into contact with and accept these new things. In short, the change of social customs in modern China is in accordance with the law of historical development, which is the result of the combined efforts of various forces in the society at that time. It was the result of the combined efforts of various social forces at that time, including the role of political orientation and the catalytic effect of commercial development, the initiation of ideological innovation and the inducement of foreign missionaries. However, modern Chinese social customs in the process of its change, because of its conservative historical inheritance. Coupled with the obstruction of conservative forces, its transmutation, though drastic, has not yet become a breakthrough. Therefore, although the Republic of China has been established, however, the people's culture of simplicity, the mud of the old system of the state compared with the previous did not have a great change. All of this is destined to the modernization of Chinese social customs still have a long way to go.