What Has Been Lost in Contemporary China?

What Has Been Lost in Contemporary China? Volume 1 in the 'Transcultural Experiences Seen through "Three Eyes"' book series Product details Paperback: 144 pages Publisher: Global China Press (1 November 2015) Language: Chinese ISBN: 978-1-910334-16-4 Product Dimensions: 17 x 24 cm About the author Chen Lixing is Professor of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan. She was the first Chinese citizen to obtain a PhD in sociology in Japan. After working as a researcher at the United Nations Regional Development Centre (UNCRD), she returned to academia and was the first Chinese national to become a professor of sociology in Japan. In addition to serving as president of the Japan-China Sociological Society (JCSS), she has led many major research projects, for example 'Comparative Studies on the New Migrants from BRIC countries in America, Australia, Japan and the UK' and published more than 40 articles and nine books in Japanese, English and Chinese. About the book What Has Been Lost in Contemporary China? (in Chinese) is the first book in the 'Transcultural Experiences Seen through "Three Eyes"' book series. It focuses on contemporary China since the early 20th century. After a half century of humiliation by Western powers, followed by much soul-searching and spiritual cleansing during the socialist revolution and the impact of the globalization of the market economy over the past 30 years, China has achieved its goal of modernization and entered the ranks of the great powers in the G2. But in the process its culture has suffered. In today's China, social and moral decay, excessive consumption and materialism are everywhere. In this book, the author, contemplating China from a sociologist's perspective and drawing on her own personal experiences of living through different periods of the socialist China and its aftermath, reflects on which elements of Chinese traditional culture have been lost along the way. What kinds of social changes have happened in China since it realized its goal of modernization? What are the operating mechanisms of China's social system? What kind of value system is needed to maintain contemporary China's social system? This book is the first volume of The 'Transcultural Experiences Seen through "Three Eyes"' book series which is published by Global Chinese Press (GCP) from 2015. The book series is edited jointly by Lixing Chen and Xiangqun Chang. Chen is Professor of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan. Chang is Director of CCPN Global; an Honorary Professor at University College London, UK Over the past 500 years, the contacts and exchanges between China and the West have become increasingly frequent and intensive, but the depth of mutual understanding is still subject to certain limitations, arising from differences in history, culture and ideology and resulting in misunderstandings and even prejudices on both sides. The rapid development of China after the implementation of reform and the policy of opening up to the world nearly four decades ago have brought it worldwide attention, as well as the expectation that China will take its share of responsibilities and obligations in all areas of international affairs. In the past few decades, global society has undergone modernization, post-modernization, modernity, post-modernity, multi-modernity, globalization and post-globalization. We believe that the concept of transculturality, which is related to but distinct from cross-, inter- and multi-culturality, can become mainstream discourse in the near future. Such an approach could help us to shed our prejudices and to re-examine each other objectively and rationally. «»(Wha