Diversified Ethos in China
Since the reform and opening up in 1978, China’s economic has developed rapidly, and the comprehensive national strength has improved significantly. However, uneven distribution of resources (including labor resources, technical resources, information resources, mineral resources and so on) conditions countless social issues, such as the polarization between rich and poor, official corruption, environmental pollution, etc. Based on these thorny issues, the social contradictions intensify gradually. There are different voices in China’s internal society, and China’s social ideology can be basically divided into four categories: Nationalism, Western Democracy and liberalism, Blank/Semi-blank Awareness, and Mainstream ideology.
All of these names of categories do not have derogatory sense. Please consider them as neutral terms.
Nationalism
This group is mainly composed of left-wing officials and radical patriots. Nationalists in china are showing their intense anxiety, anxiety of the future, destination of the country. They usually cherish our country’s unity and solidarity. They hope, when China encounters external issues, like Taiwan issue, Diaoyu islands issue, the whole country, including the government and all citizens, can be highly consistent, showing the tough stance and defending the nation’s overall interests. However, in this group there are many radicals who are always being criticized of lacking rational. For example, they always invoke people to boycott. In 2008, before Beijing Olympics, they boycotted French Carrefour due to the Tibet issue. In 2012, they boycotted Jusco, Honda and other Japanese companies due to the Diaoyu islands issue. Their actions can be seen as babyish, untutored, irrational, or even stupid; however, the overwhelming strength showed in the boycott campaign, pushed French and Japanese right-wing force to compromise. The representative works of this group are Unhappy China, China can say no.
Western democracy and liberalism
This is the group which is always verbal sparring against the first one. They are mainly composed of the middle class who are influenced by western regime and so-called “public intellectuals”. Since there is a perfect model – America, they want to duplicate the western democracy on China’s circumstance. In their view, everything in western countries is right, rational, and worth learning. They are trying to search every little individual case to testify how good the western countries’ regime is and how horrible the China’s is. For example, an old lady in Seattle had the right of keeping her house from real estate developer due to the protection by the Fifth Amendment of constitution, so finally the developer had to build the building around her house. That is a really perfect case for these Chinese democrats and liberals. Even though this is only an individual case occasionally happened in the US, they have enough evidence to reveal how humanized the western regime is and how good the life in western countries is. They provoke those nail house holders not compromise to the government, and they advocate that the government cannot sacrifice any individual’s interest. While they flattering western regime, they fleer China’s. When Jade Rabbit landed on the moon, they said the children in western China were still eating grass; when China spent billions of dollars to host the Olympics, they said the children in western China were still eating grass; when Chinese government donated money and food to African countries, they said the children in western China were still eating grass. Their theory is that even one person in China is suffering, the Chinese government sucks and the Chinese social policy is the junk. The representative works of this group are who are unhappy in China, why China can say no?
Blank/Semi-Blank Awareness
Although the Chinese nationalists and democrats are diametrically opposed to each other, they have