Cross-cultural dialogue

Author: Yue Daiyun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Recently, three discussion forums on "Interactive Cognition, Diverse Coexistence" were held consecutively in Timbuktu, Mali, Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium. The spirit of these forums was prominently reflected in the speech of the European Union President Prodi, who stated that the conflict between "extreme poverty, the bleak prospects of survival, and the irreversible process of global integration" is as widespread as certain cultural and political phenomena. He believed that only "an open dialogue between different cultures can curb the global expansion of Western consumerist values or extreme economic individualism." In interethnic dialogues, the first principle to be confirmed should be the equality of different cultures and the right of each to fully retain its characteristics. The meetings held in these three locations were indeed a highly timely dialogue, and this issue publishes differing opinions from four scholars from Italy, Spain, India, and France for readers to consider.
This issue's "Special Forum" discusses the current state of development in China's third sector. The third sector refers to civil organizations that are neither part of the government mechanism (NCO non-governmental) nor the market economy system (NPO non-profit), such as environmental protection organizations, women's rights protection organizations, and various poverty alleviation, charity, public welfare funds, development promotion, and cultural exchange organizations. The articles argue that the development of China's third sector not only does not hinder but also promotes the maturation of market mechanisms, serving as an important channel for communication between the government and civil society.
Zhang Xudong's article raises a highly thought-provoking question: how to coordinate China's needs with the global context, particularly by providing theoretical explanation and defense for the existence and development of contemporary China based on the inherent continuity of its modernity historical experience. The question of how Chinese culture can self-locate and self-conceive in the face of the influence of various dominant Western cultures in the contemporary era is also an issue of striving for autonomy and establishing ambitions for world culture and world history. He proposes that the basic approach to Chinese cultural studies should be "transcending the West and returning to (Chinese cultural) tradition." This is because how Chinese people return to tradition depends on how they define their present and envision their future. He argues that without participating in the creation of contemporary life, engaging with Western studies, or participating in the major theoretical discussions of the contemporary world, it is impossible to deeply discuss the Chinese cultural tradition. His reflections have opened up broad space for further discussion on the relationship between tradition and modernity.
Jin Siyan's article on 20th-century Chinese literature points out that there have been two major trends in world literature: one is the emergence of individualism due to the weakening of social relations, with the extreme being the loneliness and suffering of individuals after the disintegration of the collective society. The other is nihilism arising from the disappearance of shared values, where anyone can choose their own values without considering others'. Criticisms of these trends often take the form of nostalgia for the past. When nostalgia for the past becomes an ideal and is projected onto the future, a new collective emerges—one that aspires to counter individualism and nihilism, to strengthen social bonds through regression, and to rebuild collective spaces. This is the experience of 20th-century literature, particularly Chinese literature: building an ideal republic of literature. From this global perspective, the article offers many new insights into the development of 20th-century Chinese literature.
Both Zhang and Jin were top students at Peking University in the late 1980s. One is in New York, and the other is in Paris, both of whom have already made a name for themselves in academia abroad and are similarly contemplating and experiencing the path of "transcending the West and returning to Chinese cultural tradition." Their experiences and reflections are highly valuable for us to learn from.