China News Service, Beijing, March 15th: Title: Global Civilization Initiative aims to solve three major problems
Author Wang Yiwei, EU Jean Monnet Chair Professor and Director of the Institute of International Affairs, Renmin University of China
One year ago on March 15, the Global Civilization Initiative was first proposed.
This is another international public good provided by China to the world after the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative.
The four "co-advocates" proposed by the Global Civilization Initiative - jointly advocate for respecting the diversity of world civilizations, jointly advocate for the promotion of common values of all mankind, jointly advocate for attaching importance to the inheritance and innovation of civilizations, jointly advocate for strengthening international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, are aimed at solving the three major problems Issue: To rectify the name of civilization, trace the origin of modernization, and seek wisdom for the future of mankind.
This initiative not only complies with the common needs of the international community to enhance dialogue and exchanges among civilizations and promote cultural prosperity and development, but also contributes Chinese wisdom to the development of human society and the progress of human civilization.
Justify civilization
The first problem that China proposes to propose the Global Civilization Initiative is to rectify the name of civilization.
What is "civilization"?
French historian Guizot described it this way in his book "History of European Civilization": "Civilization is like the ocean. It constitutes the wealth of a nation. All the elements of the nation's life and all the forces that support its existence are concentrated and United within it.”
In Europe, the linear evolutionary civilization view of civilization-barbarism, advanced-backward has long been dominant.
Under the historical view of Western European civilization, "civilization" is considered to be the exclusive property of Britain, France and other early-developing countries, while other countries and regions are considered "barbaric" or "semi-barbaric".
Cologne Cathedral, Germany.
Photo by Liu Yunfeng
Germany was the first to become a rebel against Western civilization.
Germany used to be called "the battlefield of Europe" and "the pope's cow". Then the cultural consciousness movement surged forward. Although it mainly took place in the field of literature, its essence was a "war" of ideological paradigms.
German writers Goethe's "Prometheus" and Heine's "Adam I" both express a strong spirit of resistance.
Writers and historians' retelling and construction of the ancient German hero Hermann and the Battle of Teutoburg Forest more clearly pointed this spirit of resistance to the so-called "civilization."
On the surface, this is a search for the cultural roots of the German nation, but at a deeper level, it is a metaphor for resistance to "Western Eurocentrism."
As Collingwood, a famous Western scholar, said, the Germans are "trying to find achievements in the past and discern the spirit of their past from past achievements."
The German thinker Herder proposed the concept of culture as opposed to civilization in "The Philosophical Concept of Human History", emphasizing the nationality of cultural subjects and the limited nature of borders.
This definition broke through the concept that only Britain and France were civilized and other countries were barbaric, and laid the conditions for the rise of Germany.
German historical philosopher Spengler's "The Decline of the West" further defined culture as the spiritual level, and civilization as the material level.
He divided the history of every advanced culture in the world into "cultural stages" and "civilization stages."
He believes that the West has entered the stage of civilization and has lost its original cultural creativity, leaving only the possibility of external expansion.
Therefore, "civilization is a kind of self-promotion of the first-mover countries, which monopolizes the right to speak of 'good'".
At the ticket window of the German Historical Museum in Berlin, there is a pamphlet of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for people to read for free.
The title page of the booklet quotes French writer Stéphane Hesser: There are differences in culture, but there is no difference in civilization.
This sentence means that cultural differences cannot be used to deny the common human rights values of mankind, which are the cornerstone of modern civilization.
But at the same time, this contradiction between internal diversity and external universality stems from the European culture-civilization view: culture has diversity, but civilization is single. Cultural diversity must be respected, but civilization must evolution.
This also reflects the discourse hegemony of modern European political civilization.
Tourists visit the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, a world cultural heritage site.
Photo by Zhang Xiaoliang
In fact, civilization is plural rather than singular.
Regarding the relationship between culture and civilization, the first "joint advocacy" of the Global Civilization Initiative - jointly advocating respect for the diversity of world civilizations, restores what is the true diversity of the world and the diversity of civilizations.
At the same time, the initiative proposes a new concept of civilization that "overcomes estrangement through exchanges among civilizations, transcends conflict among civilizations through mutual learning, and transcends superiority among civilizations through coexistence of civilizations." This initiative corrects the saying in Western countries that "civilization is the essence of culture" and provides a new perspective for civilization. Correct relationship with culture.
Tracing the origins of modernization
The second problem that China proposes with its global civilization initiative is to trace the origins of modernization.
In modern times, the West took the lead in realizing modernization and attributed the reason to its own culture, describing it as civilization and believing that only the modern civilization created by the West is "universal".
At the same time, the West uses so-called "universal values" to package monotheism, describing Western modernization as the creation of the only modern human civilization, and describing ancient civilizations as "dead civilizations" or "static history." ".
In order to achieve modernization, other countries must deny traditional culture and follow the path of Westernization.
In fact, traditional culture is the nourishment of civilization, not the fetters.
The development and modernization of any country must be based on its national conditions, and the biggest national condition is the cultural foundation, which is the DNA that cannot be changed.
The 2024 "Chaozhou Qinglong Temple Fair" intangible cultural heritage parade was held in Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, and the Puning Ying Chorus performed in Paifang Street.
Photo by Chen Chuhong
In the process of exploring modernization, China has proposed that "Chinese excellent traditional culture is the crystallization and essence of Chinese civilization, the root and soul of the Chinese nation, and the foundation for us to stand firm in the surge of world culture." The principles are combined with the excellent traditional Chinese culture to blaze a Chinese-style modernization path and promote the construction of modern civilization of the Chinese nation.
This exploration broke the West’s hegemony of modernization discourse and its monopoly on modern civilization, pioneered the path of modernization for ancient civilizations that suits their own national conditions, inspired ancient civilizations’ confidence in modernization, restored the diversity of world modernization, and gave the world Countries and nations that hope to accelerate development while maintaining their independence provide a new reference and reference.
The Fuxing smart EMU runs on the Quanzhou Bay Cross-sea Bridge of the Fuzhou-Xiamen High-speed Railway.
Photo by Bao Gansheng
Today, the majority of developing countries, especially those with ancient civilizations, need to find their confidence in civilization and promote their excellent traditional culture to achieve creative transformation and innovative development in the process of modernization, instead of simply imitating or even relying on other countries, so that civilization becomes civilization. The country becomes itself.
At the world level, the Global Civilization Initiative is proposed in the hope that all countries can be themselves, be themselves tolerant of others, and be a combination of tradition and modernity.
The second "joint advocacy" of the Global Civilization Initiative - jointly advocating and promoting the common values of all mankind, restores the universality of human values.
On the one hand, the common values of all mankind such as peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom are inclusive and are the common pursuit of mankind, not unique to a certain civilization, breaking the West's monopoly on modern civilization; on the other hand, through It advocates not imposing one's own values and models on others and not engaging in ideological confrontation. The Global Civilization Initiative uses a broad mind to understand the understanding of value connotations of different civilizations.
The third "joint advocacy" in the global civilization initiative - joint advocacy to value the inheritance and innovation of civilization, restores the cultural meaning of modernization.
On the one hand, traditional culture is the nourishment of modernization, and it does not mean denying tradition to pursue modernization; on the other hand, traditional culture must keep pace with the times, achieve creative transformation, innovative development, and adapt to the progress of the times, especially integrating into digital civilization and ecological civilization.
Seeking wisdom for the future of mankind
The third problem that China proposes with its global civilization initiative is to seek wisdom for the future of mankind.
With the development of the times, digital civilization represented by AI and big data and ecological civilization whose mission is to respond to climate change have brought impact to the transformation of human civilization and also brought huge opportunities.
In this context, by advocating dialogue and cooperation among civilizations and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and absorbing the wisdom of civilizations from all countries, we can better find solutions to human problems.
On March 14, 2024, an AI high-tech humanoid home robot was exhibited at the China Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo: an intelligent "music artist" who can play the piano.
Photo by Chen Yuyu
The fourth "joint advocacy" in the Global Civilization Initiative - joint advocacy to strengthen international people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation, restores that dialogue based on civilization and equality is the real dialogue.
The goal of civilized and equal dialogue is not to discover the self (similarity) reflected by the other party, but the self (similarity) presented by the other party, "I become me through you"; the way of dialogue is to create a sense of me in you and you in me. A community with a shared future should be an independent and equal relationship within this community. If it is just a relationship of dependence, it cannot be called a community. It is just civilization and education or a dialogue between oneself and one's own shadow.
For example, European countries have sovereign equality and established the European Union through voluntary transfer of sovereignty. However, the US-led alliance system lacks equality among countries and loses the meaning of the community.
Of course, the European Community is also a homogeneous community. It lacks tolerance for some countries such as Turkey and produces negative externalities.
Today, through the implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative, countries around the world are strengthening international people-to-people and cultural exchanges with the global community of civilization as the ultimate goal, building a global dialogue and cooperation network for civilizations, and building global civilization partners. This not only demonstrates civilizational confidence, mutual respect and appreciation, but also exchanges. Create a new form of civilization, solve various complex and acute problems faced by mankind, and find a way out to deal with major changes unseen in a century.
About the Author:
Wang Yiwei is a professor at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, director of the Institute of International Affairs, researcher on contemporary political party platforms, and "Jean Monnet" Chair Professor of the European Union.
He is the author of "China's Practice of People-to-People Connectivity", "The Light of the "One Belt and One Road"", "China's Answers to Questions of the Times: Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind", "From Freehand Expression to Meticulous Painting: The Theory and Practice of the "One Belt and One Road"" and "Strong Relations between Nations". "How People Can Get Connected: The Way of China's Public Diplomacy in the New Era", "One Belt and One Road: Opportunities and Challenges", "The World is Connected - The Logic of the "One Belt, One Road"", "Haiyu: Apocalypse of European Civilization", etc.
He has delivered keynote speeches on "A Community with a Shared Future for Mankind" and "One Belt, One Road" at the UNESCO headquarters and the side events of the United Nations General Assembly.