China News Service, Wuyishan, Fujian, March 22: How does collectivism benefit China and the world?
——Exclusive interview with Tamara Prosik, senior researcher at Monash University
China News Service reporter Gu Shihong Wang Zonghan Xu Guanguan
Modernization is the development direction of human civilization, and the cultural choice of collectivism or individualism has attracted the attention of the world.
What are the core values of the two cultures? Why is collectivism culture beneficial to China and the world? Tamara Prosik, a senior researcher at Monash University in Australia, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" during a series of Wuyi Forum events hosted by Renmin University of China in Fujian. She shared her views on China based on the concept of collectivism. Civilized understanding and thinking.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service reporter: As a senior researcher in philosophy, history and international relations, why do you pay attention to Chinese civilization and the development of China? How do you understand the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization?
Tamara Prosik:
To me, socialist China represents the future of the world. This is an important reason why I am so interested in Chinese tradition and modern civilization. I am not an expert on traditional Chinese culture, and there is still a lot to learn. But starting from theory and experience, I have a profound understanding of socialism, which is also the practical path chosen by China in many aspects such as society, politics and economy.
I was born, raised and educated in the former Yugoslavia, so socialist China feels familiar to me to some extent. But the difference is that China has embarked on a socialist path in theory and practice that is in line with China's unique national conditions. I am constantly deepening my understanding of the combination of Chinese socialism and traditional culture. This process never ends and is a process of continuous development of critical dialogue between China and the rest of the world.
I think a distinctive feature of Chinese civilization is that it is fundamentally inclusive and dialectical. This is different from the West, whose hegemonic thinking adheres to an essential, non-dialectical stance. In this stance, any resistance to Western economic, political, cultural and other models is regarded as irreconcilable opposition. China, on the other hand, starts from the standpoint of understanding, allowing diversity, and seeking common ground while reserving differences. Dialectics includes not only the struggle of opposites, but also complementarity and unity through sublation.
China understands this very well. This understanding comes not only from Marxist dialectics, but also from China’s own cultural tradition, which emerges in a constructive and inclusive way and is dialectical. For example, traditional Chinese gardens seamlessly combine the opposition and diversity between nature and cultural and human factors without destroying their independence. In a sense, these traditional gardens are the external manifestation of China’s constructive, inclusive and dialogue-oriented dialectical thinking, and such dialectical thinking drives China to advocate a “win-win” approach and co-construction in international relations. The "Belt and Road" initiative describes the world vision in the white paper "Working Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: China's Initiatives and Actions". China insists on thinking in an inclusive and dialectical way and looking for solutions that are harmonious but different. This dialectical inclusiveness is, to a certain extent, part of the genetic code of Chinese civilization and an inseparable part of Chinese traditional and modern culture.
"Working Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: China's Initiatives and Actions" white paper. Photo by Zhang Yu
Another characteristic of Chinese civilization is collectivism. This is part of Chinese culture. From a cross-cultural research perspective, this is also a characteristic shared by most cultures in the world. In other words, the Chinese, like people in other parts of the world, believe that human beings are fundamentally inseparable social beings, interdependent, cooperative, and embedded in various social relationships, but they differ in cultural characteristics. Collectivism, combined with China's dialectical inclusiveness, is of great significance on the world stage and stands in stark contrast to individualism. Individualism is a typical cultural feature of a few Western countries, and these countries are keen and indiscriminate in trying to make it a universal value through various means.
China News Service reporter: What are the core values and characteristics of collectivism and individualism cultures?
Tamara Prosik:
Collectivism and individualism are terms that describe cultural characteristics and can be broadly defined as a culture’s focus and orientation toward individuals or groups, reflecting the values of a normative social system. A country's tendency to be collectivist or individualistic depends on the extent to which individuals integrate into the collective.
For individualism, the connection between individuals is loose, and individualism emphasizes the concept of "I"; social cohesion is low, interpersonal communication is characterized by competition, and egoism and self-centeredness become the norm. Collectivism presents a completely different picture: individuals are firmly integrated into smaller or larger social groups throughout their lives, focusing on the concept of "we"; social cohesion is high, interpersonal interactions are characterized by cooperation and altruism, and group members are There are mutual obligations.
China News Service reporter: Why do you think Chinese-style modernization embodies the cultural characteristics of collectivism?
Tamara Prosik:
Chinese-style modernization is based on Marxism. Marxism itself is a collectivist theory that advocates the economic emancipation of the working class and the economic emancipation of all mankind. It starts from the standpoint that human beings are "social beings" and believes that human beings can be "individuals", but they can only develop in the "collective" that coexists with them.
One might think of humans as self-sufficient, self-interested, and self-centered individuals, but humans are more than simple abstractions. Chinese-style modernization has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. If China's economic and social policies were entirely based on individualistic values, and if the Chinese people did not believe that they must work together and cooperate to achieve prosperity, then everything China has achieved now would be Development gains will be impossible to achieve. Western neoliberal modernization insists on individualism at all levels, but so far, this path has not brought prosperity to the majority of mankind. The latest World Inequality Report shows that global inequality is as severe today as it was at the height of Western imperialism in the early 20th century. Western neoliberal and individualistic cultural values have proven ineffective in escaping poverty.
Aerial photography of the photovoltaic power generation and agricultural product planting base in Lingyang Street Village, Ju County, Rizhao City, Shandong Province. In recent years, the National Training Base for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity Leaders in Poor Villages (Lingyang Street) has trained more than 6,000 agricultural and rural professionals of various types, effectively promoting rural revitalization and poverty alleviation. Photo by Mao Jianjun
China News Service reporter: What are the roots of China’s collectivist culture? What are the advantages? What is its value to the world?
Tamara Prosik:
China’s collectivist culture is rooted in both tradition and modernity. The recent white paper "Working Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: China's Initiatives and Actions" and the Global Civilization Initiative are like China's traditional gardens, combining tradition and modernity in a way that is easy for other countries to understand. Like other characteristics of Chinese culture, China's collectivist culture does not seek to impose its own political, economic, and cultural values on other countries. China's collectivism maintains dialogue and openness to all cultures, political systems and production methods in the world, is able to think beyond national boundaries and beyond its own cultural characteristics, and is prepared to cooperate with other countries to achieve common prosperity for all mankind. One of my favorite Chinese words is "kindness", which is commonly translated in English as "benevolence", but this translation is far less rich in meaning. Chinese collectivism is a kind of "kindness" and can show the world how to be "kind". This is also its strength and value to the world.
On December 6, 2022, at Ruili Vocational and Technical School in Ruian City, Zhejiang Province, children from families lifted out of poverty in southern counties of Sichuan Province learned to operate a robotic arm. The People's Government of Southern County in Sichuan Province and Ruili Group in Ruian City, Zhejiang Province signed the East-West Collaborative Training "Proud Blue" project to cultivate a group of high-skilled technical talents and elite blue-collar workers in the automobile and motorcycle parts industry in both places. Photo by Sun Lin
China News Service reporter: In your research, you pay special attention to the international order proposed by China in its collectivist culture and thinking, including the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, and the promotion of common prosperity of world civilizations. Global Civilization Initiative. Why do you say this is what the world needs?
Tamara Prosik:
Over the past three decades, the "rules-less" rather than "rules-based" neoliberal capitalist order devised by the West has not reduced the world's poverty and inequality. Rather, it is simply recolonizing the world in a more subtle way than it was a century ago. Although Western countries do not directly control and plunder developing countries as in the past, they continue to exploit them under the guise of "development" by imposing many typical Western political, economic practices and cultural values.
This formulaic development model does not take into account local material conditions, as well as culture, economy, political practices and social values, and is destined to fail. The intention is to generate quick profits, not general prosperity.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative focuses on regional conditions and local needs, bringing development through mutually beneficial material and intangible projects, aiming to connect economies and cultures between countries and encourage cross-cultural understanding. China is a principled and rule-abiding country that respects the sovereignty of other countries and treats every country as an equal partner.
In the early morning of November 23, 2023, the container ship "Changjin Klang" was loading and unloading at the Dapukou Container Terminal in Jintang Port Area, Zhoushan Port, Ningbo. This ship operates the Changjin-Black Sea Line and calls at Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey and other countries co-constructing the "Belt and Road". It is also the 34th "Belt and Road" route of the terminal. Photo by Yao Feng
After thirty years of Western-style disorder and neoliberal modernization, more and more countries have joined the Belt and Road Initiative, proving that China is showing the way to world prosperity. China has proved through its actions that the Chinese-style modernization path indeed leads to that kind of future - it has eliminated poverty in a very short time, become the main growth engine of the world economy, and is a country where 56 ethnic groups prosper together and live in harmony. This kind of prosperity is exactly what the world needs today, and Chinese-style modernization is a partial abandonment of the development methods of Western countries. Western countries can only benefit from realizing that in the world context, individualistic values are actually an "alienation aberration" rather than a cultural achievement.
About the Author:
Tamara Prosik. Photo by China News Service reporter Zhang Bin
Tamara Prosik is a senior research fellow at the School of Philosophy, History and International Studies at Monash University, Australia. Born in the former Yugoslav Federation, her research fields include comparative cultural studies and Marxist studies, with a particular focus on Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony and the study of the combination of religious traditions and Marxism, such as the possible positive effects of Orthodox Christianity during the Russian Revolution. Influence. He has published many papers in related research fields and is preparing to publish a related monograph.