On the Construction and Representation of Chinese Cultural Identity: From an Intercultural Perspective

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group.Individual,relational and communal identity are the three components of the cultural identity.Chinese cultural identity is an example of communal identity.A positive national cultural identity enhances national prestige,increases global understanding,reveals a unique value proposition and develops a competitive advantage in the world.However,in the wave of globalization and contemporary Chinese social transformation,Chinese cultural identity encounters some challenges.Cultural identity becomes fuzzy.The present paper attempts to make some suggestions to the construction and representation of Chinese cultural identity from an intercultural perspective.To construct Chinese cultural identity,we should try to accommodate Chinese cultural inheritance with contemporary culture and modern society,enhance full development of cultural products,rebuild people’s self-esteem on cultural identity,and improve the government’s identity-constructing ability.As for the representation of Chinese cultural identity,promoting the Chinese language,making use of mass media,performing national cultural identity in sports,encouraging heritage tourism and drawing upon other countries’ experience would be essential.

Being Chinese in Lived Intercultural Experiences:A Discourse Analysis of Chinese Undergraduates’Perceptions of Chinese Culture

The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity.A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing.Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves“being Chinese”and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to.A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’notions of Chinese culture.The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’cultural identity and their much debated“identity crisis.”