A brief history of the Chinese heritage
Among the East Asian cultures, Chinas’ cultural heritage is the oldest. In fact, Chinas’ cultural heritage consists of several cultures characterized by dynasties and emperors. Dating back to the Qin dynasty, china has been ruled by the several succeeding dynasties each with its own ideals and beliefs. However, the common ideology among the dynasties is the application of Confucius ideals that has embedded the Chinese society into socialism (Gilzow & Branaman, 2000). The reign of Qin had a dramatic end opening a new chapter in the Chinese history. The ensuing dynasty, the Han dynasty, was more successful and established ideologies that has become the foundation of the Chinese current achievements.
Among the successes of Han is the establishment of laws, regulations and customs that today define the Chinese statehood. In addition, the Han dynasty modernized the government structure, as well as governance and established an inclusive civil service (Duff et al., 2013). In fact, the Han dynasty emphasized on the civil service based on the technical skills. After the Han dynasty, China underwent through social dissonance with each state scrambling for power and influence. The result was further disintegration of China into smaller states. Though the country was divided, language and religion became the unifying factor. China was divided into the southern and northern states that later unified under the reign of Sui (Duff et al., 2013).
The bulk of China’s inhabitants and culture are of Han origin. The inhabitants recognize the national civilization as well as customs traced back to over a thousand years. Due to the recognition of national civilization, tremendous strides have been realized in preserving the nationhood through ensuring fairness and hard work amongst its citizens (Duff et al., 2013). Assimilation of the small tribes has been critical in unifying the entire country to a common culture. The communist state has also played a vital task in upholding the cultural attachments of its natives from diverse minor ethnic backgrounds (Duff et al., 2013). The government identifies the marginalized groups that possess different cultures and ethnicity.
Chinese cultural values
The bulk of Chinese cultural values originate from Confucius as well as Taoism ideals. Further, concepts of Buddhism together with Neo-Confucianism are also very significant in discussing the issues concerning the Chinese culture (Duff et al., 2013). However, in the China’s royally past, Confucianism was the executive ideal. Equally important, is the legalism dictatorial strains of notion. Further, ideological differences between the Confucians and the Neo-Confucian Empires regularly led to divergence in cultural ideals. China stresses on the importance of assessment as well as a society of worth. More interestingly, over the recent past, Neo-Confucians have supported the compatibility between contemporary Confucian ideas and free philosophies of human liberties (Duff et al., 2013). In essence, China’s history is undergoing a significant test with the latest social, economic and political structures are incorporated into nationhood.
The worldview of the Chinese heritage
The governing idea that enabled China’s first Emperor to bring together the nation emphasizes that castigation trumps privileges. Therefore, to prevent tumult, the wellbeing of few citizens must be forfeited given the size of China’s population (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008). On that point of view, exceptional and legalistic ideals are felt across the Chinese landscape ranging from suppression of media, restrictions on spiritual freedoms to draconian laws that defend the state furtive. In addition, legalism make known the reasons why numerous Chinese people are proponents of death sentence yet there is lack of autonomous courts. Further, Daoism accentuates astrophysical array. The ideas guarantee gains if one lives as per the philosophies of Dao (Gilzow & Branaman, 2000). Moreover, the anxiety between regimentation and goal that is apparent at every level of cultural dynamics in every group results in entrenched anti-individualism. China’s collective plan also commend firmness as the forerunner of onward force.
Language and communication patterns
The customs of the Chinese people put a lot of emphasis on the dialect affiliations of its people. As such, the Mandarin Chinese is recognized as the official dialect of the natives. The language has also undergone tremendous transitions from the classical languages (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008). Unlike other languages, Chinese language applies phonetic alphabets. Further, the dialect incorporates pictographs and signs in conveying the different philosophies of the Chinese culture (Gilzow & Branaman, 2000). Moreover, due to rich cultural heritage, the government has devised a simple way of writings derived from the Roman characters to aid its native develop their literacy levels. In essence, the pinyin system of writing is simple. Another interesting feature of the Chinese dialect is that it is differentiated by the increase as well as the reduction in modulation. Yue, Wu, Minnan, Xiang among others are just but a few of the Chinese languages.
Arts and craft
China has a magnificent record of arts as well as conventional crafts. The arts have been very significant in portraying the Chinese peoples’ diverse expertise as well as beauty in their culture. Further, the aspects of Chinese arts range from calligraphy, pottery, music to opera reflecting the Chinese culture as well as the picture of the nation. For instance, the depictions of the Chinese paintings reflect the expressions and beliefs of the people over the past (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008). In addition, China has used visual arts such as paintings of Buddha in education and worship activities among the natives. The Buddha manipulates the fashion used in the Chinese designs. Moreover, the Chinese culture incorporates dance forms that acts as an emblem of their ethnic diversity. Further, through the Chinese literature, its natives are able to know how political structures are designed and operated (Gilzow & Branaman, 2000).
Norms and rules
The Chinese associated face to good reputation respect and honor. Therefore, it was the mandate of any native to circumvent loss of face or activities associated with losing the face. The Chinese highly valued the respect to elders (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008). The failure by any member of the society to perform the stipulated obligations amounted to indignity to the whole community. In addition, men holding hands with members of the opposite sex was restricted in public (Brinton, 2008).
Lifestyle characteristics
The China’s society is hierarchical with the rulers and the wealthy occupying the top of the structure. The hierarchical structure was drawn from the Confucius ideals that advocated for the societal mobility. The major argument is that the hierarchical structure enables social mobility, which is critical in the unification of the society. The consequence of such structure is the mixture of societal success in socio-economic and political sphere (Brinton, 2008). Generally, the Chinese lifestyle is based on the communist ideals drawn from Confucius philosophies and ideologies. These ideals control the behavior and relationships between the individuals as well as the state (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008).
Religion and beliefs
The official religion of the state is atheist since it is a socialist country. The country also practices Buddhism and Taoism. However, the bulk of minority ethnic groups practice their own faiths. In Buddhism, the monks dedicate their lives and intercession. The traditions that are performed in worship range from kung-fu to shadow boxing. The Chinese religion is also embedded on medicinal values. Each religion has its own medicine associated with the belief system (Kondo-Brown & Brown, 2008).
Degree of assimilation
With urbanization, the barbarian population embraced the culture of the Zhou population and was attracted to feudalism (Gilzow & Branaman, 2000). The barbarians had to blend with other Zhou populations in times of interstate disputes. Further, the populations of the barbarians got absorbed in the Chinese inhabitants through annexing their lands by the state. Consequently, during the unification of China, there was practically total assimilation of the non-Chinese inhabitants (Duff et al., 2013).
Health behaviors and practices
The Chinese culture put a lot of emphasis on the value that is derived from the traditional drugs. For instance, the use of herbs were practiced extensively. In the Chinese culture, herbs are thought to adjust the natural equilibrium of the body as well as restoring health. The Chinese herbs have been very significant over the past centuries in the handling of numerous health conditions. In addition, the herbs are very useful as defensive nutritional enhancement. The Chinese physicians also performed diagnosis to different patients. In fact, the physicians applied the arts of tongue and pulse diagnosis. The Chinese culture also emphasizes on the drugs that aid in the prevention of diseases in the whole body as opposed to the specific ailments (Duff et al., 2013). Further, the traditions of the Chinese people stresses on the mixture of various herbs in the treatment of diseases. Therefore, it is worth noting that the conventional drugs have played a very pivotal role as issues of health is concerned (Duff et al., 2013). In addition, many Chinese citizens prefer the conventional drugs to the latest drugs.
Despite the success that has been achieved through traditional drugs in the containment of ailments, China has seen a continuous deterioration in the life expectancy of its citizens over the past years. On the contrary, over the past century, tremendous growth in the sector of medicine has lead to the improvement of life expectancy (Duff et al., 2013). Further, numerous maladies ranging from cholera to small pox have been eradicated. However, the HIV/AIDS scourge as well as smoking has been increasingly serious issues of concern to the Chinese government. The concerns have been attributed to the increased prostitution and drug abuse.
References
Brinton, D. (2008). Heritage language education: a new field emerging. London, UK: Routledge.
Duff, P. Anderson,T. Ilnyckyj, R., VanGaya, E., Wang, R. & Yates, E. (2013). Learning Chinese: linguistic, sociocultural, and narrative perspectives. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Gilzow, D. F. & Branaman, L. E. (2000). Lessons learned: model early foreign language programs. New York, NY: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Kondo-Brown, K. & Brown, J. D. (2008). Teaching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean heritage language students: curriculum needs, materials, and assessment. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Kondo-Brown, K. (2006). Heritage language development: focus on East Asian immigrants. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.