From: liqiang@kramden.nyu.edu (Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: New topic of discussion: China's Elite Culture
Date: 28 Aug 92 15:26:09 GMT
Organization: New York University

rsanders@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (RRobert M Sanders) writes:

>In article <liqiang.714953557@kramden> liqiang@kramden.nyu.edu (Li) writes:
>>Netters: allow me to propose a new topic of discussion on the net - China's 
>>Elite Culture: Her Past, Present and Future.
>>
>>Q1: Does China have an elite culture now(I understand she did exist throughout
>>    China's history)?
>>Q2: Is it necessary to have an elite culture at all?
>>Q3: What is the future outlook of China's elite culture?
>>Q4: How should one compare China's elite culture with those of non-Chinese
>>    nations?
>>
>>These are just preliminary questions for this supposedly broad issue. I hope 
>>we can come up with some interesting ideas through interation. 
>>
>>Have fun everybody.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Li, Qiang
>>


>Perhaps you could be more specific about what you mean by 'cultural elite.'  
>By this do you mean those involved in the fine and performing arts or do you 
>some other group of people in mind?

>Robert Sanders



You are right - definitions of key terms should come first. I`ll try this
tough one and hope you get my idea (it might not even come close to your
satisfaction).

By elite culture, I mean something broader than fine and performing arts, 
although more often than not the latter is the form of articulation of the
former. Elite culture, in my opinion, involves more subtleties like life
styles and rules adopted by the noble and near-noble classes of a society
that outline, for instance, marriage patterns and place restrictions on 
the social behavior of those classes. "Cultural elites" is a mixture of 
politicians, entrepeneurs(?), scholars, artists and their family circles.
Let me also include rules that dictate child education in the term "elite
culture" - I'm risking to be too concrete.

In the framework of the concurrent Chinese education, the traditional Chinese
noble (if not as broad as elite) culture is considered to be sheer rotten
and restrictive. As a matter of fact, it was practically destroyed during the
reign of the present mainland government. These days you seldom find anyone
from whose behavior and philosophy you can detect a long family heritage. We
have a class of people who are offsprings of the communist predecessors, but
they look, dress and behave just like everybody else except perhaps that they
are greedier, have more power and are more accessible to various social 
resources(let me say not all of them are morally "impure")

I realise I'm wandering from the original topic of this posting: finding a 
definition of "cultural elite". I hope in the course of more discussion, the
exact meaning of this term will be more apparent.

My point is the existence of an elite culture in my sense DOES have mean
ingredients in it but on more occasions it provides an example for the general
public which is one of its positive aspects. 

The Chinese are known to be good at copying each other. The existence of an
elite class can work as a direction to excel for people who are struggling 
toward the bottom of the society. 

I recently paid a visit back to Shanghai. I discovered that an average Chinese
man doesn't dress up nicely and tends to be discourteous on various occasions.
It's not completely a money matter. Many private entrepeneurs are rich now
even in the American sense plus, there are a lot of visitors from Hong Kong  
and Taiwan. What I saw was frustrating: you see Taiwanese guys talking loudly 
in restaurants in their attempts to show dignity (funny enough) in front
of their fabulous Shanghaiese dates; you see business people and professors
appearing in thin white shirts (made of cheap materials) and talk like street
vendors. 

I said to myself,"Wait a second! Our ancestors were not like this." We all know
the story of Zi0Lu4, one of Confucius' best students. He was involved in a 
deadly battle in which his helmet was hit by an enemy weapon. He immediately
downed his own weapon to straighten up his helmet and said,"My teacher says 
a gentleman should dress up straight each and every day." Of course, he died
a stupid(considered by many people) and noble(in a way) death. I think this
extreme example shows us the importance of gentlemanship in the minds of
our forefathers.

Netters, correct me when I'm going too far. I join everybody in applauding
the economic growth in mainland China but I think many people have expressed
the concern that with the heritage to our root culture being a little fragile
and fuzzy, commercialization can further jeopadize the culture without the
participation and direction of far-sighted intellectuals. In that event, I
think a new elite culture of China can help bring material and spiritual 
prosperity.

Thank you for reading my posting and I would appreciate comments. I have to 
sign off now.


Cheers,
Li, Qiang
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china