4. New Changes in the Values of the Contemporary Chinese
The values of the contemporary Chinese have undergone great changes compared with the historical and traditional ones. The reasons for the changes in the values of the Chinese,fundamentally speaking,are the social change and opening up in China as well as the changes in production and life of the Chinese society. Since 1978,the Chinese society has undergone an earth-shaking change,that is,the “reform and opening up” which is quite familiar to the Chinese people. The reform is an overall and comprehensive change with unprecedented depth and breadth,which enables China to get rid of the shackles of the old relations of production and the rigid way of thinking and make great steps towards modernization.The opening up is a wide and multi-level opening with unprecedented horizons and ambition,which enables China and the Chinese people to embrace the world with a broad perspective,open-minded spirit and confident state of mind and begin to integrate themselves into the process of globalization.
The reform and opening up causes significant changes in the social production,social structure and social relations in China,makes the economic component,mode of organization,way of employment,interest relationship and mode of distribution in the society become increasingly diversified,and also changes the way of thinking,ideological concept and value orientation of people. A lot of past ideological forbidden zones are broken;some impossible things become possible;and a number of unacceptable behaviors begin to be tolerated and accepted by people. In the reform and changes of the society,the values of the contemporary Chinese have appeared new trends and shown new characteristics in some areas. So,what are these new trends and new characteristics?
First,the values become diversified and complex. Diversification means that the values have possessed diverse ideological foundations,while complexity means that the values become more varied and also more difficult to grasp. After the reform and opening up,China has opened itself to the outside world more considerably,the Western lifestyle, social thought,doctrines and values have been pouring into China. Different behavioral principles,ideologies and belief systems generate a feeling of freshness in the Chinese people and allure them,coupled with the weakening influence of Chinese Confucianism in the contemporary era; therefore,many Chinese people have accepted the values that are based on the foreign culture and ideological foundation,which makes the values of the contemporary Chinese present a situation of diversification and complexity. For example, from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the reform and opening up,Chinese people believed in the social values of collectivism; however,after the reform and opening up,with the penetration of Western individualistic thinking,many of the Chinese in modem times stress the individual subject consciousness and put emphasis on the importance of and respect for individual interests. In this case,although the values of collectivism are still the mainstream,they are facing an unprecedented challenge.
Second,the conflicts and struggles over values are increasing. Such a trend is linked with the diversification and complexity of the values of the contemporary Chinese. In the past,most people had a common ideological foundation of values and also believed in a generally consistent law of values,thus under the guidance and control of the dominant values of the society,there were less contradictions and conflicts of values between people. However,it is not the same case today.the more and more diverse and varied values not only bring about contradictions to individuals in their minds and behaviors,but also create conflicts over the value choice of different people. Regarding the same thing or same phenomenon,the past relatively consistent standard of value judgment will no longer take effect or can only play an obviously weakening role,whereas the Self values that highlight personality and individual subjectivity have become the law dominating people's value choice.Hence the contradictions and conflicts of values between people increase,and in some areas,some aspects,there even appear serious struggles over values.
Third,the world of value becomes illusory and disorderly. The world of value is a special spiritual world,which always needs stable standards and constant laws. If the laws of value that play a unifying and guiding role are lost,the world of values of people will become disorderly,which may also easily lead to the losing of values. It's true that the diversified and complex values, to a certain extent,can free people's minds and inject spiritual vitality to the society and individuals,but meanwhile their negative effects cannot be underestimated,that is,they will make people's world of value become illusory and disorderly. Since the reform and opening up,many Chinese people become rich and generous in material,but in spirit and values,they feel nothing but lost and confused,they are powerless in the face of value choices and at a loss while making behavioral choices,which are exactly the manifestations of the illusory and disorderly world of value.
Of course,the changes in values brought about by the reform and opening up are not always negative,and they are also able to exert positive effects in many ways.For example,they can inspire people's thoughts,promote their exchange of ideas and activate their thinking as we have mentioned above. As is known to all,ideology is dominated by the values and it is the manifestation of values. Since the reform and opening up,Chinese people have gradually improved their awareness of opening,independence,competition,efficiency,fairness,contract,democracy,law,innovation and so on,which embody the changes in people's values.And the transformation of ideologies brought by such changes is beneficial to the construction of a modern country,a modern society as well as a modern individual personality.