The Great Wall in Ruins

Communication and Cultural Change in China

By Godwin C. Chu & Yanan Ju

Subjects: Asian Studies
Series: SUNY series, Human Communication Processes
Paperback : 9780791416228, 380 pages, September 1993
Hardcover : 9780791416211, 380 pages, October 1993

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Table of contents

Preface

I: INTRODUCTION

1. Cultural Change in China

2. Research Methods and Sampling Procedures

II: RESEARCH FINDINGS

3. Family Relations

4. Social Relations

5. Job Preferences and Work Ethic

6. Organizational Relations

7. Community Life

8. Cultural Values: General Perspectives

9. Cultural Values: Family and Children

10. Cultural Values: Traditional Precepts

11. Belief System

III: CONCLUSION

12. Whither Chinese Culture

Appendix: Statistical Analysis

Notes

References

Index

Description

This book presents a survey of rural and urban Chinese people examining the dramatic changes in traditional culture that have taken place, and documenting the nature of contemporary Chinese culture. Chu and Ju examine attitudes about family relations, social relations, job preferences and work ethic, organizational relations, community life, and belief systems.

Although there remains some limited continuity with the past, mainly in family stability, the book shows how lifestyle and values in post-Mao China today reveal a radical departure from traditional Chinese culture. The authors discover that Chinese people no longer endorse the Confucian precepts of harmony and tolerance, nor do they submit compliantly to authority as previous generations did. They now demonstrate, in an environment of rising aspirations and mounting frustration, a new assertiveness, as seen in the tragic outburst in the Tiananmen demonstrations.

Godwin C. Chu is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Culture and Communication at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Yanan Ju is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Central Connecticut State University.