Essay Chinese history

In accordance to Jiang (”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’), was the Han Empire that was known for its Han culture. It was a period of scientific developments in such areas as astronomy, mathematics, and more practical inventions such as ”˜wheelbarrows, locks to control water levels in streams and canals, and compasses.’ Art was very well developed too and as an example the sculpture (“Han flying horse”), the carving of the jade burial suit and the technique of making lacquer (Jiang, ”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’).  Jiang (”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’) claims that the next historical periods include the period of disunity (220-581) that in a cultural context was known by the novel `Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, which glamorized the period as an age of chivalry. It was followed by the Sui dynasty, The T’ang dynasty that was characterized by significant influence of Buddhism on art.  As for the development of literature, this period of Chinese history is known primarily for its outstanding poetry.  Next periods are the Sung Dynasty, and the culture of Sung period ”˜was noted for landscape painting, which in time came to be considered the highest form of classical art.’ It was a time of mystical romanticism and the inspiration was searched for in nature.

Jiang (”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’) states that the Yang dynasty that came after the Sung Dynasty was actually Mongol ruling which lasted less than a century.

Then China was under the ruling of the Ming Dynasty, which was the rime of restoration after a century of foreign domination. So a conclusion could be made that once it was time when China managed to restore its culture from the foreign influence.

Jiang (”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’) continues the article with the detailed analysis of the periof Ching Dynasty, the Chinese revolutions, and the formation of the People’s Republic of China in the beginning of the 20th century.

The important event that has caused the substantial changes in the minds of Chinese people was the Cultural Revolution that meant the values of Chinese society had to be changed into the correspondence with the Communist principles.

Nowadays China is one of the world leaders in the economic sense but ironically its culture experienced increased pressure by the spread of the Western culture. Kathleen McLaughlin in the interview “Why China’s Youth Find Western Culture Attractive” continues the study by Jiang (”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’) by the modern context. In some way it contradicts the facts described in the article ”˜Chinese Cultural Studies’ written by Jiang because Chinese culture is so ancient and so strong that managed to keep its presence under the foreign invasion, and now it suffers from the growing influence of Western culture. It is good though, that in the majority of cases, Western influences are absorbed by Chinese culture. These days the attributes of the everyday life of Chinese citizens are surrounded by Western brands. But it appears that the government believes that Western culture’s influence is unbearable for Chinese culture and therefore it plans to set some limits (regulations) on mass media in order to control these influences.



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