Global Impact of Chinese Culture 2022
Global Impact of Chinese Culture
For thousands of years, the ancient Chinese culture has been a mysterious treasure to the world, especially to the West. In the 21st century, with the rapid improvement of China’s national status and economic strength, the global impact of Chinese culture is becoming more noticeable.
Culture could relate to all aspects of a country’s social life, which is embodied in literature, values, arts, lifestyle, history, local customs, religious beliefs and so on. Due to the limited space, this essay will focus on several aspects.
A. Chinese Literature
To evaluate the global impact of Chinese Literature, a core criterion is to analyze the spread of Chinese literature abroad. In order to learn about such impact, we should concentrate on the data about collections of Chinese literary works around the world. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), as one of the non-profit organizations with large coverage, can provide the collection data of all library systems worldwide. Although the data of OCLC cannot fully cover all libraries across the world, it can basically measure the scope of influence of Chinese literature in today’s world. Based on the data of OCLC, the following chart summarized the top 30 of Chinese literary works collected by more than thirty libraries around the world.
Top 30 Chinese works most collected worldwide between 2000 to 2011
排名 书名 作者 出版社 出版时间 收藏图书馆数量
1 狼图腾 姜戎 长江文艺出版社 2004 150
2 兄弟 余华 上海文艺出版社 2005/2006 143
3 秦腔 贾平凹 作家出版社 2005 129
4 高兴 贾平凹 作家出版社 2007 120
5 中国式离婚 王海鸰 北京出版社 2004 119
6 藏獒 杨志军 人民文学出版社 2005 116
7 鲁迅小说选 鲁迅、杨宪益（编） 外文出版社 2000 114
8 山楂树之恋 艾米 江苏文艺出版社 2007 112
9 借我一生：记忆文学 余秋雨 作家出版社 2004 108
10 1988：我想和这个世界谈谈 韩寒 国际文化出版公司 2010 106
11 小姨多鹤 严歌苓 作家出版社 2008 102
12 遍地枭雄 王安忆 文汇出版社 上海文艺出版社 2005 100
13 雷雨 曹禺 王佐良（编） 外文出版社 2001 98
笨花 铁凝 人民文学出版社 2006 98
14 三国演义 罗贯中 湖南人民出版社 外文出版社 2000 97
15 和我们的女儿谈话 王朔 人民文学出版社 2008 96
莲花 安妮宝贝 作家出版社 2006 96
16 启蒙时代 王安忆 人民文学出版社 2007 94
如焉 胡发云 中国国际广播出版社 2006 94
17 空山：机村传说 阿来 人民文学出版社 2005 92
18 我叫刘跃进 刘震云 长江文艺出版社 2007 91
19 蛙 莫言 上海文艺出版社 2009 89
20 刺猬歌 张炜 人民文学出版社 2007 87
金婚 王宛平 作家出版社 2007 87
21 憩园 巴金 外文出版社 2001 86
手机 刘震云 长江文艺出版社 2003 86
22 新闻界 朱华祥 中国广播电视出版社 2003 86
23 乐府 杨宪益（编） 外文出版社 2001 81
24 林家铺子、春蚕 茅盾、杨宪益 外文出版社 2001 80
茶馆 老舍、霍华 外文出版社 2001 80
楚辞选 屈原、杨宪益 外文出版社 2001 80
25 伊人，伊人 梁晓声 湖南文艺出版社 2006 77
大浴女 铁凝 春风文艺出版社 2000 77
26 女神 郭沫若 外文出版社 2001 76
一句顶一万句 刘震云 长江文艺出版社 2009 76
27 宋明平话选 冯梦龙、凌濛初 杨宪益（编） 外文出版社 2001 75
深牢大狱 海岩 作家出版社 2003 75
舞者（冰卷） 海岩 作家出版社 2007 75
28 誓鸟 张悦然 光明日报出版社 2006 74
29 病相报告 贾平凹 上海文艺出版社 2002 73
30 诗经 野莽、杨宪益、戴乃迭（编） 外文出版社 2001 71
杜拉拉3:我在这战斗的一年里 李可 江苏文艺出版社 2010 71
The above 42 books are the most widely spread Chinese literary works between 2000 to 2011, which can be seen as the basic appearance of Chinese literature in the world. Among them, we can notice that there are Chinese ancient classics like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms、The Songs of Chu, Chinese modern literary works like Thunderstorm、Teahouse, and some works welcomed by the youth like novels of Han han and Zhang Yueran. The way that Chinese Literature got its global impact can be divided into three points: First, with going abroad, the Chinese classics have accumulated its popularity. Chinese ancient classics, represented by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms、The Songs of Chu and the Book of Songs, have begun to go abroad through various channels 400 years ago. Moreover, the works of some famous modern writers like Lu Xun, Cao Yu and Mao Dun, have been the main objects for external communication since the founding of people’s Republic of China to 1979. Second, the influence of media. The reason why Yu Hua’s work Brothers has won the favor of 143 libraries in the world, except its high quality, is that Yu’s former work To Live has got lots of international awards when adapted into a film by Zhang Yimou. And this kind of situation is very common. Third is that the domestic popularity of some writers’ works has spread abroad. Some writers like Jia Pingwa, Wang Anyi and Tie Ning have won Mao Dun Literature Prize in China. Therefore, the overseas popularity of their works might be relevant to their award-winning experience in China.
B. Chinese Philosophy During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Jesuits in Europe experienced thousands of hardships and brought back the philosophy of China at that time - Confucianism and Neo Confucianism to Europe in the 17th-18th century. In Europe at that time, there was a 100-year zeal of Chinese culture. The combination of Confucianism and the new European thought has become an important ideological source of enlightenment, also the leading spirit of modern European history. Voltaire, the leader of the French Enlightenment, is the most powerful advocate of Chinese Confucianism in Europe. He and his “Encyclopedia School” regard Chinese Confucianism as an ideological weapon against European monarchy under theocracy; Neo Confucianism became the basis for the German philosopher Leibniz to establish classical philosophy and used it to oppose the Revealed Theology of the Holy See; Quesnay, known as “European Confucius”, based on Confucianism, created a new era of modern European political economy and laid a theoretical foundation for the formation and development of classical political economy in England.
C. Chinese Food Culture As early as the pre-Qin period, China has begun to carry out food cultural exchanges with the surrounding ethnic groups. Chinese grains, fish, salt, etc. were often supplied to the northern nomads. In the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions promoted food and cultural exchanges between the mainland and the Western Regions. The special products from the Western Regions alfalfa, such as grapes, pomegranates, onions, garlic, carrots, as well as the wines, have been introduced to the mainland one after another, greatly enriching the dietary life of the inland peoples. From a global perspective, Japan is greatly influenced by Chinese food culture. After the Tang Dynasty, many Chinese dishes became popular in Japan, which exerted some influence on Japanese cooking methods and dining methods. With Chinese dishes going to Japan, Chinese food and seasonal customs were also introduced to Japan, such as Tusu wine on New Year's Day on the first lunar month, and chrysanthemum wine on September 9, all of which are very popular in Japan. With the opening of the Silk Road, China's economic exchanges with Central Asia, West Asia and even Europe have become increasingly close. Chinese food culture has been continuously introduced to the West. In addition, the eating methods related to the content of diet, which originated in China, and has been continuously spread overseas through Chinese at home and abroad. Chopsticks spread to Asian countries as early as before the Tang Dynasty, especially in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Now Chinese restaurants are distributed in almost all countries in the world, and the number of those restaurants is increasing. The Chinese restaurant industry in the United States began in 2009, and the first Chinese restaurant appeared in San Francisco. Later, there were more and more Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and other places. By 1995, there were about 20,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States.
D. Chinese Martial Arts As a part of traditional Chinese culture, Martial arts are very distinctive and rich in variety. The ancient Chinese martial arts once affected Korea, Japan and other regions. The official global spread should start from the Republic of China era, at that time the way of promoting martial arts changed from passive to active. The Central Guoshu institute was established on March 24, 1928. It has carried out activities such as martial arts teaching, reporting on martial arts national examinations, editing and publishing martial arts monographs and publications, which are of great significance to international dissemination. Regrettably, in 1948, the Central Guoshu institute was forced to close due to financial difficulties. At the same time, another organization, Chin Woo Athletic Association, also played a pivotal role in promoting martial arts. It was founded in Shanghai in 1909, with martial arts teaching as its main activity. Between 1910 and 1920, Martial Arts were promoted nationwide, and "Chin Woo Athletic Association Branches" were successively established. After 1920, the Chin Woo Athletic Association began to establish overseas branches and expanded its scope, and soon spread to countries and regions with a large number of Chinese people in Southeast Asia. The reason why Chin Woo Athletic Association could be established in foreign countries and received strong support from overseas Chinese is that it took "revitalizing China" as its purpose and held high the banner of "patriotism, self-cultivation, helping others, and justice". From 1949 to the present is the stage of international dissemination of modern Chinese martial arts.
In 1960, the first international Wushu team of New China visited Czechoslovakia, opening the prelude to the international spread of Chinese Wushu. At the end of the same year, under the leadership of Premier Zhou Enlai, they went to Myanmar to take a performance. In 1974, the delegation was invited to Mexico and then to the United States, Japan and other countries to show their outstanding skills. In 1975, the group went to many cities in the UK, Zambique and other countries for more than 70 shows.
Martial arts have good visual effects and can bring strong visual impact to people, and that is why martial arts can become a film and television theme and appear on the screen. It is no exaggeration to say that the golden age of the globalization of Chinese martial arts began in the era of Bruce Lee. In the 1960s, Bruce Lee borrowed films such as"The Big Boss", "Fist of Fury", "Way of the Dragon", "Enter the Dragon", "Game of Death" and other works. The wave of "Kung Fu" has brought martial arts into the sight of more foreigners, making them understand martial arts, know martial arts, and even learn martial arts. Since then, a large number of action actors and kung fu movies have emerged in Hong Kong, China. In the 1980s, the movie "The Shaolin Temple" starring Jet Li was released overseas, which once again attracted the attention of the world. Subsequently, a large number of martial arts film and television works, such as "A Better Tomorrow", "Fearless", Donnie Yen's "Ip Man", "Ip Man 2", "The Fist", entered the overseas film circle and once again spread to the world Chinese martial arts. At the same time, these excellent martial arts films not only show martial arts techniques, but also begin to pay attention to the promotion of martial arts culture and traditional Chinese culture, which will help the world to understand Chinese martial arts and Chinese culture more comprehensively and deeply.
Now, with the popularity of Chinese martial arts and the promotion of the government, various international organizations about martial arts have been established one after another. In 1990, the International Wushu Federation (referred to as IWUF) was established in Beijing, China. Today, the member states of the IWUF have grown from 38 countries and regions at the beginning to 143 across five continents. organization. In the international dissemination of martial arts, not only the organization of dissemination has been established, but also martial arts competitions have been held. Up to now, the World Wushu Championships, which represent the highest level of Chinese Wushu, have been successfully held for 12 sessions. The World Youth Wushu Championships for the purpose of cultivating reserve martial arts talents has been successfully held for 5 sessions. At present, martial arts competitions have been set up in seven international multi-sport events, namely the Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games, the East Asian Games, the South Asian Games, the World Games, the World Traditional Games, and the World Combat Games. This is an important symbol of the internationalization of martial arts.
The foreign exchange of Chinese culture has a long history and rich content. We use Chinese literature, philosophy, food culture and Chinese martial arts as a window to get a glimpse of the external influence of Chinese culture in the new era. However, from a macro perspective, the external influence of Chinese culture is still very limited. This is related to the national standard of living, the government's literary and artistic policy and so on. China is currently the second largest country in the world in terms of GDP, but the export of Chinese culture to the outside world does not match the total economic output. Now the Chinese government is also actively promoting Chinese culture to go out, and various art groups are also becoming active, but it still takes time for China to become a real cultural exporting country.
Terms and Expressions
OCLC 联机计算机图书馆中心 the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 《三国演义》 The Songs of Chu 《楚辞》 Thunderstorm 《雷雨》 Teahouse 《茶馆》 The Book of Songs 《诗经》 Brothers 《兄弟》 Neo Confucianism 新儒学 Voltaire 伏尔泰 Encyclopedia School 百科全书派 Leibniz 莱布尼茨 Quesnay 魁奈 Revealed Theology 启示神学 Tusu wine 屠苏酒 chrysanthemum wine 菊花酒 Central Gushu institute中央国术馆 Chin Woo Athleticiation 精武体育会 The Big Boss《唐山大兄》 Fist of Fury 《精武门》 Way of the Dragon《猛龙过江》 Enter the Dragon《龙争虎斗》 Game of Death《死亡游戏》 The Shaolin Temple 《少林寺》 A Better Tomorrow 《英雄本色》 Fearless 《霍元甲》 Ip Man 《叶问》 Ip Man 2 《叶问2》 The Fist《陈真》 International Wushu Federation 国际武术联盟
Questions 1. Why is Yu Hua’s work Brothers favored by 143 libraries? 2. What influence did Neo Confucianism have in Germany? 3. What aspects does the external influence of Chinese food culture include? 4. When was the golden age for Chinese martial arts to spread abroad, and why?
References 1. He Mingxing 何明星(2013).中国文学的世界影响—新世纪十年回眸. [The global impact of Chinese Literature- Looking back on the ten years of the new century] (01):61-66 2. Zhu Kai祝凯（2010）.论中华武术国际传播中的武术文化传承.（On the inheritance of martial arts culture in the international dissemination of Chinese martial arts.[G] 3. Zang Guocai张国才（2016）.全球化背景下中国武术的国际化传播研究.(Research on the International Communication of Chinese Wushu under the Background of Globalization)[G] 4. Yao Weijun姚伟钧（2013）.中国饮食文化传播与文化软实力的构建.(The dissemination of Chinese food culture and the construction of cultural soft power)[T]