DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Socioeconomic Changes and Value Modernization in China: Changes and Continuity 1993-2011

  • Wang, Zhengxu (School of Contemporary Chinese Studies University of Nottingham)
  • Published : 2015.05.31

Abstract

As China's economic development brings the country out of poverty and into modernity, a long-lasting debate concerns whether the Chinese public's value system is also changing toward the so-called "modern values," or whether some distinctly traditional Chinese values remain unchanged. Using empirical data collected at three points in time during the 1990s and the first two decades of the 21st Century (1993, 2002, and 2011), I found that Chinese citizens who benefitted from urbanization, rising levels of education and employment in non-farm, knowledge-based industries displayed stronger modern values. People with stronger modern values are more likely to emphasize individual autonomy, competition, gender equality, and market transaction, among others. Some characteristics of the Chinese people, most importantly family values, however, seem to remain stable amidst rapid social changes.

Keywords

References

  1. Achen, C. H. (1975). Mass political attitudes and the survey response. American Political Science Review, 69(4), 1218-1231. https://doi.org/10.2307/1955282
  2. Lambert, R. D., Curtis, J. E., Kay, B. J., & Brown, S. D. (1988). The social sources of political knowledge. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 21(2), 359-374. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423900056341
  3. Almond, G. A., & Verba, S. (1963). The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  4. Armer, M., & Isaac, L. (1978). Determinants and Behavioral Consequences of Psychological Modernity: Empirical Evidence from Costa Rica. American Sociological Review, 43(3), 316-334. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094493
  5. Bell, D. (1976). The coming of post-industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic Books.
  6. Bengtson, V. L., Dowd, J. J., Smith, D. H., & Inkeles, A. (1975). Modernization, Modernity, and Perceptions of Aging: A Cross-Cultural Study. Journal of Gerontology, 30(6), 688-695. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/30.6.688
  7. Broaded, C. M., Cao, Z., & Inkeles, A. (1994). Women, Men, and the Construction of Individual Modernity Scales in China. Cross-Cultural Research, 28(3), 251-286. https://doi.org/10.1177/106939719402800303
  8. Eisenstadt, S. N. (2003). Comparative Civilizations and Multiple Modernities. Leiden, Holland and Boston, MA: Brill.
  9. Holsinger, D. B., & Theisen, G. L. (1977). Education, Individual Modernity, and National Development: A Critical Appraisal. The Journal of Developing Areas, 11(3), 315-334
  10. Hwang, K.-K. (2003). Critique of the methodology of empirical research on individual modernity in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 6, 241-262. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-839X.2003.00125.x
  11. Inglehart, R. (1990). Culture shift in advanced industrial society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  12. Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: Cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  13. Inglehart, R., & Baker, W. E. (2000). Modernization, culture change, and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65, 19-51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657288
  14. Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, cultural change, and democracy: The human development sequence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  15. Inkeles, A. (1966). The modernization of man. In M. Weiner (Ed.), Modernization (pp. 138-152). New York: Basic Books.
  16. Inkeles, A. (1985). Exploring Individual Modernity New York: Columbia University Press.
  17. Inkeles, A., Broaded, C. M., & Cao, Z. (1997). Causes and consequences of individual modernity in China. The China Journal(37), 31-59.
  18. Inkeles, A., & Smith, D. H. (1974). Becoming modern: Individual change in six developing countries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  19. Kim, U., Yang, K.-S., & Hwang, K.-K. (Eds.). (2006). Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context. New York: Springer.
  20. Masemann, V. L., & Welch, A. R. (Eds.). (1998). Tradition, modernity, and post-modernity in comparative education. Dodrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwler Academic Publisher.
  21. Nie, N. H., Junn, J., & Stehlik-Barry, K. (1996). Education and democratic citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  22. Weiner, M. (Ed.). (1966). Modernization. New York: Basic Books.
  23. Yang, K.-S. (1986). Chinese personality and its change. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The Psychology of the Chinese people (pp. 106-170). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
  24. Yang, K.-S. (1996). The Psychological Transformation of the Chinese People as a Result of Societal Modernization. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The Handbook of Сhinese Psychology (pp. 479-498). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
  25. Yang, K.-S., & Bond, M. H. (1990). Exploring Implicit Personality Theories With Indigenous or Imported Constructs: The Chinese Case. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(6), 1087-1095. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.6.1087

Cited by

  1. The Effect of Adolescent Chinese Consumers' Clothing Conformity and Interest in Korean Entertainers on their Evaluation and Purchase Intention towards Korean Fashion Products vol.67, pp.7, 2017, https://doi.org/10.7233/jksc.2017.67.7.036
  2. Acculturation of rural–urban migrants in urbanising China: a multidimensional and bicultural framework vol.26, pp.1, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2278