Thoughts on Cultural Crisis and National Identity

Abstract

At the Post-Cold War Era, western cultural hegemony came under question, and was replaced by cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is likely to result in cultural relativism, and might, as Huntington said, cause competition and clash among all civilizations, which will in turn lead to a global cultural crisis. Cultural crisis in China has changed with the period of time, and has not broken away from the sign of crisis so far. In this article, the authors will start from reflection upon the fever of “Sinology”, and ponder over viewpoint by Mr. Yu Ying-shih on national identity. Then, the authors put forward their own view. That is, for national identity of China, it is still necessary to search for foundation in the cultural tradition of the three thousand years’ history. Meanwhile, some new elements in the world should be integrated, which is the only way to avoid cultural crisis and work towards “modernization”.