"Values are not central to today's world," or so proclaimed the author of an article published in the Global Times covering the recent BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in New Delhi. The article is an unapologetic and only marginally ungrammatical pre-emptive strike against Western ne'er-do-wells seeking to undermine the union by pointing out "a lack of unified values among BRICS countries." The article argues that universal values held in common between countries aren't that important here, rather it is what they can give each other that counts. The message is that potential mutual benefits outweigh a lack of shared values. Though it rarely strays from its uniformly histrionic tone – neatly slotting each BRICS country into the distinctly Chinese narrative of "facing oppression by developed countries in the current global political system" – the article nevertheless highlights an incredibly interesting trend arising in modern Chinese politics: value bashing.
Anti-universal values
Value-bashing started in earnest only very recently in Chinese political discourse. Exhibit A was the furious response from party conservatives to a 2007 address by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (widely regarded as more of a progressive than the rest of the CCP) stating that "science, democracy, rule of law, freedom and human rights are not unique to capitalism, but are values commonly pursued by mankind over a long period." While Wen was never targeted personally, progressives within China have been fighting off thinly-veiled attacks in the state media on their apparent support for Western "democracy" ever since. Exhibit B came, ironically enough, as a response to a pro-government piece in Guangdong's Southern Weekend that praised the party's actions after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The newspaper said the party's relief efforts had "honoured its commitments to its own people and to the whole world with respect to universal values." This irked hard-liners, and over the next year the term "universal values" increasingly found itself being thrown around in editorials, op-eds and the infamous netizen message boards by the party's wumao lackeys as a term associated with a Western plot to undermine the party's power.
In 2010, The Economist collated these (and many other) instances together and laid the blame for the recent upsurge in universal value-bashing squarely at the door of CCP conservatives who feared that embracing universal values would also mean acknowledging the superiority of the West's political system. The truth is that the party would much prefer it if China had its own 'values with Chinese characteristics,' rather than troublesome universal values they would have to share hand-in-hand with the decadent West.
Shifting sands
With 5,000 years of history, only the most close-minded of Sinophobes would argue that China does not have its own set of values. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and yes, Communism, have each had their impact on Chinese society and have each left behind traces of themselves to be absorbed into a larger whole. The problem lies in the fact that China has changed more in the last sixty years (one could even argue only thirty years) than it had in the last thousand, and one cannot help wondering whether the CCP's value-bashing – or rather its efforts to align "universal values" with the alleged moral bankruptcy of the West – is an attempt to cast a smoke screen to hide some uncomfortable truths about its own citizens it would rather not acknowledge.
Values are changing in China. This is an indisputable fact. Ask someone who lived through the Cultural Revolution if people act the same today as they did then. The answer will most likely be laughter. That the nation is wealthier, more equipped and better off than it ever has been is beyond doubt and this is no more evident than in the demand for increasingly frivolous entertainment. The propensity for daft TV shows in China has already been noted abroad, and the weird and the bizarre interpretations of Western shows like the 'X Factor' or 'Britain's Got Talent' becoming increasingly popular with Chinese audiences. Appetites for sex are at their most open as well, with reports of busloads of tourists making the trip down from the mainland to Hong Kong in order to watch the multi-dimensional soft-porn extravaganza 'Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy 3D' making the rounds in Western media for quite some time. At the more macabre end of this scale is the recent documentary aired in China which interviewed inmates on death row for a reality TV show. According to the BBC, Interviews Before Execution first broadcast on Henan Legal Channel in November 2006 and interviewed a prisoner on death row every week before it was cancelled after government intervention. It may make for unpalatable viewing, but it is telling evidence that values in China aren't the same as they used to be.
The good, the bad and the money
The root cause of all of this is money. China is wealthier than it ever has been, but as a side effect some previously 'foreign' behaviour that the CCP has long held as proof of the West's decadent inferiority is beginning to crop up within its own borders. Vulgarity is very much part of the new China: see super-rich property mogul Ren Zhiqiang's comments that those who can't afford to live in their own homes in a Tier 1 city should "go home and live as peasants in their parent's village," or the now infamous video of a Chinese girl breaking up with her boyfriend on the Beijing metro screaming "a man without money is garbage" for just a taste of what is going on.
The public may well vilify these characters, but the 'spend, spend, spend' mentality that typifies their actions pervades Chinese society from top to bottom. A recent interview in the China Daily with pensioner Yu Ping commenting on how inflation has changed her life drives this ethos home. By no means a decadent big-spender, Ping talks about how the increase in prices and loss of interest rates has completely changed her attitude to money: "I used to love saving up, but money has become a lot less valuable in the bank," she says. "So I figure I should spend it where it is needed and enjoy life." Putting it bluntly, if even the lowliest of peasants wants to start dishing out the cash, then everybody else – all the way up the ladder from desperately poor to obscenely rich – will be wanting to do exactly the same.
The blame game
This attitude is true of an increasing proportion of the population. In most cases it is perfectly healthy, most certainly for the economy, but at its most excessive it can cause some really rather distasteful behaviour. Since its inception, the CCP has been incredibly touchy about aspects of its population being portrayed negatively, and the stock answer of 'influenced by Western immorality' was – and still is – trundled out as a common explanation/verdict. Essentially, the West was (and is) the scapegoat for whatever unfavourable aspects of society the party didn't want to take responsibility for. However, with the rising prevalence of this 'greed is good' (or "to get rich is glorious," as Mr Deng famously said) mentality and the associated distasteful behaviour that seems to come along with it, this excuse becomes less and less compelling.
What is interesting in all this though is that the party seems to have made the choice to stick to its guns. It has decided that even though, as Wen Jiabao says, "science, democracy, rule of law and freedom" may well be universal rights, these rights will mean that the vulgarity spreading through the streets of China is no longer a result of Western influence, but a home-grown problem that is 100% Chinese. For developing 21st century China, that is one development too far. The West is a handy scapegoat when it comes to explaining away the more unpleasant aspects of Chinese culture, and by subscribing to the notion of universal values the CCP would give up the right to this most convenient of excuses. Better the devil you know…
Related links
Going West: China's New Media Revolution
6 Things Foreigners Often Get Wrong about Chinese People
Why Political Unrest is Impossible in the Middle Kingdom
Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.
Keywords: values Chinese society influence of media in China universal values China value-bashing China influence of money China
All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.
Please login to add a comment. Click here to login immediately.
Universal values can be considered a specific set of values shared by groups or even all the people in the world,and they don't need to be specified because there are so many of them.But universla values are not a misnomer,and empty theorising will not turn them into one.
Apr 23, 2012 20:18 Report Abuse
Universal values do not refer to values of individual countries.Universal values mean those things that put all of us humanbeings on the same wavelength.Universal values more often than not need not be explained;they are self-explanatory on their own.Universal values are not what people subjectively think about their own country,but what people of one country think they will be able to share with the rest of the world without any barriers.Peace is a universal value.When there is indiscriminate slaughtering of people,like is the case in Syria,the world feels the pain of the Syrian people,and looks for ways to alleviate this suffering and bring about peace.Truth is a universal value,because no one in the world wants to be told a lie.We all identify ourselves with this virtue.When the US went to war in Iraq on the pretext that the country had weapons of mass destruction,the whole world wanted to get to the bottom of this saga.The whole world dug deep and discovered that it was a lie.Happiness is a universal value.In fact most people in the world want to contaminate the rest of their fellow humanbeings with their happiness.That is why the US can allow Iran to use the internet,Facebook,you name them.It is not an accident that soccer,and football teams around the world all have people from different races.This is because we want to be happy together.We want people to share our joie de vivre.Having food,shelter,health care,safety are all universal values that each humanbeing on the face of this earth yearns for.We have climate day,Labour day,Father and Mother's day.We have all of these because all the people in the world share the same aspirations when it comes to these issues.This is my first gist,and I may come in later if one of us develops this further.
Apr 21, 2012 06:29 Report Abuse
You seem to be asking a question Rain, but you aren't sure. Fair enough, I can deal with that. If you read what I have have said, it is a really broad subject, but in light of that I was making a comparison. People have said I am a feminists ( in the past), my answer has been to them, "What do you mean" to which I do not get a reply, people have asked me what is my religion and I can not reply to their question easily, I don't try and bash and get angry with them, their questions are quite good when we talk, they are educated and really want to know what I have to say.
I have asked the writer and you people what are "Universal Values" and no one will answer my question. Because you can't "that is what I said" Mr Rain, and you can't and no one can on this forum, you can't even do it in a 50,000 word thesis!
Don't continue to side track the question by trying to vilify and degrade me. Answer the question, forget about the analogies and paradigms I used. Stop being a smart arse, and be an educated person. You big note yourself, so show some form and give us all an answer
Apr 21, 2012 04:18 Report Abuse
That's the trouble with debate, I didn't really refer about anything that happened in the 50"s, actually I didn't even say a date. I just wanted to know what "Universal Values" meant. I refered to feminism and athesim as a way for people to think about the answer. I don't really care at all about my references at all, I just wanted to know what "Universal Values" mean? and I suggested that you can't and no one can tell me what it does mean! Am I right?
So blow your whistle and vent your steam, but please read the question and think about the answer! Bananas aren't fruit and tomatoes aren't vegetables!! So don't twist this around into some sort of bun fight, when it isn't.
Have a nice day!!
Apr 21, 2012 01:27 Report Abuse
I don't need to paint the whole picture,else you won't have anything to say.If you could complete it with some salient points of yours,that will be worthy.Again quarelling about the problems of the 50s and now without laying out facts,reduces the debate to sound bites.How come we have restricted the debate to who is right or wrong? "Suggesting that Women's liberation has undermined our values is inherently sexist and you are going to offend people" These are your words and not mine. I repeat again that women have made strides ,and that it is great.But our family units today also have many problems.These problems have not been caused by the liberation of women,but by changing times;modernism.
Apr 20, 2012 22:13 Report Abuse
This discussion only proves that we each have an internal belief in universal values. If we didn't, we wouldn't argue. We would just say "you are entitled to your belief".
But of course, if we say that then we are also saying that disputes should not be settled with reasoning. Instead they should be settled with violence or some other type of amoral force, for example money.
If you don't have universal values, you can't say that something someone else does is wrong. In this sense, "respecting other cultures" is a universal value.
So now I've pointed out that the entire way that every other poster in this thread is thinking about this issue is wrong. I'm sure you will all learn from me.
Apr 20, 2012 17:32 Report Abuse
If that's the story you want to tell about America between the '50s and today, you're really not painting a complete picture. A lot of things have changed. Most historians will agree that this highly "moral" society we lived in back then is just a myth anyway.
Alex may have gotten mad at what Rain said, but both him and you are making very ignorant arguments which by their very nature are offensive. Suggesting that Women's liberation has undermined our values is inherently sexist and you are going to offend people. You should know that.
Apr 20, 2012 17:25 Report Abuse
Thanks Smooth. Rain if you read what I wrote, you would understand that it would take a thesis on each of the issues I spoke about, that really was not my argument. I tried to comment on this thing that Dickie refered to as "Universal Values", do you know what it means? do you know what feminism means, do you know what atheism means? Can you explain them on this forum in the little words we have to write with? I don't believe you or anyone else could actually write about them at all without changing your mind! I think you should read more and listen more, before you try to enter the debate with attack mode engaged! It seems a shame that we have to try explain everything to people nowadays, maybe that been brought about with the socialistic education systems put into western institutions. Deal with the Devil and he will bite you!
Have a great life my friend Ha ha ha
Apr 19, 2012 00:22 Report Abuse
You are are a very bitter person, and you hate debate, you remind me of myself, but I decided it was better to listen and talk about things. I have lots of friends who you would not believe. I spoke to... sorry I can't say
Apr 19, 2012 04:24 Report Abuse
So Mr you have to try to discredit my name by changing your forum name, I'm not a troll, like you, read what I have written and try to digest it into your little brain cell. Get off your bike and take a hike!!
Apr 19, 2012 04:17 Report Abuse
A good article. Universal values -- a subject on which Sociology students could easily spend a full semester. Mr. Wen was a prescient speaker on the subject. The corrosive effect of money worship is certainly one aspect of the discussion. The ability of individual cultures or of mankind as a whole to embrace such values is yet another aspect. I believe that Chinese people are glad just to see the discussion open here since it signifies their growing beyond wenhua as the cultural dictum...
Apr 18, 2012 21:14 Report Abuse
To those who feel they should attack me, I was questioning the statement "Universal Values". I can't understand why you can't have a debate without people jumping the gun and suggesting things (that have not been said). Why don't you detractors watch shows like "Charlie Rose" etc so you can learn the art art of listening and commenting. Read what I wrote before you jump down my neck (Rain) or is it too simplistic for you??
Apr 18, 2012 18:50 Report Abuse
What's this "Universal values" thing? Moral values have been erroded away since the 60's and 70's in the western countries. Not only by money and greed, but, by the feminists and atheists. I am not religious by any means, but morals have just gone by the way in schools and in parenting. Look at Australia (of late) shootings every night, even the police ( in NSW) are shooting people dead!! Why?? It is one scary World, Ladies and Gents, that we are living in. I don't blame the Chinese Government trying to rein it in, at least they have a chance with their type of Governance.
What else can I say?
Apr 18, 2012 00:39 Report Abuse
Rain I knew you you and others would take my comment out of context, because that is what people do these days. No, I am not a 50's dog like you suggest, these people are the ones that have made your World the way it is now!! You have been educated to believe in what that they have told you is the only thing!! you and others think that you are open and can comment about anything, but one thing you can't do is take criticism and debate, you jump and cheat your fellows with your beliefs and ideals. My suggestion is you don't have anything anymore to believe in, you only think you have!! And by the way, I like the World I live in, because that is all I have!!
Apr 18, 2012 03:54 Report Abuse
Interesting, my 2 cents on the rich vs. poor debate is that I think a real difference between the cause of social problems is that in China the problems are top-down and in the west they are bottom up. In china, you don't really have to worry about poor scumbags ruining pubic safety like in the US and UK, they are kept in check by their total lack of rights and power. The problems here are from those with money/power using it to stay above the law.
Anybody else see that story of the chinese kid in Iowa who raped his landlord? First thing his parents did flew out to iowa to try and bribe his victim into recanting her testimony. What happened? The parents ended up in jail too!
I get sticking up for your kid, but come on. He did something very wrong. If I raped a woman my parents probably wouldn't even speak to me again let alone try to bribe my way out of it, and I come from a relatively privileged background.
Apr 17, 2012 21:00 Report Abuse
This article has a serious logical flaw. The author has created a dichotomy between embracing universal values, which are by his definition western, or rejecting universal values entirely. But of course you don't need to do that, and universal values, being philosophical objects, aren't intrinsically bound to their history. If we take them to be true, they are discovered objects which can be discovered through multiple different philosophic traditions. Universal values should be something that applies across all cultures, or they aren't universal.
The west's version of "universal" values is heavily influenced by aristocrats, the church, and the capitalist class, who for most of our history have sponsored all of the writing and research that was published in the philosophic discourse. So naturally they are biased against workers and the poor. The christian history of these values means that we overemphasize symbolic displays of internal adherence to rigid values, exemplified by the idea of salvation through belief in God.
In reality, the west doesn't accept its own universal values. It has one standard for the elite within its own society, a more strict standard for the lower classes, and an even more strict standard for the rest of the world. The insinuation that China or any other country should embrace these values is really just a rhetorical ploy, nothing else. We can look at isolated cases in a developing nation of 1 billion, and somehow remain blind to equivalent cases here in America, where there are only 300 million. Of course, the difference is that America's problems are far less, and so our deviation from universal values is much less driven by necessity than China's.
There is no philosophy involved in this situation. It is all just political posturing. Every nation which has a functioning legal system must, at its core, have a view of universal values. The spirit of the law itself is these universal values which guide the development of the letter of the law by creating the interpretations which give those letters meaning. So when the west accuses another country of not having universal values, it is really just a slur, as crass as any racial epithet. Ultimately it is meant to kindle the fires of war.
You'd be surprised how many people, especially in western countries, want to see non-westerners killed.
Apr 17, 2012 17:13 Report Abuse
Sign up with
Google
(
(