--By He Qing, Professor of School of Humanities of Zhejiang University

The Chinese Dream is to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. But this rejuvenation goes far beyond material or economic achievements. The fundamental task is to bring about the renaissance of Chinese culture. The Chinese want to reestablish their cultural identity and dignity; a nation lacking cultural self-confidence and cultural vitality cannot achieve true rejuvenation.

1. Cultural Diffidence of Chinese Intelligentsia

China abolished the imperial examination system in 1905. In 1912, when the Republic of China was founded, Cai Yuanpei abolished the making of sacrifices to Confucius and reading of Confucian classics. During the New Cultural Movement, there was even talk of overthrowing the Confucian school, eradicating Chinese characters and abolishing Traditional Chinese Medicine. At that time, the more than two-thousand-year history of the Chinese nation was defined as the era of "feudal society," and the imperial system as equivalent to despotism. The Chinese were in total denial of their native culture, a complex of cultural denial that still exists in Chinese intellectual circles.

2. Chinese Culture and Western Culture are Different yet Equal

3. The Three Core Values of Chinese Culture - benevolence, righteousness and people first

The core values of modern western culture are human rights, freedom and democracy. Correspondingly, the three core values of the Chinese culture can be summarized as benevolence, righteousness and people first.

4. Reaffirmation that Chinese Culture Safeguards the Diversity of World Cultures

5. The Renaissance of Chinese Culture Is the Foundation for Achieving Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation

The Chinese culture has been adjudged as a product of "feudal dictatorship" whereas Western culture is regarded as "modern culture," and western cultural values are considered as "universal values." This remains the dominant public ideology in China.

China has achieved national and military independence. But it still adopts Western cultural values - human rights, freedom, and democracy - and treats the West as a cultural Mecca.

As a major power of growing economic weight and burgeoning material wealth, it is essential for China to reassert its native core cultural values. China has become the world's second largest economy, but its cultural soft power is almost zero. China is hence an economic giant yet a cultural dwarf.

We should resolutely and proudly assert our native cultural values and defend the legitimacy of our political system according to our fundamental cultural value of "people first". In particular, reaffirming the Chinese cultural can provide legitimate theories on reunifying China.

Only by reaffirming Chinese culture and achieving a cultural renaissance can China become a rejuvenated nation.

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