--By Zhao Mei, Researcher of the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Abstract

As China and America are quite different in terms of political system, history and cultural tradition, the dreams of the two peoples are also different.

After the Opium War broke out in 1840, China gradually degraded into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Since then, the Chinese people have been pursuing national revival, and the Chinese dream virtually started at that time. In 2012, Xi Jinping made his first pronouncement on the "Chinese dream" during his visit to the exhibition "The Road to Revival" at China's National Museum in Beijing. The Chinese dream is all about "a strong and prosperous state, national revival and well-beings of the people."

The American dream emerged in the Colonial Period when the North America was still an uncultivated Continent. People envisioned a future world in literatures such as the Mayflower Compact (1620), A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop in 1630, the Declaration of Independence, "Four Freedoms" proposed by President Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech.

The phrase "American dream" was originally proposed by James Truslow Adams in his Epic of America published in 1931. It is a set of ideas: 1) America is a nation of immigrants and immigrating to America to become an American citizen is an important part of the American dream; 2) equal opportunities; 3) limited government.

There are similarities and differences between the Chinese dream and the American dream. The similarities lie in the common aspirations for a better life. The American dream is centered on the aspirations of individual Americans, which is mainly about individual rights, the pursuit of social justice and the reflections on the government roles. In contrast, the Chinese dream is a dream of the Chinese nation, whether the state or the ethnic group.　

The two dreams are both evolving with the times. For China, the history of humiliation has already become a past after over 30 years' reform and opening up. Now what new elements will a prosperous China add to the Chinese dream?

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