Chinese Traditional Culture Today

Chinese culture was very influential in east Asia for a long time. An evidence is that Chopsticks(筷子) are still widely used in other countries of east Asia. However, modernization is taking places in everywhere of the world and changing almost every aspect of the human society. So how is Chinese traditional culture doing in this rapidly changing world?
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Talking about culture, we can not split history from it. China has a very long history and has ever been an agricultural country. There were a lot of dynasties in China history, almost each of them started with a peasant revolution and was ended by another peasant revolution. Dragon means a lot in Chinese history. All those who were born as an emperor, or became an emperor with a revolution, would declare themselves to be the human form of a dragon sent by the gods to rule the world. The dragon concept had been used very much to make people believe the "legality" of the ruling of the emperors. And also the parts in Confucianism, buddhism or Daoism that educate people to be sublime and peaceful were held as the principals of the whole nation. The ruling class tried a lot of things to make people, that usually consisted of peasants, believe the their reign is entitled by the gods, unquestionable and people should only follow their reign.
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The endeavor of the ruling class had been proven to be very effective. There usually were not revolutions unless the economy had been really screwed and a lot of people were starving. In other words, the ruling class, which were only a very tiny portion of the population, were usually very successful at securing their ruling over the nation, so they could do whatever they want. And they would try anything possible to make their life to be as luxurious as possible. A large portion of Chinese traditional culture is the result of those in power pursuing the extremes of luxury.
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So this explains why anything, that is "Chinese", always look so colorful and complex , and always have so many details. Those rich and powerful would want anything they used or saw, buildings, gardens, clothes, furnitures, food and etc, to be refined as much as possible since they can manuvour a lot of human resources. And this became the mainstream of the Chinese style.
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Today, the Chinese style can hardly be found in the buildings ot clothes. The Chinese elements that existed in the old gardens are only used limitedly in the new parks. However, furnitures and dishwares are where the Chinese style are still widely used. Furnitures made of Rosewood(红木), usually in traditional style, hold a very good reputation among expensive or luxurious furnitures. The decoration of the home of a Chinese family is usually a mixture of modern style and Chinese traditional style. And dishwares made of porcelain or ceramics are used and liked by a lot of families.
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Food and cooking are where the traditions are well kept and further developed. The pursuit for good tastes by the rich people had led to a lot of studies on material selection and cooking method. These studies made Chinese food famous for its varieties in materials and tastes. Combined with modern and western cooking methods and concepts, Chinese food is goind to be more and more famous and still unique.
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The old philosophies and religions are not recommeded by the governments any more. Some people still believe in Confucianism, buddhism or Daoism. But most people only know a little about them. Very few people would want to build a new temple nowadays, but the old temples are well preserved and most are open mostly for tourism, and people who truly believe in them. There are still monks but not each of them has to hold to all the principals of buddhism or Daoism any more. Though Confucianism, buddhism and Daoism are diminishing now, they have existed in China for thousands of years, a lot of the ceoncepts are deeply embedded in Chinese language. A lot of terms and sayings were from Confucianism, buddhism and Daoism and are still widely used and are able to affect the ways people think. They have been a part of Chinese culture and will live on.
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The old entertainments are hard to survive the challenges of the modern entertainment methods. There are a lot of local dramas in China, the most famous is the Peking Opera, as you might already know. They are only limitedly popular among elder people now. And it is no doubt that they will become less popular in the future because young people are interested in TV, movies, pop music, sports, etc just like western young people. However, GO(围棋) and Chinese Chess(中国象棋) are still quite popular even among young people. GO has already gone international, a lot of competitions with large amounts of prizes are being held between China, Japan and Korea every year. GO is way more complicated than Chess or Chinese Chess, the life GO should be long, maybe even everlasting, because there is still so much to dig in its playing. The computer Chess programs have beaten the best Chess player in the world, but computer GO programs still are like an infant to any one who has a little skill on GO.
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So this is how the Chinese traditional culture is holding up in modern China. It is not seen everywhere but is still affecting Chinese people in a lot of ways.

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