II. Basic Principles of World Cultural Modernization

The human beings co-exist with the culture, and where there’s the human, there’s the culture. The human culture boasts a history of about 2.5million years; the human civilization has been standing for about 6,000 years; and modernization and cultural modernization hold a history of about 3 centuries. It can be proved through a lot of historical facts and scientific studies that neither human development nor cultural changes are fulfilled disorderly. The Modernization Theory is a theoretical explanation of the development of human civilization since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century; while the Cultural Modernization Theory is an explanation of the changes in human culture since the 18th century, a sub-theory of the Modernization Theory. Due to cultural diversity and multi-route of cultural change, the theory of cultural modernization cannot be single, but pluralistic.

1. Studies related to cultural modernization

Cultural modernization is a kind of cultural change, and cultural change is a type of cultural phenomenon. Studies related to cultural modernization include 3 parts: cultural studies, studies of cultural change, and special studies of cultural modernization.

(1) Cultural studies

Cultural studies are of long standing. However, cultural studies that directly make the culture as the object of overall study began in the 19th century. In the academic circle of cultural studies, there’re various cultural studies featuring quite different contents and methods of study. Cultural studies concern many disciplines, such as cultural anthropology, cultural sociology, cultural economics, cultural psychology, cultural geography, cultural ecology, cultural modernization, the culture science and contemporary cultural studies. Here we’ll introduce the culture science and contemporary cultural studies.

There’s no uniform understanding of the culture science. Generally, the culture science is a science that probes into the cultural phenomena and developments of the human being. Studies of the culture science in the 19th century stressed the early human culture, especially the primitive culture and the tribe culture of aboriginals. Since the 20th century, studies of the culture science have paid more attention to cultural change and studies of national culture, and there have been more researches into modern culture and cross culture. There’re many theoretical schools of the culture science, including evolutionary school, diffusion school, historical school, sociology school, structuralism, functional school, psychological school and cultural relativism.

There’s no uniform understanding of contemporary cultural studies. Generally, contemporary cultural studies are multi-disciplinary studies. They feature highly diversified contents and methods, attention to popular culture and cultural criticism, and lack of magnificent narration in the culture science. There’re also many theoretical schools for the studies, such as culturalism, structuralism and post-structuralism, post-modernism, feminism, cultural industry theory (Frankfurt school) and cultural hegemony theory (Gramsci school).

If we broaden our scope to include all cultural studies, then cultural theories will flush in. These cultural theories can be largely divided into classical theory and modern theory. Currently, the most prevailing cultural theories are: cultural capital, reception theory, public sphere, soft power of culture, cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, cultural diversity, cultural pluralism, modernism, post-modernism, cultural modernity, cultural post-modernity, local culture, global culture, ecological culture, Internet culture, digital culture, information culture, cyberculture, media culture, leisure culture, scientific culture, innovation culture, cultural industry, cultural economy, copyright industry, creative industry and creative class.

(2) Study of cultural change

Study of cultural change is a branch of cultural studies. Cultural change refers to all changes that take place in human culture. Study of cultural change can date from the 19th century or even earlier, and it can be divided into 3 stages so far. The first stage is the studies of cultural evolution in the 19th century, with Darwinism the mainstream idea. The second stage is early 20th century, with anti-Darwinism the mainstream. Some scholars criticized or abandoned Darwinism, and cultural change, cultural mode, cultural diffusion, cultural historicism, cultural relativism and functionalism were the most widely used theories at that time. The third stage started from 1940s, which is the overall study of cultural change, including cultural evolution, cultural change and cultural modernization study.

There’re many schools of cultural change theory, such as evolution theory, communication theory, innovation theory, conflict theory, theory of cycle, structure functionalism, mentalism and technological determinism. Among them, the cultural evolutionism is of the widest impact.

The cultural evolutionism can be roughly divided into classical evolutionism and neo-evolutionism. According to the classical evolutionism in the 19th century, the human society has experienced similar stages of development, from primitive culture to the civilized era, and no stage can be skipped. The neo-evolutionism in 1940s revised the idea of “uni-linear evolution” given by the classical evolutionism and raised new concepts like general evolution, particular evolution, multi-linear evolution, theory of energy of cultural development, and cultural ecology. In 1955, Stewart raised the multi-linear evolution theory, thinking that the evolution of human society is of different levels, with different cultural types at these levels; several basic cultural types will develop in the same way under the same conditions, but changes in the cultural types at different levels will be different. By referring to the thoughts of biological evolutionism, the cultural evolutionism believes that innovation is the ultimate source of evolution, and ecological adaptation is a mechanism of evolution.

(3) Special studies of cultural modernization

The special study of cultural modernization takes cultural modernization as a specific research topic. There’s no uniform idea about when the study began. Current studies can be roughly categorized into 3 types: conceptual study (hermeneutic study), empirical study and application study of cultural modernization.

Firstly, conceptual study. There can be three paths to the conceptual study of cultural modernization. ① The concept of cultural modernization can be abstracted based on the facts of cultural change during the modernization. ② The concept of cultural modernization can be induced or concluded according to related contents in academic documents. ③ The concept of cultural modernization can be explained according to social ideals or individual ideals. Surely, there’re sometimes comprehensive studies for it. A lot of work has been done by domestic and foreign scholars.

Cultural modernity is an abstract induction of the outcome of cultural modernization. If we regard the culture as an all-inclusive concept, then cultural modernity is roughly equivalent to modernity. If we interpret the culture as a field of the human society, then cultural modernity will be an aspect of modernity, and a theoretical abstract of the outcome of the modernization in the cultural field. In some literatures, there’s no strict distinguishing between cultural modernity and cultural modernization, and cultural modernity and modernity, so these concepts are used alternately.

Secondly, empirical study. The empirical study of cultural modernization is to make direct study of the process of cultural modernization or the phenomenon of cultural modernization. Such a study is mainly aimed academically at exploring the basic principles and objective laws of cultural modernization, or to check the authenticity of cultural modernization and the theory of cultural modernization. The boundary between empirical study and conceptual study of cultural modernization is relative. Empirical studies by domestic and foreign scholars can be divided into 3 levels: studies of cultural modernization in the levels of the world, the country and the region.

Thirdly, application study. The application study of cultural modernization is to make cultural modernization a transcendental fact, and the theory of cultural modernization a theoretical framework, so as to apply the theory to study or instruct cultural practices and processes. There’re mainly 3 aspects of application study. ① Quantitative study, including evaluation of cultural modernization, evaluation of cultural development and evaluation of cultural competitiveness. ② Policy study, including cultural indicators, cultural building, cultural development, analysis and establishment of cultural policy. ③ Cross-field application, such as to study and explain the phenomena in other fields by using the cultural modernization theory, or make the cultural modernization theory the background for analysis in other fields.

2. Arguments related to cultural modernization

Since 1950s, many theories have emerged in the world modernization study, including 6 highly representative ones. They are: classical modernization theory, post-modernization theory, ecological modernization theory, reflexive modernization theory, multi-modernities theory, the Second Modernization Theory, and so on. All these theories have discussions about the cultural change or ecological culture in the process of modernization. Here we’ll brief the discussions on cultural of 4 modernization theories.

(1) Discourses upon culture of classical modernization theory

The classical modernization theory originated in 1950s to 1960s. It’s a theoretical explanation of the world modernization process since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. It holds that modernization is a historical process for a traditional agricultural society to turn into a modern industrial society, and modernity is a theoretical summary of the outcome of modernization. According to Marx, what industrially developed countries show to underdeveloped countries is just the future vision of the latter. These words were frequently quoted in academic documents about the classical modernization theory.

The discussions about the cultural field in the classical modernization theory are scattered without a uniform system. Generally, cultural modernization is a transformation from traditional culture to modern culture, and the features of modern culture are summarized as cultural modernity. Weber believed: The characteristic of cultural modernity is that the essential logos presented in the religion and metaphysical world view is divided into 3 autonomic domains, namely, science, morality and art. (Habermas, 2006a)

There’re mainly 6 features of cultural modernity: ① New knowledge, knowledge based on science; ② New education, the popularization of modern education and dissemination of science; ③ New idea, rationalization of thoughts, secularization of the religion, belief in science and technology, and modernism, economicsmism and nationalism; ④ New spirits, science, democracy, freedom, equality and humanity; ⑤ New pursuit, pursuit of progress, wealth, change and self-expression, and development of personal values and abilities; ⑥ New world view, awareness of efficiency, openness and participation, and orientation to trust, responsibility, achievement and justice. (He Chuanqi, 2003)

(2) Discourses upon culture of post-modernization theory

Post-modernization theory emerged about in 1970s to 1980s. Post-modernization theory is not a complete theoretical system, but an ideological aggregation of studies about post-industrial society, post-modernism and post-modernization. There’re abundant discussions about cultural change in the post-modernization theory. Three points will be briefed below.

According to British scholars including Crook, cultural modernity is the outcome of cultural modernization, and cultural modernization is the transformation from traditional culture to modern culture, including cultural differentiation, cultural rationalization and cultural commercialization. Post-modernization of culture is a multi-direction and unpredictable process, a mixture of the expansion and inversion of cultural modernization, including hyper-commercialization, hyper-rationalization, and hyper-differentiation and dedifferentiation. Cultural post-modernity is the outcome of cultural post-modernization, as well as a mixture (Crook, Pakulski, Waters, 1992) .

US scholar Inglehart believed that the history would not develop in a linear way, and the change from traditional society to modern society was modernization, while the change from modern society to post-modern society was post-modernization. The changes that had taken place in industrialized countries since 1970 was post-modernization, while the changes in developing countries were modernization. Changes from modernization to post-modernization included profound changes in politics, economy, sex and family, and religious ideas, for instance, from materialism to post-materialism, from modern values to post-modern values, and from existence value to happiness value. Cultural change featured path dependency, and the cultural change of post-modernization included the rising of post-modernism.(Inglehart, 1997) 。

Both Inglehart and Welzel thought that during modernization, the functions of religion and traditional cultural heritage did not disappear, the world cultures did not converge, and cultural changes did not happen in a linear way; cultural turn frequently took place; industrialization brought about rationalization, bureaucratization and secularization; post-industrialization led to self-discipline and the value of self-expression; the US was not the leader of the world cultural changes, and cultural modernization was not irreversible.(Inglehart, Welzel, 2005) 。

(3) Discourses upon culture of the multi-modernities theory

Since 1990s, cultural diversity and cultural pluralism have drawn wide attention. Such an idea has caused resonance in the field of modernization study, making “multi-modernities” a more and more popular academic term. The multi-modernities theory is a theoretical explanation of the diversity of modern culture and the multi-linear nature of cultural change.

According to Israeli scholar Eisenstadt, multi-modernity is an idea about the history and features of the modern times, which is different from the explanation of the classical modernization theory in 1950s. Modernity is of various cultural schemes and system modes. Pluralism and diversity are considered to be the major determinants of unique appearances of different modern societies.

The multi-modernities theory holds: Firstly, modernity should be regarded as a unique civilization, with unique system and cultural features. Secondly, the history of modernity should be deemed a story about the continuing development, formation, constitution and restructuring of the multi-cultural schemes of modernity, unique modes of modern system, and different self-conceptions of the modern society, namely, a story of multi-modernities. Thirdly, these different cultural schemes and system modes of modernity are created through persistent interaction among several factors. Fourthly, the cores of the cultural schemes for modernity concern the activity and autonomy of the people, and stress the continuing expansion of personal freedom and systematic freedom, as well as the continuing enlargement of the fields for human activities, creativity and autonomy. Fifthly, analysis of cultural diversity doesn’t deny that early theories about the convergence between modernization and industrial society contains highly reliable factors (Eisenstadt, 2006)

(4) Discourses upon culture of the Second Modernization Theory

The Second Modernization Theory was raised by Chinese scholar He Chuanqi (He Chuanqi, 1998,1999). The Second Modernization Theory is not only a modernization theory in broad sense, but also a human civilization theory, which makes modernization theory and human civilization theory integrated in an organic whole.

According to the Second Modernization Theory, from the time of the emergence of human beings to the late 21st century, the course of human civilization can be divided into 4 eras and 16 stages. Modernization refers to the profound changes that take place in human civilization since industrial revolution in the 18th century, which happens in different countries and fields. The process of world modernization from the 18th to 21st century had two stages, namely, the first modernization and the second modernization. The first modernization refers to the transformation and in-depth change from agricultural era to industrial era, from agricultural economy to industrial economy, from agricultural society to industrial society, and from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization; the second modernization means the transformation and in-depth change from industrial era to knowledge era, from industrial economy to knowledge economy, from industrial society to knowledge society, and from industrial civilization to knowledge civilization and ecological civilization. There will be more changes in the coming century.

Cultural changes during the first modernization refer to the first cultural modernization, and cultural changes during the second modernization create the second cultural modernization. Please see the above 6 features of cultural modernity for the features of the first cultural modernization. Features of the second cultural modernization include: new cultural views (cultural industrialization, cultural diversification, protection of cultural heritage, Internet culture and innovation culture), new development views (quality of life, ecological consciousness and all-round development of the human), new scientific views (the duality of the science, mega-science and high-tech), new educational views (popularity of higher education, online education and life-long learning), new values (post-materialism, individualization, tolerance, respect for uncertainty and diversity), and new world views (humanization, cultural freedom and self-fulfillment).

3. General theory of cultural modernization

Through systematic analysis of the 3 centuries’ process of world cultural modernization and systematic arrangement of studies about cultural changes and cultural modernization in the past more than 100 years, Chinese researcher He Chuanqi advanced a theoretical hypothesis, namely, “general theory of cultural modernization”, or Cultural Modernization Theory in short. Such a theory attempts to explain the modernization in the field of culture from the perspectives of science and modernization; it’s an alternative theoretical explanation about modernization in culture from the 18th to 21st century. It can enrich the knowledge of cultural modernization. And it generally includes contents in five aspects, namely, the definition, process, outcome, dynamic and mode of cultural modernization, as well as the features, principles and models of the five aspects.

(1) Definition of cultural modernization

The definition of cultural modernization concerns 4 basic concepts: culture, cultural field, modernization and cultural modernization. None of them holds a standard definition. Here we’ll talk about their operational definitions in this report.

First, the definition of culture. The culture is a complex of the knowledge, institutions and ideas that impacts and explains human lifestyles, as well as human’s pursuit and expression of truth, goodness and beauty. Cultural complex is an organic whole, where the knowledge is the basis of culture, the institution is the core of culture, and the idea is the soul of culture, but this is in no way invariable.

In the complex of culture, the knowledge refers to all cognitions about the nature and human society, including the coded knowledge and the uncoded knowledge (or tacit experiential knowledge); the institution means the aggregation of regulations, procedures, ethics and conventions that regulate human behaviors; the idea refers to thoughts, beliefs, morality, values and aesthetics.

If we express it in the mathematical language, the culture is the function of knowledge, system and idea. In the history of cultural development, the functions of different cultural factors have been changing. In a sense, in the agricultural era, the idea was the axis of culture, and autocratic culture was a prominent characteristic of the era; in the industrial era, the institution was the axis of culture, and the outstanding feature of this era was the institution culture; in the knowledge era, scientific knowledge becomes the axis of culture, and knowledge progress turns into the determinant, with knowledge culture the prominent feature of this era. But surely, these are all relative. At any time, the three factors of the culture must be important, and the so-called cultural axis just refers to the cultural factor that takes a relatively controlling position.

The culture includes intension and extension. The intension is: a complex of knowledge, systems and ideas that affect and explain human behaviors. The extension is: language, literature, art, philosophy, religion, law, ethics, conventions, scientific knowledge, cultural facilities, cultural industries, political culture, economic culture, social culture, environmental culture and culture of individual behaviors.

Second, the cultural field. The cultural field is one of the 6 fields of study on human society, a field related to the creation, production, dissemination, distribution, provision, conservation and consumption of culture. The cultural field includes two parts: ① The independent part: pure culture, cultural facilities and cultural industries; ② The cross part: the cross part between the cultural field and other fields, including political culture, economic culture, social culture, environmental culture and the culture of personal behaviors.

Third, modernization. The Second Modernization Theory holds: Modernization is one kind of profound change in human civilization since the 18th century. Between the 18th and 21st centuries, the world modernization includes the first and second modernizations. The intension of modernization is: a complex process of the formation, development, transformation and international interaction of modern civilization; a complex process of the alternate operation of the innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of civilization elements; and an international competition where different countries seek, achieve or maintain their world advanced levels. The extension of modernization is: the modernization of the world, countries, regions, politics, economy, society, culture, environment and individuals.

Fourthly, cultural modernization. The cultural modernization we mention here is modernization in the cultural field, an important field of modernization. The intension of cultural modernization is: a complex process of the formation, development, transformation and international interaction of modern culture; a complex process of the alternate operation of innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of cultural elements; and the international competing where different countries seek, achieve or maintain their world leading positions in cultural changes. The extension of cultural modernization is: the modernization of pure culture, cultural facilities, cultural industries and other cultures, cultural life, cultural contents, cultural forms, cultural systems, cultural ideas, cultural frameworks and cultural management.

Cultural modernization is closely related to concepts like cultural development. The simplified conceptual model of cultural modernization is shown below.

Cultural development=cultural progress + cultural positive adaptation + cultural progress × cultural positive adaptation

Cultural modernization = cultural development × cultural transformation × change of international cultural position

Cultural modernization = cultural development × cultural transformation × international cultural interaction.

Fifth, there’re three criterions for cultural modernization. They are: being conducive to the liberation and development of productivity without damaging the natural environment; being conducive to the justice and progress of the society without impairing economic growth; being conducive to the emancipation and all-round development of human beings without harming social harmony. The three standards can be called “3-conducives” for short: conducive to enhancement of productivity, to social progress and to all-round human development.

Cultural modernization is a form of cultural change, a crossing between cultural change and modernization. Cultural change can bear many forms, including the progress, retrogression, evolution, adaptation, gradual change, sudden change, revolution, movement, counteraction, fluctuation, circulation, turn and conflict, and so on. A certain kind of cultural change, when meeting the three criterions for cultural modernization, should fall into cultural modernization, or it should not.

Sixth, there’re three sources of modern culture. The first source is partial inheritance and development of traditional culture, like the inheritance of language, literature, art, religion, philosophy, science and technology. The second source is partial denial and turn of traditional culture, like the development, discarding or turn of traditional technologies, cultural systems and cultural ideas. The third source is cultural innovation and exchange, such as knowledge innovation, system innovation, idea innovation, cultural diffusion, and so on.

(2) Process of cultural modernization

First, the stages of the cultural modernization process. Between the 18th and 21st centuries, cultural modernization included the preparation stage, the first cultural modernization and the second cultural modernization; the first cultural modernization featured 3 tides, and the second featured another 3 tides. By referring to the periodic chart, coordinate system and road map of human civilization process, we established the periodic chart, coordinate system and road map models for cultural changes and cultural modernization.

The first cultural modernization was the transformation from traditional culture to modern culture, from agricultural culture to industrial culture; it included the transformation from autocratic culture to democratic culture, from feudalist culture to civic culture, from superstitious culture to scientific culture, from dependant culture to professional culture, from family culture to welfare culture, and from rural culture to urban culture.

The second cultural modernization is a transformation from modern culture to post-modern culture and from industrial culture to knowledge culture; it includes transformations from material culture to ecological culture, from tangible culture to Internet culture, from authoritative culture to mass culture, from mechanical culture to humanistic culture, from national culture to global culture, and from cultural convergence to cultural diversification.

If we claim that the first cultural modernization was a process of cultural differentiation, which means the culture being separated from the society as a whole and the differentiation within culture, then the second cultural modernization must have been a process of cultural fusion, which means the re-fusion between culture and economy and society, and the culturalization of the economic and social processes, making cultural industries gradually turn into pillar industries.

Second, the structure of cultural modernization process. It mainly includes the time structure, the space structure, the space-time structure, the hierarchical structure, the structure of field, the structure of content, and the structure of cultural life. Among them, the time structure mainly refers to stage division of the cultural modernization process; the space structure chiefly means the change in spatial distribution during cultural modernization; and the structure of cultural life mostly refers to the structure change of the cultural life during cultural modernization.

Third, features of cultural modernization process. There’re generally 12 features of it: partly foreseeable, non-linear, partly reversible, path dependent, multi-route, pluralistic, unbalanced, non-synchronized, non-isolated, systematic, phased and global. Aside from these main features, there’re still many other characteristics. The first cultural modernization bore different features from the second one, and the features of the second one have not fully shown up yet.

Fourthly, the principles in cultural modernization process. As for the principles in cultural modernization, we may analyze it from two respects: the application of modernization principles in the cultural field, and the principles of modernization in the cultural field. The former can be applied to all fields of modernization, while the latter refer to principles in the cultural field.

According to the Second Modernization Theory, modernization should comply with 10 principles: asynchronous process, uneven distribution, relatively stable structure, changeable position, predictable behaviors, selectable path, progressive demand, return decreasing, unrepeated state, and changing central axis. These principles are applicable to cultural modernization.

About the principles of modernization in the cultural field, we should make hierarchical analysis.

——The principles of the modernization of cultural elements. Modernization of cultural elements is a complex process of the alternate operation of innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of cultural elements. It includes the bidirectional cyclic process of innovation, selection and dissemination of cultural elements, and the reversible recession of cultural elements. All these make up an ultra circulation (ultra-circulation model). Principles of the innovation of cultural elements include: diversity of innovation of cultural elements, principle of knowledge innovation, principle of institution innovation, principle of idea innovation, diversity of cultural choice, diversity of cultural dissemination and diversity of cultural recession.

——The principles of the modernization of cultural contents. Modernization of cultural contents is a complex process of the alternate operation of innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of cultural contents. The innovation of cultural contents bears diversity. The principles of the modernization of cultural elements are basically applicable to the modernization of cultural contents.

——the principles of the modernization of cultural forms. Modernization of cultural forms is a complex process of the alternate operation of innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of cultural forms. The innovation of cultural forms bears diversity. The principles of the modernization of cultural elements are basically applicable to the modernization of cultural forms.

——The principles of the modernization of cultural system. There’s no uniform understanding of the culture system. Here the cultural system refers to the cultural system at the country level. The complex interaction model of the cultural modernization: the modernization of cultural system is a manifestation of cultural modernization, a complex interaction process among traditional culture, modern culture and post-modern culture, and a complex interaction process among cultural heritage, actual culture and new culture; it includes several functional routes like cultural innovation, cultural exchange, cultural diffusion, acculturation, cultural recession, and cultural loss.

——The diversity of the modernization of cultural life. The modernization of cultural life generally refers to the modernization of cultural lifestyles and quality of cultural life, which covers the modernization of cultural production, dissemination, consumption and reservation, the modernization of cultural commodities, services and activities, and the modernization of cultural supplies, demands and participation. The basic demands of the modernization of cultural life include: to enhance the diversity, rationality, health, accessibility, selectivity and acceptability, to seek, achieve or maintain world advanced level of cultural life, and to enhance human cultural quality, happiness and gratification.

——The diversity of the cultural modernization process. There’re diversities in cultural innovation, cultural transformation and cultural interaction. The element combination model of cultural innovation: cultural innovation is to create and introduce a new combination of cultural elements and carriers, and such a new combination must be unprecedented in the world. The innovation combination model of cultural contents and carriers: cultural innovation is to create and introduce a new combination of cultural contents and carriers, which is unprecedented in the world.

Fifth, the duality of the cultural modernization process. The cultural duality determines the duality of cultural modernization.

——The duality of culture: culture is of national attribute, so that it can be used as the cultural identity of a country or nation, presenting the cultural rights and interests of it; culture also bears the commodity attribute, so that it can be used for production and trading as a cultural commodity. Culture can be used as a public resource for share and inheritance; it can also be made a public commodity for market trading. Cultural change is affected both by national profits and market competition.

——Duality of cultural modernization: it should not only protect a country’s cultural rights and interests and cultural creativity, but help enhance the quality of cultural life and cultural competitiveness. There’re two orientations in the process of cultural modernization: national benefit and market demand.

Sixth, traditional culture requires differential treatment, including rational protection, resource application and partial modernization.

——Cultural modernization doesn’t mean complete denial of traditional culture. There’re three sources of modern culture, two of which are related to traditional culture; one is partly inheriting and developing traditional culture another is partly denying and turning it.. Traditional culture is closely related to the cultural identity of a country or nation, making it an important resource of cultural industries and innovation.

——Cultural modernization is not simply transforming from traditional culture to modern culture; instead, it’s a complicate interaction process. Cultural modernization includes the complex interaction among traditional culture, modern culture and post-modern culture, as well as the complex interaction among new culture, actual culture and cultural heritage.

——During the process of cultural modernization, the traditional culture persists and exerts important functions, like the functions of language, art and religion. Surely, not all traditional cultures will persist and function; there’re great differences among the functions of different traditional cultures, as there’re cultural losses and turns.

According to the different natures of the actual functions, traditional culture can be roughly divided into three types: ① Traditional cultures that still exert positive functions today, like the classical science; ② Traditional cultures that show negative functions currently, like feudalist culture; ③ Traditional cultures with neutral functions now, like some classical arts.

——In the process of cultural modernization, there can be 3 ways to handle traditional culture. ① As cultural heritage, traditional culture should be under reasonable protection; as cultural resource, cultural heritage can be rationally utilized. ② Traditional cultures with positive or neutral functions at present should be inherited and developed selectively. ③Traditional cultures with negative functions currently should be denied and turned, and treated differentially for possible reservation.

——Cultural modernization is not all-round modernization but partial modernization of traditional culture. Cultural modernization includes the partial recession and loss, partial denial and turn, and partial inheritance and development of traditional culture. In broad sense, the partial inheritance and development, and partial denial and turn of traditional culture both fall into cultural modernization; in narrow sense, the partial inheritance and development of traditional culture resides in the modernization of traditional culture in its true meaning. The partial modernization of traditional culture mainly refers to the modernization of the traditional cultures and some intangible cultural heritages that are still playing actual roles. The standards for judging the modernization of traditional culture are consistent with the three standards for judging cultural modernization.

(3) The outcome of cultural modernization

The result and goal of cultural modernization can be analyzed and expressed from the two aspects of theory and policy.

Firstly, analyzing from the theoretical aspect, the outcome of the cultural modernization process is mainly the formation and diffusion of two kinds of cultural modernity. The outcome of the first cultural modernization was the formation and diffusion of the first cultural modernity, which included cultural differentiation, cultural specialization, professionalization, rationalization, secularization, scientification, commercialization, individualization, popularization and bureaucratization, and so on. The outcome of the second cultural modernization is the formation and diffusion of the second cultural modernity. Currently, it includes cultural dedifferentiation, cultural industrialization, diversification, networking, digitalization, ecologization, globalization, humanization, democratization and knowledgeabilization, and will have further developments in the future.

Secondly, analyzing from the perspective of policy, the outcome of cultural modernization process mainly includes in-depth changes in 6 aspects. They are respectively: the completion of two cultural transformations, enhancement of cultural creativity and quality of cultural life, changes of cultural contents and structures, changes of cultural systems and ideas, emancipation and all-round development of human beings, change of the international cultural system, and cultural industries becoming pillar industries in the world economy.

Thirdly, there’re three national objectives of cultural modernization when analyzed from the theoretical aspect. The first goal: to complete the first cultural modernization. The second goal: to complete the second cultural modernization. The third goal: to seek, achieve and maintain the world frontier position of cultural changes. The third goal is dynamic, and very limited in its scope of application. In the fields of cultural facilities, industries, science and technology, information, sports and travels, there’re world advanced levels of cultural development. But in the fields of language, literature, art and religion, there’s no world advanced level of cultural change.

Fourthly, there’re three national objectives of cultural modernization when analyzed from the policy aspect. The first goal: to protect the cultural rights and interests of a country or nation. The second goal: to enhance the level and quality of civil cultural life. The third goal: to promote cultural creativity, competitiveness and influence. These goals can be concretized.

Fifthly, the emancipation and all-round development of human beings. The emancipation and all-round development of human beings is not only a general objective of modernization, but a key target of cultural modernization and human modernization. In 1990,UNDP began to promote Human Development Report, putting forward measurements of human development, like the Human Development Index. According to UNDP, human development indicates the process of encouraging the full development of human beings and promoting the development level to add to people’s choices. Therefore, human development reflects the fruits that human beings have achieved in full development and promoting development level. It’s both a process and a goal. At all levels of development, there’re three most basic levels of development: people lead a healthy and long life; they are knowledgable; they can obtain resources needed for living a decent life. All in all, human development is one of the people, by the people and for the people. (UNDP, 2000).

(4) The dynamic of cultural modernization

Firstly, the driving forces of cultural modernization. The driving forces of cultural modernization include innovation, competition, adaptation, exchange, national benefit and market demand. Among them, innovation is the ultimate source of cultural modernization; competition is the incentive mechanism of cultural change; adaptation is cultural adjustment to the change of the external environment, exchange is the stimulative of culture change, national benefit is the guiding element of cultural development, and market demand is the determinant of cultural industries.

Secondly, the innovation driving model of the cultural modernization process. Innovation is the source of cultural modernization. Innovation leads to the birth of new article, knowledge, system and idea, which form new culture and new cultural products, thus pushing on cultural modernization; there’re information feedbacks at each stage, forming a positive feedback circulation from innovation to cultural modernization.

Thirdly, dual-wheel driving model of the cultural modernization process. The cultural modernization process is driven by national benefit and market demand together. National benefit promotes cultural creation, cultural commodities and service supply that protect national cultural rights and interests, and market demand drives the cultural creation, cultural commodities and service supply that are suitable for domestic and international market demands; together they boost the cultural modernization process, and at each stage of the process, there’s positive feedback of information.

Fourthly, joint action model of the cultural modernization process. Cultural modernization is a complex process, the outcome of the joint action of several driving forces, including innovation, competition, adaptation and exchange. Their joint action helps with cultural development and transformation, thus advancing cultural modernization. There’s positive information feedback at each process.

(5) The mode of cultural modernization

Firstly, the routes and modes of cultural modernization are diversified. Cultural modernization features starting point dependency and route dependency, affected by historical traditions, national levels and international system.

Secondly, cultural modernization doesn’t have any universal optimal routes. It holds basic routes, many subdivided routes and appropriate choices. Different subdivided routes have different types of applicability, and one subdivided route is of no equal value for different countries.

Thirdly, there’re three basic routes of cultural modernization in the 21st century. They are: the route of the second cultural modernization, the route of the first cultural modernization, and the route of the integrated cultural modernization. Each basic route has many subdivided routes. The cultural field contains 4 sect-fields (pure culture, cultural facilities, cultural industries and other cultures) and more than 30 sub-fields or cultural departments. Each sect-field, sub-field or department of the cultural field has its own route of modernization, and the three basic routes above mentioned are the “envelope lines” respectively of the routes of sect-field, sub-field or department.

Fourthly, there’s no standard mode of cultural modernization, but rational choice. Cultural mode is a combination or formulation of different cultural elements. Cultural modernization includes two turns of cultural life, cultural contents, cultural structure, cultural system, cultural idea and cultural form, concerning all cultural fields and elements. The mode of cultural modernization process is a certain combination of these cultural elements. Different historical periods in different countries and regions feature different conditions and environments, requiring different formulations of cultural elements. The formulation of cultural elements that is suitable for a certain country or region in a certain historical period may not be fully suitable for other countries and regions.

Fifthly, the route of integrated cultural modernization is a basic route suitable for developing countries. Integrated cultural modernization is a complex process of the innovation, selection, dissemination and recession of cultural elements, a joint interaction of two cultural transformations (from traditional culture to modern culture, from modern culture to post-modern culture) and persistent turn to knowledge culture, and an international competition where developing countries strive to catch up with the world leading position of cultural modernization. The outcome of integrated cultural modernization is that cultural creativity, quality of cultural life, cultural facilities and cultural industries achieve world advanced level of cultural modernization, and the final goal is the formation of the second cultural modernity. The current features include cultural industrialization, networking, ecologization, democratization, humanization, diversification and globalization, and further changes can take place in the future. The principles of the driving force of integrated cultural modernization include the innovation driving model, the dual-wheel driving model and the joint action model, and national objective, cultural globalization and international cultural interaction have all exerted great influence on integrated cultural modernization. The subdivided routes and modes of integrated cultural modernization are diversified, bearing starting point dependency and path dependency. The process of integrated cultural modernization has to coordinate the completion of two transformations, namely, transformation from agricultural culture to industrial culture, and from industrial culture to knowledge culture, finally achieving knowledge culture. The route of integrated cultural modernization is a new route.

This report also briefly discussed the First Cultural Modernization Theory, the Second Cultural Modernization Theory, and the Integrate Cultural Modernization Theory, as well as their policy connotations. The cultural policies of cultural modernization are diversified. Different countries may choose different cultural policies at different times. The theory of cultural modernization is applicable at the level of the world and countries, but needs adjustment when used at the level of region. The theory of cultural modernization mentioned here is just one of interpretations of cultural modernization. Due to the diversity of culture and cultural modernization, the theory of cultural modernization is similarly diversified.