Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
The Transformation of the Old City of Beijing,
China—A Concrete Manifestation of New
China's Cultural Reconstruction
In the modern world, China is both a developing nation and a newly emerging
socialist state. Coming from an ancient cultural tradition, she now faces a new era
of unprecedented social change. While overhauling her backward economy and
actively pursuing reconstruction and modernization, she is also rapidly developing
a new socialist culture. In the process of modernization and reconstruction, it is
necessary for China to adopt the foreign science and technology according to her
own needs. But the development of a new socialist culture, however, entails a more
important and complex problem: how to identify and preserve the valuable part of
China's own traditional culture.
It is impossible, of course, for China's new socialist culture to drop from the
sky, or be imported intact from any particular foreign country. It can only grow
from China's own native soil. This is not to say that all foreign cultural infl uence
should be rejected, but it can only contribute positively to China's new, modern
culture by being fi rst fused with China's unique traditional culture. Taking into
account this background of great social change, this essay attempts to describe and
explain a concrete example of the issues which must be faced in creating the new
socialist culture. In presenting the problem of transforming an old, historical city
into a modern, new one, I can only offer the perspective of an historical geogra-
pher, not that of a specialist in city planning, but hope this discussion has some
value in that context.
