Impacts of mass media on Chinese culture
Introduction
Various scholars define the term “mass media” based on different concepts and applications. Mass media occurs as the tools employed in the transmission of information, ideologies and ideas to various audiences which include both particular and general. Equally, mass persists as the diverse technologies used in communications aimed at reaching a more substantial population through mass communication. Furthermore, the information transferred from sender to the recipient varies ranging from entertainment, advertisement and news. The internet possesses substantial impacts on the Chinese people in which it changed the way they interact, listen and views each other within the society. The use of the internet, which enables them to access various social media platforms experienced growth among the Chinese population since the 1980s reaching 300 million users in 2009. Since then, the number of users increased to 700 million hence largest internet consumers in the world in 2020. In Chinese culture, people interact with mass media daily. Media types influential in China include social media platforms, mobile phones, internet websites, television and radio, to name a few. Chinese culture exists as collectivist in which require constant interactions with people. Introduction of mass media, more so social media system significantly influences the Chinese social network. On the other hand, mass media accompanies globalization effects which offer various positive impacts on the Chinese people.
Intercultural, as well as the transcultural exchange of information among the Chinese people, involves various factors of the mass media. The aspects include the media selection usage and reception as well as cognitive impacts which occur after a particular type of media consumption. In past years communication was limited to face-to-face conversations. Introduction of the social media and internet things have interfered with the system and cultural structure hence enhancing people contacting each other without physical involvement. The mass media have negatively influenced Chinese traditions like the use of various symbols in communication that occurs as written calligraphy or a specific language. Therefore, mass media have significantly affected the Chinese culture more so in social systems due to the sharing of information without face to face meeting and intercultural information exchange as a result of globalization.
History of Mass Media in China
China has undergone various changes based on technology since the 19th century. Moreover, the modernizations period that comprised rapid development from the 1980s changed the face of Chinese culture as well as other fields like politic and economy (Wang, 2002). The growth in technology resulted from various forms of mass communication which resulted in shifting in cultural and social systems. Since, china occurs as the second country in terms of world economies hence more diversified in the media industry as impacts of the rapid development era (DeLisle, Goldstein & Yang, 2016). Development and growth of the internet as fruits of technological advancement significantly impacted the Chinese media industry. Such change and development in the mass media changed how the Chinese people though, viewed, interacted and listened in to each other in various conditions (Kulich & Zhang, 2010). From the 1990s backwards, mass media in China consisted primarily, radio, magazines, television and newspapers (Tierney, 2013). Moreover, the face of China changed in 2000 with the introduction of the internet, which significantly impacted mass media in various ways. As per Wang (2002), the development of the internet started in the mid-1990s and undergone different advancement in a rapid manner which influenced multiple forms of media in diverse ways. Currently, China exists as the largest market for social media (Li, 2014). Equally, some types of mass media such as television have experienced mass development over the time and currently comprises a complete system that includes high technology involved in the process of coverage, transmission and production of the content (Zeng & Greenfield, 2015). Currently, China possesses about 3,000 TV stations across the country. Furthermore, China maintains various radio stations as one of the main types of mass media in China (DeLisle, Goldstein & Yang, 2016). A result of such development and growth in mass media, exchange and access to information occurs at high speed within and outside China (Li, 2014). Communication of different ideas due to globalization effects has significantly affected the Chinese culture in both a negative and positive manner.
The relevance of the Topic
The research topic offers various significances to Chinese society. First of all, the subject explores multiple concepts of mass media which comprise its history and development in the Chinese context. On the note, the topic covers various types of media that exist in China or accessed by china and how they influence their cultural thinking and worldview. Secondly, the study topic presents different impacts of the Chinese using these mass media types in alteration of the cultural system. Moreover, offering such information would result in equipping Chinese society on how to interact with different forms of mass media and how they can affect their culture in the long run.
Literature Review
A study conducted among the Chinese in Hong Kong indicates that China fears cultural pollution based due to influence from Western nations. Introduction of the mass media comprising television programs from capitalist states and information exchange in social platforms result in contamination of the Chinese culture at a high rate (Cypris, 2017). Such contaminations result from the globalization effects that get enhanced by the mass media. Different media acts as a fundamental background in the rapid exchange of information in this digital era (Kulich & Zhang, 2010). As information move from one culture to another across the world, each culture gets influenced negatively or positively. Based on the Chinese case, globalization directly or indirectly affects the society’s structure of Chinese people (Wang, 2002). On the negative side, mass media results in globalization which enhances Chinese people abandon their traditions and customs for the Western ones. Based on various recent studies, China occurs as one of the nations with rich cultural heritage around the world since its formation. Chinese cultural system comprises the food, mode of dressing as well as music and festivals possessing extinct characteristics of the Chinese roots (Tierney, 2013). Online exchange of information through social media platforms and televisions significantly results in cultural diffusion. Scholars point out that such cultural exchange would finally result in loss of particular customs and values or the indigenous people like Chinese due to western concepts and influence.
Different scholars argue that what comes with goods also possesses some demerits. Indeed, globalization offers particular benefits to the cultural system of the Chinese people. Kulich and Zhang (2010) explain that globalizations enhanced the Chinese ethics and economy, leading to its development hence becoming one of the world best nations with economic stability standards. China produces various goods rooted in Chinese culture and traded all over the world, resulting in recognition of the Chinese values and customs (Wang, 2002). similarly, diversification in terms of cultural systems leads to offering news mean or interactions with people and carrying out various tasks. Moreover, as multiple studies indicate, globalizations enhanced by mass communication impacts the Chinese culture negatively based on many reasons and evidence. Firstly, the scholars explain that in recent times, Chinese people experiences shifting to the Western cultural system like individualisms and leaving their traditions and customs such as collectivism (Li, 2014). Equally, globalization critically impacts the Chinese culture in education structure leading to the introduction of new curriculum and course replacing the original ones due to westernizations effects taken from mass media (DeLisle, Goldstein & Yang, 2016). Furthermore, mass communication allows the exchange of information in rapid manners hence influencing the clothing styles, which form a significant part of the Chinese culture. According to Zeng and Greenfield (2015), globalization allows the exchange of ideas about the trending fashions which makes Chinese people change their clothing styles from their traditional cheongsams and coats to new trends such as t-shirts and jeans. Many studies indicate that mass communications significantly influenced the cuisine of the Chinese culture through access to ideas about other Western fast food like cheese (Zeng & Greenfield, 2015). Such fast food changes the menu of the chins restaurants replacing the traditional ones.
A recent study by Jingyan Zhao affirms that Chinese culture exists as collectivism. Collectivism culture like china expresses various characteristics such as attachments to the collective social groups. As per DeLisle, Goldstein and Yang (2016), Chinese culture believes in social groups that results in mutual and binding of the members in which personal traits reflects the group goals. Such cultural beliefs remain intact within the society for a long time of period (Hartig, 2012). Moreover, as witnessed among the Chinese culture, the development in technology resulting in the introduction of various mass media types result in changing of the collectivism to individualism among the young generation in China. Wang (2002) posits that globalization due to the constant change of information from other culture significantly contributes to such changes in the cultural system as currently experienced among Chinese people more so the youth. Some of the scholars define the young Chinese generation as Ku, meaning “cool” which distinguishes themselves from their older generations due to globalization (DeLisle, Goldstein & Yang, 2016). From 1990s china started importing various films and TV programs from the individualistic countries such the United States, which significantly influenced contributed to the changing nature of the cultural structure.
Media Impacts on Chinese Culture
The Mass Media
Mass media and globalization interconnect in most of the scenarios, as explained by various research works. According to Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki (2016), mass media critically influences the worldviews, ideas and opinions of the Chinese people based on strong networks. Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki (2016) explain that mass media accompanies the cultural progress and influence from the Western side, which changes how the society operates. As per Wang (2002), mass media significantly resulted in globalization which brought various Western cultural ideas into Chinese populations hence influencing Chinese cultural concepts such as art, fashion, music, clothing, customs values and traditions.
Mass media have significantly influenced the living styles of many people around the world. People can now chat and exchange ideas on social media platforms or receive news from worldwide within the shortest time possible throng television and internet access. Chinese experienced massive development in technology from the 1980s onwards which led to the introduction of various communications tools such as the internet, Smartphone as well a the forms of media that allow the exchange of information (Crane, Kawashima & Kawasaki, 2016). Moreover, this digital era accompanies various advantages and disadvantages to the culture around the world, more so Chinese one that possesses rich customs and traditions. For instance, the introduction of social media by advancement in technology significantly influences the lifestyle of many Chinese people (Hartig, 2012). As a result, a large portion of the population interacts with people from other different cultural background or the information like the Western one which changes in their worldview and thinking (DeLisle, Goldstein & Yang, 2016). As the entire state adapts to the new mass media forms, the system impacts the primary cultural elements which undergo evolvement due to acquiring of ideas through globalization and intercultural interactions. Chinese young generation receives readily available information from the mass media they interact with daily, leading to the negative impacts on the Chinese philosophies (Lull, 2000). In such conditions in which young can self regulate, the structure crucially affects the Confucius teachings which restore the respect between young and elder children and parents, ruler and ruled as well as teacher and the students (Zhao, 2017). The mass communication has yielded a unique mindset hence that respect never exists between the parties mentioned earlier.
Mass media have significantly changed the mentality of Chinese people which affects their cultural practices. As per Li and Lamb (2015), Chinese as one of the individualistic countries faces changes due to the social media platforms brought by new technology. Previously, people used and valued face to a face communication system which brought people together within the society (Cypris, 2017). Moreover, the mass media changed everything, and through social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, people can share information and talk without planning for the meeting. Chinese culture highly values the use of various symbols existing in calligraphy or written form. However, the growing rate of digitalizing means of information exchange makes many Chinese people forget how to write multiple cultural symbols (Li & Lamb, 2015). The Chinese language lacks the alphabets hence possessing various symbols as a representation of the different words; therefore forgetting such aspects negatively impacts Chinese culture.
From Collectivism to Individualism
Different cultures around the world maintain their values and in rare do the values change due to internal and external forces. According to Zhao (2017), Chinese collectivistic benefits occur as adaptive and significant in the China cultural system from ancient times. During the Ch’in Dynasty, the first emperor offered his people with a code of collective and uniform approach to various human aspects such as culture, politics as well as economics. Moreover stating from the 20th century, things started changing gradually within Chinese people incorporating other values due to the influence from different cultures. Zhang and Shavitt (2003) posit that the rapid growth in the Chinese economy and technology increased mass media that facilitated accessing and necessary information the outside world. Such shifts in the way people communicate and interact with various information result in moving from the collectivism to individualism (Li & Lamb, 2015). Numerous studies among the young Chinese generation indicate that value shift exist and young population exist as more individualistic than the older people (Cypris, 2017).
In most cases, they live based on their way of life insisted on following their cultural system of culture, such as collective ideologies. Notably, such independency of the youth originates from the facts that they can access information without relying on other people in the social world (Zhang & Shavitt, 2003). Furthermore, the social media platforms and internet offers the new surrounding in which they can easily acquire the individualistic values such as autonomy, self-reliance and boldness.
Technological development and forces experienced by the Chinese people make them, to shift from the collectivistic to an individualistic society based on various reasons. Cultural values change time to time-based on the interactions that people experience (Zhao, 2017). Multiple developments and events in China made it get exposed to the outside world hence influencing the nations’ political, cultural, social and economic system. As per Cypris (2017), the mass media enabled the Chinese to access information related to different aspects of life such as western values, fashion, art and foods which significantly changed their way of thinking and interaction with each other (Zhang & Shavitt, 2003). Through TV programs imported into China like children’s programs, films, drama series critically impacted the culture of the Chinese. The cultivation analysis principle explains that interacting with such types of mass media result in a change of cultural value.
Recommendations
Based on the different information gathered and evaluated on the mass media impact s on the Chinese culture, the paper recommends the following. Firstly, Chinese people, more so the youth should critically consider the effects of globalization due to mass media they interact with hence considering the positive part of it to preserve their cultural values. For instance, while interacting with various cultural values from the West, they should borrow principles that can help them in their daily lives apart from those that can change their artistic thinking. Secondly, just like the ancestors strived to conserve the Chinese culture and customs, the young generations should also follow their steps by taking various measures despite the mass media and globalization forces and impacts. As a result, the young age should seek and possess the knowledge in which they would gain an understanding of how to preserve those traditions and customs. Thirdly, the educations system should focus more on the subjects that enhance the development and growth of the Chinese culture among the young generation. For instance, various cultural symbols represented in calligraphy and writing should get incorporated in learning institutions as well as other cultural practices. Such actions would enhance understanding the beauty and aesthetic value of the culture to the children and youth hence eager to maintain the traditions.
Conclusion
To conclude, mass media development in China possesses significant impacts on the cultural structure more so on the young generation. Mass media in China comprises televisions, radio stations, magazines newspapers, different social media platforms and the internet. Such communication tools enhance exchange and access to information among individuals within and outside China. However, Chinese technology development started in since the 19th century, but modernization from the 1980s onwards changed the face of Chinese culture as well as other political and economic. Such development and growth in technology resulted in various forms of mass communication as well as the importation of the media programs like TV programs leading to a shift in the cultural and social system. Previous studies support the topic through asserting that mass media holds various negative and positive impacts on Chinese culture. Furthermore, Mass media influences the worldviews, ideas and opinions of the Chinese people based on substantial networks. Mass media accompanies the cultural progress and as a result of Westernization. Equally, globalization as an effect of mass media impacts Chinese cultural structure such as art, fashion, music, clothing, customs, values and traditions. Notably, the mass media have negatively influenced the Chinese traditions like the use of various symbols in communication that occurs as written calligraphy or a specific language. Through social media and typing using different devices limit the knowledge of the Chinese people in using and interpreting these symbols. The mass media act as the primary cause of shifting of Chinese values such as collectivism to individualism. Access to required information by the young generations makes them become autonomy and self-reliance as compared to older people within society. Therefore, mass media possess substantial impacts in which most of them occur as negative, resulting in cultural contaminations and shifting to Westerns values more so by the young generation.
References
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