Cultural Hegemony Of America And National Cultural Security Of China

National cultural security is an important issue protruded in the context of communications and conflicts among different cultures, especially of the cultural permeation and aggression by developed countries headed by the USA. As an essential part of national security, cultural security, economic security, military security and informational security constitute the whole national security system. In the present world, culture, which enjoys increasingly prominent position and roles in international competition, often blends together with economy and politics. The strength of culture is deeply fusing into the vitality and creativity of a people. The cultural prosperity and its steady development not only can promote the development of science and technology as well as economy, but also can arouse the self-respect, confidence and pride of a people, which form invisible safety barriers at psychological and spiritual levels and thus improve the degree of national security. As a high level security, cultural security is of great importance for ensuring a county’s political, economic and military security. It is the spiritual pillar to hold together and make a people or a country continue, as well as an important basis to establish and maintain state power and social system.Adhering to principles of uniting together with logic and history and combining theory and practice, the dissertation discusses the relationship of American cultural hegemony and China’s cultural security in the perspective of Marxist theory and cultural philosophy. Specifically speaking, the author analyzes the challenges and threats to China’s cultural security brought by American cultural hegemony, examines the causes of cultural security problems at home, sorts out and sums up national cultural security thoughts of the CPC, and brings forward some strategic measures to resist the American cultural hegemony and ensure China’s cultural security. Besides the Introduction, the dissertation consists of five parts.The first chapter mainly deals with the connotation of culture and national cultural security. In this chapter, the author deduces the existence of national cultural security from some inherent characteristics and relational logic. Culture has a multi-level concept that can be classified as broad sense and narrow sense. In this paper, the author refers to the latter, namely, spiritual culture. Culture is a complex changing organic system resulted from the accumulation of society and history. It is also the spiritual wealth formed in the course of human’s efforts to dominate and remould the objective environment as well as to pursue and create ideal life, including language, writing, rules and regulations, forms of organization, manners and customs, values, thinking patterns, moral sentiment, appreciation of the beauty, religious emotion, national personality, etc. Culture is the text to read the man, and it is the DNA of humans. It has both national and cosmopolitan characteristics, which represent the individual vs. the general or the particular vs. the universal. Cultural identity has important relevance with the survival and downfall of a people or a country, for the former is most fundamental prerequisite of the latter. Generally speaking, national cultural security means that the national culture is prevented from threats or impairments. As culture has a rich connotation, the author defines it as:a country can independently choose its own political system and ideology, resist the imposition of other courtiers’ideology or political and economic patterns guided by the ideology, keep watch cultural invasion, destruction or overthrow at home and abroad, and hence protect its own values, way of act, social system and national characteristics of culture, keep national self-esteem and cohesiveness, and expand its cultural international influence by necessary means.The second chapter analyzes the connotation of cultural hegemony as well as the roots and nature of American cultural hegemony and points out that it refers to the behaviors of a few courtiers with powerful political, economic and military advantages. Those countries try their best to make cultural invasion and aggression to other countries in order to obtain more interests by affecting the latter’s ideology, values, way of living or even the social system. In fact, the American cultural hegemony has profound historical and realistic reasons. For instance, deep-rooted sense of race hierarchy and "Missionary" mentality are its historical source and the target of seeking world hegemony and the continuing "Cold War" thinking are intrinsic driving force to practice the hegemony, while tremendous economic and cultural strength is the material basis to realize the hegemony. In nature, cultural hegemony culturally reflects the hegemonism and power politics of developed countries headed by the USA. It indicates that the developed countries want to make the maximum national interests by deploying their cultural strength to restrict or influence world affairs as well as other countries’ internal affairs.In the third chapter, the author analyzes American cultural hegemony’s challenges and threats to China’s cultural security, including direct challenges and threats as well as "the internal interface" of external threats. America seeks theoretical basis for its cultural aggression by propagating "China Threat" and "Collision of Civilizations", which deteriorates the outside environment of China’s cultural security. America spares no effort to peddle its ideology, values and way of living to make a "peaceful evolution" in China. For example, American discourse hegemony threatens safety of the Chinese language and characters; America uses cultural and educational communication, aid programs and cultural agents to make cultural permeation, which directly threatens the ideology safety of China; the USA causes many cultural security crises via its comprehensive information broadcasting system; it also leads to lots of crises by outputting spiritual and cultural products and propagating its ideology, way of living and values. However, American cultural hegemony is the external factor threatening China’s cultural security, while problems in our country’s cultural construction are the internal ones. The reasons why American scheme of "westernization" or "polarization" may sometimes be effective lie in this "interface", which includes catalysis of part disconnection of ideological theory and practice, opposite triggering of imperfect work on ideology, direct challenges from some non-mainstream cultures in China, and increasing foreign cultural influence on fellow countrymen because of insufficient cultural innovation and weak culture industry.The fourth chapter is about national cultural security thoughts of the CPC. The author sorts out and sums up theoretical thoughts on national cultural construction and cultural security of several generations of the Party’s leading core. By discussing the inheritance and development of their thoughts, the author finds that national cultural security thoughts sprouted in Mao Zedong period and preliminarily formed in Deng Xiaoping period, while Jiang Zeming and Hu Jintao made further development of the previous national cultural security thoughts. The thoughts have an important guiding significance for resisting American cultural hegemony and ensuring China’s cultural security.The last chapter studies the Strategic countermeasures of resisting American cultural hegemony and ensuring China’s cultural security. The author points out that since social consciousness is the reflection of social existence and culture is influenced by economic and political factors, national cultural security cannot be effectively maintained without material and political guarantee of the country. In specific terms, we should provide strong material basis for developing socialist culture and maintaining national cultural security by further deepening the reform of economic system and developing social productivity. In addition, we should reinforce the mass basis of national cultural security by pushing forward the reform of political system and struggling against corruptions. In the cultural perspective, we should do well the following work:raising the consciousness of national cultural security and constructing scientific early warning system and protective barriers of national cultural security; enhancing the construction of socialist core values and ensuring ideology safety; carrying forward cultural innovation and developing socialist advanced culture; improving culture industry and protecting our country’s cultural and economic security; strengthening cultural communication between China and foreign countries and pushing on the cause of international alliance to fight against cultural hegemony.In short, culture, gathering the wisdom and civilization, is the real root of a country or a people. In face with the challenges and threats of American cultural hegemony, it is important for us to think highly of and take corresponding measures to ensure the national cultural security, which is the significant premise of China’s revival and continuity.