Ranges Of Traditionality And Modernity: A Study On Chinese Values Of Shanghai College Students In The Global Context

Modernization has been a process of dramatic changes in the Chinese mainland. Academic interests in studying such transitions and the role of tradition at play in this process have been numerous but primarily concentrate on the societal sphere. Under the influence of modernization and the persisting cultural tradition in the global context, the probe into the psychology of Chinese people at the individual level has been inadequate. While studies in this regard are largely from Western scholarship, the only relevant and comprehensive research conducted among a Chinese population is by the Taiwanese scholar Yang Kuo-shu and associates, who have constructed and applied his Chinese Traditionality and Modernity (T/M) Scales in Taiwan over the past two decades.Drawing inspirations and insights from emerging research interests in human choice and self-expression, the present study constitutes an exploratory attempt to update Yang's research on T/M of Chinese values by differentiating contemporary meanings of traditionality and modernity. Four types of value orientations are proposed: Authoritarian Traditional and Voluntary Traditional for traditionality; Rationalistic Modern and Self-expression Modern for modernity. Accordingly, a scale of 40 value items in ten life domains was constructed for a quantitative survey among college students in Shanghai (n=216). By delineating endorsements of each value orientation type across life domains, it was revealed that participants responded rather negatively toward Authoritarian Traditional values, whereas Voluntary Traditional values received the highest endorsement. Contradiction existed largely between Authoritarian Traditional and the two modern value orientations, whereas a relationship of co-existence was observed between most Voluntary Traditional values and Rationalistic value orientations. Rationalistic Modern values were highly endorsed and maintained a significant correlation with Self-expression Modern values. Data analysis also identified the phenomenon of psychological compartmentalization.