Social and Cultural Change in China in a Time of Rapid Economic Growth

Robert Y. Eng, Prof. of History/Dept. Chair, University of Redlands

Cultural institutions create a sense of local identity and civic pride, develop human capital, and attract tourism and outside investment. In turn, rapid economic development facilitates state investment in educational institutions, museums and other cultural assets, and more generally in urban planning. 

Looking at culture in the Greater Pearl River Delta (that is, the Pearl River Delta plus Hong Kong and Macau), we can identify three principal local cultural forms, each connected with the culture of the region but exhibiting its unique characteristics, each with varying degrees of input from the local government and intelligentsia, each with varying impact on the culture of China and the external world, and each in turn influenced in different ways by outside cultural forces: Hong Kong Culture, Guangzhou Culture, and Shenzhen Culture.

Hong Kong is the one metropolis in the Greater Pearl River Delta that can indisputably claim to be a global city. Not only is Hong Kong an international financial and commercial center with the largest container port in the world, and a major destination for international tourists, but its popular culture exerts a transnational influence far out of proportion to its tiny size. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, Hong Kong was the second largest film exporter to the world, behind Hollywood but attracting wide audiences beyond the Chinese diaspora communities. Cantopop, or Hong Kong pop music, is not as universal in appeal, but its audiences range far beyond the residents of Hong Kong to embrace much of the Chinese-speaking world. When I asked an anthropologist at Shantou University about how well local youth speak the local dialect, I was surprised to hear that they know Cantonese much better than the Shantou dialect because they listen to Cantopop.

As Hong Kong comes under increasing competition from Shanghai and elsewhere from the 1990s, it has invested heavily in cultural assets to improve its competitiveness. Hong Kong has long had two world-class universities: the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A number of new tertiary educational institutions were established since the 1980s, and at least one of them, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is of world class caliber. Hong Kong Disneyland is due to open in September of 2005.

As the center of traditional Cantonese culture, Guangzhou has a number of museums and parks reflecting its long historical heritage and revolutionary experiences in the 20th century. The city is now undergoing massive urban redevelopment to reassert its traditional political, economic and cultural leadership in the region and to build itself as a global city. A number of universities have been established, and a University Town is under construction. Also being built is the Pearl River New Town (Zhujiang Xincheng), which will contain the Guangzhou Opera House and a futuristic-looking city library, among others. A host of new cultural institutions and events have already been launched. In initiating the Guangzhou Triennial Art Exhibition in 2002, Wang Huangshen, the director of the Guangdong Museum of Art, explicitly stated that the goal was to “create the city’s cultural brand” and “promote the cultural strengths and build a new image of Guangzhou.”

As a new city with only 25 years of history, Shenzhen is creating its culture out of a virtual vacuum. Creating a sense of local identity is also problematic because of the fact that most Shenzhen residents have come from somewhere else, the majority of whom are not legal permanent residents. However, Shenzhen intellectuals affirm the existence of a Shenzhen culture, which to them is characterized by the energy of the new and the spirit of innovation. The city, like its competitor Guangzhou, is also anxious to create a cultural brand, and has invested considerable resources in establishing cultural institutions such as museums, 15 of which out of a total of 16 have been founded since 1995. As perhaps befitting its commercialism, the most striking Shenzhen cultural assets are its numerous theme parks, the best known of which are Magnificent China (Jinshou Zhonghua) and Window of the World (Shijie zhi chuang).
Globalization and the business mindset of the reform era have also impinged on the culture of the Greater Pearl River Delta. Commodification of culture under the impact of market forces has conditioned existing cultural forms and the emergent new forms. Cultural forms are also affected by the tension between the region’s connectedness to the Cantonese language and culture and its openness to cultural forces from other regions of China, the West, Japan, and South Korea. Nonetheless, outside cultural influences does not necessarily lead to cultural homogenization: the culture of the Greater Pearl River Delta has not been overwhelmed by norms set by Beijing or Shanghai, or even by the seemingly inexorable juggernaut of American popular culture. Instead, what one finds is a reinvigorated or emergent sense of local identity.

Commodification of culture is to be taken for granted in the realms of popular culture and entertainment. But it also applies to cultural institutions such as museums and historical sites as well. This commodification goes beyond museum shops and related businesses located in proximity to cultural sites, as exemplified by numerous incense shops found next to the historic Six Banyans Temple in Guangzhou.

Global culture particularly in its American manifestation has become pervasive in the Pearl River Delta. McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants are found everywhere, and Wal-Mart has made its corporate headquarters in China in Shenzhen. At a multiplex in the glitzy new Tianhe Mall in Guangzhou, we found that out of six films playing, four were American, one Hong Kong, and even the sole Chinese film playing was a mainland-Hong Kong co-production.

How will China fare in the future in view of these competing demands and forces, particularly socioeconomic differentiation and wasteful economic and cultural competition among the jurisdictions? One hopes a middle way may be found to reconcile sustainable growth with social equity, and to accommodate pluralism in all aspects of Chinese society and culture.