Zheng Xiaoyun`s Theory of Cultural Identity

Abstract

This article is an analysis of the theory of cultural identity by Zheng Xiaoyun, a distinguished Chinese philosopher. His theory of cultural identity presented here gives a new perspective to the study of cultural identity. Zheng Xiaoyun's work The Theory of Cultural Identity has won recognition with Chinese academia and has been widely cited there, yet it is little known abroad, Russian academic thought included. Zheng Xiaoyun investigates the relations between cultural and national identities, stating that culture revolves around cultural identity. He comes to the conclusion that cultural and national identities are determined by the cultural development of individuals and society in general (horizontal determination) as well as by the global identity coming into being (vertical determination). His novel ideas and insights add to the academic discussion of the problems of identity. The comparison of Zheng Xiaoyun’s ideas and the theories of Russian and foreign researchers shows notable distinctions: western authors tend to look into psychological aspects of identity, Russian research focuses on its cultural dimension, whereas in China maintaining one’s cultural identity in a changing world is the key problem of identity research. In his works Zheng Xiaoyun studies the functionilg of cultural identity in an alias language environment and explores how strong national identity and values determine the life of a group. Key topics in Chinese identity research today, such as regional identity and Asian identity, call for an in-depth analysis of national and cultural identity and tap from the works of Zheng Xiaoyun. The comparative analysis has proved that his ideas on determining the foundations, mechanisms and types of cultural identity corresponds with other academic traditions. However, Zheng Xiaoyun’s study outlined in this article brings about novel structural approaches to the analysis of the dynamics of identity creation. Following on from the principles of historicity and objectivity, the philosopher develops the basic prerequisites for combining structural and cognitive approaches in studies of modern national and global identities.