Chinese Popular Culture - Term Paper Example

Chinese great political icons like Mao have changed the social, political and cultural outlook of the country. Today China has surpassed major nations in economic development, education and technological advancement. Once a poor nation, China now has a population indulge in modern cars, technological gadgets, meat – based diet and luxury clothing. Moreover, the Chinese media has evolved in to dynamism that has transformed the day to day life of people of the nation. “The embrace of a market economy, with all its attendant risks, has forced the development of new governmental and social policies to stabilize China’s social structure through the conceptual category of the ‘middle class”.

Today, China has become a world competitor and the super powers of world are looking up to China to understand their excellence in hard work, political strategy and social reform. Chinese Popular Culture The Chinese popular culture had been anchored due to the open door policy implement by the country in the 21st century. As per (Latham 20)“ Since the open door policy and economic reform in mainland China in the 1980s tension between the two Chinese territories have gradually esed”.Westernization is the key aspect behind Chinese popular culture as new generation is imitating West in their daily life.

China has a lasting cultural heritage and the emerging China is more on a conflict on adopting whether to adopt western or Chinese culture. According to (Wu 2)“ With their different positions and experiences in the world, China and the west cannot establish the same culture tradition”. The Chinese popular culture has transformed its population into diverse and intensely sophisticated class. Chinese people are influenced more by popular culture rather than politics of their country. They have shifted their interest to fashion, luxury, comfort and globalization.

For example, one of the examples of Chinese popular culture is hero worship where in sports icon and other celebrities are admired overly. They worship domestic celebrities, whether it is sports, movie, music or art related. As per (Ren) “In the business realm, Chinese heroes have also arisen to carry the torch of China’s aspirations. People like Li Yan Hong and Robin Li, founders of Baidu.com, or famed entrepreneur Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba group, which owns the most popular e-commerce sites, or Pan Shiyi and wife Zhang Xin, the Donald Trumps of China”.

Another example of it is the upsurge of fast food outlets in big cities of China. People have started to adapt to international fast food chains like KFC , Mc Donalds and Pizza hut in their attempt to align with western culture. Chinese Media and Popular Culture In Chinese media legacy, the Chinese writing, paper money, printing process and lithography has a prominent role to play. Preceding mass media, hand writing and printing were the main source of communication in China and as technology progressed, electrical, technical and mechanical devices replaced it.

As far as Chinese history is considered, two forms of media that has shaped Chinese people’s lives are radio and computer. Radio has been the media which has influenced Socialist China greatly. In socialist China, wired radio, loud speakers and radio