Globalisation as glocalisation in China: a new perspective

Abstract

In the current Chinese and international cultural and theoretical context globalisation has been one of the most heatedly debated topics of the past decade. This raises these questions: why should we Chinese humanities scholars deal with this topic with such enthusiasm? Has China really benefited from globalisation in its modernity project? How is globalisation realised in the Chinese context? How has it affected China’s humanities and culture? The advent of globalisation in China is subject to various constructions and reconstructions in its glocalised practice. So it is actually a sort of glocalisation in the Chinese context. Based on my previous research and on others’ publications, I offer my own reconstruction of globalisation with regard to its ‘glocalised’ practice in China. In the age of globalisation modernity has taken on a new look, or become a postmodern modernity, characterised by contemporary consumer culture. Along with the rapid development of its economy, China is now experiencing a sort of ‘de-third-worldising’ process, with its function increasingly important in the world.

在当前的中国和国际文化理论语境下，全球化一直是过去十年内讨论得最为热烈的理论话题之一。人们也许会问这样一些问题：为什么中国的人文学者如此热衷于讨论这一话题呢？难道中国果真在自己的现代性大计中得益于全球化吗？全球化是如何在中国的语境下得以实现的？全球化是如何影响中国的人文学科和文化的？我们无法回避这一事实，即全球化来到中国就经历了一种全球本土化的实践，并在这其中不断地被建构和重构，因此它实际上就是中国的语境下的一种全球本土化。本文作者基于自己的先期研究以及其他学者的著述，尝试着参照中国的“全球本土化”实践提出自己关于全球化的重新建构。既然我们现在处于一个全球化的时代，那么现代性便带有了新的面目，或者说以一种后现代的现代性形式而出现，它带有当代消费文化的特征。随着中国经济的飞速发展，中国正经历这一种“去第三世界化”的过程，从而使自己在世界上发挥越来越重要的作用。

Keywords:

• globalisation
• glocalisation
• China
• consumer culture
• de-third-worldising

Notes

1. Perry, “Growing Pains,” 5.

2. Wang, “Globalization, Cultural Studies and Translation Studies”; Wang, “Postmodernity, Postcoloniality and Globalization”; Wang, “Confronting Globalization”; Wang, “Globalization and Culture”; Wang, “Comparative Literature and Globalism”; and Wang, “Global English(es) and Global Chinese(s).”

3. Martin, The Global Information Society, 11–12.

4. Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 66–69.

5. Robertson, “Globalisation or Glocalisation?,” 38–39.

6. As one of the most influential scholars on globalisation, Robertson, his book Globalization (translated by Liang Guangyan and published by Shanghai People’s Press in 2000) and his co-edited volume, the Encyclopaedia of Globalization (translated by Wang Ning et al. and published by Yilin Press in 2011) are frequently quoted in discussions on globalisation.

7. Robinson, “The Transnational State,” 17–18.

8. Wang, Translated Modernities.

9. In reconstructing these seven dimensions of globalisation, I am particularly inspired by Appadurai’s wonderful book Modernity at Large, esp. 33–36.

10. As far as research on globalisation is concerned, among the books, largely from the perspectives of postcoloniality and cultural studies, from which I have gained inspiration are Appadurai, Modernity at Large; Robertson, Globalization; Robertson and White, Globalization; Jameson and Miyoshi, The Cultures of Globalization; Raudzens, Empires; Hardt and Negri, Empire; and Hoogvelt, Globalization and the Postcolonial World.

11. On China’s democracy, see Yu Keping, Minzhu shi ge hao dongxi.

12. Bhabha, Nation and Narration, 1.

13. Robertson, “Globality.”

14. Shi-xu, Chinese Discourse Studies.

15. Wang, “The Mapping of Chinese Postmodernity.”

16. Quoted in Foster, The Anti-aesthetic, 124–125.

17. Baudrillard, The Illusion of the End, 14.

18. It is particularly remarkable that, during the Spring Festival of 2015, quite a few Western leaders sent congratulations for the Chinese New Year’s Day on TV by using some Chinese sentences or expressions, so as to be closer to Chinese TV viewers as well as ordinary people.

19. Guthrie, China and Globalization, 3.

20. Ibid., 2.

21. See Huang Xiang, “Xi Jinping.”

22. The European Review 23, no. 2 (2015), a journal run by Academia Europaea, has just published a special issue guest edited by myself and John Aldrich, entitled ‘Rediscovering China: Interdisciplinary Perspectives’.