Proceedings of The National Conference
On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2013
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, WI
April 11-13, 2013
The Cost of Supremacy: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Social and Cultural
Effects that are Crippling the People's Republic of China Using the Cultural
Selection Theory
Olivia Ford
Department of Political Science
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Abdul Karim Bangura
Abstract
The People’s Republic of China has shaken the world. The evolution of the Chinese economy is a function of a
political balance between two Chinas—the entrepreneurial, market-driven rural China versus the state-led urban
China. In the 1980s rural China gained the upper hand, but in the 1990s urban China gained the upper hand, giving
way to the eventual dominance of capitalism over socialism. Even within the past decade, the People’s Republic of
China has grown exponentially, becoming an international leader in imports and exports. The nation-state has
maintained a rapid growth in infrastructure, military and the standards of living for the approximately 1.4 billion
citizens that it contains. However, as time has passed, negative side effects have cropped up. There is a lack of
natural inspiration and imagination in students as the education system stresses excellence only in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. The boost in consumerism has changed the Chinese culture into one that
worships materialism over morality. Cultural Selection Theory explores sociological and cultural evolution. It is
believed that the economic boom in China has altered the course of this nation’s sociological and cultural evolution.
This paper hypothesizes that negative social and cultural characteristics have arisen amongst the people because of
the sudden onslaught of capitalism in China. Ethnographic data collected from primary sources employing expert
interviews and document analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The validity of this hypothesis is confirmed by the
results generated after systemic data analysis.
Keywords: China, Cultural Selection Theory, Capitalism, Sociological Evolution, Cultural Evolution1.
1. Introduction
In the United States, capitalism is a normal way of life. The cycle of consumption and production is as natural as
living and breathing. The People's Republic of China, on the other hand, has existed in a state of socialism for most
of its modern history. The sudden obsession with economic supremacy and material wealth that has flooded the
streets of China has irreversibly changed the course of history. The pressure on common citizens to perform has
created a decline in the standard of morality within the people. As stated by Xujun Eberlein of the New American
Media Newspaper “Chinese moral sphere: all citizens worship money; no more baselines exist for minimal morality;
today is the worst time of moral degeneration in China’s history; China should return to its traditional values”
(Eberlein, 2008).
This paper utilizes the theory of cultural selection to examine the rapid social and cultural evolution of China and
how it has negatively affected the sociological and cultural state of the Chinese. The term sociocultural evolution,
according to Russian anthropologist Andrey Korotayev in his book World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old
World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-cultural Perspective (2004), can be defined as "the process by which
structural reorganization is affected through time, eventually producing a form or structure which is qualitatively
different from the ancestral form" (Korotaev, 2004:121). Initially, the massive skyscrapers, glamorous airports and
designer clothing stores that swarmed the major cities seemed to be a sign of the 21st Century rearing its head in
China; however, the newfound obsession with capitalism has changed the people.
As the world saw at the 2008 Olympic Games, the People’s Republic of China basks in the glory it has received
from the international community regarding its quick return from the international economic recession. While
impressive, the sociocultural evolution has detrimentally affected the morality of the Chinese people. This paper
gives readers a more comprehensive view of the effects of China's sociocultural evolution, as well as provides
evidence of the progression from the 1980s to the present day, to demonstrate that the idea of sociocultural evolution
is positive; but when it happens too fast, it can be detrimental.
The major research questions investigated in this paper are as follows: (1) How has capitalism brought about
sociological and cultural evolution in China? (2) How have the sociological and cultural changes manifested
themselves over the past 30 years? (3) What makes the changes that have occurred negative? Probing these
questions will give the reader an accurate understanding of the effects of the sudden onset of capitalism on the
sociocultural evolution of the Chinese. It is important to recognize how sociocultural evolution takes place and the
possible dangers associated with it.
2. Literature Review
Over the past few decades, the world has seen groundbreaking changes in the sociocultural state of the People's
Republic of China due to the rise of capitalism. Many experts have studied and written about these phenomena in
books and articles. The following review is a discussion of a sample of sources located on this topic in the
chronological order in which they were published.
The article "Darwinism and the Behavioral Theory of Sociocultural Evolution: An Analysis" (1979), by John
Langton, explores the definition of sociocultural evolution and comes to the conclusion that it can be defined exactly
as Darwin defined natural selection— "the preservation of favorable variations and the rejection of injurious
variations."
In "Tensions between the Global and the Local: A Comparative Illustration of the Reorganization of China's
Higher Education in the 1950s and 1990s" (2000), Rui Yang illustrates how China's struggled to reconcile the local
and the global, respectively, in the 1950s and the 1990s. The author stresses the tensions between globalization and
internationalization within the process of policy implementation in China's higher education reforms.
In An Essay Concerning Sociocultural Evolution (2002), Jürgen Klüver addresses the question of regularities
during the course of the sociocultural evolution. This evolutionary process is defined by Klüver as "the generation of
social roles and their relations; a role is understood as a pair of social rules and role specific knowledge." He also
asserts that evolution is the growth of cultural knowledge and the development of a network of social roles.
Education in China Since 1976 (2003), Xiufang Wang focuses on the education system in China since 1976. Wang
discusses numerous aspects of the educational system in China, which include an excessive workload and unrealistic
expectations on students in order to meet the needs of the rapid economic, scientific and technological developments
going on within China.
In the book, China's Peaceful Rise in the 21st Century:Domestic and International Conditions (2006), Dr. Sujian
Guo asserts that the officially proposed concept, ''peaceful development'', has become the underlying principle
behind Chinese foreign policy under the fourth generation leadership. The book examines the domestic and
international conditions and challenges of China's peaceful rise through deep reform. It further argues that a peaceful
rise may only be achieved through political and social stability.
Xujun Eberlein gives a brief insight into the moral decline of the Chinese and seeks to figure out why in "China
Has a Morality Crisis" (2008). She states that the essential problem is the lack of state ideology and a corresponding
political system. She also attributes the loss of morality to five decades of atrophy under Communist political power,
plus two decades of corrosion under the wealth brought by the Western market economy.
In The Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History (2008), Paul Clark covers the historical context of the Cultural
Revolution in terms of its influence on modern China. Clark claims that the commercial commodification of culture
that has characterized Chinese artistic life in the last quarter century was made possible by the ideological
commodification of culture during the Cultural Revolution. This commodification made the rise of the cultural
marketplace in the 1980s and 1990s seem less of a break with the past than has generally been assumed.
In "Cultural Capital, the State, and Educational Inequality in China, 1949–1996" (2008), Yuxiao Wu addresses
the studies on educational stratification in socialist China and how it focused on how changing macro political
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processes and state policies affected the patterns of educational attainment. The article explores the relationship
between cultural capital and children's educational attainment in urban China during the entire history of communist
rule, from 1949 to 1996. Using data from a nationally representative sample of Chinese urban adults conducted in
1996, the article implies that the process of social stratification in socialist China has been changed by state
interference.
John Bryan Starr in Understanding China (2010) gives a comprehensive background and insightful prediction of
China's political state. Starr examines the relationship between the free market and political liberation and the
principal issues that face China and the ability of the Chinese government to deal with them. He covers many
spectra and states that China's future is far from unambiguously bright.
In "China in 2010" (2011), Guogang Wu examines the path that China took in the year 2010: one, continued highspeed economic growth; and two, an ongoing rise of social discontent. Both confirmed the failure of government
efforts to promote so-called "scientific," or balanced, development. The author establishes that as political
disillusion over the "China model" surfaced, China's diplomacy saw many setbacks.
The complex nature of the aforementioned findings gives a comprehensive view of the different aspects of
sociocultural evolutionary processes that have taken place within the People's Republic of China over the past 30
years. The major limitation of these works is that they are unable to give a comprehensive view of both sides of the
argument for China's social and cultural evolution. This study adds to them by synthesizing both supporting and
opposing views of the evolutionary process
3. Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology
It is believed that the economic boom in the People's Republic of China has altered the course of the nation’s
sociological and cultural evolution. The theory used to examine proposition is the Cultural Selection Theory, which
explores sociological and cultural evolution the same way that Darwinian Selection Theory is used to explain
biological evolution (Fog, 1991:1). Cultural Selection Theory goes through three phases: (1) innovation, (2)
reproduction or transmission, and (3) selection. Innovation is the stage in which the phenomenon has to arise. Then,
in the second stage, the phenomenon can spread from one human being to another. Third, selection is where it is
decided what mechanism will have influence over how much the phenomenon will spread (Fog, 1991:1).
This theory is useful because it accepts the complicated nature of cultural change and supports an approach to
deciphering the changes of a society's norms and values that is systemic rather than deconstructionist (Fog, 1991:2).
The systemic, scientific nature of the theory gives way to unbiased results regarding the analysis of social and
cultural evolution. Most other studies regarding sociological and cultural evolution often inject their own
perceptions into the data, resulting in tainted results.
This acceptance of complexity and support of a systemic approach is why the Cultural Selection Theory is so
important to this study. The paper is dependent on the idea that the massive sociological and cultural evolution that
has taken place in the People's Republic of China is due to a number of complex factors.
The methodological approach used in this study is qualitative, supplemented by an expert interview technique
with a focus on ethnographic analysis. The examination of non-numerical research along with primary information
allows for a deep analysis of Cultural Selection Theory and its effect on the social and cultural evolution in the
People's Republic of China. According to A.C. Nievaard, the qualitative view technique consists of four steps: (1)
literature research, (2) development of an instrumentarium, (3) exploratory interviewing, and (4) directed
interviewing. The expert interview technique is useful because the expert has distinctive knowledge of a situation
that is essential for the research to have guidance (Mann, 1968:107). This approach allows for varied perspectives to
analyze this study's hypothesis, which states that negative social and cultural characteristics have arisen amongst the
people because of the sudden onslaught of capitalism in China.
The unit of analysis for this study is represented by the individual Chinese citizen, who is analyzed on the macro
level, as represented by the entire nation of China. Data collection was established on the document analysis
technique, while incorporating primary and secondary sources. Primary sources included interviews with Chinese
education experts; secondary sources included books, scholarly journals, and Internet publications. The main
elements that molded the choice of this data collection technique were the availability of primary sources collected
while the author was conducting research in China and the vastness of the issue itself, which is an advantage to more
qualitative methods of research.
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4. Data Analysis
The data analysis that follows consists of two subsections. The first subsection is an analysis of the lasting effects of
modern capitalism on the sociocultural evolution taking place in Chinese society. The second subsection consists of
interviews with multiple Chinese citizens on both the pros and cons of the economic growth in China, as well as
their suggestions for solution.
4.1. The Relationship between Capitalism and Sociocultural Evolution in China
At first glance, the functioning of the social and cultural system in China is not thought to be deeply connected to
the nation's economic standing. The story begins with the acknowledgement of the history of the People’s Republic
of China’s transition from socialist ideals to capitalist ideals, highlighting the origins of the sudden economic boom.
The evolution of capitalism in China is a function of a political balance between two Chinas—the entrepreneurial,
market-driven rural China versus the state-led urban China. In the 1980s, rural China gained the upper hand; but in
the 1990s, urban China gained the upper hand, giving way to the eventual dominance of capitalism over socialism.
As a result of the expansion of capitalism, over the years, the standard of living in the People’s Republic of China
has drastically improved. At the First Session of the 10th National People's Congress in 2003 during the Report on
the Work of the Government, Premier Zhu Rongji provided several developments that had improved from the 1997
to 2002. The following Figures 1-5 below illustrates the results.
Figure 1: The Per Capita Disposable Income in China increased from ¥5,160 in 1997 to ¥7,703 in 2002, an average
annual increase of 8.6 percent in real terms. Source: "Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government."
China Daily Newspaper 5 Mar. 2003: n. pag. Print.
Figure 2: The Balance of Savings Deposits of Urban and Rural Residents increased from 4.6 trillion yuan in 1997 to
8.7 trillion yuan in 2002. Source: "Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government." China Daily
Newspaper 5 Mar. 2003: n. pag. Print.
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Figure 3: The Number of Rural Poor decreased from 49.6 million people in 1997 to 28.2 million people in 2002.
Source: "Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government." China Daily Newspaper 5 Mar. 2003: n. pag.
Print.
Figure 4: The Total Volume of Retail Sales of Consumer Goods increased from 2.73 trillion yuan to 4.1 trillion yuan
in 2002, up by an annual average of 10.5 percent in real terms. Source: "Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of
the Government." China Daily Newspaper 5 Mar. 2003: n. pag. Print.
Figure 5: The Per Capita Net Income of Rural Households increased from ¥2,090 in 1997 to ¥2,476 in 2002, up by
an annual average of 3.8 percent in real terms. Source: "Major Points of Zhu's Report on Work of the Government."
China Daily Newspaper 5 Mar. 2003: n. pag. Print.
The preceding figures are a small window into the rapidly growing economic status of not only the nation-state as
a whole, but also the regular everyday citizen. The pressure on common citizens to perform has created a decline in
the standard of morality within the people.
The difficulty truly lies in being an individual in China as the stress that begins in the school system, where it is
proven that cultural capital has significant positive effects on educational attainment, does nothing but fester within
the youth until they have become adults who have become immersed in the system of pressure and production (Wu,
2008: 212). The slogan made popular by Deng Xiaoping, the Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the
Communist Party, "It doesn't matter if you are a white cat or black cat, if you can catch mice then you are a good
cat" (Clark, 2008:202) is supreme in Chinese society. The phrase means that if one is capable of producing then s/he
is valuable to society. The need to produce exportable, manufactured goods and manual labor are so high that many
professionals get paid less, and are not as in high demand as blue-collar workers.
Sociocultural evolution is the process by which structural reorganization is affected through time, eventually
producing a form or structure that is qualitatively different from the ancestral form (Fog, 1991:2). Cultural Selection
Theory, which explores sociological and cultural evolution the same way as does Darwinian Selection Theory, is
used to explain biological evolution (Fog, 1991:1). Cultural Selection Theory goes through three phases, all of
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which China has exhibited over the years: innovation, reproduction or transmission, and selection. Innovation is the
stage in which the phenomenon has to arise. The innovation stage is when the production of industry took hold on
the country. Second, reproduction is when the phenomenon can spread from one human being to another. Third,
selection is where it is decided what mechanism that will have influence over how much the phenomenon will
spread (Fog, 1991:1). This is the crossroads that China came to decades ago between economic stability and cultural
sustainability. The Cultural Selection Theory is relevant to the nation of China because the sudden onset of wealth
set into motion the three phases described by the Cultural Selection Theory.
As economic strength grows, China aforementioned crossroads become even further apart. China struggles to
maintain control over its citizens. The expansion of the nation-state on the international scene has put strain on the
government to operate consistently with the ideal that has been upheld for the past decades (Guo, 2006). The
Chinese Communist Party continues to exclude people who have democratic goals in mind or who want to change
the system in any way that the party opposes. It was stated that “…the Chinese leaders are consumed by fear of
instability and chaos…But they use it to their own advantage by creating fear and asking, ‘What would happen if the
party were not here to hold things together?” (Starr, 1997:134) Political reform in China is like social security
reform in the United States—it will not change in the immediate future. In the last 25 years, leaders who advocated
reform have not fared well; which is why the new leadership actively discourages talk of political reform (Urschel,
2003).
4.2. Expert Interviews
To gain a comprehensive view of the direct impact of sociological evolution on the Chinese social structure, three
interviews were conducted with various experts in relevant fields. The interviewees have had opportunities to
interact with the cultural, sociological, or educational changes that China has undergone over the past 20 years. The
information received from conducting the expert interviews exposed a more clear interpretation of the current state
of affairs in China. The interviews were conducted with a college professor at Guangxi Normal University, a
graduate student at Guangxi Normal University, and an American entrepreneur working in China.
The first interview was conducted with the Director of International Programs at Guangxi Normal University. The
interviewee currently teaches various courses at Guangxi Normal University, while speaking to outside groups about
the changes that the Chinese society has undergone over the past 20 years. According to the professor, "Opening up
China to the West has had negative side effects on the people. The spirit of the people has diminished—there is
more distrust and suspicion amongst the people. The people's personal character and liveliness have been greatly
reduced. Western luxuries are becoming more important than they were in the past. People have become much more
materialistic. China’s pressure to appear strong to the west has put pressure on the people to perform extremely
well" (Personal Interview July 29, 2011). However, the morality of the common citizen is not the only way that the
influx of capitalism has brought about changes. The educational system has seen a shift in teaching style over the
past 20 years, diverting drastically from the ancient Confucian method. Confucius' moral teachings emphasized selfcultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules.
Confucian ethics may be considered a type of virtue ethics. His teachings rarely rely on reasoned argument and
ethical ideals and methods are conveyed more indirectly, through allusion, innuendo, and even tautology (Yang,
2000:320). Xiufang Wang supports the diversion from this ancient way of learning in his book, Education in China
Since 1976. Wang discusses numerous aspects of the educational system in China, which include an excessive
workload and unrealistic expectations on students in order to meet the needs of the rapid economic, scientific and
technological developments going on within China (Wang, 2003). The professor pointed out: "Our students are
suffering. Preoccupation with math and sciences has forced the method of teaching that focuses on the inner person,
morality, and the spirit of the student to become obsolete…there is a lack of creativity, even as early as during the
primary education years, beginning at age six. The educational system does not know how to show students how to
be an individual" (Personal Interview July 29, 2011).
The second interview was conducted with a graduate student at Guangxi Normal University who is in the process
of obtaining her Master’s degree in Education. This interview exposed the sociocultural shift in the standards of
beauty that have occurred as a result of the newfound wealth that has permeated the Chinese society. She stated that
“China is not changing for the better. Western influence has changed the people. Instead of wanting to adhere to the
Chinese standard of inner beauty, the Chinese women want to be rich and white like Americans with wider eyes and
more pronounced noses. We do not want to be short, but tall like westerners” (Personal Interview, August 15, 2012)
This point is proven by the consumption of skin bleaching products, the use of umbrellas by women on sunny days,
and the preoccupation with Caucasian actresses and actors on television in China. Even when those on the television
are not Caucasians, they are Chinese of the palest skin complexion (Guogang, 2011). She continued: “We are
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becoming the most powerful nation in the world, but what does it matter if the Chinese citizens do not want to look
like themselves? If there would be anything to compare it to, it would be the self-hate that African-Americans speak
of” (Personal Interview, August 15, 2012)
The third interview was conducted with an American entrepreneur in China, the co-founder and Managing
Director of the Chinese Language Institute. He obtained his Bachelor's of Arts degree from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University in Political Science and Communication Theory. He believes that “The sociocultural
response in China to the economic boom is nothing but an inevitable byproduct of the world coming into the
information age. Yes, people do have more money, but what is wrong with spending that money on yourself or your
family? Living in poverty is what brought a lot of older Chinese together—they would share meals and homes
because it was all that was within their means” (Personal Interview, November, 1, 2012). This mindset has yet to be
proven. It is too soon to say whether or not the Chinese citizens will take part of the natural cycle and eventually
return to the same cultural state, or if the economic state will permeate their state of minds and make them the next
United States—with obesity and diabetes epidemics to show for it (Guogang, 2011). He continued: “With the One
Child Policy creating smaller families and the increase of personal family income, people are going to have more
money. The direct issue in China lies in the fact that the growth in wealth happened rapidly. I believe that there
should be moderation in all things and without it, certain values will decline. With time to adjust, I do not think that
these sociocultural issues will plague the nation for much longer” (Personal Interview, November, 1, 2012).
In sum, the findings of the study illustrate the fact that the sociocultural changes that have taken place in the
People's Republic of China are due to the sudden assault of capitalism on society. The negative changes have
manifested themselves in education, material consumption, standards of beauty, etc. It appears as though the
dramatic change from socialism to capitalism occurred too quickly, catching the citizens off-guard and unprepared
for the sudden socioeconomic status change. This fact makes one wonder if the negative changes will become less
overwhelming over time after a substantial adjustment period has passed.
5. Conclusion
The reason for this study was to understand how the transition from socialism to capitalism in China has
fundamentally changed the sociological and cultural aspects of Chinese citizens. The characteristics of Chinese
citizens have become almost unrecognizable compared to the characteristics of those 20 or 30 years ago. Economic
growth appears to be a phenomenon that has both positive and negative effects for the people of the People's
Republic of China. Some positive effects include higher personal income and greater percentages of citizens that are
educated; the negative effect is the decline of basic morality amongst the people. Still, the latter phenomenon
outweighs the former in that the fundamental essence in swift, exponential economic growth is that the
preoccupation with suddenly available material goods breaks down basic morality. Based on the Cultural Selection
theory, it was hypothesized that negative social and cultural characteristics have arisen amongst the people because
of the sudden onslaught of capitalism in China. The hypothesis appears to be tenable.
After extensive qualitative research, it has been shown that in exercising material moderation and policy
reformation, the return to the moral ideals that once guided China may be achievable. Ideally, this analysis will
stimulate more studies on the sociocultural disparities that have developed in China as a result of economic
reformation. These studies must inspire the creation of a balance that many other nations have achieved; the balance
between emphasizing economic power and appreciating the deep sociocultural history and traditions that the nation
has. In order for this balance to be achieved, this nation must conceptualize harmony both in policy formation and
execution.
6. References
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<http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=20e72a6f1f8c08f7c4cfc2b65b7a3224>.
3. Fog, Agner. Cultural Selection. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1991. Print.
4. Guo, Sujian. China's "peaceful Rise" in the 21st Century: Domestic and International Conditions. Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2006. Print.
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6. Korotaev, A. V. World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Crosscultural Perspective. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2004. Print.
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