Preservation of Ancient Chinese Culture: Challenges and Solutions

Running head: CULTURAL MANAGEMENT PROJECT
CULTURAL MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Table of Contents
1.1 Introduction:.........................................................................................................................2
1.2 Background:.........................................................................................................................3
1.3 How is the issue addressed...................................................................................................5
Tourism..................................................................................................................................5
Collection of the culture.........................................................................................................6
Cultural Education.................................................................................................................6
Media Attention.....................................................................................................................6
1.4 Why is it significant.............................................................................................................6
2.0 Literature Review.................................................................................................................7
3.0 Case Study..........................................................................................................................12
Wuzhen................................................................................................................................12
Description.......................................................................................................................12
Infrastructure....................................................................................................................12
Tradition and Culture.......................................................................................................13
Festivals............................................................................................................................14
4.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................14
Reference:................................................................................................................................17

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1.1 Introduction:
China is considered to be one of the ancient civilizations of the world developing over
thousands of years with a rich legacy of cultural heritage. The advent of different dynasties
over the different ages has led to the development of different culturally diversified
architectures and ancient cities. This culturally rich society draws people from all over the
world who come to taste the unique and mysterious culture of the far-east. However, as has
been seen all over the world the advent of modernization and globalization have had an effect
of westernization in the modern Chinese tradition (Hua & Nathan, 2016). The focus of the
Chinese society has now focused to the development of the modern cities such as Beijing and
Hong Kong. The cities are decorated with tall buildings and well maintained roads but the
question arises that behind the garb of this development are there any conservation of the old
cultural architectures or the remnants of the ancient civilizations. The Chinese culture not
only lies in the architectural marvels or grand buildings but it is also represented by the
Chinese way of living. It is important to notice that during the European advancement into
civilization, China was already far ahead in development in cases of scientific knowledge or
inventions. The travelogues of early European writers such as Marco Polo have mentioned
the uniqueness of the Chinese civilization, their lifestyle, their food habits and their
philosophy towards life (Tang, 2015). The development of the early Buddhism, which spread
from India, and consequently the development of unique Chinese philosophies such as
Confucianism and Taoism, all contribute to the rich cultural heritage of the Chinese
civilization. It is important to understand how these advanced philosophies survived in the
age of violence and how they transformed the lives of the Chinese people. These rich cultural
diversities has made China the gem of the east and preservation of these should play an
important part in enriching the modern China even more. However, with the rapid
modernization it being seen that China is losing its own culture to the easily adaptable

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Western culture. The evidence lies in the change of the lifestyle of the people, who seem to
be more inclined to the western life and this has resulted in the emergence of the challenges
that China is facing in the process of conserving its ancient culture. Though Buddhism is still
the primary religion in China, emergence of Christianity had its effect in the Chinese
population. The changes mentioned is not isolated to the modern Chinese civilization only,
but is the key issue of the other far-eastern countries as well. The neighbouring countries such
as Japan, Korea and Taipei, all have faced the wave of development influenced by the west
and has developed rapidly in the past few decades. The threat of cultural disappearance is
eminent in these ancient civilizations. However, there are ways that China can adopt in order
to identify the key challenges of conservation and take appropriate steps to address them. The
discussion will focus on some of the key issues that China is currently facing regarding
conservation and analyse them. This will done by identifying the significance of these issues.
Doing a case study regarding this issue will help in the better understanding of the issues and
will help in the development of the recommendations which can be adopted for the
addressing the issues identified.
1.2 Background:
The preservation of ancient cultural heritage and traditions is a key challenge that is
being faced by China in the modern age. With every passing day of development, the age old
traditions which are the unique features of China seem to be getting in the pages of the
history books (Yang, 2018). One of the key challenges of this preservation issue is that with
rapid urbanization, people are more inclined to move to developed cities and abandon their
home towns which are slowly getting destroyed. This type of issue has several cultural
impacts on the lifestyle of the people who are migrating and also on the people who are
staying back. People who are migrating to larger cities seem to be adopting the modern
lifestyle and the touch of westernization. These are making them forget their roots and their