“Western discourse” and contemporary Chinese culture

Abstract

Starting with the differentiation between the basic terms such as discourse and discourse hegemony, and Western culture and Western discourse, this paper gives a survey of the relationship between contemporary Chinese culture and Western culture. It holds that we should be opposed to the hegemony of the Western discourse while affirming the general tendency that Chinese culture is shifting from being closed to being open. However, this tendency should not be entirely attributed to China s submission to the hegemony of Western discourse when China accepts the influence from the Western culture in the process of renovating Chinese contemporary culture.