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Will taikonauts on the moon someday celebrate National Day?
By Ji Shaoting |
October 1, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ON the 120th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2069, Chinese taikonauts could salute Tiananmen Square from the moon, says Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin.
What's in store for the next 60 years may be uncertain, but many scholars and experts agree on the country's 60th National Day anniversary - that China will become more harmonious and developed, and probably the world's biggest economy.
Liu says the world will see the rise of a technologically and economically stronger China. The rise of China will help Chinese to be more confident with their own traditional culture and values, which will introduce modern values and form a new Chinese value system, Liu says.
The dominant Western value system stresses the individual over the collective, and encourages consumption but not frugality, while Chinese traditional values seek a balance between individual and collective, and encourage frugality, but not consumption, Liu says.
He advocates a new value system that achieves a balance between individuality and collectivity, and encompasses the concept of sustainable development.
He believes the new values will influence Chinese people's lives, economy, diplomacy, technological development and even the world.
Traditional values
The rise of the economy will lead Chinese people to review their own traditional culture - the essence of Confucianism, including humanitarianism, impartiality, manners, wisdom and, most importantly, trust, says Yan Feng, professor at Shanghai Fudan University and chief editor of the Chinese edition of French magazine Science et Vie (Science and Life).
Xiong Yuegen, a sociologist of Peking University, expects China to be a modernized and civilized country with typical Chinese features by 2069.
The new generation is expected to be more open to different cultures while cherishing their own cultures more, Xiong says.
Chinese people have tended to seek their roots as the country develops, says Wu Yan, professor of science fiction at Beijing Normal University.
China gave its rockets and missiles revolutionary names such as Changzheng (Long March) and Hongqi (Red Flag) before the 1990s, but switched to traditional names like Chang'e, after a goddess who flew to the moon, and Shenzhou, literally "divine vessel," more recently, Wu said, quoting Stacey Solomone, a futurist at the Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies.
"Some Chinese people lost themselves in a fast-developing society, but the rise of economy should not equal the fall of morality, so the most important thing for China in the next decades is to change its thinking, plus return to its cultural roots, including the essence of Confucius, Mencius and Mo-tse," Yan says.
"Corruption, commercial fraud and food scandals have been frequent in recent years and I truly hope they will decrease in the next decades. People should have a stronger sense of morality in the future," Yan says.
Yan's view is echoed by Liu Yunfeng, a new energy researcher of General Electronic's China Technology Center, in Shanghai.
New energy
Fossil fuels will be depleted in the near future, but the world will always be reliant on energy, Liu says. It is vital for China to look for new energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. Unlike fossil fuels, which are unevenly distributed, the sun and wind energy has been used in many countries. China will offer abundant green energy with new technologies, he says.
Scientific and technological developments will change attitudes, says Zhang Zheng, principal researcher of Microsoft Research Asia, in Beijing. "The Internet will be as omnipresent as the air, which will definitely change the social relationships of the introverted Chinese people."
The Internet would also play an important role in online trade and enhance China's democracy, he said.
Internet reaction had changed the government decision in 2007 to build a paraxylene (PX) plant, which was polluting and potentially dangerous in the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian Province. The government held hearings after persistent public protests on and off-line and moved the plant to another site.
(The author is a writer at Xinhua news agency.)
What's in store for the next 60 years may be uncertain, but many scholars and experts agree on the country's 60th National Day anniversary - that China will become more harmonious and developed, and probably the world's biggest economy.
Liu says the world will see the rise of a technologically and economically stronger China. The rise of China will help Chinese to be more confident with their own traditional culture and values, which will introduce modern values and form a new Chinese value system, Liu says.
The dominant Western value system stresses the individual over the collective, and encourages consumption but not frugality, while Chinese traditional values seek a balance between individual and collective, and encourage frugality, but not consumption, Liu says.
He advocates a new value system that achieves a balance between individuality and collectivity, and encompasses the concept of sustainable development.
He believes the new values will influence Chinese people's lives, economy, diplomacy, technological development and even the world.
Traditional values
The rise of the economy will lead Chinese people to review their own traditional culture - the essence of Confucianism, including humanitarianism, impartiality, manners, wisdom and, most importantly, trust, says Yan Feng, professor at Shanghai Fudan University and chief editor of the Chinese edition of French magazine Science et Vie (Science and Life).
Xiong Yuegen, a sociologist of Peking University, expects China to be a modernized and civilized country with typical Chinese features by 2069.
The new generation is expected to be more open to different cultures while cherishing their own cultures more, Xiong says.
Chinese people have tended to seek their roots as the country develops, says Wu Yan, professor of science fiction at Beijing Normal University.
China gave its rockets and missiles revolutionary names such as Changzheng (Long March) and Hongqi (Red Flag) before the 1990s, but switched to traditional names like Chang'e, after a goddess who flew to the moon, and Shenzhou, literally "divine vessel," more recently, Wu said, quoting Stacey Solomone, a futurist at the Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies.
"Some Chinese people lost themselves in a fast-developing society, but the rise of economy should not equal the fall of morality, so the most important thing for China in the next decades is to change its thinking, plus return to its cultural roots, including the essence of Confucius, Mencius and Mo-tse," Yan says.
"Corruption, commercial fraud and food scandals have been frequent in recent years and I truly hope they will decrease in the next decades. People should have a stronger sense of morality in the future," Yan says.
Yan's view is echoed by Liu Yunfeng, a new energy researcher of General Electronic's China Technology Center, in Shanghai.
New energy
Fossil fuels will be depleted in the near future, but the world will always be reliant on energy, Liu says. It is vital for China to look for new energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. Unlike fossil fuels, which are unevenly distributed, the sun and wind energy has been used in many countries. China will offer abundant green energy with new technologies, he says.
Scientific and technological developments will change attitudes, says Zhang Zheng, principal researcher of Microsoft Research Asia, in Beijing. "The Internet will be as omnipresent as the air, which will definitely change the social relationships of the introverted Chinese people."
The Internet would also play an important role in online trade and enhance China's democracy, he said.
Internet reaction had changed the government decision in 2007 to build a paraxylene (PX) plant, which was polluting and potentially dangerous in the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian Province. The government held hearings after persistent public protests on and off-line and moved the plant to another site.
(The author is a writer at Xinhua news agency.)
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