Between tradition and modernity

Emotional changes and expressions of Chinese society

Bibliographic Data

ID2356131
AuthorsJingting Zhang (0000-0002-2130-1908, Shanghai International Studies University, corresponding author), Jia Chao (0000-0002-5495-8463, Nanjing University)
Year2021
Volume36
Issue4
Pages515-531
Publication date2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0268580921994502
OpenAlexW3164966948
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited14

This article attempts to use emotion as the core concept to explore the historical pedigree of China. Chinese culture has always attached great importance to emotion. Traditional Chinese rule was highly dependent on notions of human kindness and compassion. Since the encounter with the Western world, the Chinese revolution gave birth to a unique emotional mode, and this had a great impact on the Chinese society. Contemporary China bid farewell to the revolution and started its market-oriented reforms. An emotional mode of consumerism has become the dominant one. Based on Raymond Williams's theory of structure of feeling, this article divides the emotional patterns in Chinese history into the traditional structure of feeling, the revolutionary structure of feeling and the consumerist structure of feeling. This does not mean a simplified analysis of history and its complex emotional patterns, but an attempt to explore the complex interaction and social consequences of these models

Aesthetics · China · Chinese culture · Chinese society · Compassion · Consumerism · Epistemology · Feeling · History of China · Kindness · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History of Emotions Research · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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