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Essay on Culture In China
Introduction
China, officially the People's Republic of China, country in East Asia, is the world's largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means "Central Country" or "Middle Kingdom." The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced "chin"), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century BC.
More than one-fifth of the world's population-1.3 billion people-live in China. More than 90 percent of these are ethnic Han Chinese, but China also recognizes 55 national minorities, including Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and many smaller groups (Patricia, 1999). Even among the ethnic Han, there are regional linguistic differences.
Although a common language called Putonghua is taught in schools and used by the mass media, local spoken languages are often mutually incomprehensible. However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way; this greatly aids communication across China.
Arts And Culture
China's artistic and cultural achievements over the past 3,000 years are a source of great pride for the Chinese people. Central to the country's cultural identity is its written language, which has been the vehicle for many of those achievements (Patricia, 1999). The earliest known printed text is a Buddhist religious book, the Jingangjing (Diamond Sutra), which dates from 868 AD.
The spread of printing had a great effect on the development of Chinese culture, as it enabled the distribution of new ideas (Patricia, 1999). It also enabled government control of ideas, and beginning during the Song dynasty (960-1279) imperial governments took close interest in approving and printing books.
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