Socialist Advanced Culture and Construction of Superior International Communication Discourse of Culturally-Revitalized Province ()
1. Introduction
As a pioneering exploration and practice site for advanced socialist culture, the Committee has made a series of important decisions to build a culturally rich province, a culturally powerful province, and a civilized Zhejiang, and continuously promoted cultural construction to a new level so as to contribute Zhejiang’s wisdom and strength to building a socialist cultural power. Under the circumstances of scarce land resources, imbalanced economic structure, and no special policy guidance, Zhejiang first became one of provinces with the most balanced regional development, the strongest innovation vitality, and the most developed private enterprises. The main reason is that Zhejiang combined enterprising, pragmatic and innovative “cultural gene” with spirit of the times. We should take advanced socialist culture as international discourse resource to vividly interpret the superiority of civilized Zhejiang construction to the outside world, i.e. to interpret its guiding force with Marxism, its driving force with Zhejiang spirit, and its cohesive force with core values of socialism in the aspects of ideological, spiritual, and value guidance.
2. Interpretation on the Guiding Force of Civilized Zhejiang Construction with Marxism
Marxism is the guiding ideology of all advanced cultures, which is based on advanced culture and guides the direction of its progress. It has important guiding significance for solving various specific problems encountered in China’s cultural construction process. Since reform and opening up, the internal impetus for sustained, stable and rapid development of Zhejiang’s economy lies in the fact that various functional departments under the CPC’s leadership adhere to the guidance of Marxist Scientific theory that keeps pace with the times, vigorously strengthen cultural construction while promoting economic development, gradually build a culturally rich province, a culturally powerful province, and even a civilized Zhejiang, and help Zhejiang people to form a high degree of advanced culture consciousness, i.e. continuously promoting economic development in a state of uplifting spirit ( Yuan, 2021 ). Entering the new century, Zhejiang, guided by scientific Marxism and by President Xi Jinping’s important speeches, actively undertakes cultural mission of building a culture-rich province, and blazes a trail that matches cultural heritage, adapts to characteristics of the times, and accords with a culture-strong China. Firstly, civilized Zhejiang construction needs to strengthen the CPC’s ideological building, that is, to take Marxism with Chinese characteristics as guiding theory to promote cultural development, lead practice and promote work. Secondly, it needs to grasp the initiative of ideological work, that is, adhere to guiding role of Marxism, run it through the whole construction work, and ensure the CPC’s unified leadership, thought and action in specific practice process. In the new era, the Committee under the scientific guidance of Marxism formulated a series of detailed rules for learning and implementing President Xi Jinping’s ideas, promoting institutionalization and standardization of theoretical learning; pushed construction of new mainstream media groups and effectively build an online positive energy dissemination system; widely carried out grassroots propaganda activities and develop various offline themed propaganda activities in a planned manner; vigorously developed philosophical and social science research at all levels of province, city, and county levels, and continuously strengthen construction of new think tanks to form significant scientific research achievements that have an impact and value on society. A series of measures are becoming an important driving force for civilized Zhejiang construction, guiding the direction of Zhejiang people’s progress, and leading cadres and the masses to firmly foster cultural confidence in socialism with Zhejiang characteristics.
Marxism is the soul of Socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and the ideological banner of Chinese cultural construction. President Xi Jinping’s view on cultural construction provides an important guide for Zhejiang to upgrade from a culturally rich province to a culturally powerful Zhejiang, that is, to take Marxism as guidance, adhere to cultural tradition of Zhejiang, base on its contemporary reality, combine with trend of the times, carry forward its humanistic spirit, and achieve the common prosperity both material and spirit ( He, 2009 ). We should construct international communication discourse of civilized Zhejiang building with contemporary Chinese Marxism to demonstrate the superiority of cultural development path and strategy in Zhejiang to international community. Taking the resolution of “Eight Projects” for building a culturally rich province made by the Committee at the 8th Session of the 11th People’s Congress of Zhejiang in 2005 as an example, it presents strategic layout and specific measures of revitalizing Zhejiang through culture to the world. “Eight Projects” include civilization quality project (a model of the times, the most beautiful Zhejiang people, Waste sorting, etc.), cultural classic project (Red Boat, Dream Chasing for a Hundred Years, Taste of Belief, etc.), cultural research project (learning how to think with President Xi, 80s and 90s Theory Publicity Group in the New Era, Zhejiang Culture Brief, etc.), cultural protection project (charm culture of ancient Song dynasty, revolutionary traditional culture protection, historical and cultural village protection, etc.), cultural field project (Zhijiang Cultural Center, Zhijiang Art Gallery, rural cultural auditorium, etc.), cultural communication project (overseas translation and publication of “A New Vision for Development”, action of Zhejiang culture “going global”, etc.), cultural industry promotion project (Hengdian Film and Television Cultural Industry Cluster Zone, China International Animation Festival, Yangtze River Delta Cultural Expo, etc.) and cultural talent project (incubation plan for literary and artistic masters, construction of cultural innovation teams, etc.) ( Zhu, 2020 ). Until today, we should showcase to the world the great achievements of rejuvenating Zhejiang through culture like “Eight Projects” over the past 18 years, namely the leap from a culturally rich province to a culturally powerful province, which provides a window for other countries around the world to decode the splendid culture of Zhejiang.
3. Interpretation on the Driving Force of Civilized Zhejiang Construction with Zhejiang Spirit
Zhejiang Spirit is the spiritual support on which Zhejiang people rely for survival and development, and a theoretical summary of collective consciousness, value orientation, and ideological mindset that has gradually formed over a long period of time. It continuously inspires people to strive for progress and governance, and even guides civilized Zhejiang construction in the new era. The reason why Zhejiang people were able to create their own brilliant civilization history and achieve great achievements one after another is precisely due to the guiding and promoting role of Zhejiang spirit in the process of practice. Many heroes and stories emerged in Zhejiang history, such as Dayu’s dedication to flood control, Gou Jian’s endurance of humiliation for great mission, Family Qian’s protection of territory and people’s well-being, Hu Ze’s concern for people’s happiness, Yue Fei’s loyalty to monarch and state, Fang Xiaoru’s sacrifice to state, Shen Kuo’s erudition and versatility, Chu Coching’s saving country through science, Ye Shi’s pragmatism, Wang Yangming’s devotion to encouraging everyone’s goodness worldwide, and Cai Yuanpei's inclusiveness, which all added to Zhejiang spirit richness. In different historical periods, Zhejiang spirit has also taken on different forms and focuses. In the wave of reform and opening up, Zhejiang people, with fearless and courageous spirit of Entrepreneurship, took the path to wealth and left behind valuable spiritual wealth. At the turn of the century, in the reform & opening up and modernization construction, the Committee extracted “self-improving, persevere, innovative, and pragmatic” Zhejiang spirit, which became an inexhaustible driving force for Zhejiang people to forge ahead with a high degree of theoretical consciousness ( Xi, 2006 ). Entering the 21st century, Xi Jinping, the Secretary of the Committee then, summarized Zhejiang spirit of “truth-seeking and pragmatic, credible and harmonious, and open and dedicated” from several perspectives such as cultural traits, spiritual character, and living standards of Zhejiang people, which clearly pointed out the direction of the CPC’s work in civilized Zhejiang construction and effectively guided Zhejiang people to establish correct ideological concepts, value orientations, and moral standards. The spirit not only refines Zhejiang’s excellent traditional culture, but also is well combined and closely linked with spirit of the Chinese nation, the times, and revolutions, which reflects high degree of cultural self-examination, self-consciousness and self-confidence of Zhejiang people ( Che, 2019 ). Zhejiang spirit plays a huge role in the prosperity of civilized Zhejiang construction and Zhejiang culture nourishes Zhejiang spirit. In 2005, in order to better enhance the soft power and competitiveness of Zhejiang’s culture, the 8th Session of the 11th People’s Congress of the Committee made an important decision to implement “Eight Projects” of Zhejiang’s cultural construction by requiring Zhejiang spirit as cultural core to lead rapid development of cultural construction, so that Zhejiang spirit could form a common value among Zhejiang people and became the strongest driving force for development of civilized Zhejiang construction.
Zhejiang spirit is a positive, uplifting, and inspiring spiritual force, a driving force for economic development and progress in Zhejiang, and a guiding force for Zhejiang people to build a beautiful home and pursue a happy life. We should construct international communication discourse of civilized Zhejiang building with Zhejiang spirit, and show the international community how Zhejiang spirit runs through civilized Zhejiang construction by the Committee, and how to highlight spiritual guidance and practical measures consistent with modernization-leading province and common prosperity demonstration area. Over the past 40 years of reform and development, urban-rural gap has gradually narrowed, regional development has tended to balance, and prosperity level has significantly increased. The reason for achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society first domestically is still due to the profound and extensive influence of Zhejiang culture ( Li, 2022 ). Zhejiang people have gradually nurtured unique Zhejiang spirit through long years of tempering and striving practice, forming the core strength of Zhejiang’s cultural richness and always inspiring Zhejiang people to constantly exceed them and break new ground. Entering the new era, the promulgation of “Eight Projects” for cultural construction is a far-reaching measure taken by the Committee to build a culturally rich province and a culturally powerful province. Civilized Zhejiang construction is a higher stage after the two, and it is also a new journey for Zhejiang to promote common prosperity with a high sense of political responsibility and historical mission by consolidating society and striving together. As the ultimate goal of cultural construction, common prosperity includes material and spiritual prosperity. In the process of achieving material and spiritual common prosperity, culture is key variable, which determines basis of common prosperity and affects success or failure of cultural construction. Since the reform and opening up, while Zhejiang has achieved tremendous material prosperity, the Committee has attached great importance to cultural construction and development of the province through a series of following measures. It has constructed a new modern cultural industry system by building cultural industry clusters, enhanced basic cultural rights and interests of people by strengthening public cultural services and deepening continuous reform of institutional mechanisms, promoted social civilization and progress by solidly promoting major strategic deployment of common prosperity ( Dong, 2022 ). Civilized Zhejiang construction is to enable Zhejiang people to achieve spiritual prosperity in common prosperity, and constantly enhance their sense of gain, happiness and identity. It can be said that it is a leap in cognition, innovation in concept, and breakthrough in idea, is a great project guided by Zhejiang spirit and constantly shaping spiritual prosperity, and is also Zhejiang plan contributing to rejuvenation of a province through strong culture for the international community.
4. Interpretation on the Cohesive Force of Civilized Zhejiang Construction with Core Socialist Values
Core Socialist Values are concentrated expression of contemporary Chinese national spirit, moral concepts, laws and regulations, and a strong and lasting force for the Chinese nation to consolidate people. The report of the 18th National Congress of the CPC summarizes them from three levels like state, society, and individual, helping the Chinese nation to reach national, social, and national consensus. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC introduced Core Socialist Values into cultural construction, established their leading position and role, and institutionalized and standardized them to assist in development of cultural construction ( Zhang, 2017 ). The Committee always integrates them into all aspects and links of cultural construction in the process of building a culturally rich province, a culturally powerful province, and even a civilized Zhejiang, in order to provide strong guidance and cohesion. In the new stage of building a modern Zhejiang that is rich both materially and spiritually, in order to solve many problems at spiritual and cultural level in the period of economic transformation and upgrading, the Committee, in combination with economic and social development trend and common spiritual needs of Zhejiang people, taking Core Socialist Values as theoretical basis & action guide and spiritual wealth as the core, proposed the contemporary Zhejiang people’s common values of “pragmatism, trustworthiness, learning-advocacy, and kindness” at the 13th Party Congress of Zhejiang. They showcase local cultural and practical characteristics, Zhejiang people’s qualities of balancing justice and benefit, seeking truth and practicality, and being brave in innovation, and reflects realistic demands of Zhejiang people to constantly move forward and value pursuit widely advocated by the whole society ( Xu & He, 2016 ). In the new era, civilized Zhejiang construction extensively carried out activities to promote and develop new trend of the times (such as civilized living, civilized dining, civilized game-watching, etc.), deepened mass creation activities (such as volunteer service, integrity education, beautiful rural areas, etc.), launched volunteer service activities (such as helping the elderly and orphans, disaster prevention and reduction, cultural support, etc.), further promoted social integrity construction (such as the Star of Integrity, Zhejiang Credit, and the “531X” project), actively advocated green lifestyles (such as green travel, green communities, green families, etc.), and deeper advance civilized tourism actions (such as public welfare announcement, and educational activities, etc.). Various measures of cultural construction of Zhejiang have gradually formed an internal moral awareness and responsibility among Zhejiang people, and constantly strengthened the public cohesion under Core Socialist Values.
Core Socialist Values are the deepest core of Chinese culture, leading national cultural construction in the new era and promoting the improvement of social civilization. The key to cultivating Core Socialist Values is to establish national belief of the Chinese nation, so that Chinese people can accept and identify with Core Socialist Values, and then establish their belief. This is a difficult and complex project, and also a fundamental project for civilized Zhejiang construction in the new era. The reason why Core Socialist Values have formed wide recognition among the Zhejiang people, and gradually internalized into spiritual pursuit and externalized into conscious action, is that they can guide Zhejiang people to shape correct outlooks on world, life, and values, and constantly improve the cohesion and centripetal force people in the process of forming correct cognition ( Shi, 2021 ). We should construct international communication discourse of civilized Zhejiang building with Core Socialist Values, so as to show the world its role in promoting ideological awareness, culture appreciation, moral level and personal quality of Zhejiang people, and illustrate that they can lay psychological foundation of common values of Zhejiang people, and enrich people’s spiritual and moral world. In the new era, through a series of policy direction, mechanism guarantee, training strategies, and education guidance, the Committee focuses on cultivating new people of the era who take national rejuvenation as their own responsibility, dare to struggle hard and dedicate themselves to the great cause, and integrates Core Socialist Values into all aspects of civilized Zhejiang construction in order to constantly improve civilized quality, moral level, and ideological awareness of Zhejiang people. Meanwhile, it takes fostering Core Socialist Values as fundamental task of spiritual civilization and ideological & moral construction of Zhejiang people, unswervingly implements the idea of coordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization proposed by President Xi Jinping, and vigorously carries forward Zhejiang spirit and the Zeitgeist to rally the strong spiritual strength of Zhejiang people.
5. Conclusion
Civilized Zhejiang construction takes Marxist scientific theory as guiding force, which constantly arms mind, leads practice, and promotes work to equip Zhejiang people with a high degree of cultural self-consciousness and self-confidence. It takes Zhejiang spirit nurtured through thousands of years of struggle and development as the driving force, which encourages people to be pioneering, responsible and striving to establish correct ideological concepts, value orientations, and moral standards. It takes Core Socialist Values that have the power to unite the people as a cohesive force, which constantly meets the people’s spiritual needs and value pursuit to form an internal moral awareness and moral responsibility. Construction of international communication discourse on the superiority of civilized Zhejiang building requires a good explanation of how the Committee consolidates leading force of mainstream ideology, demonstrates the cohesive force of advanced culture, enhances shaping force of civilized customs, improves serving force of cultural life, unleashes innovating force of cultural reform, and expands influencing force of cultural dissemination, so as to comprehensively build a culturally powerful province in a high level and form a cultural development pattern centered on realizing human modernization, which build Zhejiang as a shining window to showcase progress of social civilization and charm of Chinese culture.
Funding
This article is the research project achievement of Zhejiang Federation of Social Sciences (Exploration on Harmonious Discourse in International Communication of Zhejiang Culture from the Perspective of Evaluation Theory, 2023N097).