全球化背景下恩施土家族语言文化产业化

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

This research is about the preservation of ethnic linguistic culture under the globalcontext. In the modern world, cultures of different regions mutually influence, slowlybut surly dissolve the only-centre, which was the European culture and now is theAmerican culture, leading to the mix and fusion of different cultures. Yet, theessentials of varied cultures are expected to be preserved, since human beings will paya heavy price without cultural diversity. Yu Pei (2004) claimed that, against thebackground of economic globalization, the single Western mainstream culturedominates at the price of eliminating other ethnic cultures. Tujia ethnic group is oneof the fifty five minority groups, and preservation of its culture will keep the vitalityof the whole Chinese culture. Due to the limitedness of the scope of the thesis, onlythe linguistic-related cultural elements will be analyzed in detail.

Globalization, the most prominent feature in the past several decades and theforeseeable future, has drastically transformed the global landscape. In the past, goods,information, and personnel of different countries are relatively isolated, while thesituation is different nowadays. A German car might be designed by a European,manufactured by the Chinese, and driven on an American road. Different thoughts andcultures around the world are more deeply intertwined than ever before. People indifferent countries are no longer living under the influence of a single culture; rather,they get access to, comprehend and are affected by those ideas, beliefs, faiths that aresomewhat different. Economically, the globalization process is rapid. Abundantinternational economic alliances, such as G20, BRICS, and APEC, have contributedto the integration of global economy. In 2012, both international export and importtrade volume exceeded 16 trillion US dollars.

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1.2 Research Significance

This research is significant in enriching the study of the protection of minority culturefrom the perspective of cultural industrialization. There are two parts: Theoretically,semiotics has gone several periods, from initial linguistic semiotics to latter general semiotics, then to semiotics in a specific field, such as advertising, clothing, andarchitecture. The use of semiotics in the study of minority is still not mature, whichmakes this research supportive in this field. Cultural industry in China is still in itspreliminary level, and the corresponding theories are not fully in place; in practice,with the domination of mainstream culture, room for minority culture is narrowing.But at the same time, China is a country with such plenty cultural resources that noother country could enjoy, so this impels more efforts on promoting cultural industry.The research could provide constructive ideas in termsof how to preserve theessentials of minority culture under the globalization context for Enshi ethnic groupand other similar groups.

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous Studies on Preservation of Minority Culture

Since the very foundation of the People’s Republic of China, a lot of researches havebeen focusing on the development of minority culture because the harmoniousrelation between different ethnic groups is the prerequisite for the sound developmentof the whole society. In the period before the Reform and Opening Up, interactionsbetween different ethnic groups are relatively rare, and the urgency of protecting themdid not appear. But since the early 1980s, economic boom, cultural convergence,population flow, all contributes to the intercultural communications. On the one hand,mainstream culture, namely, the Han culture, has a firmer dominating position,pushing away minority culture in local areas. On the other hand, the so-called “softpower”, of which culture is an important part, is more valued in the global arena. It isno wonder studies of minority culture have become such a hot topic.

Numerous scholars have conducted researches in this field. In CNKI (ChinaNational Knowledge Infrastructure), there are over 1,000 related papers, most ofwhich are related to logic, method, case and exploitation in preservation of minorityculture. There are also many books on it. Review of previous studies is arranged asfollows.

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2.2 Previous Studies on Globalization

What is globalization? In the current globalizing world, which shows no sign of theend of that process, it seems more difficult to answer than ever before since so muchare changing or being changed that a single word could not be conclusive enough. Butin general, especially in China, the segmentation of globalization is three-fold:political, economic, and cultural.

For the political part, the most salient characteristic of globalization process isthe sweeping power of Capitalism in terms of selection of political system, which is atthe core. As what has been said in Terry Eagleton’s Why Marx Was Right, thecapitalism system has taken control of most part of the world, yet, as cruel faces ofcapitalism lay bare, such as social inequality, uneven distribution of wealth, someparts of the world are turning to the left wing. Latin America is typical. The Chinesescholar Hu Mei (2004) outlined four parts of political globalization, internationalpolitical system, international political themes, national security, and the influence ofinternational organizations. She held that political globalization begins as economicglobalization deepens.

Economic globalization, the most evident one, is at the core of the whole processsince the very beginning, and could be traced back to the Columbus Discovery, wherepeople from different continents begin to have contact. What followed is massiveeconomic exploitation and military invasion. But what is not deniable is thateconomic exploitation or later “economic cooperation” is always on the top of the listwhen different countries come face to face. Natural resources and cheap labor fromsome countries fuels the economic growth of other countries. The concept “economicintegration” is mentioned for the first time in Tinbergen’s International EconomicIntegration, and “economic globalization” first uttered by Ravi Batra andSyluia‘Ostry. Liu Shuguang (2002) had a systematic research in economicglobalization, in which he explained key concepts, made clear the base of economicglobalization theory, listed the factors that might impact economic globalization, themain content, different forms of it, influence of economic globalization and trends in it. At last he presented the countermeasures for China in the process of economicglobalization.

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CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK................... 14

3.1 Cultural Representation..............14

3.1.1 The Meaning of Representation......... 14

3.1.2 Cultural Representation............15

CHAPTER FOUR KEY LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS OF TUJIA ETHNIC CULTURE...........22

4.1 Folk Songs in Enshi....... 22

4.1.1 Classification of Folk Songs in Enshi............. 25

4.1.2 Cultural Connotations of the Folk Songs............ 26

CHAPTER FIVE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF LINGUISTIC CULTURALINDUSTRY.....................36

5.1 Status quo of Enshi Cultural Industry................. 37

5.1.1 The Feasibility of Cultural Industry in Enshi.............37

CHAPTER FIVE INDUSTRIALIZATION OFLINGUISTIC CULTURAL INDUSTRY

5.1 Status quo of Enshi Cultural Industry

Cultural industry, known as "sunrise industry" or "golden industry" in the twenty firstcentury, has received the attention of the whole world. The eighteenth NCCPC(National Congress of Communist Party of China) made a significant strategicdeployment on cultural reform and development, which is a powerful driving forcefor the development of cultural industry. It is believed to be one of the several pillarindustries before 2020, so we can draw such a clear judgment that currentdevelopment of China's cultural industry has entered a new stage, has madebreakthrough progress in the new historical starting point, and in the next 10 to 20years, will continue its development at a rapid speed. But in Enshi cultural industry isat the beginning stage, and its development has lagged behind. To make the culturalindustry a new economic growth point of Enshi, there is a long way to go.

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CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION

6.1 Major Findings

On the basis of the cultural theory and cultural industry development theory, thisthesis made a comprehensive analysis of the linguistic resources and cultural industryin Enshi, the external opportunities and threats, the internal strengths and weaknesses,as well as the viable measures that could be taken to facilitate the sound developmentof linguistic cultural industry in Enshi, which is still at the initial stage. Because of theabundant linguistic resources, especially the linguistic part, plus the strong outsidedesire for exotic cultural experiences, cultural industry is supposed to be growingrapidly, but in fact, there are many problems to be solved. After a detailed analysis,the following are the major findings:

Firstly, though the cultural industry in Enshi is still at its initial stage, culturalresource in Enshi is abundant due to its long history, characteristic terrain anddistinctive culture. Cultural resources in Enshi could be divided broadly into threetypes. They are folk songs, myths and legends, local dramas. For the first part, most ofthe songs are based on daily life and interpersonal relationship. People sing songs toexpress their feelings, show their love, and sometimes even to release the fatigue afterheavy workload. For the second part, myths and legends partly could explain andfragility and powerlessness of ancient Tujia people when they encounter theoverwhelming nature. They try to explain the surrounding environment anduncontrollable factors, but usually they are not able to succeed, so these myths andlegends could provide a certain degree of security for local people. For the third part,just as folk songs, most local dramas are concerned about local lifestyle, traditions,and interpersonal communications, and what is different in drama is that bodymovements are included. In all, these three parts are the most prominent linguisticcultural resources in Enshi, and they partly made the ethnic group one of the most distinctive ones in China.

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