Chapter two The manifestation of Chinese culture in the political neologisms

2.1 culture

As is known to all, culture contains all the wealth that human beings has created.

Language is the best excellent product of the human beings. So the language is a part of the culture. And it is also a very special institutional culture. The language not only reflects its own features but also help record other cultures and promote their development. At the same time, culture is also the source of fresh water for the language.

2.1.1Definition of culture

According to Chinese dictionary, culture has three definitions as follows. First,

the total sum of physical and spirit wealth that people have created during the long history of society, specially the spirit wealth, such as literature, art, education and science etc. Second, archaeology term. That is the complex of historical remains and relics in the same period, which do not change with the distribution place. For instance, the same tool and the same technology are the main features of the same culture, such as shaoshan culture, longshan culture. Third, the ability to master the words and the common knowledge, such as learn culture, cultural level.

However, in OALED, culture, as a noun, has many meanings as follows.

Way Of Life, 1[U] the custom and beliefs, arts, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group 2[C] a country, group etc. With its own beliefs, etc.

Art/Music/Literature 3[U] art, music, literature,etc. Thought of as a group

Beliefs/Attitudes 4[C, U] the belief and attitude about something. That people in a particular group or organization share.

Growing/Breeding 5[U] (technical) the growing of plants or breeding of particular animals in order to get a particular substance or crop from them

Cells/Bacteria 6[C] (biology, medical) a group of cells or bacteria, especially one taken from a person or an animal and grown for medical or scientific study, the process of obtaining and growing these cells.

For the above two definition of culture, we can find out that there are distinctions in the understanding of culture between the Chinese people and westerners. In the Chinese definition, culture contains physical wealth. Otherwise, in the English definition, culture only pays attention to such spirit wealth as literature, art, concept and custom. The distinction among cultures do not only exist between the Chinese people and the American, but also among the learners of all the countries. So for the

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different perspectives or theories, there are different definition of culture.By now there have been hundreds of definitions. From here we can see culture is such a complicated object of study.

2.1.2 Classification of Culture

Culture, a social phenomenon, is also a product created by the people for a long time. At the same time, it is a historical phenomenon as well. It is the fruit of the social history. Culture also has a unique regionalism and time style. It is closely related to our real life, nearly covering all kinds of things in our life. So the way to classify the culture is various. As the cultural linguistics puts, culture can be classified into three parts, like material culture, institutional culture and mental culture. Here, we would adopt this view about culture.

Material culture is created by the people. It is the complex of all the physical and mental products that people can feel. It includes food culture, wine culture, tea culture, clothes culture, architectural culture and opera culture. Institutional culture means social disciplines as well as its related theories, such as social system, religious system, educational system, family system, relative system, manners and customs and ways of behavior etc. Mental culture means the people’s way of thinking, the habit of thinking, values, beliefs and attitudes etc.

2.1.3 Features of culture

The generation of any culture can not be inseparable from the specific natural environment, social and historical conditions. That is the production mode of material and social organization structure under the specific geographical environment. In short, from the perspective of geological environment, China is located in a continental area in a semi-closed state, which has many distinctions from the nations in the western Mediterranean coast. In the view of production mode, China is a big agricultural country. We have thousands of years’ history about agriculture economy, which is different from the nomad of middle and west Asia as well as Marine groups in the more developed areas. In terms of social organization structures, regional system has played an important part in the old history of China. It is a significant tie to keep the order of the society. Autocratic system has been on the power for two thousands years, which is rare in the history of the world.

China is one of the four civilized ancient countries of the world. It once gave birth to many excellent culture. Toynbee, English historian, thought that there are 26 civilized configurations in the recent 6000 years of human history. However, only the Chinese cultural system is being developing without a break. So such strong power is an important feature of Chinese culture. And the power represents assimilation power, integration power, continuation power and cohesion power. Assimilation power means when the foreign culture enters China, it would gradually be affected by the Chinese culture and be a part of it. Integration power shows Chinese culture is not only the

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simple Han national culture or Huanghe culture, instead it absorbs the cultures of all nations all over the China as well as different areas on the basis of Han culture. As for continuation power, it is formed for many reasons, one of which is the conquering history of China. China has experienced many changes of the dynasty. The last is cohesion power. It mainly present the self-identity and sense of belonging beyond the fields and boundaries. The four features make Chinese culture stronger and richer.

2.2 Significance of culture in the political neologisms

Culture has gradually been an important part of national comprehensive strength

when China enters the 21st century. The competition between the countries is increasingly reflected in the competition and integration of their culture as well as the clash of the civilizations. It is not only the objective requirement of China’s reform and opening up as well as modernization, but also the need to strengthen the construction of the ruling party and maintain the Party’s advance nature in the new century to speed up the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. It is also a major problem to consolidate the ruling position of the Chinese communist party. The country can not be rich and strong without the support of culture. The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation depends on the power of the culture. Cultural construction is a glorious mission. We must grasp the era opportunity to make unremitting efforts for the construction of socialist culture.

As for the level of the words, some words under a national culture are compliment style. However, they are derogatory or neutral under another culture. Some can be accepted or popular in one culture. Nevertheless, it is difficult to accept them in another culture. So before the translation of the Chinese political neologisms, we should pay more attention to the culture of the target country in order to express the original meaning properly.

2.3 Classification of political neologisms in the cultural perspective

Chinese nation has formed its unique and great characteristics and spirits in the long developing history. Tenacity, diligence, generosity and benevolence have always been the basic level of Chinese national spirit. And the core of Chinese national spirit is the peace and harmony. Culture has been an important part of our life and also a significant factor to Chinese political neologisms. A thousand people have a thousand images in their mind about Harry Potter. This section will introduce the manifestation of Chinese culture in the political neologisms, including the use of numbers, four-character structure, chapter and verse etc.

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