Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 12, 2021

 

Rural Revitalization and Ethical Reconstruction in the Process of Chinese-Style Modernization

(Abstract)

 

Wang Lulu

 

Chinese-style modernization is a modernization path with unique Chinese characteristics. Understanding this point provides a basic guide to the modern transformation of Chinese rural ethics. In the course of modernizing rural areas, cities have completed a turn from being parasites to being centers, while rural areas have completed a turn from dominance to dependency. These turns include not only changes in the rural-urban relationship and the internal relationships and structures of rural areas, but also the ethical transformation they indicate. They express the changed status of rural Chinese and the consequent moral issues, and thus generate a unique moral landscape of Chinese rural society in transition. Only by realizing the modern transformation of rural ethics through the modern reconstruction of Chinese rural ethics can we provide value guidance and spiritual impetus for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. The modern reconstruction of Chinese rural ethics should establish rural development ethics centered on rural dwellers and based on the basic standpoint and methods of the Marxist doctrine of historical materialism. Rural areas should refer to the interpretation of the modernization model and diversity of development paths, and value “local moral knowledge” as an important resource in the modern reconstruction of rural ethics. We should take reflection and criticism of the “crisis of modernity” as a wake-up call, and “nostalgia for the countryside” as the moral and cultural root of the modern construction of rural ethics.