The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE emergence of global economic powerhouses such as China has demonstrated to the world that economic prosperity is possible without necessarily following the political conquest and exploitation route that defines the prosperity of most Western first world countries.
China has demonstrated in no small measure that culture is colossally important in developing societies from past to present and its model can be used by most third world countries that are still struggling to unbuckle themselves and decolonise their identity from imperialist systems. Cultural perspectives exemplify values, attitudes, and behaviours that influence development.
Development in China has been anchored on a pride of identity, use of traditional cultural resources and an unwavering focus on indigenous knowledge systems as the umbilical cord that connect its people to all development facets. Chinese President Xi Jinping in The Governance of China compendium contends that it is inevitable for China, a country with a unique culture, history and basic conditions, to choose a development path featuring its own characteristics.
“As for traditional Chinese culture and foreign things, we should make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China; discard the dross and select the essential; eliminate the false and retain the true, and adopt traditional Chinese culture and foreign things after a thorough and well considered review of both,” he says.
President Xi Jinping stresses the point that China did not use borrowed solutions that are alien to its values, beliefs, ideologies and philosophy but used home grown solutions that have a moral grounding in the people’s culture in its quick motion graduation from a third world country to being the second largest economy in the world.
Culture generates assets such as skills, products, expression and insights that contribute to the social and economic well-being of a community and many third world countries that are reeling under various economic pressures can pluck a leaf from China’s development model.
China has managed to define and distinguish itself through a shared vision of cultivating and disseminating core socialist values with a unique Chinese characteristic. It has managed to foster the Chinese Dream as a dream cherished and aspired to by Chinese people as a nation through the distinctive charm of Chinese culture.
The marked difference between China and most third world countries in Africa, particularly Zimbabwe, is that most African countries are a product of Western imperialism. Their cultures have suffered strong adulteration from the former colonisers whose vise grip most countries are failing to unhinge themselves from both culturally and economically.
Many countries in East Asia, particularly China, have been resisting traditions from Western culture. It is the use of Asian values and institutions that is responsible for the Chinese economic advancement. Zimbabwe is very diverse along most human dimensions: ethnicity, language, culture, history and economic well-being. Despite the diversity, there are common threads that contribute to the lack of economic development. There is no proper definition of what the national question is and what constitutes the national dream and as such patriotism to core national values and aspirations has been elusive.
African philosophy scholar and academic Mr Joel Mukusha told Sunday News in an interview that most African countries were buckling under the weight of a history of oppression and needed strong lessons from China on redefining themselves, their development goals, values and philosophy without it being prescribed to them by former colonisers.
“China has managed to define itself without prescribed doses of imported ideas. Home grown solutions have been nurtured that people identify with, communism, socialism and Marxism have been popularised to define and re-energise the Chinese Dream where patriotism is cultivated and where inherited culture and traditions meet harmoniously with innovation to produce a modern China not divorced from cultural beliefs that bind the society,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by President Xi Jinping when he said, “We should properly handle the relationship between inheritance and innovation, with the focus on transforming and developing the fine traditional Chinese culture in a creative way. We should make the core values the people’s pursuit and conscious actions through education, publicity, cultural edification, habitual development and institutional guarantee.”
Mr Mukusha said Africa should follow the philosophy and culture of Ubuntu/Hunhu which emphasises the ideals of communism, patriotism, respect, trust and hard work. He said such values if upheld would see Zimbabwe developing its societies.
Academic and political analyst Mr Michael Mhlanga said culture affects the ability of societies to create and properly manage institutions and has been defined as the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, and customs acquired by man as a member of society.
He believes China has shown the world that alternative dimensions to international realism do exist beyond nuclear proliferation and interference. This, he believes, is a firm cultural gesture which substantiates the magnitude of China’s respect of the autonomy of other nations as has been seen through the successful materialisation of the Forum on Africa-China Co-operation (FOCAC) where China has handed millions of dollars for advancing development initiatives in Africa crucial for generating projects which strengthen various sectors of human livelihoods in Africa.
He argues that the astute rationality of Zimbabwe’s current proximity to China and its open for business mantra is apt as it dovetails into President Xi Jinping’s clarion call for engagement as China opens its doors wider to the outside world.
In Zimbabwe, a long history of colonial dominance and exploitation, unequal exchanges and the absence of a just international economic order are part of the external factors causing underdevelopment. Although development is a result of both external and internal factors, internal factors should always play a more important role and these are closely linked to culture. It is culture that influences institutional design that breeds an effective industrial policy.
Former Ambassador to China Christopher Mutsvangwa says if DNA is the foundation of the institutional memory of living organisms, then culture is its equivalent in the institutional memory of society. Culture, he says, is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. It is shown through ideas, customs and social behaviour of society. It is the embodiment of shared values that define the identity of a social grouping.
“China with the largest population on earth has developed its culture over 5 000 years. Its capacity to defend itself ensured that by and large its society could repulse, withstand or absorb repeated ructions from other outside societies. It is this aspect that has given Chinese culture pride of place among its society and admiration from other societies,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.
Culture extends across all dimensions of social capital such as mutual confidence, trust and responsible civic behaviour. Unesco emphasises that culture is a key element in the fight against poverty. Preserving cultural values is very important for development and Zimbabwe should develop and value trust in its institutions so as to validate the social contract between Government and the governed. Trust is a measure of how people evaluate the moral fabric in their society and a lack of it breeds other ills such as dishonesty and corruption.
Corruption raises several issues regarding the relationship between citizens and their governments. President Xi Jinping warns that financial scandals, or abuse of public resources to achieve personal benefits, undermines bases of authority and legitimacy.
Corruption constitutes a violation of the unwritten contract between citizens and public officials. A culture of corruption in society distorts public demands, increases the cost, reduces quality, and delay the competition of public works.
Third world countries can therefore pluck a leaf from China on how they can broaden their culture industries and link their development to unique characteristics of their people’s cultures and not from entirely prescriptive modes of development not in sync with their value systems and beliefs.
