The China Dream in question

The ‘China dream’ has become a public topic open to debate this year, partly due to
new chairman Xi Jinping’s encouraging claim of it, reminding people of the Chinese
pursuit of national revival for more than a century. Interpretation of the
governmental message is not the aim of this paper. Instead, I will try to develop a
historical and philosophical analysis of Chinese pursuits that might be said to be
China’s dreams. My understanding of China’s dreams remains basically similar to my
earlier discussion in a paper titled “American dream, European dream and China’s
dream” (Transcultural Dialogue No. 18, 2006). That is, China’s dreams have been
painful dreams during hard times, the dreams to survive by modernization (actually
westernization), so as to catch up with the great powers, at the unhappy cost of
self-devaluation of Chinese culture and tradition. Consequently, the China dream has
not yet fully demonstrated its Chineseness as meant to be or expected to be, but
rather partly, or mainly, has been a westernized dream up until now. The expression
China dream (中国梦) may not always be the dream of China (中国之梦), unless it
can develop the ideal of China. In this paper, I will examine challenging questions
related to Chinese pursuits, practical efforts and theoretical ideals.