Egocentrism and Civic Duty in Contemporary Chinese Society.docVIP

Egocentrism and Civic Duty in Contemporary Chinese Society 　　中图分类号：G21 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1007-0745（2014）04-0096-02 　　As a fundamental concept, egocentrism (ziwo zhongxin zhuyi, centre on self) originates from Confucianism and hasexisted in Chinese societyfor thousands of years (Fei, 1992; Baker, 1979). However, the new words “civic duty” (gongmin zeren, responsibilities of being citizen), accompanied by the ideology of the harmonious society and modern Confucianism (revamped Confucianism with modern moral values), have also been discussed as young peoples’ individual responsibilities by a great deal of internal media in recent years.In the news,storiesabout children demanding their parents’unpaid wages, and other public affairs serve as examples. Identification of the origin of egocentrism will follow this introduction, before a detailed insight into people lackingcivic duty (especially the after 80’s youth generation) and explorations of the reasons. Finally, other news stories(including “children ask for wages”), reasons forstrengthening civic duty, and public affairswhich can be the exemplifications of civic duty,will be analysed. 　　On 14th August 2012, thirteen children raised paperboards written with slogans, protested and asked tourism company Shizhaizi to hand overunpaid wages to their migrant parents in Yunnan province. Their slogans attracted people’s attention. One wrote “I am Wang…I come from Chu Xiong…I need money! I want to go to school!” Another wrote “I am Yu…I want to drink milk. I want to eat cakes! Hand over my parents’ money” (China Daily, 2012). As can be seen in these slogans, all of the sentence patterns are similar: beginning with “I” and followed by self-requirements. This phraseology is extremely common in Chinese talking and writing. Emphasising oneself and one’sown desire can be regarded as egocentrism. According to Piaget’scognitive development theory, egocentrism is rooted in the phenomenon ofchildrenfocusingontheir own behavioursand persp