Abstract

This study delves into contemporary China's literary, artistic productions as well as cultural discussions to find the “truth content”of Chinese culture in the age of global capitalism. In this regard, the theoretical trend of cultural material-ism in literary theory and cultural studies, in particular the theory of Three Cul-tures proposed by Raymond Williams（1921 -1988）, offers a useful perspec-tive. Raymond Williams's conception of the dominant, the residual, and the e-mergent, is instrumental for us to appreciate the complex and dynamic ways contemporary Chinese culture operates. To be sure, Williams' formulation is a theoretical articulation of the European society in his time; thus when we apply it in China, it necessitates some key revisions to adapt to the peculiar conditions.

Following this general theoretical framework, in the five sections of the present study, the first part will examine the residual elements of contemporary Chinese culture; the next two sections explore the dominant culture; whereas the remaining two parts make an inquiry on the emergent one. The five parts al-so by themselves serve to map out the five distinct features of contemporary Chinese culture.

Through an inquiry on some representative works of contemporary Chinese poetry, fiction and films as well as an examination of the ongoing cultural de-bates and academic exploration, this study finds that there are five distinct fea-tures or trends existed among contemporary China's “three cultures. ”First, the socialist memory and its aesthetic distinctions appeared as the “structure of feel-ing”of socialist “new man, ”are witnessed in the literary imageries, personal character and cultural mannerism in the daily life of some Chinese, especially in the literary productions of the poets of the “Middle-Aged Generation”; sec-ond, the belief of liberal humanism greatly impinges on fictional works, in parti-cular in the avant-garde fiction and the stories of “New historicism”; third, the logic of the market has seeped into every corner of the society and swayed the interpersonal relations; fourth, the middle-class tastes and conservatism dis-guise themselves as refined aesthetic distinction and have permeated into elite groups; fifth, with China's rise in its economy power, the new Chinese identity in the age of globalization is envisioned and debated, fostered by the robust growth of cultural nationalism.