ABSTRACT
Unity and continuity in China have been centered in the nation's written language and the Great Tradition it records. Many of the Chinese characters carved on tortoise shells for divining purposes in the Shang era can be read by Chinese schoolchildren touring museums. Science and technology from the West have helped even China to see itself in a new way and to revise many features of daily life. According to the traditional Chinese view, there was only one real civilization in the world—that of Zhongguo Tuwen, which can be translated as "central country" or "middle kingdom" but is usually rendered simply as China. Between groups and subgroups of the Sinitic peoples there are also clearly established behavioral stereotypes. The alleged personality differences between the people of each province and/or dialect group are spoken about by Chinese as assuredly as are the differences in "national character" within Europe by Europeans.
