Introduction: Some Paradigmatic Issues in the Study of Chinese Political Culture

Culture has played an extremely important role in Chinese social transformations in modern times. The “culture” here mainly refers to the political aspects of culture, not its non-political dimensions, such as diet, sports, or architecture. ¹ In the Chinese context, the transformation of culture, or political culture, is often considered to be the key to the transformation of society. This situation was demonstrated clearly in China’s three major social transformations in recent history.