Chinese Dream and the World's Dream

Wan Junren

It is my pleasure to make a presentation on this symposium about contemporary mainstream culture. First of all, I would like to make an apology. Just a few days ago, something bad happened to me when I was in Europe. My suitcase was stolen and my presentation for this conference, together with my computer, cell phone and many other belongings disappeared. This morning, I will try to say something according to my memory. I would like to thank professor Jiang Chang for giving me the opportunity to make this presentation, with the title of China Dream and World Dream. This is a romantic metaphor and is a very difficult topic for me. I want to make the huge story a little bit brief and say something about the two dreams. Personally, I'd like to bridge rather than separate the two dreams. I have three points.

The first point is how to look at the two dreams. In this sense, there are two choices. One is to look at these two dreams from the perspective of particularism, and the other is from that of universalism. I prefer the latter. The reason lies in that in the age of globalization, the standard of universalism is much better for us to speculate our world. Then we come to another question: why do we have different dreams while we live in the same world. I'd like to borrow a traditional Chinese idiom—couples may have different dreams in the same bed. Here bed refers to the earth we live in. As for the answer, the national benefit and the national privilege separate our world and bring serious results, for example, some countries trend to boost their economy by sacrificing other countries, which is very common. Can we change this situation? Although it may be difficult, we should take measures to make it. We should learn how to share something together rather than require something individually. This is my first point.

The second, in today's world, the more difficult and more important point, is that some developed countries should provide much more room for developing countries to achieve their modernization. The developed countries have gained lots of experience or models of modernity, and developing countries should learn from it, but we should realize that there is more than one model for us to speed up our modernization. Western model is a good way, but not the only way. Therefore, the developed country should help the developing country find their own way rather than follow the old one. Undoubtedly, it will take long time for most countries to catch up with the developed one. In this sense, I do hope the developed country can help in this process by giving much more room for them. Meanwhile, the country, taking the advanced position, should be more modesty. Fundamentally speaking, to keep our world on the right way in the age of globalization, I hope this point can make sense.

My third point is that the best way to bridge the two dreams is to open forums and tribunes, having a dialogue or trilogies between or among different countries. For this reason, I really appreciate the subject of this symposium. In the future, our world will develop in a democratic way, so that our development can go even further. Here I' like to borrow some words of professor John Rawls, my supervisor, the famous professor of politic philosophy from philosophy department of Harvard University. According to him, the principles of justice can be divided into two principles, one is the principle of liberal equality, and the other is the principle of difference. I speak highly of the latter. I suppose that the principle of difference in terms of John Rawls can work out something universal for our globalization, contributing to this world and to the world dialogue in particular. According to the principle of difference, the first thing we should do is to pay more attention to the benefit of the least developing country. In today's world, we should do everything we can for African countries and those impoverished people, helping them to be optimistic and improve their living standard. Therefore, I do agree with the theory of justice. Keeping the principle of difference in mind, a bridge can be built between the two dreams. For our Chinese people, we should focus on this point. Honestly speaking, there is still a long way to go for Chinese government and its people. Currently, China has got a great economic achievement and made great progress, with its national revenue increased, and its people's living standard being improved, but how can we break down the national boundary and contribute to the world?Maybe it is time for us to think about it.