Rural Cultural Construction in the Context of a Harmonious Society

Shiwen ZHUANG

Shandong Jiaotong University，Jinan 250023，China

1 Introduction

Building a harmonious society is one of development ideas of contemporary China and the construction of socialist new countryside is an important part of building of the harmonious society.Rural modernization is a complicated social system engineering containing economic，political and cultural factors.Rural cultural construction isan importantpartof rural socialist cultural and ethnical progress，and is of great significance to promoting rural economic and social development.Besides，the improvement in rural cultural construction and farmers'scientific and cultural quality is an essential objective of building a harmonious society.In the process of traditional agricultural transforming tomodern agriculture，cultural orientation lies in extension of science and technology，guidance of scientific awareness，and cultivation of scientific thinking mode.In other words，at the same time of attaching importance to science and technology being primary productivity，it is required to value that scientific thought is the first spiritual force.Therefore，only through strengthening rural cultural construction and energetically improving ethical and cultural quality of farmers，can rural areas realize all-round progress.

2 Basic orientation of cultural construction in the process of building a harmonious society

2.1 Strengthening rural cultural construction is the objective requirement of building socialist new countrysideA deep level task of rural cultural construction is to educate and guide farmers to do away with natural economic idea and traditional small peas ant awareness，gradually setup correct value concept adaptable to demand of socialist market economy，competitive，equal，beneficial and innovative awareness，realize comprehensive improvement of self quality and make them become qualified market economic subject，so as to promote establishment of rural market economic system.Therefore，rural cultural construction plays a key role in setting up rural mark eteconomic subject.In rural areas，sustainable development provides strategic guarantee for construction of rural modernization，while sustainable growth of rural economy relies on progress of rural culture and bases on improvement of farmers'scientific and cultural quality and ability.Therefore，effective construction of rural culture can provide spiritual force and mental support for sustainable development of China and provide powerful ideological guarantee for sustainable development of socialism.

2.2 Strengthening rural cultural construction is the demand for promoting rural cultural and ethical progressRural cultural construction provides intellectual support for rural economic development，and provides spiritual force for deep reform of rural areas.Through strengthening rural cultural construction，we can improve ideological，ethical，scientific and cultural quality of farmers.Besides，using healthy，active and vivid and vigorous cultural and artistic means，we can enrich spare time activities of farmers，educate them to resist erosion of feudal residual thoughts and bourgeoisie decadent ideas，overcome bad habits，set up socialist new customs，establish socialist moral system，and raise overall level of rural socialist cultural and ethnical culture，so as to further speed up process of rural prosperous society in all aspects and rural modernization.

Therefore，strengthening rural cultural construction and building rural new culturewith Chinese characteristics are not only necessities for developing rural culture in market economic condition，but also the objective demand for building socialist new countryside and building socialist harmonious society.It concerns future development strategy and long term sustainable development of China，so it is of great theoretical and practical significance.

3 Existing problems in present rural cultural construction

Since the reform and opening-up，China's rural cultural construction has made great achievements，and it hasmany new development opportunities and favorable conditions.However，it should be noted that，in recent new historical conditions，rural cultural construction is still faced with many new conflicts and problems urgently to be solved.

3.1 Unbalance in development of rural cultural construction

Generally，for areas with better economic base，grass-root leaders，developed history and culture，most farmers having certain cultural level，more libraries and other cultural facilities，the cultural construction is better；for areas with bad economic foundation，small population and low cultural level of farmers，the cultural construction is bad.For example，rural areas in western regions have weak cultural construction.If attention is only paid to economic construction，butnot to cultural construction and personnel quality，it will lead to low quality of personnel，slow production development，and vicious cycle of backward economy.

3.2 M istaken ideas in understandingFirstly，mistaken ideas such as＂Subordinatianism＂，＂price theory＂，and＂backward theory＂make non-scientific or even wrong understanding of position of rural cultural construction.In eastern economically developed areas，these understandings have brought about harmful effect，harm rural cultural and ethnic al construction，and restrict further development of economy.In less developed areas，these understandings hinder the process of shaking off poverty and setting out on the road to prosperity，and lead to lopsided development and vicious cycle.Secondly，funds for rural cultural construction are inadequate.Libraries and cultural centers of many areas have extreme few funds for transformation and book purchase.As a result，the utilization rate of important carrier for rural cultural construction is extremely low.It is difficult to carry out activities and bring into play due functions.Backward cultural infrastructure construction becomes bottleneck of improving farmers'cultural and life quality.

3.3 Negative influence of traditional cultureChinese traditional culture with Confucianism as major part is the product of agricultural production，but its many parts hinder China's modernization construction.On the one hand，cultural mentality and value concept of small producers still exert strong influence on thoughts and acts of farmers.As a result，far mers'value concept remains at low level and they form a poverty value concept，which reflects feudal and backward small peasant awareness.On the other hand，feudalistic superstition activities，traditional rites，beliefs，social interaction modes spring up in many rural areas.Many feudalistic superstition activities and residual thoughts，bad customs and habits and obsolete customs resurge and folk custom culture declines.

3.4 Negative effect of market economyIn-depth development of market economy and deepening of rural reform have brought about certain negative effect on farmers'ideological and ethical concepts.In value orientation，the concept of＂putting money above everything else＂becomes code of conduct of many farmers.Farmers'political ideas are weak.They are doubtful about the road of common prosperity.In addition，their collectivism and master awareness are weak and have anarchism thought.Various cultural rubbishes break through at weak points.Bourgeois decadent thoughts，such as money worship，hedonism，and individualism cause undesirable extension of rural culture，poison social atmosphere，and seriously harm physical and mental health of farmers.

3.5 Rural education is backward，and science and technology are free from rural production and lifeAlthough China has basically realized the popularization of compulsory education and eliminated illiteracy，the overall rural education is still very backward，lags behind demand of socialist market economy，and fails to meet the requirement of socialist modernization construction.Some areas and departments have the problems of neglect of education，especially elementary education.What's worse，negative effect of non-compulsory education exacerbates unjustness of education right between urban and rural areas.This not only brings new economic difficulty to children of farmers in receiving education above senior middle school，but also guides more college or above graduates to flow to cities，which worsens the conflict of shortage of scientific and technological talents required for agricultural modernization.

4 Countermeasures and recommendations for strengthening rural cultural construction

To strengthen rural cultural construction，we should adhere to correct guiding theory and accord with national，regional，and local conditions.Besides，we should start from whether it is favorable for comprehensive development of the whole society.Also，we should combine cultural construction with economic and political construction，better serve overall stability of rural reform and development，serve rural masses，provide intellectual support and cultural guidance for rural cultural，ethical and material progress，and provide powerful mental force and ideological guarantee for building socialist new countryside.

4.1 Bringing government functions into fullplayRural cultural construction is a process of constantly satisfying mental and cultural demands of farmers，and also a process of promoting transformation of far mers'quality to modernization.Thus，it is the essential intellectual investment in rural construction.Government authorities must go out of wrong ideas of valuing hard power but not soft power，and overcome the thought of being eager for quick success.Also，it should attach importance to the role of cultural power in the process of rural modernization，incorporate rural cultural construction into key agendas and local economic and social development plan，and push forward rural cultural construction and accumulation in all aspects and at multiple levels for a long time.In addition，it is required to increase input in rural cultural construction，ensure its growth rate not lower than that of local fiscal revenues，constantly widen input channels for rural cultural construction，gradually set up multi-channel input system for ru-ral cultural construction combined with the state，collective，society and individuals，and enhance rural infrastructure construction in various forms and atmultiple levels.Party committees at all levels and rural grass-root administrative organs should formulate and implement cultural management policies，cultural and economic policies，and cultural input policies，and actively support development of rural culture.

4.2 Carrying forward excellent ethnic cultural tradition and learning all outstanding civilization achievementsAt the same time of keeping and carrying forward excellent traditional culture，we should further eliminate variousold and bad ha bits opposite to modern habits and customs，resist various ignorant feudal superstitious activities，and effectively fight against disturbance and damage of feudal residual culture.Besides，we should overcome inactive and small peasant awareness and the idea of attaching to native land and unwilling to leave it，and set up new ethical and moral system adapted to socialist market economy.In the tide of reform and opening-up，it is required to resolutely resist erosion of bourgeoisie decadent ideas，use patriotic，collectivist，and socialist thought to occupy ideological and cultural fields，guide farmers to set up correct world，life and value outlook，and cultivate knowledge-seeking awareness，competition awareness，innovation awareness，and time awareness，to encourage farmers to devote themselves to rural modernization undertaking with brand-new mental outlook.

4.3 Enhancing elementary education and energetically developing science and technologyEnhancing education of rural areas and improving educational level and scientific and cultural quality of farmers are objectives and marks of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects，and also the basis and inevitable requirement for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.In relatively backward regions，developing rural education should resolutely change the school running mode separating rural economic construction，and take the road of adapting to local realities.Apart from increasing investment in rural education and improving school running conditions，it is required to combine popularization of the9-year compulsory education，elimination of illiteracy，and vocational-technicaleducation together.For rural areas with higher level of economic development，it is recommended to further push forward modernization of education in education content and facilities，to constantly improve quality of elementary education.Furthermore，it is proposed to energetically develop science and technology，to make agricultural science and technology penetrate into all fields of agricultural production.Through developing education，popularizing science and technology，and changing farmers'thoughts，social actions and life style，it is expected to free farmers from ignorance，so as to achieve a benign cycle of eliminating ignorance through education，promoting richness through intelligence，and revitalizing education and culture through richness.

4.4 Reinforcing rural democratic and legal construction，and guiding farmers to set up socialist democratic and legal awarenessAwakening of farmers'democratic awareness and enhancing of legal sense are not only major parts of rural cultural construction，but also basic means of rural cultural construction.Therefore，it is required to pay special attention to social legal education of farmers，enhance their legalawareness，strengthen their self-restraint ability，and regulate their actions in the range of laws.Also，it is recommended to take legal method，resolutely strike at various criminal activities，extensively launch overall control of social public security，and ensure social stability of rural areas，so as to provide favorable conditions and guarantee for rural economic and cultural construction.

4.5 Stimulating cultural subject awareness of farmers and enhancing their enthusiasm for participation in cultural constructionThe fundamental problem of development is personnel，and the problem of modernization is problem of personnel，especially modernization of cultural and psychological culture，value concept of personnel.Fundamentally，socialist modernization is the modernization of agriculture，while the agricultural modernization and farmers'modernization lie in modernization of farmers'cultural and psychological structure.Therefore，it is recommended to energetically popularize cultural education and sci-tech knowledge，to improve scientific and cultural quality of farmers.Besides，it is to carry out ideological and ethical education with patriotic，collectivist，and socialist thought as major part，constantly raise ideological and ethical awareness of farmers，and bring subject awareness and enthusiasm of farmers in cultural construction into fully play，to promote development of rural cultural construction.

4.6 Cultivating personnel and bringing up a qualified rural cultural backbone teamRural areas have numerous excellent folk artistic talents.Thus，we must fully explore such huge talent resources and bring into full play their functions.Party committees，cultural and other related departments at all levels should provide favorable conditions for growth of these talents，encourage artists and writers to go to grass-roots areas and create more works reflecting changes of new rural areas，so as to realize flourishing of local cultural undertaking.In addition，it is required to bring into play functions of rural grass-root intellectuals，guide them to take the road of combination with practice and workers and farmers，encourage them tomake due contribution to the develop ment of rural advanced culture，and make more contribution in the rural ethical，scientific and cultural construction.

Rural cultural construction is a complicated social systematic project.In the process of building a harmonious society，we should properly deal with the relationship between economic construction，political construction and cultural construction.Besides，we should take rural cultural construction as a top issue of spiritual civilization construction.Through progress of rural social culture and renewal of farmers'cultural ideas，it is expected to improve their scientific and cultural quality，and recreate their value outlook.Furthermore，we should cultivate new generation of farmers with lofty ideals，moral integrity，good education and a strong sense of discipline，encourage them to devote themselves to rural social reform with brand new spirit，speed up the process of building a mod era tely prosperous society in all aspects，and accelerate pushing forward socialist modernization.

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