The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued a document titled 《关于实施中华优秀传统文化传承发展工程的意见》(“Opinions on Carrying Out the Work of Inheriting and Developing China’s Outstanding Traditional Culture”) and issued a circular calling on all localities and departments to conscientiously implement it. The text of this document, along with summaries and further information from the Ministry of Education, is contained in this posting by Han Bao, a journal associated with the Guoxue (National Studies) movement. The document calls for a major commitment to “全面提升人民群众文化素养、维护国家文化安全、增强国家文化软实力、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化” (“comprehensively enhancing the cultural quality of the masses of the people, safeguarding the national cultural security, enhancing the national cultural soft power, and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity”).
“national cultural security” is a very weird term, no?!
Agreed! Here is some discussion on Baidu: http://baike.baidu.com/view/2084240.htm. It seems to me that there is a certain tension between the discourse about “cultural self-confidence” and this language of “national cultural security”….