Abstract:
This paper aims to establish that the archetypes of modern Chinese intellectuals are
also fundamentally similar to the archetypes of modern Chinese culture. Despite the fact
that there has, ever since the latter half of the 20th century, been so few scholars of the
traditional type who were schooled both in Chinese as well as Western studies, and so
few authentic intellectuals who have preoccupied with the ‘social conscience’, justice
and uprightness are still deeply rooted in the hearts of most modern intellectuals. Their
cultural character is too complicated to be settled, and their political fate difficult and
torturous.
However, during the past century, the Chinese intellectuals have emerged out of the era
of ‘SHI’, formed their unique cultural character in the collision and collaboration of
Chinese and Western cultures, and merge into a new orbit of the international academic
field.
