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Customs are changing. There are good and bad customs,good ones can raise civilization, while a bad one may ruinone. The rule of natural selection is applicable here, but tochange a custom is never easy.
It is considered in the Western world that, Western cultureis built from a toilet bowl, or modern civilization is built onprivate car. Does a toilet bowl really bear much social signif-icance？ Does a private car really have more importance thanthe space shuttle？ However, such inventions really havechanged people's lifestyle, behavior and thinking style.
Custom represents a stable lifestyle, backed by a specificsocial & cultural system, with underlying economic pattern.If the economic pattern is not changed, the cultural systemwill hardly change, so will custom.
Preface
Through its reform and opening to the outside world, China has workedan economic miracle and boosted its comprehensive strength, enhancing itsstanding in the international community. As more and more people aroundthe world are eager to know and understand China, we have compiled theChina Series, aiming to provide a shortcut for readers to get the basic factsabout this country.
The 12 titles in this series cover China's geography, history, politics, econ-omy, culture, law, diplomacy, national defense, and society, as well as its sci-ence, technology and education; its environment; and its ethnic groups and re-ligions. These writings will help readers acquire a basic knowledge of China.
It is our hope that this series will enable readers to get a general idea aboutChina:
Chinese history, culture and civilization, which is the oldest continuous ma-jor civilization in the world;
China's basic conditions——the world's largest developing country with ahuge population, a country that is developing unevenly on a poor economicbase; in light of these conditions, China is following its own path to sustain-able development while learning from other civilizations; and
China's future——led by the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese peopleare focusing their efforts on economic development and carrying on reformand opening-up; they are building a harmonious society in their own countryand working for a harmonious world with lasting peace and common pros-perity.
