Socio-economic and political development of modern Asia

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ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

«ВЫСШАЯ ШКОЛА ЭКОНОМИКИ»

Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики

МАГИСТЕРСКАЯ ДИССЕРТАЦИЯ

по направлению 41.04.03 «Востоковедение и африканистика»

студента образовательной программы

«Социально-экономическое и политическое развитие современной Азии»

Природа и природопользование в мировосприятии современных китайцев

Студент(ка) группы МСЭПР161 С.М.Гринёва

Рецензент А. С. Каимова

РуководительМ.В.Карпов

Москва 2018



Government of the Russian Federation

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Educational Programme

MASTER'S THESIS

“Socio-Economic and Political Development of Modern Asia"

The Perception of Nature and Nature use in the Worldview of The Modern Chinese

Student

Sofia Grineva

Reviewer

Scientific Advisor

Anna S. Kaimova Mikhail V. Karpov

Moscow, 2018



Contents

Introduction

1. Studies of Human - Nature relations: paradigms and measurements

1.1 The realm of Environmental ethics

1.2 Visions of Confucianism in terms of environmental ethics

1.3 Perception of nature through the perspective of psychology

2. The Chinese case: what a mini-survey says

2.1 Methodology

2.2 Limitations

2.3 Results

2.4 Specialized quantitative data

3. Qualitative inquiries into the topic

3.1 Questions and answers on forums

3.2 Weibo publications: content analysis

3.3 Methodology

3.4 Limitations

3.5 Results

Conclusion

Literature and sources

Appendix

chinese human nature psychology



Introduction

Conducting a research on such a subject as the Chinese perception of nature, or any other people's way of understanding and seeing of natural matters ends up a challenging task. Every step on this road provokes more questions rather than gives answers. The field occurs to be multilayered and complex. However, when trying to correlate notions `China' and `nature', a basic common view would be like this: “China is infamous for her spoiling of nature, extreme air pollution due to the hugest coal mining, severe depletion of sharks for the sake of shark fin soup, and finally the world community blames China for the ozone layer depletion too”. We take it as given that China has such an image, and it proceeds from the shortcomings of the industrial development the country has been going through. Of course, this assumption is oversimplified and unscientific. Thus, the research aim will be to specify existing patterns of perception of nature and make a scientific guess in the regard of the Chinese case basing on well-recognized and original methodologies. We limit the research area to mainland China, neither Hong Kong nor Republic of Taiwan included.

The question then arises - how we understand this very subject `perception of nature'. From the assumption above it stems that we deal with ecologic, or environmental issues. Besides, there is an inseparable component, `the root of evil' - the way how people perceive nature use - that makes an inclination to these issues even more understandable. Altogether is an internal part of the discourse, its inevitable realm or `fifth element' rooted in the fault line between core anthropocentric and ecocentric visions together with their undertones. Nevertheless, the field cannot be limited to people's environmental concern only, as far as the problem of ecological damage (concern about it) not always existed, but certain understandings of human - nature relations ascend to ancient times. Generally, this discourse consists of contemplations in the spirit of Cartesian, positivist, and Kantian schools. The latter considers morality and value - being a realm of environmental philosophy environmental ethics attributed it in the end. Even not being bounded by ecological aspects, we leave aside aesthetical perspective and do not describe religious beliefs present in China in details - these topics are well-elaborated both in domestic science and overseas, yet their correlations with the subject of our research should not be taken as granted.

In this research, we are not going to cover exact institutional practices of nature use that China employs or plans to employ -they are beyond the scope of the present study as well. They worth a comprehensive single research with a detailed inquiry because the field is full of stereotyped assumptions, and in the end, what seemed wrong from the viewpoint of today's ecology as an ideology or a sort of idealism occurs to be right , rational and proper in proper situations. Joachim Radkau in his profound study `Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment' shows it clearly many times.

However, focusing on rationality when comes to perception is a slippery slope because we cannot help but consider what people feel or do not feel, for example, reverence, sense of connectedness, etc. The field of environmental psychology helps us with it, though we cannot detach from the rational issue of perception of nature, because it is a huge complication with matching of expected cultural matters and observable behavior (namely, use of nature). On the one hand, myths, pantheism, folklore is based on natural matters, reverence for or fear of them, but on the flipside the following practices of magic are deeply instrumental as people ordinarily want to get what they want, let alone anthropomorphistic component of these narratives (Radkau,2008, p.3-5). In the Far East, we suppose, relying on religious systems and aesthetics cannot be fully plausible and credible too, as in the case of Taosim examined by Gudula Linck, they may represent a perception possessed by a certain group of enthusiasts (not mainstream), hermits, or signify nostalgia for the better world (Radkau,2008, p.106). Another epistemological challenge is not to get confused while apply own modern and culturally - based understanding to the past.

The subject of this research lies at the point where few fields meet each other. They share the knowledge elaborated in the frames of most common paradigms of treating nature: anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, and their various branches. Those fields are environmental psychology, environmental sociology, and environmental ethics - the last one stemmed from philosophical foundation when philosophy became concerned about ecology. The realm of environmental history preceded them. All the disciplines under the blanket of environmental humanities, following the trend of division according to their methodologies, treat nature as a concept in own way. We rely on environmental ethics and environmental psychology primarily, suggesting that their knowledge can be complementary and aiming at matching them at some points. It is needed to clarify, that the term `environment' will be equal to natural environment, i.e. natural world, both organic and inorganic, as far as in environmental psychology `environment' also means a social and daily (work, home) surroundings of a person which have certain impact on a subject.

Our research tasks will be as follows. First, to show theoretical approaches, which conceptualize the ways of perception and behavior and by this provide us with paradigms of thought to recognize this or that existing pattern. The first chapter entitled `Studies of Human - Nature relations: paradigms and measurements' gives an outlook on environmental ethics and environmental psychology - we chose these disciplines of social sciences to get introduced to the topic and select proper methodology.

Second, we are to study the subject empirically by means of a quantitative psychological mini-survey based on the well-recognized scales which, in our view, present `rational' and `emotional' aspects of the issue. The second chapter `The Chinese case: what a mini-survey says' contains an online questionnaire `The Chinese Perception of Nature' made in Chinese and spread among casual Chinese ( People's Republic of China) respondents by means of social networks. As far as we know, such a survey in Chinese and for the Chinese is unprecedented in Russian social science. This chapter brings in a psychological research supported with psychometric data - the analysis of inner reliability and the study of correlation between individual answers grouped by gender, locality, presence of pets / houseplants, frequency of resting outdoors.

Third, we are to consider certain views of the modern Chinese regarded with nature yet not constrained by our questions. For this purpose, the Internet and social media are useful to reach various audience and gain some more understanding. In the chapter `Qualitative inquiries into the topic' we describe what people think about the subject in online discussions, what was the content of posts about nature on Chinese Weibo in April, 2018 (content analysis), what paradigms of environmental ethics are laid in them.

The study is based on the idea to combine common theoretical understandings and empirical data, and the latter will be the largest part of the paper, so basically, our sources are primary. They include the responses to the questionnaire 'The Chinese Perception of Nature' and people's public textual and media messages on Chinese Weibo. Their pros and cons will be examined in corresponding chapters.

Generally, the group of literature which is to serve for the first task is supposed to be theoretical, for us to get acquainted with or to understand the background information, the principles of psychological research and the way how to count the results. Books such as `Being Human. Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World' by Peterson, A.L., and `Humanity and Nature. Towards a Consistent Holistic Environmental Ethics' by Andersson, P. provide us with valuable considerations and introduce the theoretical background thoroughly. We can base on the concepts of anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, etc. which they elaborate on. These are the books which introduced the understanding of human - nature relations as a subject of ethics to the researcher.

As for the peculiarities and possible impact for the study of the books mentioned, `Being Human. Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World' by Peterson, A.L. consists of cross-cultural exploration of the differences in attitudes towards Nature and development of them (i.e. reaching the field of feminism). It is helpful for us from the point of both theoretical implications and exact knowledge of non-western traditions of thought (i.e. Buddhism). The other book `Humanity and Nature. Towards a Consistent Holistic Environmental Ethics' by Andersson, P makes up a whole or indeed holistic theory while penetrates various concepts and links them together. It not only elaborates on so called Holistic Environmental Ethics and distinguishes its dimensions, but also gives external criticism for it. It is relevant both for the study and as a good pattern to be guided by in theory building.

Another valuable secondary source was the special issue of Daedalus miscellany in 2001 dedicated to ecology, culture and world religions meeting each other. Particularly, Tu Weiming's 'The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World' suggests that a Chinese concept of 'unity of Heaven and Humanity' regains its meaning in an ecological paradigm of interconnectedness. In a way, Anh Tuan Nuyen in his `Confucian Role-based Ethics and Strong Environmental Ethics' (Environmental values magazine) reflects on Confucian heritage and environmental thought too.

Tertiary sources used were the following handbooks: `The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology' edited by Clayton S. D., and Ethics Applied (Chapter 11 'Ethics and the Environment' by Holmes Rolston III). The former gives a clue about psychological ways of estimations of individual environmental attitude which we are going to evaluate by means of the certain scales, whereas the latter explains environmental ethics paradigms clearly.

We rely on the English -language literature due to the fact that the field of environmental ethics and the realm of environmental psychology which studies interactions with natural environment exactly are developed mostly by foreign scholars, and these papers are more accessible.

This master thesis applies those methodological approaches, the ways of working with sources that were studied all over the master program schedule. The researcher believes that oriental studies should combine their knowledge with the methods of social sciences, in some sense, should return to their family. This exploration of environmental humanities for the sake of an attempt to research the Chinese could not have been possible without a HSE elective course `Environmental psychology' taught by Sofya K. Nartova - Bochaver, Doctor of Psychological sciences, and advice of her students.

1. Studies of Human - Nature relations: paradigms and measurements

1.1 The realm of Environmental ethics

Environmental ethics constitutes a whole discourse searching for the proper pattern of behavior towards nature which would be based on a certain system of favorable attitudes. Curiously enough, environmental ethics tends to appeal to Eastern heritage, fully relates it with Buddhism and sees it as an inspiration while being critical of `Western style'. Environmentally damaging attitudes of the West are suggested to be rooted in Christianity, philosophy of rationalism, Newton's and Bacon's truly instrumental vision of nature as a mechanism. However, J. Baird Callicott explores Christian theology to find patterns of stewardship to nature; according to him, Christianity contributed to the environmental ethics with its attribution of inherent, given, value of nature. For philosophers, theorists, it is Eastern religious traditions that are more deep-ecological because a human there is interrelated with society and natural world, inorganic nature as well (Peterson, 2001, p.2-13).

Nowadays, the theoretical background, or frameworks theorists and activists rely on, pivots around the fault line between anthropocentrism on the one side and a range of ecocentric paradigms on the other. Below we will consider these paradigms in general, one by one as far as they are of crucial importance for all environmental humanities, nevertheless, they are still constructions to conceptualize, so to speak, existing patterns of public morality in this regard.

As it was mentioned earlier, we deal with the realm of environmental ethics - a body of science or a whole discourse searching for an appropriate way to treat nature and natural world and struggling to define how a proper concern for environment should look like. One of the fundamental issues in this sense is about human's valuation of nature: does nature have an intrinsic value? Another tricky issue is a matter of sympathy to all living beings, should it be based on an approach like `Can it suffer?' (animal welfare concern followed by animal rights ethics) or `Is it alive?' (a deeper respect for life including non-sentient nature) (Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.412). In its conventional way, anthropocentrism takes it as given, that Human is the King of Nature, claims the mastery over natural world. Anthropocentrism, or how it looks like now, still has a strong inclination to take favor from the Earth and its resources. However, some theoreticians and policymakers tend to advocate for anthropocentric approach to care about the environment. The way that humanity suffers, being the conscious species, evokes a pattern of expectation that environment and environmental issues may cause harm to the human first.

Thus, people start to have environmental concern guided by their mere fear of natural resources depletion, motivated by matters of their own life and death only. The approach to care about nature from the perspective of caring about own needs, benefits, and costs rather than out of intrinsic respect for nature is called anthropocentric, or humanistic ethics. Among the others, Bryan Norton advocates for that ( Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.410). Moreover, the perception of nature here is still instrumental, no moral duties presupposed, nature is a huge resource, is a means, is a thread.

By contrast, for naturalistic ethics environmental concern is based on the sense of responsibility to Earth and non-human species, value in nature. The two levels of consideration are inherent for naturalistic ethics. First, an animal rights ethic - acting humane to animals, taking their welfare and rights into account, there emerges the issue of justification of this or that pattern of behavior when it comes to animals: vegetarianism, medical experiments, testing cosmetics, etc. Second, there is a level, or branch called “land ethic” proposed by Aldo Leopold, which perceives entire local ecosystems, biotic communities as the foundation of their moral assessments - this way the whole ecosystems, not only animals as such, count morally, and natural ethics comes very close to ecology ( Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.412). The difference between these two trends of thought is significant: whereas a proponent of animal welfare is concerned about a life of every single animal in terms of humanity and literally being humane to it, a proponent of land ethics advocates for more pragmatic approach in treating particular ecosystem and for maintenance of natural balance even at the expense of lives of particular animals if it is needed to control populations. Something has to be sacrificed (Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.412).

The transition of thought towards a concern about non-sentient living nature and non-living nature as such brought about biocentrism. Albert Schweitzer, Paul Taylor elaborated on this. The point is that ethical concern should not be limited to higher animals. As Emily Baker and Michael Richardson put it in `Ethics Applied': “Only a tiny fraction of individual organisms are sentient animals. An animal-based ethics can value everything else only instrumentally. This is little better than humans valuing everything, higher animals included, as their own resources. A deeper respect for life must value directly all living things” (Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.413). The fact that these species and organisms function differently does not lead to the assumption that people should not care. Here comes an appeal to biology, not to psychology, nevertheless, for example, in times of destruction of trees, it might be important to think not about what plants did feel, but what about destroyers did not feel( Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.414).

Even deeper understanding of human duties to nature stems from the idea of interconnectedness with and inherence of human species in natural world. Deep ecology as an ethic, a quite radical branch, holds that “humans, like all other species, are what they are only in their connections with their natural environment, that there is no division between the human and the non-human realms” (Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.415). An individual is being brought up in identification with one's community, but one's personal identity is penetrated with a sense of the place, with nature and environment of the place. Deep ecology insists on this extension as much as on finding a proper place for Homo sapiens in life on the planet and locally.

There is not only anthropocentrism - ecofeminists insist on 'androcentrism'. Ecofeminism says that masculine virtues that seek undertanding, control, dominion had been dominating over feminine virtues, often associated with empathy, participation, sharing, nurturing. From ethical perspective, men gender takes into account duty, obligation, utility, however modern ethics, in search for proper common attitude towards nature, appeals to `feminine' perception. As one of the ecofeminists, Karren J. Warren formulates the idea this way: “Ecological feminism is the position that there are important connections - historical, experiental, symbolic, theoretical - between domination of women and the domination of nature, an understanding of which is crucial to both feminism and environmental ethics” ( Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.429). Therefore, the oppression of women is among other types of discrimination framed in a common ideology along with oppression of nature Brennan, A., & Lo, Y.-S. Environmental Ethics, See: 1. Introduction: The Challenge of Environmental Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-environmental [Accessed on May 10, 2018]. Of course, this problem is beyond gender bias, but concerns humanity as such, and ecofeminists try to correct gender-biased assumptions, even when it comes to popular `feministic' concept of `Mother Earth'( Baker, Richardson, 1999, p.430).

Together with biocentrism and Deep ecology, ecofeminism is attributed to radical branches of ethical thought.

1.2 Visions of Confucianism in terms of environmental ethics

We are shifting to theory application and probable matching between environmental ethics paradigms and Confucianism as an ethical system. Two articles will be considered and compared. First, `The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World' by Tu Weiming, a professor at Harvard University, published in Daedalus miscellany. Second, `Confucian Role-based Ethics and Strong Environmental Ethics' by Anh Tuan Nuyen, an associate professor at National University of Singapore, published in Environmental values.

Tu Weiming touches upon reformation of Confucian thought which became full-blown in the late twentieth century thanks to the thinkers Qian Mu( moved to Taiwan), Tang Junyi (resided in Hong Kong) and Feng Youlan who stayed in Beijing, but rejected his previous commitment to the Marxist notion of struggle against nature(Tu, 2001, p.245). Tu Weiming elaborates on their visions which particularly stress the importance and prospective impact of New Confucianism for the world facing the challenge of a new perception of nature to come.

There are several points leading us to a thought that dimensions the thinkers see and represent in the topic fit into the paradigms we listed in the paragraph above. For example, from Qian's point of view, there is “immanent transcendence” - the mutuality between human heart-and-mind xin ђS and the Way of Heaven, and Confucian `unity of Heaven and Humanity' “VђlЌ‡€к which is not fully ecological, but rather universal. Tang Junyi proceeded with that idea, stating that our daily life is not merely secular, but a response to a cosmological decree, and the patterns of treating body, family, community and Earth are the same, we are all Heaven's partners, participating in cosmic transformation. Thus, Tang's thought predicated on anthropocosmic vision, and we can see that Confucianism in this way has an element of Partnership with Nature. Feng Youlan was inspired by the philosophy of harmony of Zhang Zai (1020 - 1077) and saw `the highest stage of human self- realization in the embodiment of “spirit of Heaven and Earth” (Tu, 2001, p.246). Feng's vision is close to that one of Participation in Nature, unity with it. In his `Western Inscription' Zhang Zai expressed it like this: “Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions” (Tu, 2001, p.243-245).

Qian Mu, Tang Junyi and Feng Youlan based their reasoning on New- Confucian heritage. It is important for us to learn what Wang Yangming (1472-1529) suggested in this regard - it contributes to modern environmental thought. Tu Weiming cites: “The great man regards Heaven and Earth and the myriad things as one body. One regards the world as one family and the country as one person. As to those who make a cleavage between objects and distinguish between self and others, they are small men. That the great man can regard Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things as one body is not because one deliberately wants to do so, but because it is natural to the humane nature of one's mind that one does so” (Tu, 2001, p.246). Such a paradigm is reconsidered to be holistic Confucian humanism, which, furthermore, has much in common with modern land ethics we examined above: not only human community, but also natural world and cosmos were perceived as `home', in complex, with a human as an active participant of all the processes (Tu, 2001).

Anh Tuan Nuyen puts forward Confucian role-based ethics and links it to anthropocentric ethics stressing out that Confucianism values non-human world. He contributes to Onora O'Neil's ideas of an obligations-based anthropocentric ethics stating that Confucian tradition can complement to the world (Western) environmental thought(Nuyen, 2011, p.550). Obligations- based ethics aims to serve as an alternative to the rights-based approach (discussions about what possesses equal right with human for what) (Nuyen, 2011, p.552). It focuses on human duties to the world; therefore, it is strongly anthropocentric, but requires certain sacrifice from people, thus, natural world in some aspects has an independent non-instrumental value which may be preserved at some costs to human interests. At some point, obligations and rights may cross their ways, especially, in legal or institutional matters, but in moral issues it is not necessarily so. For O'Neil, rejecting the commitment to injure is a fundamental human obligation (Nuyen, 2011, p.553).

Anh Tuan Nuyen presumes that Confucian ethics tends to be seen either as virtue-based, or rule-based or role-based one. However, he says, in Confucian ethics an understanding of the self is constituted by the roles determined by the relationships in which a person stands. In their turn, each role has a set of (social) obligations, that is how the Confucian self is defined. Remember a concept of the rectification of names (zhengming) ђі–ј , according to which it is a must to learn the nature of each of the roles, feel and behave like that, be true to the self. Thus, self-cultivation and sincerity is of special importance (Nuyen, 2011, p.556).. How does Anh Tuan Nuyen move to the obligations to non-human nature? The author states that, in contrast to O'Neil theory, role-based obligations go beyond important yet passive rejection of commitment to injure, that they can be extended further, to the commitment to the natural world, to the wider scope of relationships with the world. “The social rite and ritual li —з can be seen as continuous with, or incorporating the ecological li. It is li not to pollute the environment and not to waste natural resources, it is li to respect non-human living things and to protect the ecological systems that support them and so on” (Nuyen, 2011, p.560). The scholar does not dare to assume that this exact vision of the roles was covered in the classic texts, but supposes that can be logically retrieved, and argues for that consistently.

We can summarize, that the scholars, while both coming up with convincing arguments, see two dimensions of Confucian (Neo-Confucian ) ethics that not only can enrich modern environmental theory and practice, but also give us a clue about the Chinese perception of nature. In the transcendent realm, Tu Weiming shows anthropocosmic paradigm of Confucian thought, with a concept of `unity of Heaven and Humanity' as a pillar. This is a perspective of Deep ecology. In the practical realm, Anh Tuan Nuyen penetrates the Confucian roles, self and relationships with the world based on the sense of moral obligation that constitutes one's identity. This is an anthropocentric vision yet this anthropocentrism is weak and deeply concerned (Nuyen, 2011, p.563- 565).

1.3 Perception of nature through the perspective of psychology

The subject of this research is that one environmental psychology deals with. The notions of `environmental psychology', `ecological psychology', `natural psychology' and other mutually-connected disciplines or approaches in psychology, as well as their scope, had been developing for decades in the 20th century. The need of the proper frameworks to be built emerged along with environmental concern shared among activists and scientists in the midst of social and scientific movements of the 1950s-1960s. The initial term `ecological psychology' was explained as “the study of human behavior situated in a specific context / environment” (Barker, 1968). Then the term `environmental psychology' was suggested by Kenneth Craik in 1973 and meant “the study of man - environment relations from a psychological perspective”. Craik emphasized the multidisciplinary status of this study. Twenty years later, when `green' inclination gathered head, new worldviews occurred, and new ways of managing resources were needed, it was postulated that `green psychology' became a shift to `the pro- ecological interest and the green'. In 1995 Daniel Stokols articulated the notion of environmental psychology in whole as “a part of a multidisciplinary field of environment and behavior, with the common focus on people's relationships with their sociophysical [ social and physical] surroundings”. Another branch, sometimes distinguished from the core, yet rather incorporated into the field, is natural psychology. Robert Gifford suggested it as “a branch of environmental psychology in which the scientific study of person-nature transactions is pursued”. At the same time, there is also a realm of ecopsychology stemming from the understanding that person-nature transactions may be seen like other significant, personal relationships Based on the materials for the HSE elective course “Environmental Psychology” (author - S. Nartova - Bochaver, Doctor of Psychological sciences).

In the 1970s the earliest environmental attitudes scales were developed, among which was the most frequently used questionnaire suggested by Riley Dunlap and K.D. Van Liere at Washington State University in 1978. It was a sole brand-new instrument of assessment introducing the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP scale) presenting the emerging trend of thought that challenged long-lasting anthropocentrism. The New Environmental Paradigm scale measured the degree to which respondents believe that Earth is sacred and deserves protection for its own sake( Anderson, 2011, p.260). The fifteen statements, or items, it contains are meant to represent anthropocentric and ecocentric views respectively. We use this scale while being fully aware of its limitations. The point is that the NEP scale is a base, a foundation for the rest of proceeding works, but it does not deal with a worldview directly, it is more focused of human's awareness of the consequences of harming the natural environment Wesley P. Schultz, “The Structure of Environmental Concern: Concern for Self, Other People, and the Biosphere,” Journal of Environmental Psychology 21 (2001): 331. . It does not cover semi-shades of ecocentrism, displays polarized, two-sided statements which primarily appeal to ratio. Despite this 'shortcomings', considering inevitable component of environmental awareness in the complex issue of modern perception of nature, we apply the NEP scale, this the most popular conceptualization of ecological worldviews (two major ones) for the simple reason to check out: do the Chinese care? The NEP items will be provided in Chapter 2.

Other relevant questionnaires include a variety of subjects: environmental worry (Bowler & Schwarzer, 1991), environmental pessimism (Schahn & Holzer, 1990; Sohr, 1994), types of environmentalism (Banerjee & McKeage, 1994), preservation and utilization (Milfont and Duckitt, 2004), connectedness to nature (the CNS scale by Mayer and Frantz, 2004), environmental attitudes (the EAS scale by Thompson and Barton, 1994), human/nature relations ( the 4-scaled HaN questionnaire elaborated collectively in the Netherlands), environmental identity (the EID scale by Clayton, 2003) (Clayton,ed., 2012,p. 93- 98)

The two latter questionnaires are of considerable interest to us. We are going to use directly the environmental identity scale designed by an American scientist Susan Clayton, who also edited the Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology. Obviously, her scale deals with a personal attitude comprised of values and emotional feedback, in the same time it is claimed to be highly-relevant for assessment of environmental behavior. We used not all of the items from the shorten scale (11 items), basing this selection on one's own vision that some of them items cannot reach the Chinese reality (for instance, when they concern particularly Western camping on weekends). Despite this, in our psychometric output the Cronbach alpha (the estimation of inner reliability of the figures) is 0,8 (the ideal maximum is 1), thus, we still have a reliable data in the quantitative part of the research.

The HaN scale was developed in the Dutch context, it is profound indeed but compared to Dunlap's and Clayton's scales, it is not so well-known, not commonly used, perhaps because of its designation for interviewing rather than for a quantitative research. Due to this reason and the reason that the questionnaire would presuppose complexity of following psychometric analysis, we do not use it in our quantitative research, but we may appeal to it for the content analysis in Chapter 3. Its advantage is a well-arranged scale divided into four distinctive tiers: mastery over nature, stewardship of nature, partnership with nature, and participation in nature. These tiers specify and contribute to paradigms of environmental philosophy we described above. We try to employ these categories in content analysis by matching the themes underlying in messages of the Chinese Internet users with each suggested tier of thinking. First three in each of the tiers below represent the core of each relationship.



Table I - The HaN scale per Human-Nature relationship

Source: De Groot, M.,et al.

Basically, mastery over nature signifies anthropocentrism. Stewardship of nature stands closer to humanistic ethics but includes care and being a part of the whole like a father's role in a patriarchic family (a part of a family that stands upper than the rest); religious concepts often associated with stewardship in the Western tradition were excluded from the scale. Partnership with nature emphasizes not hierarchical, but fully equal relationship. Participation in nature focuses on the feeling of connectedness and corresponds with deep ecology.

In environmental humanities nature tends to be a construction, indeed, a scientific construction. The issue of either intrinsic or inherent value of nature is a construction which conceptualizes but hardly reaches the reality. The whole this survey reflects an attempt of the researcher to look at the subject as apart from social constructionism, a pure realm of theoretical ideas as much as it is possible for social research. We seek peculiarities in vision and advocate for more empirical methods in this field. Mirjam de Groot, Martin Drenthen, and Wouter T. de Groot pointed out the following issues when it comes to the West and Western scientific discourse.

“Nobody really questioned to what extent the image of mastery over nature as the predominant Western world view would actually be true. Does the public in Western societies really adhere to that image? That is one of the questions we address here, based on a survey in Western Europe. As it shows, the primary answer is that in people's own “folk philosophy,” mastery over nature is strongly rejected and that other, much more ecocentric visions in fact predominate--visions that show a remarkable congruence with notions from academic environmental ethics. We regard these outcomes as highly relevant for environmental philosophy. First, insight in the prevailing Western world views would prevent (further) unnecessary speculation on this issue. Further, it may be good for environmental philosophers to know how their concepts and debates relate to those held in society. Are we flogging an empirically dead horse, or reworking a generally held mainstream image? Are we exploring issues that are quite new compared to prevailing public visions, or the reverse, do we fail to pay attention to ethically relevant concepts that live in the public mind? To take one example, empirical studies showed that public opinion massively subscribes to the idea of the intrinsic value of nature. What should environmental philosophy now think of its own tendency to view intrinsic value as an inherently problematic concept? We are far from suggesting that philosophical issues can be democratically decided upon, but we do contend that awareness of public visions is good for philosophy” (De Groot, Drenthen, De Groot, 2011, p.25).



2. The Chinese case: what a mini-survey says

Despite the limited capacities to reach broader and bigger groups of respondents, this mini-survey can have a valuable impact as it contains 46 questions of various types and thus brings a significant scope of data to consider.

2.1 Methodology

The online questionnaire was prepared in Chinese, some questions were invented originally, the rest constitute two separate parts based on two scales, and they were translated from English to Chinese by the researcher. The Chinese language was the only one option. The questionnaire has been spread among the potential respondents by means of social networks. The results and graphs were translated from Chinese into English. The psychometric analysis was conducted to verify the research.

Participants

There are 32 people who participated in this survey. The number of female respondents prevails (17 answers).



The participants are predominantly the youth and of similar higher educational background what makes our survey focused on the particular social group.

There were three types of questions we suggested our respondents to answer. First, single choice questions.

1) Gender

2) Age (about 20 y/o., 21-25 y/o., 26-30 y/o, 31 -35 y/o, 36- 45 y/o, 45 y/o and above)

3) Education level (secondary school; secondary specialized (technical) school; specialized college; Bachelor of Arts; Master or equivalent). The terminology in English is

6) How far is the nearest park or a scenic spot away from your home? (available to walk to; takes about an hour by car; takes more than two hours by car)

8) Do you have pets or houseplants? (I have a pet/pets; I have some houseplant/ houseplants; I have both; I do not have any kind)

9) How often do you go outdoors for a rest? (almost every day; twice a week; twice a month nearly; once a month; every half year; usually I do not go)

11) Do you participate in environmental protection activities? (time after time; no, I do not; would like to try)

40) Have you ever gone abroad? (no, I have not; yes, I have; I do it on regular basis; I live abroad)

Second, short free text questions as follows.

4) What province / autonomous region / municipality directly under the central government are you from?

5) Do you feel your homeland is beautiful or not? Why? What features does it have?

7) Please, describe the environment you live in

10) Are you a member of any environmental organization? If so, what is it? (Non-obligatory question)

12) Do you know what environmental education is?

13) In your opinion, do Chinese education system and media promote sustainable development?

41) What, do you think, symbolizes Chinese nature?

42) How would you estimate the influence of Buddhism or Taoism on your perception of nature?

Third, the NEP fifteen statements which were elaborated by the US environmental sociologist Riley Dunlap and his followers in the scientific framework of the New Ecological Paradigm. We already told about it above. The fifteen items suppose reactions ranging like “strongly agree”, “agree”, “unsure”, “disagree”, “strongly disagree”.

Table II - New Environmental Paradigm items

1. We are approaching the limit of the number of people the Earth can support.
2. Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs.
3. When humans interfere with nature it often produces disastrous consequences.
4. Human ingenuity will insure that we do not make the Earth unlivable.
5. Humans are seriously abusing the environment.
6. The Earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them.
7. Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist.
8. The balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern industrial nations.
9. Despite our special abilities, humans are still subject to the laws of nature.
10. The so-called “ecological crisis” facing humankind has been greatly exaggerated.
11. The Earth is like a spaceship with very limited room and resources.
12. Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature.
13. The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset.
14. Humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to control it.
15. If things continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major ecological catastrophe.

Source: Dunlap et al. (2000).

Also, we added some statements from the Environmental Identity Scale needed to be grated from 1 to 5 where 1 (one sign of a smiley) means "not at all true for me" and 5 (five signs of smileys) stands for "completely true for me". In some cases, the statements were revised in their wording to sound more comprehensible in Chinese.

29) “I feel myself inseparable from nature”.

30) “If I had enough time or money, I would certainly devote some of it to working for environmental causes”.

31) “When I am upset or stressed, I can feel better by spending some time outdoors "communing with nature”.

32) “Living near wildlife (outdoors) is important to me; I would not want to live in a city all the time”.

33) “I believe that a lot of modern social problems can be solved by our returning to country life where people live in harmony with nature”.

34) “I feel that I have a lot in common with other species”.

35) “Learning about the natural world should be an important part of every child's upbringing”.

36) “Sometimes I feel like parts of nature -- wind, or storms, or mountains -- have a personality of their own”.

37) “I have never seen a work of art that is as beautiful as a work of nature, like a sunset or a mountain range”.

38) “My own interests usually seem to coincide with the position advocated by environmentalists”.

39) “Nature makes me feel joyful” .

2.2 Limitations

The embedded practical limitation was the option “unsure” in the block of the NEP items and the issue of possible, realistic amount of questions to be both sufficient for the survey and enough for respondents not to get tired while filling it. It is quite probable that the respondents could have felt our `expectations' and transform their answers into more environmentally conscious ones, both in positive, self- reestablishing way and in negative ways, i.e. representing themselves as more focused on the harm. However, we tried to minimize it, as the respondents are unfamiliar people, and the questionnaire does not incline them to be concerned in that way. The serious limitation was the absence of questions with visual materials to observe visual, aesthetic perception as well as questions about the extent to what the Chinese feel sympathy for other species. From the theoretical point of view, the NEP scale is often criticized for the lack of precise attention to a human/nature relationship , only two-sided vision with no further distinction of the degrees of ecocentrism. However, these theoretical constructions are grounded in the western range of ideals and practices. We presuppose another perspective in China, or at least we can try to implement the rest of the degrees for content analysis of Weibo publications later.

Specifically, like many scholars do, we put attention to the coexistence of Buddhism and Taoism in China and their expected impact in this survey. However, the results of the survey are quite controversial in this sense. Another point is locality, strong local culture in China and self-attribution of the Chinese to the native landscape and scene overall. The results of the survey support this expectation (which is more than this; it is a well-recognized statement based on the accumulated knowledge of sinology).

2.3 Results

We will make an observational review first, then proceed with metrics which is necessary for a modern psychological or sociological scientific research. We divided some of the results - the most peculiar ones - into three major parts where corresponding graphs are grouped together. First, those ones which lead us to rather strong ecocentric, or concerned public opinion. Generally, the whole picture is like this. Second, here come the most challenging items, which bring controversy and things to consider. Finally, we give a piece of statistics gained from quantitative content analysis.

Part I

Surprisingly, according to the figures, a fourth of the respondents do participate in environmental activities. More than a half expresses such a desire.

Almost 80 percent of the respondents live in leafy districts or not so far away from recreation zone. It may indicate the implementation of so called `greenization' policy.



One of the most astonishing numbers expressing support.

Well-grounded certainty that nature is fragile indeed.



The approximate cumulative level of environmental awareness is about 70 percent. Still, 15 percent think that the extent of the crisis is exaggerated in someone's favor. 

We tend to see the numbers above as a reflection of the Chinese tradition of thought, both cosmological, metaphysical, and social.



Part II Points of frustration and paradox

These graphs nevertheless represent the existing inclination to use nature, some signs of consumerism.



From the block of the more personalized Environmental Identity Scale we can derive such an interesting result concerning the sense of connectedness.



The rate of feeling of connectedness to nature in general (perhaps, aesthetically, psychologically and in other `human' aspects) is significantly bigger than the rate of perceived connectedness with other species.

The results gained from the block of Environmental Identity Scale will be calculated and examined separately in the next paragraph.

Part III

As to some of the features derived from the primary quantitative content analysis, it is rather significant that 5 people came from the places recognized in China as a sanctuary, the most beautiful `Eastern Venice' Suzhou area, or other places of cultural or natural heritage. Describing their home area, at least 4 people mentioned wildlife there, 3 respondents pointed out some negative effects on nature caused by construction. The landscape descriptions include so beloved mountains (as well as flatlands), the sea, and rivers, lakes too. Moreover, mentions of water as a beautiful characteristic of the environment prevail. Two people said nothing about environment of their home area, but mentioned its status of the capital or `the world factory' respectively.

Two people expressed their interest in participation in an environmental organization, one respondent was skeptical about the honesty of such organization, but said that one would like to find a proper field of work to commit to. The others left the question with no answer. As to the question of what environmental education is, 17 people state that they know about it, 6 people do not know, one person expressed a guess about it, 5 respondents were not sure.

Nine people, almost a third of the respondents, said that they do not practice Buddhism or Taoism and do not see any influence of the beliefs on their perception. One person denoted the concept `action through inaction' ќЩОЄ¶шЦО, three people mentioned `everything has a spirit' –њ•ЁЉF—L? ( an authorized translation), two people specified their answers with the Confucian concept `unity of Heaven and Humanity' we are already familiar with, the same number denoted `obedience to natural law' ‘ёЏdЋ©‘R№жВЙ and ` rejecting commitment to injure' ( in slightly different formulations).

2.4 Specialized quantitative data

In order to match the requirements of a modern psychological and social study, we conduct a statistical analysis by means of SPSS software and its set up calculations. Below is the data structured in tables describing the results from the Environmental Identity Scale - the second part of the questionnaire (remember that we altered it, we did not include some of the items assuming that they do not meet the Chinese reality).

Table III. Preferences of the audience rest outdoors

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	usually don't	5	15,6	15,6	15,6
	every half year	9	28,1	28,1	43,8
	once a month	7	21,9	21,9	65,6
	twice a month nearly	7	21,9	21,9	87,5
	twice a week	3	9,4	9,4	96,9
	almost every day	1	3,1	3,1	100,0
	Total	32	100,0	100,0

For the analysis, we had to find the degree of inner consistency and reliability of the scale; what trends of reply are grounded in the scope of answers or there are none of them; if they exist, then what is the coefficient of their correlation with each other, how they are represented in male and female groups.

The following table shows accumulated figures from the first part of the questionnaire (questions 4 What place are you from? 8 Do you have pets or houseplants? 9 How often do you go outdoors for a rest?).

origin
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	coast	12	37,5	37,5	37,5
	continental	3	9,4	9,4	46,9
	western part	6	18,8	18,8	65,6
	north-east	8	25,0	25,0	90,6
	central city	3	9,4	9,4	100,0
	Total	32	100,0	100,0

Cities and provinces the respondents represent were grouped by regions.

pets and plants
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	no at all	3	9,4	9,4	9,4
	a pet	2	6,3	6,3	15,6
	a plant

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