Studies of cultural identification in Chinese mainland are still in the stage of exploration, and the pioneer scholar, Zheng Xiaoyun, who has studied since an earlier time and put forward the idea of cultural identification regards it as people’s tendentious common views and ratifications towards culture (Wang Zhenfang, Liang Liping, 2003: 24). Besides, some scholars hold the view that the term “cultural identification” refers to people’s perception and affiliation towards a certain culture, which is not only a psychological disposition, but also a practice process. “Rather than a still or accomplished status, cultural identification is actually a dynamic and open process, which is influenced by historical reasons and is different from person to person. That is to say, cultural identification sees a tendency of persification” (Huang Fang, 2011: 6). It is a fact that cultural identification and cultural identity crisis supplement each other, which means the loss of culture identity of both inpidual and community. In China, such loss of identity started in modern times. On the one hand, Chinese people gradually accept western values. On the other hand, historical culture and humanist tradition lie in Chinese people’s hearts deeply. The paradox exists because of the lack of acknowledge and understanding towards ‘the past’, as well as the lack of emotional supports towards realistic value (Fan Juan, 2009: 4-7). 

Although the proper definition towards cultural identification differs in details, it can be admitted that cultural identification is a dynamic process which could be established through proper education. According to above-mentioned definitions, it can be concluded that modelling traditional cultural atmosphere since primary-school-stage is of great significance for developing students’ identification to Chinese traditional culture. As a result, exploring the situations and results of traditional culture education in today’s primary and secondary schools is the first step of improvement.

1.2 Literature Review 

1.2.1 Chinese Traditional Culture

The original of the term “culture” comes from the Latin word cultura or cultus. Later the word culture absorbed a group of related meanings: training, adornment, fostering, worship and so on. “From its root meaning of an activity, culture became transformed into a condition, a state of being cultivated. However, what is profound about ‘culture’ is that it is an elastic, dynamic concept that takes on different shades of meaning” (Chen Jun, 2008: 5).

What is culture? Culture is an enigma. The famous British historian and anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor gave a simple definition towards culture in his work Primitive Culture: “culture refers to all the lifestyles in any society.” It includes spiritual lifestyles and material lifestyles. The former contains belief structure, value structure and normative structure, while the latter contains various practical lifestyles such as clothing, eating, living, entertaining, and so on (Wang Yunquan, 2011: 2). “Tylor’s famous definition of culture can be summarized into two points: first, culture is a kind of omniscient knowledge, beliefs and ideas, but ‘knowledge’ is used here in a narrower sense, referring to the deposit of the understanding of social conventions and customs toward each other (such as experiences, rules, and social roles), and concepts of the universe, and the views of the relations between man and nature; second, culture is so encompassing and inclusive that it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and determines or influences all of man’s behaviours, both verbal and nonverbal. In a word, it embraces all aspects of human life” (Chen Jun, 2008: 6-7).

According to Chen Jun, culture can be generally pided into two perspectives: “culture as knowledge and culture as skill. The former shows that culture is the combination of knowledge, experience, beliefs and every concept of human soul realizing that culture is pure entity of concepts in the human mind, and it combines visible and invisible things around us. The latter shows that culture consists of the models people use to understand the world to guide their own behaviour based on the generally accepted idea that values guides people’s behaviour” (Chen Jun, 2008: 8).