A Global Perspective on Cultural diversity in Chinese Western Regions:A New Understanding of China's Center-Periphery Status and Function

During the process of globalization,localism and internationalism can reinforce each other. It sometimes happens that according to the context taken into consideration some cultures can match well while some others clash. That is to say on one side,globalization produces the homogenization of cultural features and people's perception of the world; but on the other,it can also have a positive influence on cultural systems making them develop more diversified and pluralized form of coexistence. These are the two contradictory trends of globalization. Cross-cultural and deconstructionist theories could work as good methodological instruments to solve the inner contradictions of globalization. These two models put emphasis respectively on:horizontal relations the former,as it involves relations between different cultural systems; vertical relations the latter,as it deals with relations between different subcultures within the same cultural system. This paper aims to analyze Chinese western regions cultural diversity taking the models suggested above as reference,paying particular attention to what sort of problems the process of globalization here described can bring to identity-shaping actions among Chinese in combination also to the idea the West developed about China itself across the centuries.