Humanistic Psychology In China

Summary: This article reviews the development of humanistic psychology in China since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1980,including the activities of Lin Fang, Liu xiao-feng, Chen Wei-zheng, Chen Zhong-geng, Fang Yuan-chu, Li Guang-wei, Li Wen-tian, Li Zheng-tian, Ma Yu-tian,Qu Wei,ShaoWei,Shong Shu-wei,Wang Deng-feng,Wang Xiao-ping,Wu Xiao-feng,Yu Yang,Zhang Qi-ming,ZhangYi-bing,and the author.Translations of Maslow,Rogers,May,Fromm,and others were published in large editions,original works were written,courses were taught,radio programs broadcast,newspaper articles published,research undertaken,and personality theories debated.Through 1989 Maslow's book sold 557,900 copies.Two organizations were founded,the Guangzhou Institute of Humanistic Psychology and the Beijing Research Association of Healthy Personalities.The events of June 1989 slowed these developments,but they are still continuing and have important implications for the future of China.

Part One

The Disseminating of Humanistic Psychology Into China

In the 1960s and 1970s,American humanistic psychology was established and its influence spread.During the same period,however,China got bogged down in years of political chaos.Nearly all western cultures were regarded as tainted with capitalist ideology and so were resisted and criticized.Consequently,humanistic psychology was also rejected in China.
When the"Cultural Revolution"was put to an end in 1980,some Chinese publications began to introduce some western theories about management.Maslow's theories about need levels were mentioned when those publications discussed motivation theory.
In 1979,Lin Fang,the former editor of Workers's Daily,was transferred into the Department of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;in 1981 he submitted a paper that introduced American humanistic psychology,especially studies by Maslow and Rogers,at an academic meeting held in Chongqing.In November 1981, "A Theory of Human Motivation,"chapter 4 of Maslow's Motivation and Personality,was published in a magezine called Econemic Management.The traslators were Chen Bin-quen and Gao Wen-hao.
From 1983 to 1985,Lin Fang,Xu Jin-sheng,and others published some monographs and treatises on humanistic psychology in Acta Psychologica Sinica ,the most prestigious journal of psychology in China,and Psychology Trends,including"Marxism and Humanistic Psychology"and"Comments on Western Humanistic Psychology"by Lin Fang,"Instinctoid-A Key Concept of Maslow's Need Level Theory"by Xu Jin-sheng,and "Five Chief Arguments about Humanistic Psychology"by John Shaffer,translated by Xu Jin-sheng.
Due to China's political and social environment,the dissemination of humanistic psychology into China aroused debates and arguments from the very beginning.Articles appeared driticizing humanistic psychology using Marxist viewpoints. Because the dissemination began with Maslow,his ideas accordingly became the first target.In 1983,a whole page in Workers' Daily featured an article criticizing Maslow's psychology for trying to rescue capitalism and obscure its class contradictions.

Maslow's need level theory did not and could not either reveal thoroughly and correctly the basic needs of the working class under the capitalist system.What is the basic need of the working class under the capitalist system?It is to overthrow the capitalist labor system.(Chen Jin-yu,1983)

In early 1984,Hu Qiao-mu ,a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,published a book entitled On Humanism and the Alienation Problem,in which he called for an attack on "bourgeois humanism"and the promotion of "socialist humanism."In China, academic research has been strongly influenced by political climates.The attitude of the government,therefore, impeded the spread of Western schools of thought, including humanistic psychology.When humanistic psychology was criticized,it had hardly been introduced to the Chinese.Those who launched the attack seemed not to have studied their target of attack carefully.For example,one article made a clear point that "On the whole and basically we can't accept Maslow's need theory.Self-designing and self-actualizing can't make people needed by our society"(Chen Pei-lin,1984,p.6).In this 10-page article,17 quotations were used. Of these quotations,14 were from The Collected Works of Marx and Engels,one from The Selected Works of Mao Ze Dong, one (by Piterroph) from General Psychology,and only one from A Theory of Human Motivation,translated by Chen Bin-quen and Gao Wen-hao.
Even the former head of the Department of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Xu Lian-chang,while summarizing the criticisms of Maslow's need level theory by China's learned circle,put forward a compromise viewpoint that criticized but did not negate Maslow completely.

What the learned circle criticizes Maslow for is maily the predominant need in his theory-for self-actualization-because this need is based on individuals.It emphasizes giving rein to self potentials.It cannot include higher social needs such as serving the people or sacrificing individual benefits for the socialist cause.This criticism has some justification,but Maslow's viewpoints offered some valuable information.We cannot wipe them all out.(Xu Lian-Chang,1986,p.37)

These comments wer obviously a political criticism,not a real academic discussion.Therefore,Xu Jin-sheng published his long monograph, "Talking about Maslow's Need Level Theory" in Guangming Daily in 1986.This article refuted the above statement and cleared up some distortion.It stated:

Psychology studies psychological processed such as sensation,awareness and emotions etc. Just as what psychology studies is not merely the psychological process of a certain class or a certain individual specifically, but the commonly-possessed universal psychological process possessed by human beings, the needs which Maslow's need level theory studies are not the needs of a certain class or a certain individual either. They are the needs which human beings commonly express. If we require that a psychologist discover a need which is supposedly specifically that of the working class under the capitalist system,we will practically confuse the purposes of both political theory and psychology study.(Xu Jin-sheng,December 22,1986,Guangming Daily,p.3)

This monograph also pointed out the difference between basic needs and motivation. Basic needs are a potential of the subconscious, which is "instinctoid," while motivation is realized in specific social environments.
As a potential or orientation,self-actualization is innate,but as a specific motivation or "conscious desire," it is acquired in social contexts. Another point of this monograph concerns the reason for the slowness in Chinese social development over a long period of time.Viewed from the perspective of motivation structure, an important reason is that the general Chinese personality level remained at lower level needs (e.g.,belonging), and the potentials of self-esteem and self-actualization sere not realized. As Guangming Daily is a national newspaper with a large circulation,this monograph had great influence at that time.
Although the political climate in China was still unfavorable for academic studies, from 1984 some humanistic psychology enthusiasts began to get in contact with each other. They got together and decided to publish a collection of humanistic psychology translations in order to extend the influence of humanistic psychology.In 1987,this collection was published under the title of Man's Potentialities and Value.Lin Fang was the chief editor.The main translators were Liu Xiao-feng,Chen Wei-zheng, and Xu Jin-sheng. The first edition was 30,000, and the book reached 125,900 by 1989.
In 1987, a collection of translations for introducing Maslow was published under the title Self-Actualizing People.Xu Jin-sheng was the chief editor and translator.The first edition was 100,000. It was regarded as one of the most popular books by America's Overseas Chinese Daily and China's magazine Shu Lin(Book Forest).
In 1987,three important books of Maslow's were translated and published in China.One was Motivation and Personality, its chief translator Xu Jin-sheng. The first edition reached 102,000.An other was Toward a Psychology of Being.Li Wen-tian was the translator. The first edition was 40,000. Another was Further Reaches of Human Nature.Lin Fang was the translator. The first edition was 80,000.
From 1983,enthusiasm developed in China toward western academic trends of thought , producing a "Sartre Craze," a "Freud Craze," and a "Nietzsche Craze." From 1987,China's "Humanistic Pshochology Craze," especially its "Maslow Craze," gradually took shape ,and through 1989 Maslow's books sold 557,900 copies.
In 1988, the Healthy Personality Series of which Xu Jin-sheng was the chief editor began to be published at the Worker's Publishing House and the Beijing University Press. The publications were as follows:

Toward the New World of Personality-Probing into Healthy Personality(treatise by Xu Jin-sheng; 22,000 copies)
Healthy Personality(by jourard, translated by Xu Jin-sheng and others; 11,000 copies)
The Psychology of Science(by A.H.Maslow,translated by Shao Wei and others; 8,000 copies)
Fully Human,Fully Alive(by Jonh Powells, translated by Wu Xiao-feng and others;20,000 copies)

After the June 4 , 1989 event ,the series reached a standstill.From 1991,China's political situation turned better, and it seemed possible to published the series again.But then the whole publishing business fell into a depression. The publishing houses now require a subsidy that the editors cannot afford, so the eight other completed books cannot be published yet.
From 1987 to 1989, Rollo May's Love and Will,Carl Rogers's Concultation and Psychological Treatment, and Fromm's Man for Himself,Beyond the Chains of Illusion ,and The Art of loving were published at different publishing houses.
At the end of 1989,Heart's Perplexity and Self-Help by Lin Fang was published. This was a book written by a Chinese scholar who had commented thoroughly about humanistic psychology. It offered rich information and for the first time introduced Transpersonal Psychology. But because it was the time just after the June 4 event ,the editon was only 800.
In 1991,Li Guang-wei published his book The Dream of the Fourth Generation.The edition was 6,750.Zhang Yi-bing published his book, The Fifth Generation of Western Humanistic Psychology.The edition was 3,000. Both of these books aimed at elucidating the significance of humanistic psychology.
In 1992, Yu Yang published his book The Y Structure of Human Nature in an edition of 3,000. The author held that the quintessence of humanism is that is understands and supports the best aspects of human behavior. The bookd criticized Maslow's need level theory and put forward another need theory.

Part Two

The Influence of Humanistic Psychology in China

The influence of humanistic psychology on the field of psychology in China is very small, and it can hardly be used in any formal research project. There were two major reasons: First, from 1949 to befor the Cultural Revolution, China's psychology had been greatly influenced by that of the former Soviet Union. Pavlov's theories had been one-sidedly emphasized. Around the Cultural Revolution psychology research was allowed to resume, it emphasized experimental behaviorism. Second ,in China, due to the long domination of the Left trend on the academic field ,humanitarianism had been criticized. It had been regarded as the "bourgeois theory of human nature," "revisionism," and so on. Researchers sere all afraid of being suspected of going in for "liberalization." At the Department of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences ,Lin Fang was the only person to take humanistic psychology as his major. As a result he was uinfairly treated in his professional career.
The influence of humanistic psychology in China mainly appeared as part of the ideology liberation campaign, which arose after the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese accepted the influence of humanistic psychology to a great extent as a concept of value and an outlook on life. Under the influence of passive parts of China's traditional culture and under the control of cultural autocracy after 1949, the personality of the Chinese had been in the state of shrinking .They possessed the malady of sticking to old ways and resigning themselves to adversity. The disseminating of humanistic psychology played a role of enlightenment. It awakened people to a sense of subject. For example ,Maslow's psychology makes people realize that everybody possessed basic needs. The gratification of basic needs is viewed as a human right that in endowed by nature and cannot be deprived. This ideology liberation took place first among intellectuals and college students. The following numbers can show the popularity of humanistic psychology among college ane university students.
In 1990, Yang Hui-zhu and colleagues made a random sampling inverstigation among students at 13 universities.They handed out 2,000 questionnaires and got back 1,862 responses for a response rate of 93.1%. The researchers listed 22 "representative western academic books." Among the first 10 popular books ,there were 2 concering Maslow's psychology:The Third Force:Maslow's psychology(by Frank Goble, translated by Lu Ming and others ) and Self-Actualizing People.Students responded as follows:

The Third Force:Maslow's psychology
Read carefully:7.3%
Read generally:19.1%
Self-Actualizing People
Read carefully:6.1%
Read generally:13.2%

The Track of Different Scholls of Thought,by Liu Xiang-ping, is a book about the influence of Western ideology upon Chinese university students. In discussing the Maslow Craze ,he wrote:

A Xinhua bookstore in a capital city in the South laid in 2,000 copies of Motivation and Personality and sold them out within less than 3 weeks. At colleges and universities many students who had failed to get the book were trying everywhere in order to buy it. At one time on the campuses of colleges and universities many students who had failed to get the book were trying everywhere in order to buy it .At one time on the campuses of colleages and universities the name of Maslow became quite popular and in some classes 2/3 of the students possessed at least on book by Maslow. According to a survery by Northeastern Normal University, Sellf-Actualizing People by Maslow was among the books borrowed and read the widest by the students.
Compared with the "Nietzsche Craze" and other Western ideology crazes, the "Maslow Craze"enjoys more individual spontaneity and less flowing the general trend. What is interesting is that almost at the same time when the "Maslow Craze" grew hotter and hotter, the "Freud Craze"got colder and colder. Unitl 1988,books by Freud were seriously overstocked in bookstores and Creation and Unconsciousness was wellilng at book-stands at a discount. The reason why the "Maslow Craze" prevails over those on many other Western thoughts lies in that while the "Nietzsche Craze," "Sartre Craze," and "Freud Craze"show more or less pessimism about philoshophy of life , Maslow shows optimism about human existence and has full confidence in human future.(Liu Xiang-ping,1991,p.137)
Another characteristic of humanistic psychology in China has been its wide impact on literature and art.Take the instance of The Theory of Subject published by Liu Zhai-fu in the field of literary theory.It was obviously developed after the author had accepted the influence of Maslow's psychology.This theory evoked great repercussions in the field of literature.In the field of China's literature and art ,many artists,writers,and aestheticians have read books on humanistic psychology.
The influence of humanistic psychology is extensive.The book An Introduction to the Famous Books on Psychology of the West published in October 1991,edited by Ma Wen-ju and others,is a reference book for the teaching of social science of China's colleges and universities.In it 24 books by 23 psychologists are listed,beginning with Willhelm Wundt(1832-1920),Five books by four humanistic psychologists(Maslow, Rogers, Fromm, and May) are introduced among the 24 books,Throughout the book,Maslow was the only psychologist who had two books mentioned:Motivation and Personality and Toward the Psychology of Being.
Another two events that show the influence of humanistic psychology in China are the establishment of China's two institutions of research on humanistic psychology,In 1986,Guangzhou,China's Institute of Humanistic Psychology,announced its founding.The president of the institute was Li Zheng-tian,who was a teacher of Guangzhou Art Institue.The membership was over 60.The members were mainly from the learned circle,including teachers of colleges and universities,scientific research personel,artist,and writers.The large activities organized by the institute were two academic meetings:"Discussion about the Psychological Renewal of Countrymen"and "Discussion about the Psychological Similarities and Differences between the Chinese across the Straits."The role of the institute was mainly in having pushed forward the introspection and study on the nationality of the Chinese,and accelerating the spreading of humanistic psychology in the art circle.The institute announced its disbanding before the event of June 4,1989.
In 1988,Xu Jin-sheng,Qu Wei,Zhang Qi-ming,Wang Xiao-ping,and some other people won the support of some enlightened leaders in the field of social science in Beijing and set up the Beijing Research Association of Healthy Personalities(BRAHP).The association was attached to the learned society of social science of Beijing.It was a second-class association under the Beijing Federation of Social Science.President of the Association was Fang Yuan-chu.Vice presidents were three:Ma Yu-tian,Shong Shu-wei,and Xu Jin-sheng(also concurrently secretary-general).The membership was 130(including 50 outside of Beijing).The association stated its aim as to "Unite with those interested in the problems,assist China's realization of modernizations and enhance the quality of the Chinese."The association has run two sessions of a nation wide training class,"Theory of Humanistic Psychology and Psychological Counseling."The classes invited experts and scholars in Beijing to give lectures.Two hundred persons came from all parts of the country to Beijing for study.
The association has also held six academic discussions,such as "The Present Personality State and Its Development in the Chinese,""The Significance of Maslow's Psychology for the Present China,"and so on.Eleven academic reports were held,such as "The Present State of the Study of Personality Theory and Its Prospect Abroad,""An Introduction to the Theory of Psychological Therapy,""Man's Problems in the Course of China's Modernization,"and so on.BRAHP also received attention in national newspapers such as Guangming Daily,Chinese Youth,The Chinese Culture,and The Chinese Woman.
After the June 4,1989 event,the association stopped its activities because of the change of the political climate.Some members were criticized openly or covertly.In the instance of Xu Jin-sheng,his introduction to Maslow's psychology of self-actualization was criticized as having poisoned young people and accelerated the overwhelming liberalization trend.Xu Jin-sheng's treatise Towards the New World of Personality-Probing into Healthy Personality was censured as an attack that socialism is unfavorable for man's growth in the name of talking about healthy personality.After Deng Xiao-ping made his speech on his inspection of the south in early 1992,China's political situation turned better and the association began to resume its activities.But because of shortage of funds,it is not as active as before.Financial support from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences has been cut off since 1989.
In summer,1993,BRAHP and Beijing People's Radio Station launched a radio program,"Healthy Personalities and Life."During the period of one month,50 minutes a day,Xu Jin-sheng and his colleagues talked about and discussed with the listeners theories of humanistic psychology.This program related the theories with specific aspects of people's life and was done in a way that the public could easily understand.A survey shows that it had a listening audience as large as 500,000.
In December,1993,BRAHP held a discussion entitled "Mao Tze-tung's Personality."Participants made analyses of Mao's personality by examining his political activities.This event was reported by China Youth Daily.
In July,1994,BRAHP held a discussion entitled "Mystery of Gu Cheng's Suicide."Gu Cheng was a famous Chinese poet.In October,1993,he killed his wife and then committed suicide on a small island of New Zealand where they resided.While the death of Gu Cheng became a heated topic in China,the participants of the discussion analyzed his personality from the perspective of humanistic psychology.
From 1986,psychological consultation became popular in China.Nowadays in wany major cities there are professional or nonprofessional insititutions.Of all the methods,Roggers's clientcentered therapy enjoys a great reputation.In the book Psychological Theray and Consultation by Chen Zhong-geng published in Monographs on this therapy appear in magazines from time to time.Based on Roggers's therapy combined with the situation of China,Wang Deng-feng worked out his "Self-Consistency Scale"in 1992.In China's colleges and universities in which there are departments of psychology,a course on personality psychology is generally given and humanistic psychology is included.
The expansion of humanistic psychology in China is also evident in the numbers below:Material Compilation,published by People's University of China,is an authoritative,widely distributed reference publication,It selects and reprints articles taken from newspaper and magazines nationwide.Psychology is one part of the compilation that is published monthly.From 1980 to 1983,there appeared only one article on humanistic psychology,but from 1987 to 1989,11 articles on humanistic psychology were carried.

Part three

The Study of Humanistic Psychology by Chinese Scholars

The study of humanistic psychology by Chinese scholars can be divided into the following aspects.
1. The Comparison Between Humanistic
Psychology and Marxism
Lin Fang held that the common ground of humanistic psychology and Marxism lies in that both of their purposes are for the liberation of human potential,but humanistic psychology relatively ignores the effects of social environments on peple.
Xu Jin-sheng holds that Maslow's need level theory and Marx's theory of society development period have a certain connection and corresponding relation.If we classify human being' personality based on the need level theory ,every society development period has its predominant general personality.The general personality of the primitive society was existence;of the salve society,safety;of the feudal society,belongingness;of the capitalist society,self-esteem;of the communist society(or some society much more improved than the present society),self-actualization.
2. The Comparison Between Humanistic Psychology and China's Traditional Culture
Zhang Dai-nian(honorary president of the learned society of China's philosophy history and professor in the Beijing University philosophy history and professor in the Beijing University philosophy department)holds that China's traditional culture,especially the culture of the Confucian school,has a great deal to communicate with humanistic psychology.Both Confucians and Mencius believed that human nature is kind.Every person can become Yao and Shun(legendary monarchs in ancient China).This thought is in harmony with Maslow's thought that every person has the potential to actualize himself or herself.
Lin Fang believed that when American humanistic psychologists talk about China's philosophy of Taoist school,they often tend to mention Lao Tzu.Actually one of the originators of the philosophy of Taoist school,Chuang Tzu,is very important to humanistic psychology.For example:"da sheng"by Chuang Tzu means to develop smoothly;and the so-called wang shi zhi shi is equivalent to what Maslow means by"peak experience."
3. The Present State of the Chinese Personality and Its Develoment,Using the Viewpoint of Humanistic Psychology
In May 1987,Xu Jin-sheng made a questionnaire investigation of 120 people,including 40 college and university teachers,10 sicentific researchers,and 20 office workers.The subjects were required to read carefully Maslow's description of self-actualizing people,namely Chapter 12 in Motivation and Personality,then fill in the questionnaire.There were 95 responses received,a response rate of 79.1%.The result showed that China's intellectuals highly affirm self-actualizing people.The following were two of the questions:
Are you willing to become one of the self-actualizing people Maslow described?
Yes:92.6%
No:0
No answer:7.4%
Do you think that the more people become self-actualizing the better our society will become?
Yes:82.4%
Uncertain:11.6%
No:0
No response:6%
How to describe the change of the personality development of the Chinese people under the situation of reforming and opening?Xu describes this as a trend in which the general personality of the Chinese is turning from an emphasizes belongingness has already gratified his or her needs for physiological satisfaction and safety to a certain degree and now can turn attention to the gratification of belongingness,setting up a family and reproducing offspring.A person who emphasizes self-esteem has gratified the needs for physiological satisfaction,safety,and belongingness,and now can turn attention to the need for self-esteem,seeking achievements,and the realization of more individual values.The self-esteem oriented personality has a stronger sense of human rights,expressive spirit,focus on efficiency,and cooperative habits.This point of view has been published and reprinted by at least 17 newspapers and journals.
Farmers compose approximately 80% of the population in China.It is from the countryside that Chinese economic reformations started in 1979,and spread to the city afterward.Thus the trend of personality transformation can be clearly observed in rural areas.According to Xu Jin-sheng's(1987)survey on farmers who had already become well-off and those who had not,a smaller percentage of the successful farmers held positive attitudes toward traditional values of the belonging personality(see Table1).
Under China's condition,can there be people who can actualize themselves?To answer this question,Xu sees evidence that in some cases there can actually be gratification of a person's higher level needs under adverse conditions,personality usually changes in one of two directions:toward shrinking or toward self-actualizing.Fewer people move toward self-actualization,but those who do can endure the relative deficiency of the gratification for lower needs and bring into play their higher potentials,showing features of the
TABLE 1: Values Held by Two kinds of Farmers
Well-Off Farmers(%) Ordinary Farmers(%)
Having a large family is a sign of
family prosperity, therefore an honor 37.3 55.9

If I don't have a son, my family will be
Laughed at as "a family that has no
offspring" 24.5 40.9

The main purpose of having children
is to continue the family line 50.4 61.7

The more children I have, the more
my life in the later years will be
guaranteed 61.8 81.4

self-actualizing people Maslow described, including even more resistance against cultural conformity than the self-actualizing people Maslow described. Outwardly they manage to appear ad-justed to the environment, while inwardly they are incompatible with it.
For example, Xu has studied a famous artist who describes bringing his hidden potential into play in a process called "smug-gling." In this sense, "smuggling" means cleverly expressing one's views conducive to social development by using means that are permitted by the political system of the time. Under the condition of cultural autocracy, those "smugglers" managed to publish a number of good works.
4. The Cultural Significance of Peak Experience
Xu Jin-sheng (1988,1994) held that human beings' end goals and self-actualization are essential issues that most cultures are bound to address. Culture in its narrow sense refers to the value system, and its core issue is the design of ideal personalities. Such a design consists of description of the end goal and description of the process, where the former is description of the highest state that human personalities can reach and the latter is specific suggestions concerning how to reach this state.
An overall examination of human cultures in the world shows that most of their end descriptions contain the feature of peak experiences. The "oneness of heaven and man" of Confucianism, the "nirvana" of Mahayana Buddhism, the "being with God" of Islam, even the "exhilaration of the Wine God" of Nietzsche-all these, when realized in individual experience, are peak experi-ences of one kind or another. Therefore, the cultural significance of peak experience first of all lies in the fact that it is a concept that can be applied in cultural comparison.
Using peak experience as an index to compare different cultures, we find that cultural difference in end descriptions is much smaller than process descriptions. The end descriptions of various cultures can be roughly captured by the concept of peak experience, but in process descriptions there are considerable cultural differences such as the contrast between "renouncing the world" and "entering the world." While Buddhism believes in "giving up worldly pur-suits," Confucianism advocates "cultivate the self, put the family in order, administer the country and unite the world." The small difference in end descriptions can be accounted for by the common and universal traits in human nature. When portraying the highest state that human nature can reach, different cultures come to very similar views. The comparatively large difference in process description can be accounted for by the diversity of social contexts. When depicting the ways that lead to the highest end, each culture will invariably consider its own particular environment, hence different descriptions. The common saying"all roads lead to Rome" illustrates the small difference in end description and large differ-ence in process description.
5. Study of "Best Foreign Language Learners"
In recent years, theories of humanistic psychology have been applied to the field of linguistics and foreign language teaching. Using a theoretical framework of humanistic psychology and em-pirical data obtained by interviewing some recognized"best foreign language learners," Gao Yi-hong(e.g., 1992) found that foreign language and culture learning at a higher level is closely associated with the cultivation of healthy personalities. The existing "accul-turation model" (Schumann,1978), which favors a total substitu-tion of cultural identities, is misleading, because the subjects in that study were at the lower level of basic needs (e.g.,belonging) and they could only serve as examples of "non-learning" rather than "learning." Successful foreign language learning involves a positive interaction between the native language and the target language, the native cultural identity and the target cultural identity. In Erich Fromm's terms, the relationship between different languages and cultural identities is a "productive" one. In Maslow's terms, these best learners will transcend the dichotomy of cultural identities and achieve "synergy" in language and cultural personalities. At a deep enough level, discovery of"selfhood" and discovery of "specieshood" will merge into one.
6. The Debate Over"Indigenization"and Applicability of Rogers's Person-Centered Therapy
The"indigenization"of psychological theories, including theo-ries of humanistic psychology, was the major theme and debate issue at the second Symposium on Social Psychology of the Chinese People (Inner Mongolia, August, 1994). Promoters of the indigenization movement, the most prominent ones from Taiwan and Hong Kong (e.g., Yang Guo-shu from Taiwan University), hold that psychological theories and methods produced by Western (especially American) scholars should not be followed blindly, and when studying psychology of the Chinese, native cultural characteristics have to be taken into serious consideration.
In the field of psychotherapy and psychological counseling, Yue Xiao-dong from the Chinese University of Hong Kong makes the point that the person-centered approach of Carl Rogers cannot be put into direct use, because the Chinese culture stresses interde-pendence between people, and the counselors' "non-directive" ap-proach will appear to be too cold and impersonal to the Chinese clients. Some others, on the other hand, are trying to apply the person-centered approach. Gao Yi-hong, for example, makes an effort to combine Rogers's theory with linguistic techniques in the analysis of telephone counseling discourse. Discussion and debate on"indigenization" raised the following questions: Whether cul-tural uniqueness overrides universal characteristics of human beings; whether contemporary social values in China are essen-tially the same as the traditional ones; whether the commonly held beliefs are healthy, and whether they should be followed or changed.

Part Four
The prospects for the Influence of Humanistic Psychology in China

Humanistic psychology has not won great influence in China's formal field of academic psychology. However, its influence apparently has broad social effects. Perhaps that is the aim of humanistic psychology, after all. Humanistic psychology emphasizes that psychology should make contributions to human value, meaning, and happiness. Looking forward to the future of China, humanistic psychology may play an even greater role.
In October 1992, the fourteenth National Congress of the Com-munist Party of China set "socialist market economy" as its goal for development. Accordingly, the pace for China's reforming and opening is quickened. Under the new situation, the need of the Chinese society for the theory and methods of humanistic psychol-ogy will be growing even stronger. This is because the ruling party of the country, the Communist Party, still advocates,"Grasp the two civilizations simultaneously," namely, lay stress on building both material civilization and spiritual civilization. The Party's traditional political ideological work cannot be deserted, but the Party's traditional approach to building spiritual civilization-the content and methods of the ideological political work-have lost efficacy. Thus a state of "value vacuum" appeared. This vacuum state needs filling up. Under the Party's traditional political sys-tem, departments of propaganda and personnel established in every level of the Party's organizations. A lot of these personnel have already had nothing to do under the new situation. Some researchers at Beijing Association of Humanistic Psychology advocate that the political ideological work should combine with psychological work. The personnel concerned should care about people and understand people by offering psychological consultation. The traditional work whose aim was controlling and making use of people, pouring into people's minds doctrines such as "Stick to Marxism," and so forth, should be replaced gradually. At present, some political ideological workers have already studied or received training in psychological consultation. This influence is far-reaching. Nowadays there appears a tendency for political ideological work to decline gradually while psychological consultation becomes popular.
The influence of humanistic psychology is not limited only to college and university students and academic circles, but also extends to the Communist Party of China. In a thick book titled The Science of Socialist Spiritual Civilization published in 1988 the author pointed out that the basic aim of socialist spiritual civilization construction is to cultivate healthy personality. When defining healthy personality, the author quoted Maslow's descrip-tion of self-actualizing people.
With the gradual relaxing of China's politics, its economic sys-tem develops gradually toward a market economy. Consequently, an "Economy Craze" grows in China. The pace of the society quickens. A number of people become rich, but then suffer from a sense of emptiness. The competition is getting even more intense, and pressure is increasingly stronger. Consequently people's psy-chological problems are increased. Based on my comparison study (Jin-sheng, 1993) between China's inland and the coastland where the economy is much more developed, the latter's need for psycho-logical consultation is stronger and the interest in the theory of humanistic psychology is greater too.
Because of what is related above, there is much in the study of humanistic psychology in other countries (especially in the United States) that China can make use of. Other countries may also benefit from the humanistic psychology that is developing in China. It can be said that China's study and application of humanistic psychology has just begun.

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Xu Jin-sheng. (1986,December 22). Talking about Maslow's need level theory. Guangming Daily,3.
Xu Jin-sheng.(1987). Chinese personality development and social structure. In Song Shu-wei (Ed.), Social structure and multi-dimensional analysis. Beijing: Beijing Academy of Sciences.
Xu Jin-sheng. (1988). Towards the new world of personality-Probing into health personality. Beijing: Workers' Publishing House.
Xu Jin-sheng. (1993). Healthy personality and market economy. Modern Mankind, 1(12), 1.
Xu Jin-sheng. (1994). On Maslow's peak experience theory. Knowledge in Various Fields, 10, 28-29.
Xu Lian-chang. (1986). Psychology of management. Beijing Management Press.

About the author: Xu Jin-sheng is a research fellow at the Sociology Department of Beijing Academy of Social Science and vice president and secretary-general of Beijing Research Association of Humanistic Psychology. He specializes in the study of theories of sociology, psychology, and personality. He is one of the major researchers on humanistic psychology in the mainland of China. His main publications on humanistic psychology are as follows:

Treatise:
Towards the New World, or Personality-Probing Into Healthy Personality (1988)
Monographs:
Three Elements of Personality (1984)
A Key Concept of Maslow's Need Level Theory (1985)
Comments on Maslow's Need Level Theory (1985)
The Chinese Traditional Culture and Personality (1987)
The Modern and Contemporary Culture and Personality of the West (1987)
Comments on Healthy Personality of the West (1988)
Maslow and Marx (1991)
On Maslow's Peak Experience Theory (1994)
Openness and Healthy Personality (1995)
Translations:
Self-Actualizing People (Selected compilations based on Maslow's works, 1986)
Motivation and Personality (1987)
Stages of Life (Form Jung, 1986)
Compilation:
Healthy Personality Series (1988_)
Present Research Projects:
The Personality change of the Chinese in the Reforming and Opening Taoism and Humanistic Psychology

Reprint requests: Xu Jinsheng, Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, Bei-Sihuan-Zhonglu 33#, Beijing 100101/Chaoyang,China.

From Journal of Humanistic Psychology,Vol.37no.1 Winter1997
Humanistic Psychology In China
Xu Jinsheng
Beijing Academy of Social Science
Summary: This article reviews the development of humanistic psychology in China since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1980,including the activities of Lin Fang, Liu xiao-feng, Chen Wei-zheng, Chen Zhong-geng, Fang Yuan-chu, Li Guang-wei, Li Wen-tian, Li Zheng-tian, Ma Yu-tian,Qu Wei,ShaoWei,Shong Shu-wei,Wang Deng-feng,Wang Xiao-ping,Wu Xiao-feng,Yu Yang,Zhang Qi-ming,ZhangYi-bing,and the author.Translations of Maslow,Rogers,May,Fromm,and others were published in large editions,original works were written,courses were taught,radio programs broadcast,newspaper articles published,research undertaken,and personality theories debated.Through 1989 Maslow's book sold 557,900 copies.Two organizations were founded,the Guangzhou Institute of Humanistic Psychology and the Beijing Research Association of Healthy Personalities.The events of June 1989 slowed these developments,but they are still continuing and have important implications for the future of China.

Part One
The Disseminating of Humanistic Psychology Into China
In the 1960s and 1970s,American humanistic psychology was established and its influence spread.During the same period,however,China got bogged down in years of political chaos.Nearly all western cultures were regarded as tainted with capitalist ideology and so were resisted and criticized.Consequently,humanistic psychology was also rejected in China.
When the"Cultural Revolution"was put to an end in 1980,some Chinese publications began to introduce some western theories about management.Maslow's theories about need levels were mentioned when those publications discussed motivation theory.
In 1979,Lin Fang,the former editor of Workers's Daily,was transferred into the Department of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;in 1981 he submitted a paper that introduced American humanistic psychology,especially studies by Maslow and Rogers,at an academic meeting held in Chongqing.In November 1981, "A Theory of Human Motivation,"chapter 4 of Maslow's Motivation and Personality,was published in a magezine called Econemic Management.The traslators were Chen Bin-quen and Gao Wen-hao.
From 1983 to 1985,Lin Fang,Xu Jin-sheng,and others published some monographs and treatises on humanistic psychology in Acta Psychologica Sinica ,the most prestigious journal of psychology in China,and Psychology Trends,including"Marxism and Humanistic Psychology"and"Comments on Western Humanistic Psychology"by Lin Fang,"Instinctoid-A Key Concept of Maslow's Need Level Theory"by Xu Jin-sheng,and "Five Chief Arguments about Humanistic Psychology"by John Shaffer,translated by Xu Jin-sheng.
Due to China's political and social environment,the dissemination of humanistic psychology into China aroused debates and arguments from the very beginning.Articles appeared driticizing humanistic psychology using Marxist viewpoints. Because the dissemination began with Maslow,his ideas accordingly became the first target.In 1983,a whole page in Workers' Daily featured an article criticizing Maslow's psychology for trying to rescue capitalism and obscure its class contradictions.

Maslow's need level theory did not and could not either reveal thoroughly and correctly the basic needs of the working class under the capitalist system.What is the basic need of the working class under the capitalist system?It is to overthrow the capitalist labor system.(Chen Jin-yu,1983)

In early 1984,Hu Qiao-mu ,a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,published a book entitled On Humanism and the Alienation Problem,in which he called for an attack on "bourgeois humanism"and the promotion of "socialist humanism."In China, academic research has been strongly influenced by political climates.The attitude of the government,therefore, impeded the spread of Western schools of thought, including humanistic psychology.When humanistic psychology was criticized,it had hardly been introduced to the Chinese.Those who launched the attack seemed not to have studied their target of attack carefully.For example,one article made a clear point that "On the whole and basically we can't accept Maslow's need theory.Self-designing and self-actualizing can't make people needed by our society"(Chen Pei-lin,1984,p.6).In this 10-page article,17 quotations were used. Of these quotations,14 were from The Collected Works of Marx and Engels,one from The Selected Works of Mao Ze Dong, one (by Piterroph) from General Psychology,and only one from A Theory of Human Motivation,translated by Chen Bin-quen and Gao Wen-hao.
Even the former head of the Department of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Xu Lian-chang,while summarizing the criticisms of Maslow's need level theory by China's learned circle,put forward a compromise viewpoint that criticized but did not negate Maslow completely.

What the learned circle criticizes Maslow for is maily the predominant need in his theory-for self-actualization-because this need is based on individuals.It emphasizes giving rein to self potentials.It cannot include higher social needs such as serving the people or sacrificing individual benefits for the socialist cause.This criticism has some justification,but Maslow's viewpoints offered some valuable information.We cannot wipe them all out.(Xu Lian-Chang,1986,p.37)

These comments wer obviously a political criticism,not a real academic discussion.Therefore,Xu Jin-sheng published his long monograph, "Talking about Maslow's Need Level Theory" in Guangming Daily in 1986.This article refuted the above statement and cleared up some distortion.It stated:

Psychology studies psychological processed such as sensation,awareness and emotions etc. Just as what psychology studies is not merely the psychological process of a certain class or a certain individual specifically, but the commonly-possessed universal psychological process possessed by human beings, the needs which Maslow's need level theory studies are not the needs of a certain class or a certain individual either. They are the needs which human beings commonly express. If we require that a psychologist discover a need which is supposedly specifically that of the working class under the capitalist system,we will practically confuse the purposes of both political theory and psychology study.(Xu Jin-sheng,December 22,1986,Guangming Daily,p.3)

This monograph also pointed out the difference between basic needs and motivation. Basic needs are a potential of the subconscious, which is "instinctoid," while motivation is realized in specific social environments.
As a potential or orientation,self-actualization is innate,but as a specific motivation or "conscious desire," it is acquired in social contexts. Another point of this monograph concerns the reason for the slowness in Chinese social development over a long period of time.Viewed from the perspective of motivation structure, an important reason is that the general Chinese personality level remained at lower level needs (e.g.,belonging), and the potentials of self-esteem and self-actualization sere not realized. As Guangming Daily is a national newspaper with a large circulation,this monograph had great influence at that time.
Although the political climate in China was still unfavorable for academic studies, from 1984 some humanistic psychology enthusiasts began to get in contact with each other. They got together and decided to publish a collection of humanistic psychology translations in order to extend the influence of humanistic psychology.In 1987,this collection was published under the title of Man's Potentialities and Value.Lin Fang was the chief editor.The main translators were Liu Xiao-feng,Chen Wei-zheng, and Xu Jin-sheng. The first edition was 30,000, and the book reached 125,900 by 1989.
In 1987, a collection of translations for introducing Maslow was published under the title Self-Actualizing People.Xu Jin-sheng was the chief editor and translator.The first edition was 100,000. It was regarded as one of the most popular books by America's Overseas Chinese Daily and China's magazine Shu Lin(Book Forest).
In 1987,three important books of Maslow's were translated and published in China.One was Motivation and Personality, its chief translator Xu Jin-sheng. The first edition reached 102,000.An other was Toward a Psychology of Being.Li Wen-tian was the translator. The first edition was 40,000. Another was Further Reaches of Human Nature.Lin Fang was the translator. The first edition was 80,000.
From 1983,enthusiasm developed in China toward western academic trends of thought , producing a "Sartre Craze," a "Freud Craze," and a "Nietzsche Craze." From 1987,China's "Humanistic Pshochology Craze," especially its "Maslow Craze," gradually took shape ,and through 1989 Maslow's books sold 557,900 copies.
In 1988, the Healthy Personality Series of which Xu Jin-sheng was the chief editor began to be published at the Worker's Publishing House and the Beijing University Press. The publications were as follows:

Toward the New World of Personality-Probing into Healthy Personality(treatise by Xu Jin-sheng; 22,000 copies)
Healthy Personality(by jourard, translated by Xu Jin-sheng and others; 11,000 copies)
The Psychology of Science(by A.H.Maslow,translated by Shao Wei and others; 8,000 copies)
Fully Human,Fully Alive(by Jonh Powells, translated by Wu Xiao-feng and others;20,000 copies)

After the June 4 , 1989 event ,the series reached a standstill.From 1991,China's political situation turned better, and it seemed possible to published the series again.But then the whole publishing business fell into a depression. The publishing houses now require a subsidy that the editors cannot afford, so the eight other completed books cannot be published yet.
From 1987 to 1989, Rollo May's Love and Will,Carl Rogers's Concultation and Psychological Treatment, and Fromm's Man for Himself,Beyond the Chains of Illusion ,and The Art of loving were published at different publishing houses.
At the end of 1989,Heart's Perplexity and Self-Help by Lin Fang was published. This was a book written by a Chinese scholar who had commented thoroughly about humanistic psychology. It offered rich information and for the first time introduced Transpersonal Psychology. But because it was the time just after the June 4 event ,the editon was only 800.
In 1991,Li Guang-wei published his book The Dream of the Fourth Generation.The edition was 6,750.Zhang Yi-bing published his book, The Fifth Generation of Western Humanistic Psychology.The edition was 3,000. Both of these books aimed at elucidating the significance of humanistic psychology.
In 1992, Yu Yang published his book The Y Structure of Human Nature in an edition of 3,000. The author held that the quintessence of humanism is that is understands and supports the best aspects of human behavior. The bookd criticized Maslow's need level theory and put forward another need theory.

Part Two
The Influence of Humanistic Psychology in China
The influence of humanistic psychology on the field of psychology in China is very small, and it can hardly be used in any formal research project. There were two major reasons: First, from 1949 to befor the Cultural Revolution, China's psychology had been greatly influenced by that of the former Soviet Union. Pavlov's theories had been one-sidedly emphasized. Around the Cultural Revolution psychology research was allowed to resume, it emphasized experimental behaviorism. Second ,in China, due to the long domination of the Left trend on the academic field ,humanitarianism had been criticized. It had been regarded as the "bourgeois theory of human nature," "revisionism," and so on. Researchers sere all afraid of being suspected of going in for "liberalization." At the Department of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences ,Lin Fang was the only person to take humanistic psychology as his major. As a result he was uinfairly treated in his professional career.
The influence of humanistic psychology in China mainly appeared as part of the ideology liberation campaign, which arose after the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese accepted the influence of humanistic psychology to a great extent as a concept of value and an outlook on life. Under the influence of passive parts of China's traditional culture and under the control of cultural autocracy after 1949, the personality of the Chinese had been in the state of shrinking .They possessed the malady of sticking to old ways and resigning themselves to adversity. The disseminating of humanistic psychology played a role of enlightenment. It awakened people to a sense of subject. For example ,Maslow's psychology makes people realize that everybody possessed basic needs. The gratification of basic needs is viewed as a human right that in endowed by nature and cannot be deprived. This ideology liberation took place first among intellectuals and college students. The following numbers can show the popularity of humanistic psychology among college ane university students.
In 1990, Yang Hui-zhu and colleagues made a random sampling inverstigation among students at 13 universities.They handed out 2,000 questionnaires and got back 1,862 responses for a response rate of 93.1%. The researchers listed 22 "representative western academic books." Among the first 10 popular books ,there were 2 concering Maslow's psychology:The Third Force:Maslow's psychology(by Frank Goble, translated by Lu Ming and others ) and Self-Actualizing People.Students responded as follows:

The Third Force:Maslow's psychology
Read carefully:7.3%
Read generally:19.1%
Self-Actualizing People
Read carefully:6.1%
Read generally:13.2%

The Track of Different Scholls of Thought,by Liu Xiang-ping, is a book about the influence of Western ideology upon Chinese university students. In discussing the Maslow Craze ,he wrote:

A Xinhua bookstore in a capital city in the South laid in 2,000 copies of Motivation and Personality and sold them out within less than 3 weeks. At colleges and universities many students who had failed to get the book were trying everywhere in order to buy it. At one time on the campuses of colleges and universities many students who had failed to get the book were trying everywhere in order to buy it .At one time on the campuses of colleages and universities the name of Maslow became quite popular and in some classes 2/3 of the students possessed at least on book by Maslow. According to a survery by Northeastern Normal University, Sellf-Actualizing People by Maslow was among the books borrowed and read the widest by the students.
Compared with the "Nietzsche Craze" and other Western ideology crazes, the "Maslow Craze"enjoys more individual spontaneity and less flowing the general trend. What is interesting is that almost at the same time when the "Maslow Craze" grew hotter and hotter, the "Freud Craze"got colder and colder. Unitl 1988,books by Freud were seriously overstocked in bookstores and Creation and Unconsciousness was wellilng at book-stands at a discount. The reason why the "Maslow Craze" prevails over those on many other Western thoughts lies in that while the "Nietzsche Craze," "Sartre Craze," and "Freud Craze"show more or less pessimism about philoshophy of life , Maslow shows optimism about human existence and has full confidence in human future.(Liu Xiang-ping,1991,p.137)
Another characteristic of humanistic psychology in China has been its wide impact on literature and art.Take the instance of The Theory of Subject published by Liu Zhai-fu in the field of literary theory.It was obviously developed after the author had accepted the influence of Maslow's psychology.This theory evoked great repercussions in the field of literature.In the field of China's literature and art ,many artists,writers,and aestheticians have read books on humanistic psychology.
The influence of humanistic psychology is extensive.The book An Introduction to the Famous Books on Psychology of the West published in October 1991,edited by Ma Wen-ju and others,is a reference book for the teaching of social science of China's colleges and universities.In it 24 books by 23 psychologists are listed,beginning with Willhelm Wundt(1832-1920),Five books by four humanistic psychologists(Maslow, Rogers, Fromm, and May) are introduced among the 24 books,Throughout the book,Maslow was the only psychologist who had two books mentioned:Motivation and Personality and Toward the Psychology of Being.
Another two events that show the influence of humanistic psychology in China are the establishment of China's two institutions of research on humanistic psychology,In 1986,Guangzhou,China's Institute of Humanistic Psychology,announced its founding.The president of the institute was Li Zheng-tian,who was a teacher of Guangzhou Art Institue.The membership was over 60.The members were mainly from the learned circle,including teachers of colleges and universities,scientific research personel,artist,and writers.The large activities organized by the institute were two academic meetings:"Discussion about the Psychological Renewal of Countrymen"and "Discussion about the Psychological Similarities and Differences between the Chinese across the Straits."The role of the institute was mainly in having pushed forward the introspection and study on the nationality of the Chinese,and accelerating the spreading of humanistic psychology in the art circle.The institute announced its disbanding before the event of June 4,1989.
In 1988,Xu Jin-sheng,Qu Wei,Zhang Qi-ming,Wang Xiao-ping,and some other people won the support of some enlightened leaders in the field of social science in Beijing and set up the Beijing Research Association of Healthy Personalities(BRAHP).The association was attached to the learned society of social science of Beijing.It was a second-class association under the Beijing Federation of Social Science.President of the Association was Fang Yuan-chu.Vice presidents were three:Ma Yu-tian,Shong Shu-wei,and Xu Jin-sheng(also concurrently secretary-general).The membership was 130(including 50 outside of Beijing).The association stated its aim as to "Unite with those interested in the problems,assist China's realization of modernizations and enhance the quality of the Chinese."The association has run two sessions of a nation wide training class,"Theory of Humanistic Psychology and Psychological Counseling."The classes invited experts and scholars in Beijing to give lectures.Two hundred persons came from all parts of the country to Beijing for study.
The association has also held six academic discussions,such as "The Present Personality State and Its Development in the Chinese,""The Significance of Maslow's Psychology for the Present China,"and so on.Eleven academic reports were held,such as "The Present State of the Study of Personality Theory and Its Prospect Abroad,""An Introduction to the Theory of Psychological Therapy,""Man's Problems in the Course of China's Modernization,"and so on.BRAHP also received attention in national newspapers such as Guangming Daily,Chinese Youth,The Chinese Culture,and The Chinese Woman.
After the June 4,1989 event,the association stopped its activities because of the change of the political climate.Some members were criticized openly or covertly.In the instance of Xu Jin-sheng,his introduction to Maslow's psychology of self-actualization was criticized as having poisoned young people and accelerated the overwhelming liberalization trend.Xu Jin-sheng's treatise Towards the New World of Personality-Probing into Healthy Personality was censured as an attack that socialism is unfavorable for man's growth in the name of talking about healthy personality.After Deng Xiao-ping made his speech on his inspection of the south in early 1992,China's political situation turned better and the association began to resume its activities.But because of shortage of funds,it is not as active as before.Financial support from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences has been cut off since 1989.
In summer,1993,BRAHP and Beijing People's Radio Station launched a radio program,"Healthy Personalities and Life."During the period of one month,50 minutes a day,Xu Jin-sheng and his colleagues talked about and discussed with the listeners theories of humanistic psychology.This program related the theories with specific aspects of people's life and was done in a way that the public could easily understand.A survey shows that it had a listening audience as large as 500,000.
In December,1993,BRAHP held a discussion entitled "Mao Tze-tung's Personality."Participants made analyses of Mao's personality by examining his political activities.This event was reported by China Youth Daily.
In July,1994,BRAHP held a discussion entitled "Mystery of Gu Cheng's Suicide."Gu Cheng was a famous Chinese poet.In October,1993,he killed his wife and then committed suicide on a small island of New Zealand where they resided.While the death of Gu Cheng became a heated topic in China,the participants of the discussion analyzed his personality from the perspective of humanistic psychology.
From 1986,psychological consultation became popular in China.Nowadays in wany major cities there are professional or nonprofessional insititutions.Of all the methods,Roggers's clientcentered therapy enjoys a great reputation.In the book Psychological Theray and Consultation by Chen Zhong-geng published in Monographs on this therapy appear in magazines from time to time.Based on Roggers's therapy combined with the situation of China,Wang Deng-feng worked out his "Self-Consistency Scale"in 1992.In China's colleges and universities in which there are departments of psychology,a course on personality psychology is generally given and humanistic psychology is included.
The expansion of humanistic psychology in China is also evident in the numbers below:Material Compilation,published by People's University of China,is an authoritative,widely distributed reference publication,It selects and reprints articles taken from newspaper and magazines nationwide.Psychology is one part of the compilation that is published monthly.From 1980 to 1983,there appeared only one article on humanistic psychology,but from 1987 to 1989,11 articles on humanistic psychology were carried.
Part three
The Study of Humanistic Psychology by Chinese Scholars
The study of humanistic psychology by Chinese scholars can be divided into the following aspects.
1. The Comparison Between Humanistic
Psychology and Marxism
Lin Fang held that the common ground of humanistic psychology and Marxism lies in that both of their purposes are for the liberation of human potential,but humanistic psychology relatively ignores the effects of social environments on peple.
Xu Jin-sheng holds that Maslow's need level theory and Marx's theory of society development period have a certain connection and corresponding relation.If we classify human being' personality based on the need level theory ,every society development period has its predominant general personality.The general personality of the primitive society was existence;of the salve society,safety;of the feudal society,belongingness;of the capitalist society,self-esteem;of the communist society(or some society much more improved than the present society),self-actualization.
2. The Comparison Between Humanistic Psychology and China's Traditional Culture
Zhang Dai-nian(honorary president of the learned society of China's philosophy history and professor in the Beijing University philosophy history and professor in the Beijing University philosophy department)holds that China's traditional culture,especially the culture of the Confucian school,has a great deal to communicate with humanistic psychology.Both Confucians and Mencius believed that human nature is kind.Every person can become Yao and Shun(legendary monarchs in ancient China).This thought is in harmony with Maslow's thought that every person has the potential to actualize himself or herself.
Lin Fang believed that when American humanistic psychologists talk about China's philosophy of Taoist school,they often tend to mention Lao Tzu.Actually one of the originators of the philosophy of Taoist school,Chuang Tzu,is very important to humanistic psychology.For example:"da sheng"by Chuang Tzu means to develop smoothly;and the so-called wang shi zhi shi is equivalent to what Maslow means by"peak experience."
3. The Present State of the Chinese Personality and Its Develoment,Using the Viewpoint of Humanistic Psychology
In May 1987,Xu Jin-sheng made a questionnaire investigation of 120 people,including 40 college and university teachers,10 sicentific researchers,and 20 office workers.The subjects were required to read carefully Maslow's description of self-actualizing people,namely Chapter 12 in Motivation and Personality,then fill in the questionnaire.There were 95 responses received,a response rate of 79.1%.The result showed that China's intellectuals highly affirm self-actualizing people.The following were two of the questions:
Are you willing to become one of the self-actualizing people Maslow described?
Yes:92.6%
No:0
No answer:7.4%
Do you think that the more people become self-actualizing the better our society will become?
Yes:82.4%
Uncertain:11.6%
No:0
No response:6%
How to describe the change of the personality development of the Chinese people under the situation of reforming and opening?Xu describes this as a trend in which the general personality of the Chinese is turning from an emphasizes belongingness has already gratified his or her needs for physiological satisfaction and safety to a certain degree and now can turn attention to the gratification of belongingness,setting up a family and reproducing offspring.A person who emphasizes self-esteem has gratified the needs for physiological satisfaction,safety,and belongingness,and now can turn attention to the need for self-esteem,seeking achievements,and the realization of more individual values.The self-esteem oriented personality has a stronger sense of human rights,expressive spirit,focus on efficiency,and cooperative habits.This point of view has been published and reprinted by at least 17 newspapers and journals.
Farmers compose approximately 80% of the population in China.It is from the countryside that Chinese economic reformations started in 1979,and spread to the city afterward.Thus the trend of personality transformation can be clearly observed in rural areas.According to Xu Jin-sheng's(1987)survey on farmers who had already become well-off and those who had not,a smaller percentage of the successful farmers held positive attitudes toward traditional values of the belonging personality(see Table1).
Under China's condition,can there be people who can actualize themselves?To answer this question,Xu sees evidence that in some cases there can actually be gratification of a person's higher level needs under adverse conditions,personality usually changes in one of two directions:toward shrinking or toward self-actualizing.Fewer people move toward self-actualization,but those who do can endure the relative deficiency of the gratification for lower needs and bring into play their higher potentials,showing features of the
TABLE 1: Values Held by Two kinds of Farmers
Well-Off Farmers(%) Ordinary Farmers(%)
Having a large family is a sign of
family prosperity, therefore an honor 37.3 55.9

If I don't have a son, my family will be
Laughed at as "a family that has no
offspring" 24.5 40.9

The main purpose of having children
is to continue the family line 50.4 61.7

The more children I have, the more
my life in the later years will be
guaranteed 61.8 81.4

self-actualizing people Maslow described, including even more resistance against cultural conformity than the self-actualizing people Maslow described. Outwardly they manage to appear ad-justed to the environment, while inwardly they are incompatible with it.
For example, Xu has studied a famous artist who describes bringing his hidden potential into play in a process called "smug-gling." In this sense, "smuggling" means cleverly expressing one's views conducive to social development by using means that are permitted by the political system of the time. Under the condition of cultural autocracy, those "smugglers" managed to publish a number of good works.
4. The Cultural Significance of Peak Experience
Xu Jin-sheng (1988,1994) held that human beings' end goals and self-actualization are essential issues that most cultures are bound to address. Culture in its narrow sense refers to the value system, and its core issue is the design of ideal personalities. Such a design consists of description of the end goal and description of the process, where the former is description of the highest state that human personalities can reach and the latter is specific suggestions concerning how to reach this state.
An overall examination of human cultures in the world shows that most of their end descriptions contain the feature of peak experiences. The "oneness of heaven and man" of Confucianism, the "nirvana" of Mahayana Buddhism, the "being with God" of Islam, even the "exhilaration of the Wine God" of Nietzsche-all these, when realized in individual experience, are peak experi-ences of one kind or another. Therefore, the cultural significance of peak experience first of all lies in the fact that it is a concept that can be applied in cultural comparison.
Using peak experience as an index to compare different cultures, we find that cultural difference in end descriptions is much smaller than process descriptions. The end descriptions of various cultures can be roughly captured by the concept of peak experience, but in process descriptions there are considerable cultural differences such as the contrast between "renouncing the world" and "entering the world." While Buddhism believes in "giving up worldly pur-suits," Confucianism advocates "cultivate the self, put the family in order, administer the country and unite the world." The small difference in end descriptions can be accounted for by the common and universal traits in human nature. When portraying the highest state that human nature can reach, different cultures come to very similar views. The comparatively large difference in process description can be accounted for by the diversity of social contexts. When depicting the ways that lead to the highest end, each culture will invariably consider its own particular environment, hence different descriptions. The common saying"all roads lead to Rome" illustrates the small difference in end description and large differ-ence in process description.
5. Study of "Best Foreign Language Learners"
In recent years, theories of humanistic psychology have been applied to the field of linguistics and foreign language teaching. Using a theoretical framework of humanistic psychology and em-pirical data obtained by interviewing some recognized"best foreign language learners," Gao Yi-hong(e.g., 1992) found that foreign language and culture learning at a higher level is closely associated with the cultivation of healthy personalities. The existing "accul-turation model" (Schumann,1978), which favors a total substitu-tion of cultural identities, is misleading, because the subjects in that study were at the lower level of basic needs (e.g.,belonging) and they could only serve as examples of "non-learning" rather than "learning." Successful foreign language learning involves a positive interaction between the native language and the target language, the native cultural identity and the target cultural identity. In Erich Fromm's terms, the relationship between different languages and cultural identities is a "productive" one. In Maslow's terms, these best learners will transcend the dichotomy of cultural identities and achieve "synergy" in language and cultural personalities. At a deep enough level, discovery of"selfhood" and discovery of "specieshood" will merge into one.
6. The Debate Over"Indigenization"and Applicability of Rogers's Person-Centered Therapy
The"indigenization"of psychological theories, including theo-ries of humanistic psychology, was the major theme and debate issue at the second Symposium on Social Psychology of the Chinese People (Inner Mongolia, August, 1994). Promoters of the indigenization movement, the most prominent ones from Taiwan and Hong Kong (e.g., Yang Guo-shu from Taiwan University), hold that psychological theories and methods produced by Western (especially American) scholars should not be followed blindly, and when studying psychology of the Chinese, native cultural characteristics have to be taken into serious consideration.
In the field of psychotherapy and psychological counseling, Yue Xiao-dong from the Chinese University of Hong Kong makes the point that the person-centered approach of Carl Rogers cannot be put into direct use, because the Chinese culture stresses interde-pendence between people, and the counselors' "non-directive" ap-proach will appear to be too cold and impersonal to the Chinese clients. Some others, on the other hand, are trying to apply the person-centered approach. Gao Yi-hong, for example, makes an effort to combine Rogers's theory with linguistic techniques in the analysis of telephone counseling discourse. Discussion and debate on"indigenization" raised the following questions: Whether cul-tural uniqueness overrides universal characteristics of human beings; whether contemporary social values in China are essen-tially the same as the traditional ones; whether the commonly held beliefs are healthy, and whether they should be followed or changed.

Part Four
The prospects for the Influence of
Humanistic Psychology in China
Humanistic psychology has not won great influence in China's formal field of academic psychology. However, its influence apparently has broad social effects. Perhaps that is the aim of humanistic psychology, after all. Humanistic psychology emphasizes that psychology should make contributions to human value, meaning, and happiness. Looking forward to the future of China, humanistic psychology may play an even greater role.
In October 1992, the fourteenth National Congress of the Com-munist Party of China set "socialist market economy" as its goal for development. Accordingly, the pace for China's reforming and opening is quickened. Under the new situation, the need of the Chinese society for the theory and methods of humanistic psychol-ogy will be growing even stronger. This is because the ruling party of the country, the Communist Party, still advocates,"Grasp the two civilizations simultaneously," namely, lay stress on building both material civilization and spiritual civilization. The Party's traditional political ideological work cannot be deserted, but the Party's traditional approach to building spiritual civilization-the content and methods of the ideological political work-have lost efficacy. Thus a state of "value vacuum" appeared. This vacuum state needs filling up. Under the Party's traditional political sys-tem, departments of propaganda and personnel established in every level of the Party's organizations. A lot of these personnel have already had nothing to do under the new situation. Some researchers at Beijing Association of Humanistic Psychology advocate that the political ideological work should combine with psychological work. The personnel concerned should care about people and understand people by offering psychological consultation. The traditional work whose aim was controlling and making use of people, pouring into people's minds doctrines such as "Stick to Marxism," and so forth, should be replaced gradually. At present, some political ideological workers have already studied or received training in psychological consultation. This influence is far-reaching. Nowadays there appears a tendency for political ideological work to decline gradually while psychological consultation becomes popular.
The influence of humanistic psychology is not limited only to college and university students and academic circles, but also extends to the Communist Party of China. In a thick book titled The Science of Socialist Spiritual Civilization published in 1988 the author pointed out that the basic aim of socialist spiritual civilization construction is to cultivate healthy personality. When defining healthy personality, the author quoted Maslow's descrip-tion of self-actualizing people.
With the gradual relaxing of China's politics, its economic sys-tem develops gradually toward a market economy. Consequently, an "Economy Craze" grows in China. The pace of the society quickens. A number of people become rich, but then suffer from a sense of emptiness. The competition is getting even more intense, and pressure is increasingly stronger. Consequently people's psy-chological problems are increased. Based on my comparison study (Jin-sheng, 1993) between China's inland and the coastland where the economy is much more developed, the latter's need for psycho-logical consultation is stronger and the interest in the theory of humanistic psychology is greater too.
Because of what is related above, there is much in the study of humanistic psychology in other countries (especially in the United States) that China can make use of. Other countries may also benefit from the humanistic psychology that is developing in China. It can be said that China's study and application of humanistic psychology has just begun.