Functional integration as the dominant type of contemporary Chinese culture: an analysis based on P. A. Sorokin's concept

The subject of this study is contemporary Chinese culture. The objects of the study are the three levels of contemporary Chinese culture – daily and superficial mass culture, institutional and mainstream social culture, and the value system and cultural strategy – as well as the characteristics of the integration of their cultural elements. Based on P. A. Sorokin’s theory of cultural element integration, which is structured into four levels, this study examines the forms of integration and the internal logic of contemporary Chinese culture across its three levels: the basic, the intermediate, and the advanced. The objectives of the research are to identify the dominant type of integration in contemporary Chinese culture, to reveal the operational characteristics of its distinct cultural levels, and to propose a new perspective for the international academic community to understand contemporary Chinese culture. The findings of the study indicate that the integration of contemporary Chinese culture is not a homogeneous form, but a composite one characterized by the coexistence of multiple levels, the dominance of functional integration, an orientation toward logical-semantic integration, and supplementation by spatial and external integration. The significance of this research lies in facilitating dialogue between P. A. Sorokin’s culturological theory and the practice of Chinese national culture, as well as providing theoretical guidance for Russia-China cross-cultural interaction. The novelty of this work is that it combines P. A. Sorokin’s theory of cultural element integration with the conception of the three-tier structure of contemporary Chinese culture, and elaborates and verifies the core proposition that functional integration is the dominant type of integration in contemporary Chinese culture. In addition, an applied expansion of Sorokin’s theory is carried out from an intercivilizational perspective, which provides a new analytical approach for the study of integration types in non-Western cultures.