Introduction

Abstract

China faces enormous environmental problems after having gone down the road of modernisation for decades. Modernisation has become a pervasive hegemonic discourse through the process of economic reform in this country. It is everywhere, penetrating into every pore of Chinese society. Naturally, it has become an integral part of China and an everyday term appearing in officials’ speeches, the news media, daily conversations and school textbooks. Everyone seems to have accepted it, has praised it and is living by it. Modernisation has become taken for granted among the Chinese people: modernisation is what we should strive for. If the goal of modernisation were to be taken away, we would feel a loss and see our lives as hollow. In Gramscian terms (Gramsci 1971), the existence of hegemony depends on whether or not the ruled can naturally accept the rule of the ruler. This is the origin of power. At this point, modernisation has become a hegemonic power, convincing all Chinese people to accept its rule. It has also become a grand narrative that is accepted as an ultimate goal, one that cannot be questioned, doubted or opposed, and with which no other discourse can compete. This is a driving force, a guideline and a supreme ideology for the development and future of China.