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Cultural Modernism Intellectuals, artists, and scientists also struggled with the changes of a new age. "Modernism" and its ideas flourished as thinkers sought to reconcile new understandings with older views, explore the cultural expressions of non-Europeans and the lower classes, and challenge the certainty that all things European were best.
By the turn of the century, education and urbanization had created vast numbers of literate consumers engaging in new forms of popular culture that spanned sports, theater, and art. The "yellow press" appealed to the tastes of the lower classes and provided the proletariat with their own sense of identity.
In Europe, attempts to understand social problems, spearheaded by thinkers such as Freud, Durkheim, and Le Bon, led to the gradual formation of the social sciences. Artists questioned the so-called progress of Europe’s modernization, turning to the "primitivism" of Oceania and Africa for inspiration. Classical and Christian art themes gave way to art depicting dreams, machine aesthetics, and anti-bourgeois forms. Scientists accelerated the collapse of European confidence by concluding that the natural world operated on probabilities, not certainties, ensuring that man would never fully know its mysteries. The belief in rationality also came under fire. Nietzsche and Freud asserted that rational thinking could not motivate or explain the deeper elements of human nature.
In China, debate centered on modernism took a slightly different turn. Chinese writers began exploring new vistas—self, technology, and sexuality. Numerous visions of modernity, drawing from Chinese tradition and Western mores, competed for the attention of thinking Chinese. Urban centers, with their new wealth, education, and exposure to the West, hosted most activity. Art and literature explored new visions of the future. While many thinking Chinese valued Western science, finding a way to integrate it into Chinese culture presented a problem. What was the role of traditional Chinese beliefs in a modern world? >> Continue to the next part of the Summary: Rethinking Race and Reimagining Nations
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