A cultural perspective on the study of Chinese adolescent development

Abstract

This paper argues that the dominant Western construction of adolescent development which defines adolescence as an individuation process with the primary theme of developing an “autonomous self” is alien to the Chinese cultural system. In contrast to the Western conception of an “autonomous self” based on separation from others and self-other differentiation, the Chinese conception of self is more complicated. Based on the Chinese-West differences, the paper argues that the borrowed Western concept of “self” and the Western models do not appear to fit Chinese adolescents' experience. A concept of “self-in-relational-network” is therefore proposed for understanding the unique developmental processes and outcomes of Chinese adolescents.