浅析美国个人主义及其社会影响（英文）

ABSTRACT
American individualism is the representation of Western individualism and the leading value of American life, has already developed into the core of American culture. In different historical stages, individualism varies and demonstrates different characteristic.
This thesis probes into the causes of American individualism and analyses the influences of individualism on American society, economic development and people’s ideology. It should be pointed out that when studying the values of individualism, we should hold scientific and objective attitude.

Keywords：American Individualism; Ideology; Influences
 
                                                                      
Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. American Individualism 2
2.1 The Definition of Individualism 2
2.2 The Development of American Individualism 3
2.2.1 Early Individualism 3
2.2.2 Frontiersmen's Individualism  4
2.2.3 American Individualism on Other Stages  5
2.3 The Content of American Individualism 7
2.3.1 Self-reliance 7
2.3.2 Self-orientedness 8
2.3.3 Privacy 8
2.3.4 Equality 9
2.3.5 Competition 10
3. The Causes of American Individualism 12
3.1 The Impact of Religion and Philosophy 12
3.2 The Impact of History and Population 12
3.3 The Impact of Geography and Economy 13
Significance on Society of American Individualism  15
4.1 The Positive Significance 15
4.2 The Negative Significance 16
5. Conclusion 18
Acknowledgements 19
References 20

1．Introduction

“Individualism”is the word that comes from Europe, but in different countries and different historical periods, it often has different meanings. American individualism is the representation of Western individualism, and it has become the dominant ideology and core values of Western capitalist ideology since the 20th century. Individualism, as a kind of ideology and values, is the leading values of American life, and has already developed into the core of American culture. Individualism is changed with the  development of American society, politics and economic, it has demonstrated different characteristics in the different stages of history and had the certain influence on the social development and people' s attitude towards life.
Americans value independent, self-reliant, and ambitious personalities. The values, such as privacy, self-reliance, equality and competition can best describe the spirit of individualism. Individualism encourages people to express their own opinions and to make their own decisions independent of external influences, and highlights the ideal of a "self-made man " who achieves success by the sweat of his own brow. In America, it is encouraged that a man should move from the bottom of the society by his own efforts other than by birth. It is a widespread belief in America that Americans have Alger's myth; they believe that every cowboy can dream of becoming a great man, even the president of the country, from rags to riches. And everything is possible if he really has talent and will, in spite of his humble social position at the beginning.
 

2. American Individualism

The most important pattern in the United States is individualism. From Benjamin Franklin "God helps those who help themselves" to Herbert Hoover "the American system was based on rugged individualism", individualism has gone through different transformations and become the predominant pattern in America. American individualism is a dynamic process of development, it is a product of a certain historical condition. Meanwhile it is an entire cultural phenomenon as well as an organic collection.
2.1 The Definition of Individualism
Individualism is used by anthropologists to designate one of the basic orientations of some cultures. There are several definitions of individualism made by scholars and
dictionaries.
1) William A. Donohue defined individualism as “belief that the individual is an end in himself79
2) Individualism refers to the doctrine, spelled out in detail by the seventeenth-century English philosopher Richard E. Porter, that each individual is unique, special, completely different from all other individuals, and “the basic unit of nature.” [5]60
3) Webster’s New World Dictionary (Third College Edition) explains the definition of individualism as follow:
1. The conception that all values, rights, duties originate in individuals
    2.A theory maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative, action and interest
    3. Individual character
    4. Individual peculiarity
    5. The doctrine that individual freedom in economic enterprise should not be restricted by government or social regulation
    6. The doctrine that the state exists for individual and not the individual for the state
    7. The doctrine that self-interest is the proper goal of all human action
    4) According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, individualism is “a theory
maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative, action and interests; also conduct or practice guided by such a theory.” The pursuit of individual rights and interests is considered utterly legitimate. Self-actualization and the maximal realization of individual potential are supreme aims in life.
In the Western world, individualism is described as a good word. In Europe, individualism came into being as the opposition to medieval divine authority center and feudalism center: it helped the development of capitalism greatly. So the word “individualism” is endowed with positive meaning.
2.2 The Development of American Individualism
In different stages of America, individualism is changed with the development of  American society, politics and economic, it has demonstrated different characteristics in different stages of history and had the certain influence on the social development and people' s attitude towards life.
2.2.1 Early Individualism
Liberal individualism, what might be called "the freedom to do what one wishes"97. The early American individualism was defined as looking after freedom and happiness and fighting against oppression. The two wars, the American Revolution and the Civil War, fully expressed Americans' belief in individual value and function. Henrry Thomos viewed the era as the time in which the distinctive values and institutions of the United States were firmly established or "set", with no appreciable changes in their composition or emphasis since that time.
However, Shain argued that "the individualism American have today is the completely opposite direction of the intentions of their founders"145.
The vast majority of Americans in that era were rural dwellers, depending on a primarily agricultural economy for survival and living in scattered and relatively isolated communities. Estimates suggested that only 5 percent of the population lived in towns and villages of more than 2,500 people. This figures imply that in this setting, neither unconditional personal freedom, nor a strong commitment to a wider national policy, was widely encouraged. Community churches also were very crucial to the emergence and shaping of the orientations to life of the local population. Most of these churches regarded the "autonomous self" as "at the core of human sinfulness" and were quite intolerant of groups that differed from themselves174.
2.2.2 Frontiersmen's  Individualism
Superseding the local communalism of the Revolutionary era, the westward movement and frontier life brought the American value system into a new phase of development---the forming of a moderate pioneers' individualism, whose key contents included pioneer spirit; self-improvement; self-reliance and contempt of conventions and traditions. American individualism in this period emphasized the complete freedom and independence for people to choose their ways of life as they pleased, and focused on fighting against governmental interferences with personal affairs and the advocating of democracy based on the belief that heroes were those who made it on their own. The pioneer spirit was born in part of a need to own land--that intangible urge which was the soil of their blood and sweat and tears. In the vast and primitive wilderness of the Frontier West, Nature dwarfed man who had to learn how to survive in the midst of a savage environment. As the occupant of a piece of land for the time being, a proud frontiersman strode into the woods with his family to build up from nothing a brand new homestead, the nearest neighbor a mile away, the nearest town a day's journey back and forth, which was so strikingly different from the agricultural village of Europe. He paid no rent and felt as independent as the "lord of the manor"94.
As a consequence of the prevalent tough frontier conditions, pioneers who brought with them cultural preconceptions soon realized that the wilderness environment was ill-adapted to the habits; institutions, and cultural practices of the hierarchical societies they had left behind. Complex political institutions were unwanted in a .tiny frontier outpost; traditional economic practices were useless in an isolated community geared to an economy of self-sufficiency; rigid social customs were dismoded in a land. where prestige derived from skill with the axe or rifle rather than on hereditary glories; cultural pursuits were unessential in’ a land where so many material tasks awaited doing. Hence in each pioneer settlement there occurred a rapid reversion to the primitive and whatever differences in backgrounds of the frontiersmen, they necessarily were homogenized into something new. Simple associations of settlers could provide what once was offered by weak government; each man looked-after his family without reliance on his fellows; the stratified society disintegrated; and cultural progress came to a pause. It was claimed that, particularly in the period 1815---60, once effective ruling groups and their institutions in the United States found it more and more difficult to control affairs and maintain a deferential social ordex with the same success, because the rapid expansion of the settled area taxed and then overwhelmed their resources[1]99 . The laxity in regard to governmental affairs could aid in explaining the difficulty of instituting a strong government in the period of the confederacy. Besides individualism, frontier process also bred nationalism and democracy. To sum up, the frontier of settlement steadily advanced and carried with it individualism, democracy, and nationalism (e.g. being independent from the control and interference of Europe), and also helped the promotion of democracy in the Old World.   
2.2.3 American Individualism on Other Stages
After the rumbustious westward expansion, between the decades at the end of 19th century and the early 20th century which American historians have dubbed the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, American society passed through the most profound and dramatic transformation in its history: the most rapid urbanization and industrialization. Between roughly 1870 and 1900 new technologies, particularly in transport, communications, and manufacturing, drove America to evolve rapidly from a rural, localized, semi-autonomous traditional nation to a modern, industrialized, urban society. From around 1870 on, patents were generated at nearly twenty times that of before, including the most momentous invention which underlay the American industrial, transportation, and urban revolutions, like the steam boiler, steel, electricity, the telegraph and telephone, the elevator, the air brake and many more. Along with these technological revolutions, a transcontinental railroad network was established to accelerate the shaping of the vast national market, and a revolution in the scale of enterprise also came forth. Though .the new expansion was incubated in many ways by the federal goveininent, it was largely carried out by private individuals and financial groups, who accumulated huge private wealth and control at an unprecedented speed. During this period individualism had been fostered by the inventive spirit and technical advances of the country, the successful expansion of capitalism, and the liberal concept of "natural rights." People were urged to be ambitious, pioneering, diligent and competent while accentuating the principle of equality of opportunity at the same time, which seemed to be self-contradictory at first sight but actually was self-consistent because both economic development.
The individualism between the early 20th century and the early stages of New Deal was referred to as new individualism and also called by some collective a result of the rapid development of productivity, science and technology, monopoly replaced free competition in business and business corporations cast more i nfluence on the economy and industry. More and more people got concerned about the danger brought by excessively running after individual interests. Collective individualism accentuate the significance of individuals and canonized individual creativity but it also prized a comprehensive integration of individual, social and collective actions as well as to others. Consequentially, coordination and cooperation were viewed as the way to achieve individual value.
The dramatic economic and social changes that happened to American society after World War II inevitably resulted in the changes of the content of American individualism. The stress of self-expression and self-improvement brought on the run-away individualism. Severe racial and gender discrimination ignited the civil rights movement, women's liberation movement, anti-war movement and anti-main-stream-culture movement. The young generation, with a sense of "the responsibility to change the society", indulged themselves with the luxury of life and became rebellious to the conventions and traditional values.
It is obvious that the specific contents of American individualism change in accordance with its specific social and economic development. However, whatever changes it might go through, the core or the key contents almost always remain the same through time. Individualism is the first language in which Americans tend to think about their lives, values independence, initiative and self-reliance. These merits  of individualism have been carried on for generations and cast great influence upon their lives. Americans have rights to choose their ways of living. The value of individualism is so commanding that other imperative American values spring from individualism. William[7]111 underscores the link between individualism and other values when he writes:
 
 "Equality of opportunity, independence, initiative, and self-reliance are some
 of the values that have remained as basic American ideals throughout history.
 All of these values are expressive of a high degree of individualism."
2.3 The Content of American Individualism
Americans value independent, self-reliant, and ambitious personalities. The values, such as privacy, self-reliance, equality and competition can best describe the spirit of individualism.
2.3.1 Self-reliance
One of the most attractive characters of most American people is their self-reliance, which is generally considered as the basic of individual freedom, another essential character of individualism of America. Self-reliance is of vital importance to Americans. The frequent experience of being forced to solve problems by themselves is the very seedbed which fosters this spirit of self-reliance among Americans, making them fiercely independent. In order to be self-reliant, a prerequisite is to know one's self. This knowledge comes about in three ways: by experience, by receiving feedback from others, and by self-education. Children in the United States, as long as they are18-year old, have to earn their daily bread by themselves, while senior citizens are also quite used to living alone instead of sharing the same ceiling with their children. No wonder that we may hear people always say ‘Thanks, but I can manage it’ throughout the country in the America.
2.3.2 Self-orientedness
American culture is believed to be self-oriented where the basic unit of the society is the individual. It is sometimes referred to as an “I” culture. The self-orientedness for Americans holds the pivotal position. So strong is this notion that some Americans believe that there is something wrong with someone who fails to demonstrate self-orientednesss. In American society there are a series of “self-combined” words. They emphasize self-consciousness, self-decisions in the society; they pay attention to self-idea, self-image, self-assertiveness, self-interests, and self-respect; they feel proud if they can realize self-reliance, self-value, self-worth and self-independence in the society.
From the song of Bob Dylan's Trust yourself , we can know something of American self-orientedness. "Trust yourself; trust yourself to do the things that only you know best. Trust yourself, trust yourself to do what's right and not be second-guessed. Don't trust me to show you beauty when beauty may only turn to rust. If you need somebody you can trust, trust yourself." Rock and roll urges people to revive their innermost feelings and their independent thinking. As the Beatles sang:" to learn to see, to learn to speak and understand our hands and our love.” Moreover, in their songs, a strong sense of self-realization, self-dependence is expressed, such as“your freedom belongs to haven and earth, your courage belongs to you, and your success depends on yourself."[5]83 
2.3.3 Privacy
The concept of privacy refers to the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people, or being free from pub lic attention. It has a lot to do with the value of individualism. Privacy is an important term in America. Americans assume that people have their private time, place, affairs and thoughts. Personal information including age, weight, family affairs, and bank deposits is in the scope of privacy.
In order to understand the American idea of individual privacy, one can start by thinking of a nation's concept of "territoriality". A nation has boundaries, and everything within those boundaries belongs to that nation and no other. And so is the case with personal affairs. If one enters a private house without asking for permission, he is likely to be accused of trespassing or even burglary. And there is individual territory, even in a house: a person's bedroom, for example, is his or her territory. Those who do not live in that bedroom must not enter without asking and must not open the closet or drawer in that room without permission. The same concept is true in an office. If somebody wants to enter the office, he/she usually asks: "May I come in?"and waits for an affirmative answer before entering the room.
American keeping and respecting privacy are demonstrated in many ways. If the parents can afford it, each child will have his or her bedroom. Children have their own space and keep their possessions. Scores in schools are also regarded as students' privacy and cannot be made known to the public casually, which is unimaginable in Chinese schools and universities. Doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, and others have rules governing "confidentiality" that are intended to prevent information about their clients' personal situations from becoming known by others. Although American houses and yards are seen open and inviting, in the Americans' mind there are invisible boundaries. When the boundaries are crossed and their privacy is disturbed by others, Americans will feel offended and their manner will become cool and aloof.
2.3.4 Equality
"Closely related to individualism is the American value of equality, which is emphasized in everything from government (everyone has the right to vote) to social relationships (Just call me by my first name)."[5]90
The advocacy of equality has existed throughout American history. Relationships in America are symmetrical and horizontal rather that asymmetrical and vertical—even if they are bound with an institution or organization, the relationship is contractual. That is, the obligation and responsibility are contractual in nature. Even though Americans get involved with each other, as they often do, they are also committed to equality—they can cut free from anybody they are involved and define their own self. Wen Yang described Americans as follows, "In America, where the privileges of birth never existed and where riches confer no peculiar rights on their possessors, men unacquainted with one another are very ready to frequent the same places and find neither peril nor advantage in the free interchange of their thoughts."[8]76 
Equality of opportunity in America means that each individual should have an equal chance for success; everyone is (or should be) equal. They see much of life as a race for success. For them, equality means that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and win. In other words, equality of opportunity may be thought of as an ethical rule. It helps ensure that the race for success is a fair one that a person does not win just because he/she was born in a wealthy family.
The Independence Declaration officially advocates the value of equality for every member of the society.

   "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
2.3.5 Competition
As is known to all, America is a country in which competition is the rule. Americans prefer competition. Since individualism is one of the core values in American culture, free competition seems to furnish optimal opportunities for individuals to develop their potential, to display their talents, and to realize their dreams.
Just as the American sayings goes: there is no free lunch in the United States. Americans are ranked, graded, classified, and evaluated so that they will know if they are the best. Americans, once they begin to work, find competition everywhere. They have to compete for job, they have to compete for promotion, they have to compete for favor, and perhaps, they have to compete for love, too. So intense and fierce is competition that everyone has to constantly "sharpen his competitive edge".  Americans struggle to stand out from the crowd to be winners. They compete to make themselves different from others. This value is regarded as one of the most efficient ways to bring individuals' enthusiasm into full play to realize themselves. Otherwise, he is likely to be squeezed out of competition race and thrown to the bottom of society.
Samovar highlights the significance of this value to Americans: "Competition is part of an American life from early children on. Whether it be the games we play or our striving to be more attractive than the person we are sitting next to in class, our competitive nature is encouraged in the United States. In sports and at work, we are told the importance of being number one."[5]79 To the extent that competition is a prerequisite for survival in American society, it becomes quite understandable why Americans have to be aggressive in attitude, and pushy in work. It also partially explains why the life speed is so fast in the U.S.

3. The Causes of American Individualism

 
After explaining the contents of American individualism, one point must be made clear, that is, why is individualism prevalent in America? What are the root-causes of American individualism? The formation of American individualism is influenced by a lot of complex and comprehensive elements.
3.1 The Impact of Religion and Philosophy
For a long period of time, Christian beliefs and liberalism embodied in the American Constitution have always been the spiritual tradition and the source of thoughts for the American people. "The American culture is made up of several components: the Western culture inherited from Britain and other European countries, the cultures brought by immigrants from other continents, the culture developed on the American land itself"[9] 66 The American concept of the importance of the individual can be linked partially to Christianity and Western philosophies that are from Western culture.
Christianity is based on the belief that man and nature have been separated absolutely and opposed each other. Western philosophers in ancient times thought that everything in the world has its opposition, i.e. everything has two sides. Man and nature oppose each other, and man can control and remake nature. In real life, if one can't obtain what he wants, it's because of his own laziness and his lack of struggling spirit. If one obeys his fate, he will be looked down upon. This kind of thought causes individualism orientation directly. Individualism dominates American culture. In America, every person is regarded as an entity and small universe, existing without depending on others. This makes Americans emphasize individualism, power, success and competition.
3.2 The Impact of History and Population
The history of the United States is relatively young. If we trace its origin to the year of 1776 when the 13 colonies declared independence, then the history is a little more than 200 years. Even if the origin was traced to 1607 when the first British immigrants set foot on the New World, the history of American culture is young, a little more than 400 years.
The people who settled in the colonies valued individuality. Centuries later, the value still endures. We can attribute this to the character of the people who immigrated to this new world to stake out a fresh life. Cultivating a new, undeveloped land required a great deal of attention to the daily activities of surviving, a situation that did not lend itself to dependency. Only the independent person survived. These environmental factors also had psychological effects on the settlers: after developing habits of survival based on individualism, they soon also developed thought patterns, beliefs, values, and attitudes attuned to that environment.
In this way, individualism becomes even more important for the American culture. They consider anything morally wrong that might violate their right to think for themselves, judge for themselves, make their own decisions, or live their own lives as they see fit. They have developed a pride in individualism that has become fixed in American history. "Westward Movement played very important role in the forming of American character and corevalues. The frontier provided the best soil for individualism to flourish."85
3.3 The Impact of Geography and Economy
The geographical condition in America is very advantageous. The territory is as large as 9,360,000 square kilometers. The land is fertile with 120,000,000 acres of arable  land, 310,000,000 acres of forest. America has a coastline of 22,680 kilometers and is bordered on the north by Canada and on the south by Mexico, two relatively weak nations. The rest of its territory is protected by seas. It has not been invaded by other nations ever since 1812. So the devastation brought by wars has not been witnessed here for over one hundred years. Ketcham Ralph believes that the advantageous ecological conditions have influence on the U.S. culture:" It has been crucial in the development of the American values-i.e. individualism."[3]70 Advantageous geography in America requires and encourages people to compete, to exert self, to do everything by themselves, to explore and so on.
Economic development in America was advanced enough to furnish the basis for a spirit of self-reliance. Thanks to the great frontier, the availability of rich land and the lack of laborers, nearly each hard-working man in America, except the blacks, was able to make a profit on his own piece of land free of the oppression of feudal lords in the Old World. This independent status of men as property holders promoted the early immigrant's quest for affluence and strengthened their belief in individual right to property and equal opportunity in pursuit of material success. "Here, the rigid status system, the dependence relationship between people, etc, were all out of place. Land could be easily obtained by the farmers; artisans were free from the control of the guilds; class distinction was not so important as it was in Europe; social mobility was high. This is the best soil for the development of values such as individualism, freedom, democracy, self-reliance, and etc."[1]55   
As Engels points out, "From the very beginning, the United States has been modern and capitalistic; The United States were set up and developed by the petty bourgeoisie and peasants who had escaped the feudal system in Europe to establish a pure capitalist society." Although bound up with an agrarian system, colonial America already bore the root of an aggressive industrial economy and thus provided a rich soil for the birth of individualism. Socio-economic transformation from an agrarian order to an industrial one and the corresponding theoretical adjustments provided material as well as intellectual bases for the maturity of American thought and the popularity of individualism.
 

4. The Significance on Society of American Individualism

During the development of America, individualism has played a very important role on society. It has something to do with many aspects of Americans' life. Yet, as is known to everyone that everything has two sides, there is no exception to American individualism.
4.1 The Positive Significance
During the prosperous development of American, individualism played a very important role, it developed to a quite active direction, and showed a positive influence.
Firstly, Individualism helped America a lot both in the early development and in the Independent War. American people conquer the nature, and develop their national border with the strength of individualism, and they create a great number of wealth for their motherland. The declaration of independence also encourages the northern American people’s revolutionary morale. Because of individualism, people have a more active thinking so that they could keep on creating. American society is in changing and developing, for the American people keep on seeking for new things. That is really prompt to the development of their society.
Secondly, individualism helps American parents educate their children. Americans always advocate Individualized Education, and it emphasizes on independence and the ability of self-analysis and problem solving. Therefore, in America, the relationship between parents and children, teachers and children are not the elders to the juniors but friends. After grown-up of the children, they should move out and live without their parents, and they should support their life by themselves, for they have a concept that when one becomes an adult, he should be responsible for himself and support himself with his own ability. That is the independence brought by individualism.
Thirdly, individualism helps Americans to be very independent. Individualism emphasizes on self-confidence and believing in uniqueness. One should believe that he is unique in the world and have enough courage to display him and find out the potential of him. Every American believes that one has an ability to struggle for himself, grasp his own fate, depend on himself and uphold his own personality. Meanwhile, they also emphasize on independence and self-reliance. What they are proud of is the achievement that gained by oneself but not through the help that given by other people. Therefore, Americans believe that individualism is worth being proud of and it brands with the characteristic of American culture.
Forthly , the spirit of creativity advocated by individualism is also a good aspect. It is said that from 1901 to 1984 there are 130 American people achieved Nobel Prize. One should not be lack of ability to blaze new trails. Emphasizing on individualism makes Americans cultivate their own ability of creativity.
Further more the individuality that admitted by individualism also can help a lot to the construction and development of American society. Resisting on the system that based on the principle of individuality is a good way to develop the country.
4.2 The Negative Significance
According to Williams, individualism, when driven to the extreme, can easily bring about negative results.[7]62 Since the central tenet of individualism in America is the overriding concern with the individual, there are really dark sides to the American individualism, especially when it goes to extremes.
Firstly, in the case of extreme individualism people always think about themselves. Extreme individualism causes loneliness, mutual nonchalance and unconcern among people. What is advocated is not the obligations and responsibilities ascribed to each member of the society according to his or her social position, but extending oneself. What is more likely to happen is that in his preoccupation with his own "rights", he tends to develop indifference to those who fall behind in the race for survival.
Secondly, in his hot pursuit of self-interest, or sometimes simply in his quest for individual identity, the individual is likely to hurt the interests of his peers, his family, or his community, if he does not exercise enough restraint. Moreover, extreme individualism is pursuing excessive freedom, which is harmful to the social stability and harmony.
Thirdly, when America behaves as a state, individualism shows its reflection in pragmatism, aggressiveness and arrogance of American foreign policy. Individualism has also led to the fact that it is difficult for the Americans to understand the values in other cultures, especially those in the totally different Asian countries, including China. What's more, still because of their sense of superiority, they seldom show interest in "condescending" to learn from other cultures. As WenYang points out: "In the eyes of many Americans, the American democratic system is the best system the world has ever seen. This view implies that the United States should be the warrior defending freedom and democracy for mankind and it has the right of demanding or even forcing other nations to follow the political development model exemplified by the United States."127
 

5．Conclusion

 
“Individualism”is the word that comes from Europe, but American individualism is the representation of western individualism. Individualism appeared in the United States on the first day when immigrants from Europe set foot on North America, the Puritan is the historical roots of individualism. American environment is helpful for individualism to engender and develop.
American individualism is the product of the specific American history, which has had new meanings and presented different forms of expression. From the evolution of individualism, we can see that its effect on the community is twofold. It not only promote the development of society, but also hinder the progress of society, however, its positive function plays a major role. To learn individualism, we not only need dynamic observation, but also analyse its impact on society critically, thus we can understand American society and culture better. Previous study of individualism in American society generally thinks that it is a product of capitalism, which is in contradiction with advocated collectivism. In my opinion, as a value concept, it is changed with the development of social economic and politic, individualism has been given new meaning, enriched and strengthened constantly with the passage of time. Its active role in society will become perfect. While studying the values of individualism, we should advance with the times with the scientific and objective attitude, we should not only have the correct treatment and understanding of our culture, but also have a correct attitude toward the extra-territorial culture.

Acknowledgements

My initial thanks go to my supervisor Liu Shuqin, who patiently supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions. Without her help, I could not have finished this dissertation.
I am also indebted to other teachers and my classmates who have not only offered me their warm encouragements but also shared their ideas and books with me.
My greatest personal debt is to my grandparents and parents, who have cultivated a soul of sensitivity, hospitality, and honesty out of me, and offered a harbor of happiness and sweetness for me.
The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.

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