EN
The starting point is the assumption that civic transformations and China cannot be understood and analysed only on the grounds of the Western, normative understanding of the individual and the society. It is emphasised that as a rule Western analysis of the development of China - beginning with Western experience and notions describing the process of development - cannot be a useful universal benchmark for defining social changes in the Chinese process of modernisation. The study reaches a conclusion that despite great changes of civic and social, economic, and political nature, the human is still not treated as an individual making independent decisions, but as a creature that is evaluated in relationship to the community and to the whole. This does not mean that there are no individual orientations or civic groups originating within the existing limits. It is emphasised that despite all the occurring changes, the existing identity may still be defined as cultural and state identity, yet increasingly opening to other civilisations.