Digital technology is so revolutionary and plays so great a role in promoting social progress that none of the technologies once revolutionary - the likes of steam engines and atomic energy -- can match.
    Never has the world become so communicable, the earth so small and history so "short" due to digitalization. Also due to digitalization, earth-shaking changes are taking place in human civilization. Traditional ethnic cultures are obviously subject to the impact unprecedented in terms of velocity. Ethnic languages, arts, folkways and concepts are disappearing, and people are showing less interest in their own ethnic cultures. Folk songs and dancing are declining along with other carriers of traditional cultures. Nowadays, folk singers relatively young in age are rarely found, as people of the younger generation are increasingly abducted to audiovisual products and the Internet.
    The current decline of traditional ethnic cultures is far from being superficial. It is deep-going enough to be thought provoking. The market is flooded by goods supposedly with ethnic characteristics, but buyers are mostly from outside who come to hunt for novelty. Dwindling is the interest of people in goods with characteristics of their own ethnic groups. What are supposed to represent ethnic cultures -- buildings, tools, costumes, folkways, etc. - are exhibited in "folk customs villages" and other tourist sites. More often than not, these are not real but are things deliberately distorted to suit a commercial purpose. This phenomenon reveals that the current "revival" of traditional ethnic cultures can only be seen as something artificial, something that harbors a possible decline of such cultures and a possible deterioration of peopleÕs ethnic awareness.
    What should be done if traditional ethnic cultures can effectively deal with challenges of the digital era? This, as a matter of fact, is a question of modernization of traditional ethnic cultures.

Digitalization comes as a breakthrough in the development of human communications vehicles. It can be understood as one such vehicle and, as such, its rationality depends on the rationality of the purpose that traditional ethnic cultures are meant to serve.

To achieve this rationality in practice, however, we need to oppose two erroneous cultural tendencies. The first is cultural conservatism, which is short of a global sight and manifests itself in blind faith in one's own ethnic culture and rejection of other cultures. The second features attempts for a“universal culture”, which is based on the assumption that inherent in the process of globalization is a “leading culture”;that will eventually “conquer”every corner of the earth.

We need to take the following approach towards those challenges ushered in by digitalization that characterizes the 21st century:

First, there is the need for us to use digital technology to salvage and preserve traditional ethnic cultures. By this, we mean to preserve not only what still exists in traditional ethnic cultures while possibly to disappear but also bring back to life, through simulation, what once existed in them. By using digital technology, we can preserve traditional ethnic cultures exactly as they are, not only in writing but also in audiovisual format, which is beyond the reach of any traditional method of recording. Digital technology makes information-sharing possible by way of copying, thus helping end monopoly of information by a privileged few in a given ethnic group - the chieftain or chieftains of a tribe or an ethnic group, for example.

Secondly, digital technology should be used to renovate traditional ethnic cultures. American philosopher Sammuel P. Huntington holds that the modern world features a cultural diversity, in which no culture can go it alone to exist. This, however, does not suggest that cultural diversity takes a natural course to develop. Cultural diversity is to be achieved through individualized development of different cultures, through contradictory movements of cultures in which each strives to develop on its own and for its own good. Innovation is the soul of any culture if it is to develop. It is on innovation that the destiny of an ethnic group or a nation depends. To put it another way, innovation is the motive force for development of ethnic cultures.

Thirdly, digital technology should be used to help traditional ethnic cultures go global. Information dissemination in this era of networking is meant for the world, which is possible with the aid of Internet. Equality is the most salient feature of information flows through Internet. In other words, online information released by anybody could exert a widespread influence on society. In view of this, we should take advantage of Internet in our effort to let the world know the best in our traditional ethnic cultures.

Fourthly, there is the need for us to use digital technology in effort to industrialize traditional ethnic cultures. Cultural resources can generate good economic results provided these are integrated with industries, high-tech industries in particular. As a new type of economic resources, cultural resources can play a pivotal role in promoting development of economies in their entirety. Cultural industries, as defined by the United Nations, refer to a range of cultural activities designed to produce, reproduce, store and distribute cultural products and services according to industrial standards. Good cultural products and services can be generated provided digital technology is effectively used to develop traditional ethnic cultures.

Fifthly, digitalization can promote the concept of ethnic equality to help ensure an all-round development of the human race. Traditional behavioral communication and communication through writing are based on the status of the communicator. The communicator in digital communication, however, can withhold his social status from public view, thus disconnecting the communicator from the recipient of communication in terms of social status. Digitalization comes as a practical platform for exchange between people on an equal basis, and therefore is conducive to ethnic equality. Internet helps create a social environment in which genuine freedom will eventually become available to every individual in his or her endeavor to seek an all-round development. Moreover, people of different ethnic groups may, through communication on Internet, acquire a better understanding of each other's mode of thinking. This is certainly to the benefit of all, in that people are thus helped to improve their overall quality.

Last of all, digital technology should be used to promote understanding on the part of the various ethnic groups of the need to honor the new rules for games that come along with digital networking. A new code of conduct is coming into being in the current era of digital networking. Work should be done to help people of various ethnic groups identify with and honor it.