During the long history of China, the Chinese tradition mainly referred to the culture has played a crucial role in the process of modernizing China. It is an undeniable fact that as a part of the tradition, superstition has played an ambiguous role in the effort to modernize China through science. Because lacking enough scientific knowledge, the ancient Chinese people have believed in deities such as the dragon and phoenix.
They are very superstitious when they have found the “dragon” bones at Zhoukoudian which are turned out to be the human skullcap after the excavation of the scientists. It is the famous Peking Man who has been proved living in the 500,000 years before. By analyzing the Peking Man, it shows the truth that it is one offshoot leading to modern humans. The reason causing the evolution from ape to human is labor according to Darwin’s theory. It can be concluded that “labor created humanity”(P.11). And no matter in the Orient or in the Occident, all the world is one human. In this case, science has explained the process of human evolution which makes the Chinese people get rid of the absurd superstition.
But in another case, science cannot give enough evidence to prove the origin of Wild Man (yeren) appeared in China. Unlike the Peking Man who has a stablemate and has undergone human evolution through hard labor, Wild Man has no stablemate and does not need evolution. Therefore science cannot pull away from the curtain of the superstition of Wild Man which makes it hide in the cloak of legend. It is a sheer coincidence that there exists Bigfoot in the western countries that has some similarities with Wild Man. The scientists find it is hard to identify what Wild Man or Bigfoot is because animals sometimes become human and humans revert to the beast. It can be concluded that Wild Man is an ambiguous definition in terms of humanity.
Although the Chinese people have some confusion on the identification of Wild Man, after several decades of popularization of science, the process of Chinese modernization is becoming faster and faster. Believing the idea of labor determining humanity and bringing the huge change of human society, the Chinese people can make great progress step by step under the doctrine of socialism and the guidance of science. Certainly, the role of tradition especially superstition cannot be ignored though it seems a little ambiguous.