Abstract: Is there an inherent logic in the origin,development,transmission and disappearance of a human culture? Is there a self-healing mechanism inherent to those cultures that have survived crises and gained vitality of redevelopment? What is the cultural grounding?Regarding Chinese culture,its history has provided one logical answer:there is a cultural self-healing mechanism that is key to its sustainable development.The evidences are the practices of traditional lifestyle,or “folkloric identity,” Therefore,“folkloric identity” may be the only logical way to understand the diversity within unity in Chinese culture.Otherwise,one may fall into a vicious trap of “racial or ethnic groups”, which were the concepts introduced to China at the beginning of the twentieth century. This path has led the cultural groups in China to an unprecedented dead-end of racial and ethnic conflicts.Only when the everyday life of the common people can return to the traditional roots and the folkloric identity can a culture re-gain its cultural confidence,achieve self-healing,and continue to develop as a new culture.

Key words: cultural self-healing mechanism, transmission mechanism, folkloric identity, localization, heritagization, traditionalization, cultural self-confidence