Europeans believe that culture is something they can grasp and touch because, for them, culture is comprised of objects, or remnants of objects, and this object, this remnant, conceals within it the essence of the original. For the Chinese, the matter is completely different---for them, the essence of culture can only be preserved in spiritual form.
László Krasznahorkai, Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens: Reportage
culture, history, meaning, that-which-endures, tradition, value