Traditional Chinese Value Orientations as Indigenous Constructs: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

This study investigates dimensionality of a set of traditional Chinese values and construct validity of traditional Chinese value orientations. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed on data from college students (N=1,528) in three societies of the Greater China area, who responded to the 40-item Chinese value survey (CVS). The proposed final measurement model contains five factors and obtains adequate model fit on several estimation measures. The resulting oblique dimensions are labeled “Work ethics”, “Moral virtues”, “Temperament”, “Human Relations,” and “Social Prestige”. The first fours factors are conceptually associated with four of Kluckhohn & Strobeck’s universal human problems of “Relation with Nature”, “Human nature,” “Personality/activity”, and “Human relations” and appear to represent traditional Chinese solutions to these problems, i.e., traditional Chinese value orientations. The last factor “Social prestige” represents a value orientation probably unique to this culture.