Introduction

Thanks to the rapid development in the past over thirty years after the adoption of the reform and opening up policy, China has become the biggest trading nation and second largest economy, with the largest amount of foreign exchange in the world. As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, it is playing an increasingly important role in the international affairs. Besides, as an ancient civilization, it is witnessing the revival of its cultural vigor.

The progress of China's economy and society has resulted in new occupations, more complicated social structures and increasing diversities of people's interests. The country's opening up has led to the emergence of new thoughts and diversification of people's mentality and values. Under such circumstances, we are more aware than before that only the economic development is not enough, but there must be the rising of the leading values, which should have the power of cohesion, influence and progressiveness in line with the economic creativity. These core values should be based on the national tradition and reflect the characteristics of the times and the direction of humankind's advance. With these core values, our society will be more cohesive and China will have higher soft power.

Every national spirit has its origin and development. They have been formed within certain time and region and then spread and passed down through memory. Experience has shown that the common values are the prerequisite for the life of a community. They can help individuals to communicate and understand each other better, to set their common goals and to take joint action. Without these values, there would be no maintenance and continuance of the community.

According to the report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), "We should promote prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony, uphold freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law, and advocate patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship, so as to cultivate and observe core socialist values." This reflects the CPC's latest understanding of the core socialist values and its high theoretical and cultural awareness. From the above statement, we conclude that those core values are the greatest common divisor of our society. They can be subdivided into three levels: national values including prosperity, democracy, civility and harmony; social values including freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law; and citizens'values including patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship. The first suggests what country China will develop into, the second, what society we are aiming to build, and the third, into what kind of citizens we will cultivate ourselves.

Among the core socialist values, "dedication" is listed into the third level, which suggests what kind of citizens we will cultivate ourselves Why do we have to emphasize "dedication"? As is well known, in society, besides public life and family life, we have our professional life as one of the main practices. The professional activity is the foundation of and prerequisite for human existence and de velopment. The social existence and progress must rely on the professional activity to meet the demand for material and mental wealth. People from different walks of life have to observe their professional ethics. In the individual professional activity, dedication is the rational condensation of the professional ethics, embracing the functions like serving, doing good to and developing our society. Therefore, dedication is an important value and principle of every citizen as well as the basic requirement in professional ethics.

Whatever work we do and whatever position we have, we should love it and dedicate ourselves to it with our hard work. Today, when we cultivate and practice the core socialist values, it is especially necessary to define the word "dedication" and its significance, advocate it throughout our society and guide every citizen of China in making something excellent out of their ordinary work. Thus all of us will show respect for our work, be earnest in and concentrated on it and pursue excellence, so as to contribute to the attainment of the goal of making China a moderately-prosperous one in an all-round way and realizing the Chinese Dream.