Writing Outline of "Should China People Celebrate the Foreign Festival"

First, the main "foreign festivals" popular in China at present:

1, before the Cultural Revolution: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Eid al-Fitr, May Day International Labor Day, etc.

2. Newly launched after the reform and opening up: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, April Fool's Day and so on.

Second, about cultural integration and independence.

As a festival culture, it belongs to the cultural category, so we should discuss festivals from the concept of culture. "Foreign Festival" is a western culture. Whether we want foreign festivals or not is a question of whether we want western culture.

As a part of human civilization, culture has always been cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic. Our China culture, including "traditional culture", is also the fusion of many cultures. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, we introduced Buddhism from the "Western Heaven", which made the philosophy (metaphysics) in the Wei and Jin Dynasties melt into pessimism and karma, thus enriching our philosophical thoughts. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that we completed the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism that the Tang Dynasty prospered. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, we introduced Christianity, and modern science and technology such as mathematics, physics and chemistry were introduced to China with missionaries, which led to our modern science and technology today. In the early Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi was far-sighted, allowing Catholicism to build a church in Beijing, and wrote a big plaque for it. During this period, we introduced more advanced western culture, which led to the prosperity of Kanggan.

The author believes that culture is a process of "transformation". Culture needs to be enriched and developed, which is the need of people and the need of culture's own progress. If you don't pay attention to people's needs, how can you talk about people-oriented? The attitude towards foreign festivals is manifested in the attitude towards human needs and the attitude towards cultural development.

3. What is Sinology? Is the decline of our national culture caused by the invasion of western culture?

A Sina netizen who insisted on boycotting foreign festivals said in a post on the author's blog: "Christmas is Jesus' birthday, and westerners should celebrate Christmas because they all believe in Christianity!" In China, most people don't even know what Christianity is, so they blindly follow foreigners for Christmas! They only know Grandpa Christmas, but they don't know the meaning of this festival.

China people have always believed in Confucianism and Buddhism since ancient times (I even think Mao Zedong Thought is also a kind of belief), but now they ignore Confucius, who left China with a thousand years' teaching, Chairman Mao, who liberated China, and even celebrate a birthday for someone who doesn't know who it is! Is it funny? Really! ! !

If you follow blindly, you will be laughed at by foreigners! Don't flatter yourself! Poor ignorant China people. "

This is a typical view of resisting the foreign festival theory.

The boss of a company in Dongguan that prohibits employees from engaging in any Christmas activities said that he usually educates employees with "Chinese studies" and asks employees to recite reading materials such as "Chinese studies" every day. Some people in the society flaunt their adherence to Chinese culture, and also put forward the idea of abolishing the AD calendar and restoring the Xia calendar, and even solemnly put on Tang costumes to show their differences.

In this regard, the author believes that:

1. There is no contradiction between strengthening China's main culture and embracing western culture, but they can go hand in hand. It is debatable that Chengdu and Dongguan protect their own culture by forcibly boycotting western culture. History has proved that closing the door and monopolizing the country behind closed doors will never make you strong.

2. The boss in Dongguan asked his employees to recite Disciples' Rules and Zhu Bolu's Family Management Motto, thinking that they were studying and promoting "Chinese studies". This is very interesting. People all know that "Chinese studies" is a very large and profound system, which includes Confucianism, traditional Chinese medicine, philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, Confucian classics, Neo-Confucianism and so on. Disciples' Rules and Zhu Bolu's Family Instructions are only elementary books for children to learn. Using English as a metaphor, this is only equivalent to English letters. If anyone says he can read letters and he knows English, people will think that this person is crazy! In addition, it should be emphasized that dross and essence coexist in traditional culture, and Disciples Rules and Family Instructions of Zhu Bolu are such reading materials. It is not a correct attitude to treat Chinese studies if you can't correctly distinguish between good and bad and only recite them.

3. What to wear, how to dress up, what calendar to use to mark the year, and even women's foot binding. Men who wear long hair or braid their hair all celebrate the New Year in the style of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (that is, today's Spring Festival). That's just a personal hobby. At best, it is an untimely and strange phenomenon, which has not reached the cultural level at all. But if you want to publicize these things as "advocacy" (in China, the advocacy of leaders is always equal to regulations) or as "regulations", it is infringement, at least it will belong to a kind of cultural autocracy.

It should be pointed out that Buddhism is not a native culture, but an authentic western culture. Marxism–Leninism is the core of Mao Zedong Thought and also a philosophy from the West. The important thing is that Mao Zedong Thought is not a religion. Taking Mao Zedong Thought as a religious worship is a typical "cultural revolution thinking" and cultural degeneration.

An important point of resisting the western cultural theory is that the decline of China's traditional culture is caused by the massive invasion of western culture. Is it true?/You don't say. The author thinks that this view is a copy of "religion is spiritual opium". It is against the historical reality and unfair to blame the decline of China's traditional culture on "the invasion of western culture". The introduction of a large number of western cultures has enriched our culture and improved our quality of production and life. This is a great achievement. This, as long as you are not blind, you will know with your eyes open. As for the decline of our traditional culture, I think there are two main reasons.

First, the law of cultural development, that is, some "traditional cultures" that do not meet people's real life needs are naturally eliminated. For example, "Twenty-four solar terms" (put forward by a Peking University professor who insisted on resisting the viewpoint). Due to the destruction of the natural environment, great changes have taken place, and the "24 solar terms" can no longer accurately cover the current weather conditions; In addition, due to the development of agricultural science and technology, it is not entirely dependent on the "24 solar terms" for production activities. So the "twenty-four solar terms" were gradually eliminated. This only depends on the changes in the natural environment, and has nothing to do with the "cultural invasion" of foreign devils.

Secondly, according to the theory that "external factors are the conditions of change and internal factors are the basis of change", the second important reason for the decline of China traditional culture is China traditional culture itself. In the past century, China's traditional culture has not kept pace with the times, but has become a burden of social progress. For example, China's traditional values are lost in the face of "market value". Among them, there is also a very important point, that is, some people who flaunt Chinese studies have sabotaged it. Because this point is very sensitive, I didn't cover it in the TV discussion. But I think it's really an important reason. The fact is that for a long time, we have been "enemies" with excellent traditional culture, which has greatly "revolutionized" the life of traditional culture. Our traditional culture suffered a devastating blow as a feudal culture during the May 4th Movement, leaving only a little fur. However, there was little left of this poor thing, which was severely swept away for the second time during the Cultural Revolution. People's favorite traditional festivals, such as Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival and other festivals with a long history of Chinese civilization, were discarded as dross. And some vulgar culture, even junk culture, is regarded as "traditional culture". During this period, our national studies and traditional cultural spirit were almost swept away. As a result, today's "China scholars" only read ancient books from books (some even don't understand them), but they simply don't understand that China culture is a collision of various cultures, and they don't understand the fundamental spirit of China culture: "Mount Tai can only grow into a big one if it doesn't allow soil; Rivers can be deep because they don't choose small streams. This is why we put forward the narrow view that "we should not only talk about tolerance, but also see the reality of western cultural invasion and defend national culture". In a word, this is because of the frustration of our traditional culture itself, no wonder foreign devils. The author thinks that if we want to strengthen the main culture of China, we must review this historical mistake and correctly understand what is traditional culture and what is junk culture. Recognize the position of China culture in today's multicultural world. Otherwise, you will always be a poor child with narrow mind, short vision and low cultural quality, and will not be respected by the world.

5. The exchange and integration of Chinese and Western cultures is the law of cultural development and the irresistible trend of social development.

The development of world civilization determines the integration of national cultures, rather than mutual resistance and discrimination. The process of cultural development is a process of sublation. The spirit of attracting people to do good in Christianity is consistent with China's moral system, and it is also a supplement and perfection to China's traditional morality. Absorbing its essence is of great benefit to China's current social and cultural construction. The foreign festival has brought another human civilization to China, and its romantic poetry and warm human feelings have added more joy to the world. Father's Day, Mother's Day and Thanksgiving Day, in particular, not only do not conflict with the local traditional cultural spirit and national moral feelings, but are particularly consistent. In other words, these foreign festivals are also what we need. Why do you refuse?

The only sympathetic reason for resisting the theory of foreign festivals is that "they are worried that the main culture of China will be destroyed by western culture, that the entry of western culture will make China's subjectivity lose and sink, and that this generation of young people will be captured by western culture in the past". "It should be admitted that this is a very good, very good reason. Unfortunately, because of this, we don't really understand the relationship between cultural development and cultural protection, and we don't realize that the national personality of culture is the relationship between * * * and * * * of human civilization. On the contrary, protecting the national characteristics of culture is contrary to the exchange and integration of other national cultures. In fact, the essence of culture, or the vitality of cultural development, lies in its inclusiveness and openness. As mentioned earlier, China culture is an open system, and it is precisely because of its openness that it has a stronger vitality. Blind rejection of foreign cultures is a kind of cultural self-confidence. A culture without self-confidence is often a culture without life.

Only by absorbing the world's excellent culture and carrying forward the national cultural tradition according to the law of cultural development is the only way to develop national culture. Resisting the advanced culture of other nations can only make one's own culture lose its vitality and gradually tend to perish. Therefore, it is not advisable to "protect national culture" by boycotting foreign festivals and other advanced national cultures, which runs counter to the provisions of UNESCO.

The author believes that foreign festivals, as a necessary and beneficial supplement to our traditional festivals, are a very normal phenomenon of cultural exchange and should not be mentioned in the protection of national culture. We should defend our national culture on the basis of confidence. Yesterday, a friend in charge of Sino-French cultural exchange in France called me and said: In Paris, the mayor of Paris personally took the lead in spending the Spring Festival in China. China's Spring Festival celebration is not inferior to their Christmas, and it has no commercial or political color. As we all know, in many western countries, people are keen to learn our China culture, celebrate our Spring Festival, and learn our Peking Opera, Chinese medicine and martial arts. In New York State, China Lunar New Year must be a state-wide legal holiday. Compared with westerners, they attach importance to their own traditional national festivals such as Christmas, but they do not exclude the holiday culture of other countries. However, we "defend our national culture" by hating and boycotting Christmas. Is this action too stupid and narrow-minded? Can such national psychology develop culture and achieve anything great?

Don't be so nervous and neurotic about western culture, including holiday culture such as Christmas. You should take it calmly and calmly. We can tolerate the western "market economy" that is incompatible with traditional national thinking. Why resist those romantic, humanistic and poetic festivals?

Dr. Shi, who boycotted Christmas, thinks that "most people in China use the name' Christmas' without considering the Christmas culture in the West, and even joined the carnival without knowing it". This is the expression of "China people fall into collective unconsciousness in culture", and its fundamental reason is "the loss of theme and the sinking of subjectivity in China culture". These doctors are lovely. They think highly of themselves and make the festival culture too ideological. In fact, many people create festivals with only one function, that is, to entertain, to entertain the world and to entertain themselves. Many people in China don't know the origin of Spring Festival and Dragon Boat Festival. Don't they eat jiaozi and Zongzi as usual? ! Many people, including some party member and doctoral students, go to the temple to burn incense and kowtow to the Buddha, but they can't recite the scriptures. They don't know that this Maitreya Buddha turned out to be a western god. Isn't it fun to bow? Although most people don't know that the year when Jesus was born was the first year, aren't we still celebrating the "New Year"? Why do we simple doctors have to ask everyone who is busy at Christmas to know the origin of this festival?

Theoretically speaking, the emergence and popularity of festival culture does not depend entirely on the historical tradition and cultural background of this culture, but on the understanding and needs of contemporary people. Stuart Tinl, a British scholar, holds that "it may be more important for the public to recreate the meaning of festivals and give them new uses and understanding."

6. There is also cultural competition, but this kind of competition is a natural choice for a society that rejects self-isolation and maliciously resists other cultures.

Culture has its unique law of development. From a certain point of view, culture also has competition, which is a kind of social free choice according to the law of cultural development. Different from boxing, class struggle theory and battlefield shopping mall struggle, it is people's psychological and spiritual love, hate and sublation. Therefore, the smell of gunpowder is very strong, and the paranoid arguments of "advocating" and "boycotting" are ridiculous. Some people say that culture also needs guidance. This is true, but guidance is a natural choice and focus in cultural development, not a kind of artificial or even administrative rigid intervention and "control". What is happening in Chengdu and Dongguan at present has exposed that there is still a serious "cultural revolution thinking" in our culture. This is a response to modern civilization and a barbaric thinking that is incompatible with culture.

Those who want to avoid a certain culture by "boycotting" are as stupid as those who force a certain culture by "advocating". Because both methods violate the laws of cultural development.

Tradition is a relative concept, such as Buddhism. For us modern people, it is a traditional culture, but when we first entered China, it was a brand-new western culture. For another example, the tunic suit we are wearing today is a traditional dress, but it is a foreign dress, or Japanese dress, which is more popular with Han people! Today, many so-called "traditional cultures" have already merged with other cultures and lost our local cultural features. Today, some retro people (people who flaunt themselves as "Chinese studies") wear Tang costumes, which are actually a wonderful combination of Chinese and Western.

Mao Zedong said, "Make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China. Take its essence and discard its dross. " Foreign culture is not a scourge. Fully absorbing foreign culture will not only stop its original cultural tradition, but also greatly promote its faster and healthier development. The development of today's culture is bound to be the combination of global consciousness and national consciousness. When a nation or a country is in a prosperous period, it not only has a strong sense of cultural identity, but also is easy to accept foreign cultures. This is a pluralistic era, we have the ability to see the world with wide eyes, and we have become open and inclusive, which is the cultural character that a multicultural era should have.

Finally, the author is puzzled by the actions of some people who wear dresses, take rickshaws (cars), live in houses and speak foreign languages, but insist on boycotting foreign festivals. Can this cultural quality defend the main culture of China? Don't!