What is rural culture?

China has a population of1300 million, of which more than 900 million are farmers. Therefore, the problem of farmers has always been a major social topic of great concern. Over the years, it has been one of the focuses of the party and government departments and experts and scholars. As an important part of farmers' problems, farmers' culture has long been concerned by cultural workers and has been practiced in various places. Today, under the background that the Party and the government attach great importance to the "three rural issues" and put forward the great goal of building a new socialist countryside and striving to build a harmonious socialist society, the cultural needs of farmers have received unprecedented attention. Because of this, from June+10/5, 5438 to June, 5438+07, the "National Seminar on Paying Attention to Farmers' Cultural Needs" was co-sponsored by the Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Culture, the Office of the National Leading Group for Art Science Planning, China Culture Newspaper and Wenling Municipal Government of Zhejiang Province. Following the previous survey and essay-writing activity of "paying attention to farmers' cultural needs", it has attracted the attention and enthusiasm of national cultural workers, readers and farmers' friends. During the conference, cultural leaders, experts and scholars from all over the country, grassroots cultural workers and farmers' friends gathered to discuss the current situation and changes of farmers' cultural needs, and explore relevant policies, concepts and methods to meet farmers' cultural needs, and so on. With a strong sense of historical mission and social responsibility, the delegates devoted great enthusiasm and concern to the cultural problems of farmers, which reflected the profound spirit of humanistic care.

To study the cultural needs of farmers, we must have a big cultural concept.

Xu Weicheng, former deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Cultural Poverty Alleviation Committee, fully affirmed the research activities and seminars on "paying attention to farmers' cultural needs". He said that this survey and discussion is very good and important, and everyone is seriously investigating the cultural needs of farmers in China. We didn't do serious research in the past, but now it's time. We have entered a new stage. Modern farmers are needed to build modern agriculture and rural areas. At present, the per capita annual income of farmers in China has exceeded 3,000 yuan. When farmers are rich, they will have more cultural needs, have the remaining time and money for cultural activities, and their cultural needs will also change. We should understand the cultural needs of farmers today. The popularization of education makes farmers have more cultural needs than before, and more importantly, farmers' demand for cultural content is different from before. At present, the relevant investigation is not enough, because the changes in this area have just sprouted. We should pay more attention to the changes of farmers' cultural needs in the construction of new countryside, and then study how to meet these needs. He emphasized that the study of farmers' cultural needs should have a big cultural concept and discover the changes of their cultural concepts and cultural needs from daily life phenomena. If farmers' cultural needs are not met normally, not only is the government failing to fulfill its responsibilities, but it may also become a social instability factor and trigger sharp social contradictions. Of course, it will take a long time to meet the cultural needs of farmers, but we must continue to work hard.

Gu Yingchun, former vice president of Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, believes that cultural studies should have a broad vision. If we study culture, we will never know. He explained the lack of cultural self-confidence and the distortion of cultural mentality with the recent theories of "abandoning dragons", "choosing masters of Chinese studies" and "reviving new Chinese studies", and called for the urgent need to correct cultural concepts and resist the tendency of neo-ignorance culturalism. He said that peasant culture and folk culture are the roots of China's national culture. We should protect the original ecological culture. In a sense, the success of shadow play "Beautiful Sunset" is attributed to the combination of traditional art and modern art ideas. In the past, we paid too much attention to the negative effects of religion, but often avoided talking about its positive effects. In fact, this is the duality of cultural functions, and we must face it squarely.

The key to solving farmers' cultural needs lies in "giving more, taking less and letting go"

Kang, former director of the Policy and Regulation Department of the Ministry of Culture, believes that the policy of "giving more, taking less and letting loose" established by the central government to solve the "three rural issues" is the guiding ideology to fundamentally solve the cultural needs of farmers and should be effectively implemented and embodied in cultural policies. In particular, "giving more" is still insufficient in culture at present, and there is a big gap. He said that "giving more" in culture is the basic function of the government. People go to the theatre and the government pays the bill, which is one of the forms of "giving more". This is not uncommon in all countries, it is one of the economic laws of cultural operation, it is a form of social secondary distribution to return taxpayers' money to the people, it is one of the important measures to ease social contradictions and consolidate political power, and it is also a fine tradition of our party, which should continue to be implemented and implemented. He also stressed that sending culture to the countryside should pay attention to practical results and never disturb the people. For the increasingly active private theatrical troupes, the government should not leave them alone, but strengthen the guidance of management and economic policies, which is also an important aspect of "giving more". Huang Datong, vice president of zhejiang vocational academy of art, and Xu Hongtu, a researcher at Zhejiang Art Research Institute also hold the same view. Huang Datong believes that the current drama crisis and vitality coexist, and the situation of drama cannot be generalized. Increasing the proportion of public performance is determined by the nature of our party. Hong Xu said that the development of rural culture in different places is very uneven, and folk troupes are constantly in the process of life and death, with many places and few places, which is extremely unbalanced. Folk is the source of drama, so we should give more support to folk troupes, and state-owned troupes should adjust their mentality, put down their airs, and repay farmers with the feeling of returning home.

Farmers are the main body of cultural creation and cultural acceptance.

When it comes to rural culture, Fu Jin, a professor at China Opera Academy, particularly emphasizes the dominant position of farmers. He said, we always talk about sending culture to farmers to meet their cultural needs. The subtext is that elites and intellectuals are the masters of culture, and they give farmers culture? In fact, we should change this concept. Farmers are also the main creators of China's 5,000-year civilization. They have been meeting their cultural needs in their own way. For a long time, some people have always thought that only western and urban things are culture and truly valuable. They have been instilling some foreign and different cultural values into farmers, thinking that the culture created by farmers is suspicious and their culture is poor.

In fact, this ignores the ability of farmers to meet their own cultural needs and their spiritual and cultural values. Behind the poverty or hollowing out of farmers' cultural activities, it is often because their value is questioned and their original spiritual and cultural activities are suppressed. In fact, no individual or group can create any cultural activities to fully meet the spiritual and cultural needs of hundreds of millions of farmers. Farmers are the main body of rural cultural activities. There are more than 20 private troupes in Wenling, and foreign troupes keep entering, which basically meets the spiritual and cultural needs of local farmers. This is due to the space that the local government gives farmers to create cultural products, so that farmers can play a leading role in their own cultural activities, form troupes and participate in performances. Farmers know best what they want to see and what they want to see. On this issue, no matter what the government does, it is not enough to completely solve the cultural needs of farmers, but it is still necessary to give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of farmers. Lu Jianhua, vice chairman of Zhejiang Dramatists Association, said that although the Zhejiang provincial government finances are not a penny, it is quite active and prosperous, meeting the cultural needs of a large number of farmers, and the situation is gratifying. He called it "grass-roots drama". At the same time, he also pointed out that the shortage of actors has become the bottleneck of the development of folk troupes, so he suggested that a drama hope school should be established, which could not only help some rural children with artistic potential to master a skill to make a living, but also solve the problem of the shortage of actors in folk troupes.

The protection of traditional Chinese opera should be dynamic and multi-level.

Qu Runhai, former party secretary and executive vice president of China Academy of Art, said that to look at the culture of a place, we should not only look at the city, but also look at the countryside. The prosperity of rural culture is an important symbol to test the cultural situation of a place. Farmers are the biggest demand subject of folk art, and opera, as an intangible culture, survives and develops among the people, and its essence lies in the people. He emphasized that professional troupes should learn from folk troupes with an open mind while helping them. Paying attention to the present situation and development of grass-roots troupe is also paying attention to the cultural needs of farmers. As a dynamic opera, we should carry out dynamic and multi-level protection to prevent the situation that good intentions can't do good things. Liu Zhen, director of the Opera Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Art, also stressed that the individuality and local characteristics of opera are the soul of opera protection and are of great significance to opera protection. The development of China's traditional operas should be diversified, and one model should not be adopted. In the process of reform and innovation, some operas have lost their characteristics because of the influence of the concept of great unity, and have been criticized by audiences and experts.

Objectively treat farmers' spiritual needs

Xu Weicheng believes that many farmers' cultural needs are combined with folk activities. For example, farmers' cultural activities are often combined with weddings, funerals and happy events, which not only costs less money, but also wins good reputation, which is cost-effective from the perspective of input-output ratio. Another example is that farmers burn incense now, not entirely out of superstition, but often out of the need of tourism. The temples they go to are often beautiful places, and they don't go to places that are not beautiful. Because there is no suitable tourism form for them at present, they use traditional Buddha worship and incense to travel. Fu Jin also believes that many rural folk drama activities are combined with temple fairs and clan activities. For a considerable period of time, these activities were regarded as superstition and feudalism, and became the object of suppression. In fact, they are often important carriers of farmers' cultural activities, and folk drama activities in some places are due to the revival of temples and ancestral halls. Therefore, we should not only see its negative effects, but also see its influence on the construction of farmers' spiritual world. Fu Jin proposed to re-recognize the value of traditional culture. We often think that traditional cultural activities contain all kinds of unscientific and progressive elements, so we enthusiastically, naturally and kindly transform farmers' cultural and recreational activities to "improve" them. In this way, it is difficult for the "good things" we give to farmers to take root in the countryside and become their "own" things. This should be said to be a profound lesson. For decades, some of our cultural traditions have been interrupted, leading to the disappearance of some traditional cultural entertainment methods and cultural activities, and the cultural needs of farmers have not been met, leaving only some empty things.

Farmers participate in cultural forums.

This meeting specially invited several farmers' representatives from the grassroots level, who were quite eye-catching at the meeting. They all cherish the opportunity to attend such a meeting and are very excited. Zhai Shikang of Beizhi Village, Yanjiazhuang Industry and Trade Zone, Linyi County, Shanxi Province, expressed his feelings like this: it was warm to receive the notice of the meeting; After attending the meeting, I felt really warm. In order to attend the meeting, he attended the meeting early regardless of more than ten acres of fruit trees at home and became the first representative to report. During the meeting, he and the delegates went to the nearby mountain climbing early in the morning to exercise, and the thick morning fog soaked his clothes, which made him feel distressed. Only after asking did I know that this outfit was specially set up by him to attend this unforgettable meeting. Zhao Yanliang, from Ningzhuang Village, Donghedian Town, Pingyu County, Henan Province, and Cao Shenyi, from Nantan Village, Xinyuan Township, Yuanping City, Shanxi Province, thanked the conference organizers for inviting them to attend the conference, giving them this rare opportunity to discuss and communicate with leaders, experts and scholars from all over the world, which made them unforgettable. And their simple speeches on farmers' cultural needs combined with their own and local actual conditions also left a deep impression on the participants.