Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Experts' opinions on commercialized culture
By Ni Tao |
December 14, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Editor's note:
Recent years have witnessed widespread restoration of cultural relics and revival of ceremonies to honor ancient Chinese gods. Ni Tao asks professors Zhang and Ge how China can contain mercantile developments that run counter to true Chinese culture. Here are their answers.
Professor Zhang:
The mania for revamping relics and worshipping ancestors are a travesty of cultural dissemination. If the top leadership perceives these measures as what cultural revival requires, their subordinates will get the memo and spend huge money on vanity projects.
My feeling is that we need to make culture and history an integrated part of people's daily life practices. Only in this way can we acquire and appreciate the wisdom of tradition.
I also think cultural development ought to cover the rebuilding of morality and a value system. Over the years, I've found the values to which we aspire are imaginary, unrealistic and too lofty to be applicable.
Instead, we need to rediscover basic values that make Chinese Chinese, values that are cherished by all citizens. The presence of these values is more acutely felt when we are in the US, where even the most Westernized Chinese can tell his or her difference from Americans.
Hopefully, our children can be exposed at an early age to those values, which I call "grassroots" values that make us distinct, just as the mix of civility and obedience of Japanese children has come to be a hallmark of Japanese traits. This should be incorporated into the cultural reform.
Professor Ge:
Those activities constitute formalism and sometimes are politically motivated. Their taste is bad and also narrow-minded.
Culture should be judged on its own merit. We cannot develop or build culture as we like. Culture has a life of its own and thrives or withers on its own terms. We preserve intangible heritage today not because it's advanced, but because it bears testimony to human history.
We can package culture to be sold as products. But we must not lump the social function of culture together with its business potential. What's more, it's wrong to politicize tradition for the sake of expediency.
It is crucial to distinguish the motives behind cultural activities, whether driven by profits, career considerations or sense of mission. It's normal for a society to have people cashing in on culture. It's the government's job to guide the mainstream opinion. So far it hasn't done that well enough.
The Party's recent line on deepening cultural reform is encouraging, but it must not stop at allocating money to build one theater after another.
What plays will be performed and who will watch them is more than a matter of money.
Recent years have witnessed widespread restoration of cultural relics and revival of ceremonies to honor ancient Chinese gods. Ni Tao asks professors Zhang and Ge how China can contain mercantile developments that run counter to true Chinese culture. Here are their answers.
Professor Zhang:
The mania for revamping relics and worshipping ancestors are a travesty of cultural dissemination. If the top leadership perceives these measures as what cultural revival requires, their subordinates will get the memo and spend huge money on vanity projects.
My feeling is that we need to make culture and history an integrated part of people's daily life practices. Only in this way can we acquire and appreciate the wisdom of tradition.
I also think cultural development ought to cover the rebuilding of morality and a value system. Over the years, I've found the values to which we aspire are imaginary, unrealistic and too lofty to be applicable.
Instead, we need to rediscover basic values that make Chinese Chinese, values that are cherished by all citizens. The presence of these values is more acutely felt when we are in the US, where even the most Westernized Chinese can tell his or her difference from Americans.
Hopefully, our children can be exposed at an early age to those values, which I call "grassroots" values that make us distinct, just as the mix of civility and obedience of Japanese children has come to be a hallmark of Japanese traits. This should be incorporated into the cultural reform.
Professor Ge:
Those activities constitute formalism and sometimes are politically motivated. Their taste is bad and also narrow-minded.
Culture should be judged on its own merit. We cannot develop or build culture as we like. Culture has a life of its own and thrives or withers on its own terms. We preserve intangible heritage today not because it's advanced, but because it bears testimony to human history.
We can package culture to be sold as products. But we must not lump the social function of culture together with its business potential. What's more, it's wrong to politicize tradition for the sake of expediency.
It is crucial to distinguish the motives behind cultural activities, whether driven by profits, career considerations or sense of mission. It's normal for a society to have people cashing in on culture. It's the government's job to guide the mainstream opinion. So far it hasn't done that well enough.
The Party's recent line on deepening cultural reform is encouraging, but it must not stop at allocating money to build one theater after another.
What plays will be performed and who will watch them is more than a matter of money.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
