Chinese people live with their "hearts": behind those misunderstood traditions
Have you ever thought about this question, why when foreigners learn Chinese, children and people who have not received much education often learn faster, but it is those adults who have received higher education who think Chinese is so difficult?
This actually encounters the most fundamental difference between Chinese and Western cultures. We use the "heart" to think and live, but Westerners are more accustomed to using the "brain" and logic.
The language of the “soul”: why Chinese is so difficult to learn
Mr. Gu Hongming once expressed an interesting opinion. In his opinion, it is much easier for children and uneducated people to learn Chinese than for adults and educated people.
The reason for this is that the former relies on the mind to think and use language, while the latter, especially modern Europeans who have been influenced by rational education, relies on the brain and wisdom to think.
Chinese is precisely a language that needs to be felt with the heart.
It is different from Western languages that are full of strict grammatical logic, but pays more attention to context, emotion, and understanding.
This is just like what the Bible says, unless you transform into a child, otherwise it will be difficult to enter heaven.
The same goes for learning Chinese. You have to let go of those rational frameworks and perceive like a child.
This is also the secret of our Chinese people’s amazing memory.
We remember with the heart and with the help of the power contained in sympathy. This situation is much more effective than mechanical recitation using the boring mind.
Think about it when we were children, was our memory better than it is now?
Because then we use our hearts instead of our heads.
Etiquette from the Heart: The Essence of Chinese Politeness
China is known as a land of etiquette, but what is the nature of our etiquette?
It is considerate and takes care of other people's feelings.
This courtesy comes from the heart, is warm and pleasant.
It is completely different from Japan's "rehearsed politeness" that requires rote memorization and is stylized.
In terms of politeness, although the Japanese are considerate, they are sometimes like a flower that lacks fragrance; but the politeness of the Chinese can exude a strange fragrance that comes from the heart, similar to expensive perfume.
This difference is another manifestation of "heart" and "brain".
The misunderstood "backwardness": why "retreat" is needed
Many people criticize ancient China for its underdeveloped science and closed-door policy.
But if we return to the historical context, we may have a different understanding.
Taking science as an example, we do not deny that we need to learn advanced technologies from the West. However, did science really not exist in ancient China?
For example, there is a group of Chinese children studying in the United States who cut off their braids and took off their robes. If this situation, which shows a trend of total westernization, is allowed to develop, wouldn't they "rebel" when they come back?
In the historical environment like that at that time, "retreat" was to a certain extent a cultural defensive behavior. Its purpose was to ensure that society could maintain a stable state and that culture could continue.
This is not blind arrogance, but a helpless choice based on the actual situation.
Looking at the present from the perspective of education: traditional influence and lack of innovation
Today, we reflect on our traditions and focus more on education.
Why do our children lack creativity and practical experience?
The reason is that for a long time what we have focused on is the result of "learning performance", not the process of "ability development".
From an early age, children have been coerced by the family expectation of "hoping for their children to succeed". At the same time, they are also coerced by the traditional education method that emphasizes rote memorization. They bury themselves in piles of books all day long. However, they do not know how to apply knowledge into practice.
A typical example is a foreign teacher who loved Hangzhou, but because he insisted on his "noisy" classroom style that focused on oral communication, he was eventually "dissuaded" by the school and his parents.
She said: "My educational philosophy cannot be implemented here." This is not simply a conflict in methods, but also a collision between two educational philosophies, namely, enlightenment with the heart and indoctrination with the brain.
Crisis of Imagination: Looking at the Lack of Creativity in the Animation Industry
This impact has even spread to the cultural industry.
What is the reason why Chinese cartoons have long been limited to children's categories, making it difficult to create excellent works that are suitable for people of all ages to watch like in Japan?
The fundamental reason is that when our entire society is cultivating children, we prematurely use the utilitarian rationality of adults to frame them. As a result, their innate imagination is lost, and their creativity is also lacking.
We do not want to completely deny tradition, nor do we want to copy the West.
The real way to find a solution to the problem lies in finding the root cause of our inability to achieve good development, and effectively integrating the emotional heat contained in traditional education that needs to be felt with the heart with the scientific method of modern education that relies on the use of brain power.
After all, our current discussion is not intended to criticize tradition, but to understand it and find a path that is more suitable for the future.
Mr. Gu Hongming said that Europeans are immoral because he believes that Western civilization is built on material and force, while at the same time, the Chinese live a "spiritual life."
"Life of the soul" is our foundation. It brings amazing memory, warm courtesy, and a profound cultural heritage.
However, we have to admit that in modern society, just having a "heart" is not enough. The "brain" is also required to have rationality and logic.
Only by combining the two can we not only preserve the roots of our culture, but also cultivate a new generation of creativity that is truly adapted to the future world.
This may be the true meaning of looking back at tradition and examining the present.
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