The phone vibrated again.
The red dot reminder that appears on WeChat, the push message received on Weibo, and the situation where everyone is @@ in the work group. This information is like a faucet that cannot be tightened, ticking continuously, and finally converges into a flood, washing the brain until it is completely white and extremely clean.
We seem to know a little bit of everything, but remember nothing.
I have been watching short videos all night. The moment I put down my phone, I felt empty in my heart. The feeling of emptiness was as if a hole had been ripped out of my heart. And what was that hole originally filled with?
Have you ever felt "rootless" at a certain moment?
When I was a child, the bright red window grilles cut by my grandma were affixed to the frosted glass. Those extremely gorgeous colors cannot be reproduced even with the 256 monochrome colors on the screen. Grandpa, I was always listening to the babbling Peking Opera sounds coming from the radio. I felt it was very noisy at that time. But now, Jay Chou's songs are constantly playing in the car, and occasionally I accidentally cut to "The Drunken Concubine". At that moment, my nose suddenly became sour for no reason.
Not pretentious. It is our generation that ran too fast and left our souls behind.
Look at those things that once made us hold our heads high——
The Four Books and Five Classics, which record many Confucian classics, Sun Tzu's Art of War, which contains military strategies, and the wisdom of the I Ching, which presents the universe in a unique form among the yin and yang fish. These eight words, which mean "looking at things in two, maintaining harmony but with different characteristics", are still the embodiment of a top-notch philosophy of life when placed in the current workplace environment, family relationships, and international situations. Benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and trust, which represent benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and integrity, are not just test points that are required to be recited and memorized in textbooks, but are the ultimate source of confidence for a person to gain a foothold in society.
But where can I find these things now?
We personally pushed the treasure to the "past"
Strange times? Maybe we have more to blame ourselves.
The courses set up in school are forgotten after taking the exams. Calligraphy courses have been transformed into multimedia teaching. Children use their fingers to draw the "Eight Methods of Yongzi" on the screen. Brushstrokes? So what is it?
What’s even more frightening is that we have turned our traditional culture into “earth”.
Young people pursue the "national style" and buy a piece of Hanfu to wear for three days. After posting it on WeChat Moments, they leave it at the bottom of the box. I think Peking Opera is old-fashioned and outdated, and I think folk tales are used to trick children. When traditional culture is mentioned, the words that come to mind are "conservative", "feudal" and "unsuitable for modern life".
Is it really not suitable? Or have we never given it a chance to enter modern life?
This year’s Spring Festival is different. I visited a temple fair in Shanxi and my jaw almost dropped.
Wow, there are drones in the sky making gestures in the shape of a Jinhou bird statue, robots performing yangko dances at temple fairs, and the so-called "Cyber Joy God" playing rock, paper, scissors with tourists. Yuncheng’s Jiangzhou Drum Music, where drums hit young people’s chests, has been played on Douyin reaching hundreds of millions.
Chengdu is even more unique. The Wuhou Temple holds a large temple fair, and the holographic representation of Guan Yu "jumps down" from the eaves to greet you with New Year greetings. There is also the AI brocade. If you take a photo at will, the AI will immediately design it into a Shu brocade pattern, and then a skilled embroiderer will embroider it by hand. What is this called? This is called "turning your life into intangible cultural heritage".
Located in the Qingming Shanghe Garden in Kaifeng, Henan, there is a huge machine called the "Chinese Giant Horse". It has the ability to breathe and neigh. The children screamed around it, as if they were seeing a mythical beast that appeared from the "Book of Mountains and Seas".
It turns out that things belonging to our ancestors can still be played with like this?
Misunderstanding: Who told you that traditional culture equals “earth”?
The biggest misunderstanding we have is to place traditional culture on a high altar, or to stuff it into a closed coffin.
I always feel that it is played by the so-called "elites" and belongs to the category of elegant art and has nothing to do with us ordinary people. However, this idea is wrong.
The roots of traditional culture are not in the glass cabinets of museums, but in daily life.
Those things are the bowl of glutinous rice balls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the fragrance of leaves from the rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, and my mother's casual talk about "there was a mountain once upon a time." It’s the saying “Suffering a loss is a blessing”, and it’s the saying “Just do good deeds and don’t worry about the future”. And these contents that are deeply imprinted in the bones are the true culture.
Another misunderstanding is that "tradition" and "modernity" are mortal enemies.
In fact, the traditions that survive in the world are always changing. The Song lyrics back then were popular lyrics. Kun Opera back then was a ditty that was sung in the marketplace. Now we use AI to resurrect intangible cultural heritage, record shadow puppet shows through short videos, and use blind boxes to sell museum cultural creations.
As long as it lasts, it keeps growing.
Don’t wait until the signal is completely gone before you think of finding an antenna.
I'm quite afraid of something.
I am worried that children in the future will only compete for red envelopes during the Chinese New Year, but they do not know what they are waiting for by "staying up"; they are afraid that they will only chant "YYDS", but they will not be able to say "The smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun sets in the long river"; I am afraid that the meaning of these five words "benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust" will have to be searched decades later.
Recently, CCTV exposed the fake "intangible cultural heritage" industry chain. You can buy fake certificates for a few hundred yuan and package them as fake inheritors. Why is there a market? It’s because it’s really about to become extinct, so fake people dare to come out and deceive.
There is a primary school student who lives in Hetou Old Street in Tangshan and works as a volunteer guide at the museum, explaining shadow puppetry and Laeting drums. He said this sentence: "The roots and soul of our city are hidden in the museum.".
Nine-year-olds understand better than we do.
Our generation has to do something
You are not asked to memorize the Four Books and Five Classics, nor are you asked to wear a long robe and mandarin jacket.
Quite easy to deal with. The next time you see a video related to intangible cultural heritage, don’t just swipe across it and give it a like. The next time you go to a temple fair, don’t just focus on eating, pay attention to those ancient crafts. Next time you go home, ask your parents to teach you how to make dumplings and listen to them tell about the past.
Buying a Fengguan refrigerator magnet and a "Fat Sword" cultural and creative product is not because you follow the trend, but because you want to keep that period of history next to you.
Traditional culture is very strange.
You think you are protecting it, but in fact it is it that is protecting you. When your face is covered with dust from the torment of life, when you are lost in this fast-paced society, it will give you a coordinate to indicate the direction.
Tell you who you are and where you come from.
The phone will still ring and the messages will continue to pour in.
But I hope that the hole in my heart can be filled bit by bit with things that have warmth. The wisdom of the I Ching is no longer just symbols on old paper, but a light that never goes out in our hearts when we face a future full of uncertainty.
Don't lose it.
I really can’t afford to lose it.
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