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��Home>>China Observer
Spring Festival's revival mirrors China's rising soft power
www.chinanews.cn 2006-02-10 15:51:37
Chinanews, Feb. 10 - For 12-year-old Wang Qingyu who was born and raised
in Beijing, the sound of firecrackers and colorful temple fair folk
customs and culture made up an extremely exciting Spring Festival this
year. Beijing instituted a ban on fireworks and firecrackers in downtown
areas one year before he was born, but lifted the ban this Spring
Festival.
During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, Wang's family, headed by
his father, made sacrifice to their ancestors, gave out lucky money in
red envelopes, paid Chinese New Year visits to their relatives and
friends, and enjoyed temple fairs like numerous other Beijing residents.
The family had great fun experiencing a variety of interesting Spring
Festival customs and praying for blessings and good luck.
During this Spring Festival holiday, Beijing arranged 123 sessions of 19
assorted temple fairs, the most in the past ten-odd years. Acrobatics,
clay figurines, paper-cut works, Spring Festival pictures, floats and
other ancient folk art items created a sumptuous, delicious cultural
feast, and the hustle and bustle of crowds matched the hoopla of
carnivals in western countries. Wang, who is fond of Mickey Mouse
decorations and McDonald's hamburgers, was captivated immediately.
"Many traditional Spring Festival customs treasured in my memory were
picked up again this year. They not only created a novel Spring Festival
for children, but also stirred up the long forgotten excitement of the
Chinese New Year for me," said Wang's father, who works in a social
sciences publishing house.
Over 1,000 channels of around 200 TV stations were broadcasting Spring
Festival-themed programs almost round the clock. No matter in evening
parties, interviews, themed programs or news, the imposing red and yellow
blotted out the sky and the land as the traditional dominant hues of
festivity and auspiciousness. At present, China has more than one billion
TV viewers.
Owing to introduction of mobile phone messaging, the internet and other
new technologies, traditional Spring Festival customs have added many
items of fashion, attracting numerous young people. For the moment, China
has more than 300 million mobile phone users and over 100 million
internet users.
It is reported that about 200 cities of various sizes lifted firecracker
bans this Spring Festival and resumed the custom to add to the festive
atmosphere of the holiday. In TV programs, people dressed in cheongsam
and contemporary Chinese-style costumes are frequently spotted.
Wan Jianzhong, executive director of China Folklore Society and
Supervisor of Ph. D candidates with Beijing Normal University, said that
Spring Festival is China's most important traditional festival that is
condensed from the ancient culture of its people. It cognizes, ascertains
and preserves the Chinese people's cultural identity and serves as the
emotional identification power to hold together a family, an ethnic
group, a society and a country.
In recent years, exotic cultures have deeply affected many young Chinese
people, building up walls and widening gaps between them and traditional
Chinese festivals such as Spring Festival. According to Yuan Jixi, vice
dean of the Chinese studies school of Renmin University of China, the
renaissance of Chinese culture is indispensable for the rejuvenation of
China. As a critical ligament to bear the weight of a spiritual home,
traditional culture will eventually win recognition and development of
its value, and the situation has improved at present.
After being at the bottom of a dreary valley for many years, the
atmosphere of celebrating Spring Festival, the most important traditional
Chinese festival, has become rich and palatable once again and is drawing
the attention of many people. In the eyes of most Chinese, this is not
only a token of the renaissance of traditional culture of an ancient
oriental country, but also a tangible testimony that China's soft power
is rising. Soft power, which includes the influences of culture, value
and policies, is an organic composition of comprehensive national
strength just like hard power.
Compared with past years, this Spring Festival is of extraordinary
significance, for it is more than a festival of the Chinese people, but a
gala that is celebrated by more and more people around the world.
Upon the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dog, many big names in the
political arena of western countries sent holiday greetings to local
Chinese people in succession, and some even sent letters of Chinese New
Year greetings to Chinese government leaders and the Chinese people.
On Oxford Street in downtown London, young Chinese super voice girl Li
Yuchun and London Mayor Ken Livingstone jointly lit up the specially made
Chinese lanterns, and several hundred bright red lanterns immediately lit
the way from Oxford Street to bustling Chinatown in the Soho district of
central London.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in his letter of Chinese New Year
greetings to London's Chinese Chamber of Commerce that Spring Festival
has reached far beyond the Chinese community and is becoming a festival
that is celebrated by an increasing number of people. Spring Festival
also gives people a chance to review the Chinese community's
contributions to UK's prosperity and cultural and social diversity.
In the US, more and more cities are prepared to follow the lead of New
York City as in the year before last and make Spring Festival a legal
public celebration. In Australia, there are unprecedented large-scale
celebratory activities for Chinese New Year that last even longer than
those in China. Governors, mayors, councilors and numerous ordinary
Caucasians are enthusiastic about Chinese customs, and the mainstream
English media even publish special articles on the Year of the Dog. In
Canada, local Chinese are even allowed to hold their Spring Festival
party at Parliament Hill, where the country's center of power is located.
Analysts pointed out that on the surface this is merely a cultural
phenomenon. Actually, it has a profound economic and political
background. Respect for a country's culture is inseparable from its
elevated economic strength and attractiveness of its culture.
For the rest of the world, China's image is that of the dragon and the
panda. Spring Festival values family, fosters reunion, wishes for
prosperity and good luck, and embodies the national spirit of peace,
harmony and cooperation. As a conscientious large country, China has
taken an active part in international affairs and won the respect and
trust of the world.
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