The Concept of Nostalgia

Author: Dong Qiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Excerpt: Let Politics and Economy Have a Good Weekend
More than a month ago, Dai Tian wrote A Brief Understanding of Literati and Martial Artists, mentioning that the Mingbao Monthly had recently added many new contents, including martial themes, "，." He also said, "The term 'literati' encompasses history, culture, thought, and art, emphasizing in-depth development, tracing origins to understand the direction, and shaping a complete personality that discerns right from wrong, values principles, knows priorities, distinguishes beauty from ugliness, and aligns with reason and emotion." He considered this to be "decisive words and deeds," "though thousands may oppose, I shall press on!" Little Dai's ink was barely dry when Jin Hengwei from Taipei wrote, saying their planned new publication had taken shape—it would be a comprehensive journal with intellectual, scholarly, literary, and artistic content, with an inaugural issue featuring an album on Michel Foucault. Upon hearing this, I was delighted, feeling that Taiwan had finally produced a publication with a broad cultural vision, and I also thought that intellectuals on the mainland should share the same ideal, founding a magazine with wisdom and foresight.
Yesterday, Hengwei and his team's Contemporary indeed arrived. The cover and inner pages featured Mr. Yu Yingshi's Reclaiming the Sources of Culture—A Plough. Mr. Yu's brief hundreds of words, like evening bells and morning drums, made one rejoice that this era had not yet been drowned out by noise. He said, "Taiwan's economy has long entered the modern stage, and the education of its general populace has reached the level of developing societies, but the depth, height, and breadth of its culture and thought still cannot match its economy and education. Most journals seem to focus more on specific practical issues, paying little attention to transcendent, ethereal yet truly touching many issues that reach the depths of modern souls." Mr. Yu's lament resonates with the awakened people in Hong Kong society: Hong Kong has discovered a few scattered cultural springs, initially polluted by the uric acid of colonialism; later blocked by the broken bricks and rubble of real estate developers, turning them into stagnant pools; now, the last garden of roses transplanted from London has begun to wither, with dry leaves floating over Hong Kong's cultural pond, while the clouds and stones hewn by scythes and axes still fail to build small bridges or pavilions, leaving the pond's surroundings messy! This is also a scene of cultural crisis. Cultural figures can easily understand the worldly sentiment of "having no plans for survival when dry," but they are unwilling to fully embrace the hermit-like of "weeding melons in the morning rain, reading books at night."