Middle school students know a little about Chinese culture

Author: Wang Yao (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-01-01
Features: Chinese and foreign cultures are like a range of towering peaks. We should not timidly avoid them due to their height, nor should we think we have mastered them after a brief glance. What we can do is to respectfully gaze up from the foot of the mountain and diligently inquire along the path. Simply put, it is to "know a little." First, not knowing is a pity. A mere five-foot body, without the cultural peaks as its backdrop, is a life of ignorance and mediocrity. People communicate with the outside world at different levels through culture and prove who they are through culture, and even those with limited education feel a sense of honor and shame about it. I remember last year, when China Central Television held a national live-streamed youth art talent competition, one of the events was a history and literature quiz. The results were unexpected—hundreds of millions of viewers paid far more attention to this part than to the main competition. The audiences from all provinces across the country were not concerned about their representatives losing in artistic skills but couldn’t tolerate them failing to answer the history and literature questions. This shows that even today, many Chinese people still seek their personal and collective dignity through culture, which is very good. However, the immediate follow-up question is to guard against people’s obsession with history and literature. Obsession may seem profound, but in reality, it is a disaster manufactured in the name of culture. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, there has always been a group of celebrities who made a living by luring others into obsession, which is highly immoral. Therefore, it is necessary to mark some clear paths among the cultural peaks and lay some floating cables in the vast sea of history, so that people can appreciate the beauty of mountains and water without falling into obsession. This practice, expressed in a colloquial manner, is to "know a little." "Knowing a little" does not lower standards; it raises them. This is like the person who sets the paths knowing the mountain better than ordinary hikers, or the one who lays the cables being more familiar with the sea than ordinary swimmers. Not only do they know more and are more familiar, but they also possess more humanity and cultural responsibility.