China News Service Beijing, February 2 Title: How to "play" with ice and snow during the Spring Festival?
Author Cui Bailu
On the occasion of retiring the old and welcoming the new, Chinese end a year of hard work, use the Spring Festival holiday to relax and entertain, adjust the body and mind, and "recharge" for the coming year. In that regard, playing is a big deal.
This year's Spring Festival coincides with the Beijing Winter Olympics, and ice and snow activities have become "fun responsibilities". Beijing Summer Palace, Beihai Park, Shichahai Ice Rink, men and women and children gallop and play; Harbin Ice and Snow World, the cold is difficult to stop the enthusiasm of citizens to appreciate ice sculptures, snow sculptures and ice lanterns; Shougang Ski Jump "Snow Flying", the players are ready to make final preparations for the competition.
On January 22, 2022, in Beijing, people experienced ice sports at the Shichahai Ice Rink. Photo by China News Service reporter Sheng Jiapeng
In the cold winter of the ninth, everything is depressed, especially in the middle and high latitudes, the ice and snow cover the earth, and the rivers are frozen. People embrace nature and dialogue with nature, creating many ice and snow activities and forming a colorful ice and snow culture.
The initial ice and snow activities were closely related to the production and lifestyle of the ancient working people. 10,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Altay region of Xinjiang, China, depicted hunting scenes of people pedaling skis in cave petroglyphs. Coincidentally, prehistoric remains of skiing have been found in the Ural Mountains of Russia, Norway, Sweden and northern Finland. In order to cope with the harsh ice and snow environment in winter, the northern peoples in similar latitudes and natural conditions have created skis, skates, ice cars, sleighs, etc. in long-term practice as tools for hunting, transportation and military operations, improving survival and production capacity, and then forming lifestyles, livelihoods and cultural customs. In the interaction with nature, human beings continue to understand and adapt to nature, and then learn to better coexist with nature.
With the accumulation of material wealth and the development of social culture, people began to pursue the satisfaction and pleasure of the spiritual world. The ice and snow gifted by nature are endowed with more cultural connotations, and the organic combination of natural resources and the development of human civilization has produced a different characteristic ice and snow culture.
In ancient China, the traditional ice and snow culture was influenced by both Confucianism and the culture of the northern peoples, and was displayed through literary and artistic creation and folk activities of leisure and entertainment. Literati inkers love to enjoy snow and snow, "the sky and clouds and mountains and water, up and down a white", is a lonely snow appreciation of the heart of the heart; "late to the day to snow, can drink a cup of nothing", is the friend's snow night cooking wine melting warmth; "idle to sit in the pine room, watch the boiled pine on the snow", is the leisure of melting snow and frying fragrant tea; "the first sale of plum blossoms, plum snow harmony, magpies wear flowers and turns", is the Yaxing who steps on the snow to find plums. In the Qing Ci Li sentence, it is the philosophical thinking and value orientation of the harmonious coexistence between man and nature and the unity of heaven and man.
After the Tang and Song dynasties, bamboo horses, ice beds and other instruments gradually changed from means of transportation to leisure and entertainment tools, and all kinds of ice sports were collectively called "ice play". During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people liked to "mold snow lions and install snow lanterns to kiss the old", and put "snowflakes" and "snow lanterns" into golden pots to play with ornaments such as golden rainbows. In the Qing Dynasty, ice skating activities that incorporated more Manchu customs, such as ice skating, snatching, dragon shooting, ice jujury, and ice acrobatics, became institutionalized and celebrated, not only to undertake important political functions of diplomatic etiquette and highlight national strength, but also to become leisure and entertainment activities for the people to share and enjoy together.
In July 2019, the acrobatic drama "Ice Show Dream Hunting" premiered in Harbin. On the basis of traditional acrobatics, the performance integrates figure skating, ice acrobatics, ice stunts, etc., so that Chinese and foreign tourists can enjoy the art of ice and snow. Photo by Lu Pin, a reporter from China News Service
The ice and snow culture of the West is deeply influenced by European maritime civilization. Ancient Greece, located in the Mediterranean, was an important birthplace of Western civilization, and its frequent seafaring activities cultivated their national character of daring to take risks, advocating physical strength and competition between individuals, and some of them have evolved into the core values of the Olympic spirit from ancient Greece to the present day - higher, faster, stronger. Ice and snow sports are a vivid interpretation of people's adventurous spirit of exploring the ocean and the polar regions, and it is also another kind of transcendence of human limits. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, ice and snow sports such as skiing, skating, and ice hockey were popularized and developed in Europe and the United States, giving birth to modern ice and snow sports with competitive and regular characteristics. Since then, as a figurative carrier of "Western civilization", modern ice and snow sports have spread widely around the world.
From traditional Chinese ice and snow activities to modern winter sports in the West, Chinese and Western ice and snow cultures have their own characteristics and histories, just as the diversity and differences of world civilizations have, and the exchange and integration of civilizations paint a colorful picture of ice and snow.
In the process of social pluralism and development and civilization exchanges and mutual learning, tradition and national ice and snow culture have not been abandoned. Now in Altay, Xinjiang, fur skiing, horse-drawn sleigh and other ethnic cultural heritage into local tourism, while promoting the "white economy" while guarding the ancient nomadic culture; Tromsø, Norway and the Sami settlement of Finnish Lapland, the traditional reindeer race held every year attracts a large number of tourists to watch the race, more people know this "last indigenous people of Northern Europe".
In modern times, China has embarked on a road of cultural exchange and integration between China and the West. Since the end of the 19th century, China has absorbed advanced sports, sports equipment and ice and snow concepts in European and American ice and snow sports, and has also integrated excellent traditional cultures into them, such as designing Peking Opera or martial arts movements into ice and snow competitions. Today, Beijing has become the first "City of Double Olympics", where Chinese and Western ice and snow cultures meet and dialogue in this ancient capital of the East, opening a new historical chapter for the world's ice and snow culture.
On January 27, 2022, the flags of various countries fluttering in the wind decorated the Beijing Winter Olympic Village with full charm. The Beijing Winter Olympics will open on February 4, 2022. China News Service reporter He Penglei photographed
The ice and snow culture that transcends time and space is constantly enriched in inheritance and innovation, finds a balance between competition and leisure, and seeks consensus under dialogue and integration. Under the surface of different forms of ice and snow activities, it is wrapped in the spiritual core of human beings advocating nature, loving life, blooming life, and transcending limits. (End)
Edit: Zhenglong
Source: China News Network