Elephant News reporter Qiu Yanbo
Lantern riddle, also known as lantern tiger, so guess the riddle is also called "shooting tiger". This year is the Year of the Tiger, and the "Shooting Tiger" is the right time. An 82-year-old man in Zhengzhou has been keen to guess lantern riddles since he was young, and once published a lantern riddle he made. This year's Spring Festival, the old man made several riddles, but with the popularity of smart phones, the activity of guessing riddles on paper is becoming less and less, and for a time, the old people can't find a place to publish.
The elaborate riddle can only be appreciated by himself, which makes the old man very disappointed, so he lets his son publish it on the Internet, hoping to get the approval of like-minded people. In order to fulfill his father's wishes, the son pays out of his own pocket and "rewards" the participants.
So, guessing lantern riddle activities are becoming less and less in the folk, will it die? Scholars say it won't disappear, but in the era of smartphone popularity, guessing riddle activities are becoming more and more difficult.
The 82-year-old loves the riddle The self-made riddle has not been interrupted for many years
Mr. Zhang, 82, a retired worker at The First Factory of Guomian in Zhengzhou, has loved lantern riddles since he was young and has not stopped for many years. Mr. Zhang said that when he was young, the factory held a lantern riddle guessing activity every year, and the employees actively participated in it, and everyone enjoyed it, and it was at that time that he fell in love with the riddle. Not only the first factory of national cotton, but also several major textile factories on the cotton spinning road will organize guessing activities every Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Every year before the Lantern Festival, Mr. Zhang would make a batch of lantern riddles himself and submit them to the newspaper. "At that time, newspapers had supplements, and they were published in supplements, and now they have changed." On the morning of February 15, Mr. Zhang said with regret.
Guessing the riddle requires a certain amount of literary accomplishment and knowledge reserves. Unfortunately, at a time when short videos are prevalent and knowledge is fragmented, the traditional game of guessing riddles is becoming less and less organized among the people. Mr. Zhang said that during the Spring Festival this year, he made several riddles, suffering from nowhere to publish and no one to appreciate, and has always had a feeling that it is difficult to find a voice.
Son sends out lantern riddles on the Internet, looking for "confidants" for his father
This year, his son went home to visit his relatives, and before leaving, Mr. Zhang stuffed a note for his son Zhang Yifei, which read: "The Lantern Festival is coming, on a whim, making several riddles, I feel interesting." Can you post on the Internet and have fun with everyone? The old father told Zhang Yifei that there are few places to organize such activities now, and there is no place to publish. If it can be disseminated on the Internet, it can also be regarded as a promotion of the traditional culture of guessing lantern riddles.
For his father's wishes, Zhang Yifei published the riddles made by his father on his public account. In order to attract everyone's active participation, he decided to reward the participants, so that his father could find a few more riddle "confidants". Zhang Yifei said that his father made 10 riddles, he hopes that the people he see will actively guess, the guesser can leave a message, and the netizen who guesses more than five will be rewarded with books.
Scholars say that in the era of smart phones, guessing lantern riddle activities is becoming more and more difficult to do
Mr. Xu, a citizen of Zhengzhou, said that in the past, people would hold lantern riddle guessing activities during the Lantern Festival, but now this kind of activity is becoming less and less. Another point is that today's young people, who do not seem to have the enthusiasm of the previous generation, do not seem to have the enthusiasm of the previous generation, and there are fewer and fewer participants. In the long run, will this traditional culture disappear?
Ge Lei, director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Theory Department of the Henan Provincial Academy of Culture and Arts, said that the "Anyang Lantern Riddle", which is protected by the Anyang Workers' Cultural Palace, was listed in 2012 as a provincial intangible cultural heritage list in Henan Province. Those that can be included in the intangible cultural heritage are becoming more and more rare and need to be protected, which shows from one side that there are fewer and fewer activities to guess the riddle. However, Ge Lei stressed that the activity of guessing lantern riddles has always existed in the cultural system and cannot die out, but it is becoming less and less in the folk.
Ge Lei said that in the era of smart phones, guessing lantern riddle activities are becoming more and more difficult to do. As soon as the riddle came out, everyone took out their mobile phones and began to search for answers on the Internet, which brought great challenges to the production of riddles, and it was necessary to constantly make new riddles to avoid participants from searching for answers with their mobile phones.
"Where there are so many new riddles, there are not a large number of new riddles, and it is naturally more and more difficult to hold lantern riddle activities." Ge Lei said.