"Tao gives birth to one, one life two, two lives three, three lives all things." The third year of junior high symbolizes the germination of a new atmosphere. At the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, "rabbit" as an intention in literature and film and television symbolizes quite a wide range. Quietness, kindness, meekness, and alertness are the rabbit's first senses and cultural symbols, especially in traditional Chinese culture. Wit, agility, courage to challenge and dedication have become cultural symbols and spiritual totems of the rabbit.
However, due to the changeable nature, "three caves of cunning rabbits", "rabbits walking Wufei" and "crazy rabbits like March" are widely spread in world culture, and "rabbits" are also given different meanings of cunning, extreme, and slightly evil. In fact, the cute rabbit in everyone's eyes has a lot of unknown characters.
As a childhood memory, the "Blue Rabbit" in the domestic animation "The Legend of the Seven Heroes of the Rainbow Cat Blue Rabbit" follows the most traditional kind and brave image of the rabbit. "The Legend of the Seven Heroes of the Rainbow Cat Blue Rabbit" implants the heroic storyline of the righteous warriors to go to the end of the world with the sword, help the weak and save the life in suffering, into a cartoon that is easy to accept by children, and the content is in line with the perfect hero world that is often fictionalized in children's hearts, almost becoming an enlightenment animation for children about rivers and lakes and love and hate.
In addition, there is Judy the police who never gives up in "Zootopia", the rabbit hole leader in "Alice in Wonderland", and the "villain" Rabbit Peter in "Peter Rabbit" who is about to regain his land, these animated images are vivid and interesting, and have become indelible classic screen characters.
Alice in Wonderland (2010), a British folk proverb "Crazy as a March rabbit", is the origin of the name March Hare.
However, as a shrewd and courageous animal, the image of the rabbit in Chinese literature is not always positive. For example, fairy tale king Zheng Yuanjie's "Pipiru Rabbit Taming" uses rabbits as a metaphor for people, telling the story of a pair of brothers and sisters in the class group about educational domestication.
Smart, kind but unruly, Pipiru encountered a problem at school, encountered a class that was proud of becoming a "rabbit", and while the classmates around him gradually became "rabbits", Pipiru could not bear to burden others, so he made the choice to buy rabbit skins to pretend to be rabbits.
Among them, the rabbit's temperament of "docile and quiet" is continued to the greatest extent, and the "obedience" and "obedience" handled to the extreme have become the characteristics worthy of consideration and criticism in the personal growth and education system, and the free and unrestrained rebellious spirit is also the opposite of the "rabbit spirit".
In many Western cultures, the rabbit represents an alienated trait that is closer to being cunning, aggressive and timid, symbolizing metaphors.
For example, "Rabbit" directed by David Lynch tells the story of a group of humanoid rabbits and their oppressive daily life. The humanoid rabbits in the film extract the strange, weird atmosphere, and the all-black humanoid rabbits show surreal weirdness and reality in Lynch's signature ambient sound effects, chiaroscuro, color metaphors, and nostalgia.
Rabbits (2002), a physically exaggerated and bizarre humanoid rabbit, is a metaphor for the surreal state of modern humans in emptiness, repetition, and suspense.
The story is set in a monitored room, and fixed long shots present the audience with an illogical plot: including a humanoid rabbit ironing clothes, sitting silently on the sofa, entering and leaving the apartment, casual conversation and intermittent solo singing... Under the gloomy scene, from time to time with weird and grotesque soundtracks and laughter, perverse character body language and absurd dramatic lines, the humanoid rabbit is condensed into a symbol of modern people.
In the film, the humanoid rabbit is talking about unrelated dialogue, repeating day after day, meaningless repetitive actions, empty sounds under red lights, which seem to imply people's empty faith. It truly reflects the state of modern people, and shows the fantasy-like reality, the unknown and fear in the real with dream-like portrayals. The rabbit becomes a chaotic collection of every modern man's state of existence.
Of "Rabbit" David Lynch put it this way: "I don't know what the rabbit is going to do, but anything can happen. ”
The interpretation of rabbits in world culture is particularly full and contradictory.
Sometimes they are kind, brave and alert rabbits, as in Finnish author Arto Paasilinna's novel The Year I Met the Hare, in which the middle-aged protagonist embarks on an adventure with the injured hare. In their wilderness life, they experienced forest fires, gunfights, hangovers, windfalls, bullying and revenge, and even struck a grudge with a black bear, launched a cross-border chase, and sent themselves to prison...
The year I met the hare Jäniksen vuosi (1977), a turning point in life about the quest for freedom and escape from the city.
They are disturbed by arrogant foreign tourists. The rabbit is sick and needs to see a veterinarian, and it must make a choice about whether to return to the city and return to normal life. The hare's choice here represents the embarrassing situation of the midlife crisis group facing life, about freedom, about going left or right.
Who framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Rabbits are very fecund, with more than one fetus a year and multiple litters. Because of this, the ancients associated the fertility of rabbits with the reproduction and fertility of women, and even with the moon and its trajectory, which is often regarded as a sign of the rejuvenation of the earth. The strong reproductive ability also brings lust and hormones.
Uruguayan ghost writer Mario Levrero tells the bizarre closed-loop story of rabbit hunters, rabbits, forest rangers, and magicians in his classic fable novel "Rabbit Hunting". Let the rabbit transform from a predator to a predator, a lust provider, and even a human being... Try to unravel the rabbit's seductive metaphor.
Similarly, the Argentine literary figure César Aira also used the rabbit in the novel "Hare" to play a similar role as a tour guide. It presents a poem about innocence and word play, showing the wild imagination and the charm of Latin American civilization.
La liebre
In Argentina in the 19th century, the Englishman Clark went to the Pampas in search of a legendary flying hare, accompanied by a silent Gaucho guide, a lively and cute painter, and a magical horse. The flying rabbit became the ultimate intention of the Tang monk to learn the scriptures here.
Sometimes they are also "cunning rabbit three caves" and tricky "evil rabbits". In the era of abstinence in the European Middle Ages, rabbits were considered evil due to their strong reproductive ability, and were symbols of abuse of lust.
William Strang, The Temptation (1899)
In William Strang's painting Temptation, the rabbit also appears as an image of lust, lying quietly at the feet of Adam and Eve, who steal the forbidden fruit.
Tiziano Vecelli The Madonna of the Rabbit (1530).
The rabbit is regarded as a symbol of lust because of its fertility, linked to evil, so the appearance of the rabbit at the feet of the Virgin and the Son represents the victory of purity over evil.
Tiziano Vecelli, the father of Western oil painting, has the famous painting "Madonna and Child with Catherine and a Rabbit". The holding of the rabbit by the Virgin Mary symbolizes the control of lust, which is intended to express the restraint of desire and the prominence of the divine Mary.
Spring, rebirth, and reproduction are always inextricably linked to rabbits. Therefore, the traditional Easter in the West also often uses rabbits and eggs as mascots to symbolize the cycle of new life and the coming of spring.
The great writer Hugo also said, "Capturing women's hearts is like catching rabbits, you must first capture their ears." ”
French, who are naturally romantic, use "chaud lapin" to describe seductive and sexy men. Mexicans refer to biceps contractions as rabbits to accentuate the muscles. In Peru, making joints click is also called "Sagar conejos", which means "let the rabbit out".
As the "group pet" in world culture, rabbits have always been plump and diverse, full of imagination and possibility of intentional existence. It can be a cute and cute, brave and fearless hero, or a villain with tricky and evil incarnations, forever leaving a new role in people's hearts to be revealed, which may be the charm of literary and film and television adaptations.