As the main force of cultural consumption and the new force of cultural inheritance, what kind of "Chinese Festival" do young people think about? What are their expectations and suggestions for the celebration of traditional festivals? In order to explore these questions, we invite several representatives of the youth group to talk about the needs and expectations of traditional festivals based on their personal experiences: young researchers of traditional culture, online bloggers who are committed to spreading the aesthetics of national style, and enthusiasts who are committed to expanding the influence of traditional culture.
- Editor
Guests:
Wang Fengjuan (Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Henan Normal University)
Li Canfeng (UP main "Youying National Style Aesthetics")
Hai Qingge (Young Opera Lover)
Preside:
Huang Qizhe (reporter of this newspaper)
Traditional festivals can become an important carrier for immersive and three-dimensional practice of "double creation".
Moderator: What are the most impressive experiences of traditional festivals, and what is the most attractive thing about this kind of event?
Wang Fengjuan: In the past two years, Henan Satellite TV's traditional festival "Wonderful Tour" series, which has frequently been out of the circle and on the hot search, has attracted enthusiastic attention among the students around me. Watching the TV theme evening has become a Xi and tradition for contemporary people to spend traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival. At the moment when short videos are sprung up, how can the party innovate and express the connotation of the festival? "Wonderful Tour" breaks the previous practice of indoor recording of small program platters, uses a story logic line, connects ancient and modern, mixes folk songs and dances, and comprehensively uses short films, performing arts, news clips, VR technology and other means, so that it has a very good effect whether it is spread as a whole or short video fragments.
In addition, as an instructor, I have also organized and participated in the activities of the Huaxia Weiyang Hanfu Club of Henan Normal University in the past two years. And one of the reserved activities of the club is the Hanfu travel of the "Flower Dynasty Festival". The so-called "Hundred Birthday is a good day, and it is not half of the spring before the flower". On the weekends before and after the Flower Dynasty Festival, students will dress up in Hanfu and enjoy the spring together. This year, the students dressed up and gathered at the school lake to enjoy the dance "Qingping Le" together, and then performed Hanfu performances and live Xi around the school. In order to make the festival atmosphere more intense, the students also specially planned ancient amusement projects such as throwing pots, drumming and passing flowers. As far as I know, traditional festivals such as the "Flower Dynasty Festival", "Shangsi Festival" and "Shangyuan Festival (Lantern Festival)" have become grand festivals for lovers of national style in the past two years, and there are activities of different scales in various places. Among them, the most popular activity of young people is the parade dressed in Hanfu. During the parade, young people dressed in Hanfu and playing the role of the ancients were both appreciators and demonstrators, which greatly enhanced the influence of the festival and met the social needs of young people.
Hai Qingge: My experience is a period of "Liyuan Opera Lantern Festival Love" that has persisted for ten years. Because of the experience of watching Quanzhou Liyuan Opera in Shanghai, I will never forget this endangered opera genre known as the "living fossil of opera". In 2012, my friend learned that the Lantern Festival in Quanzhou not only has a pear garden opera performance, but also a grand lantern festival. So we made an appointment to "fly", which was worth the trip. During the Lantern Festival, there will not only be local opera performances such as Liyuan Opera and Gaojia Opera to feast the eyes of opera fans, but also the strong local festival atmosphere will also give us a deep feeling. For example, one of the major Xi customs of the Lantern Festival in Quanzhou is "hanging lanterns in every household". I noticed that, in addition to the lanterns of ordinary people's homes, the large lanterns on the street all have a "history" - which companies and institutions support them, which shows their wide participation in this activity. Some particularly exquisite lanterns will also be marked as handmade by local intangible cultural heritage inheritors, which also enhances the "visibility" of intangible cultural heritage skills. There is also a special Xi in Quanzhou's Lantern Festival - stepping on the street. It is equivalent to a masquerade parade, where every household will take to the streets to participate. On that day, a variety of activities such as chest dance, big drumming, cage blowing, dragon and tiger fighting, Nanyin cappella, lion dance, stilt play, singing play, and pretending to be a person will all be on the battlefield, which is very lively.
With the first rich experience, I came up with the idea of organizing a group to go to Quanzhou for the Lantern Festival the following year. One is for watching a play, and the other is for the festival. In the first year, in addition to the local theater fans in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, there were more than 40 people, but they contributed 50% of the audience and 90% of the box office to the Liyuan Theater Troupe at that time, which shows the situation of the drama at that time. Gradually, our "theater viewing troupe" has become a "cultural tourism in-depth tour", and I am no longer the only one who organizes it, and the theater alone can seat hundreds of people. We spent the Lantern Festival in Quanzhou, in addition to in-depth visits to the local and even surrounding areas, to feel the folk customs, but also with the teachers of the troupe and fans from all over the world around the fireplace chat.
Ten years have passed, except for the special circumstances of the past two years, we will go to Quanzhou every year for the Lantern Festival. With more and more people coming to see the festival, the Lantern Festival has also become the most important performance season of the year for Liyuan Opera. Seeing that Quanzhou has successfully become an "Internet celebrity city", we are sincerely pleased that such a place with a strong traditional cultural atmosphere has been loved by more people.
Li Canfeng: Digging deep into the connotation of traditional festivals has become an important series of my short films. At present, this group of short films has completed the immersive presentation of ten traditional festivals such as Qixi Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Shangsi. In these short films, I often use a traditional Chinese festival as the object of narration, and ask Hanfu fans to wear the costumes of a certain dynasty to reconstruct what the ancients ate, did, and played on this festival in a specific situation. I hope to use these short films to tell the audience about the beauty of traditional culture. In order to better immerse the audience in the experience, I will consult the relevant materials of ancient books in advance, and then select a few typical Xi customs and integrate them into the shooting situation. For example, the short film of Qixi Festival arranges for the actors to show the plot of "throwing needles to test tricks" and "piercing seven-hole needles" in the water pavilion.
Even though I put a lot of effort into making such videos, I was "generating electricity for love" at the beginning. But gradually, not only did the audience enthusiastically support and urge them to change their details or even correct the details of the costumes and props, but I also had the opportunity to "promote or sponsor the business", which made me sure that the acceptance of traditional festivals will become more and more acceptable. I still remember more than 10 years ago, when I first came into contact with Hanfu, I would be pointed at when I walked on the street wearing Hanfu. In recent years, with the improvement of young people's cultural self-confidence, the degree of acceptance and recognition of traditional culture has also become higher and higher. It is believed that traditional festivals are the same, and will receive more and more attention and love from young people.
Moderator: These examples highlight the important role played by "traditional festivals" in promoting traditional culture. As a carrier, it helps people immerse themselves in traditional culture, and it is also a "cultural alarm clock" that reminds people to re-understand traditional culture at a specific moment in the year. So in your opinion, what are these traditional festival activities and works that have been praised by young people and have done it right?
Wang Fengjuan: I think the key is to deeply understand the "creative transformation" and "innovative development" of traditional festival culture. Taking Henan Satellite TV's traditional festival series of evenings as an example, I think it has mainly achieved four points.
The first is the pursuit of the quality of the presentation, such as inviting a group of top domestic young performers such as Tang Shiyi, Hu Yang, and Su Hailu to present the beauty of traditional culture. Secondly, it is a clever integration of modern aesthetics and traditional culture, digging deep into the emotional value of traditional festivals, and awakening the deep recognition and love of traditional Chinese aesthetics in the bones of young people. The program skillfully integrates traditional cultural elements such as ancient poetry, Hanfu, and opera with modern art elements such as rock rap, computer special effects, and time and space travel, bringing a refreshing and shocking audio-visual experience. Third, the narrative of the innovative evening party focuses on the story as the axis, and awakens the "five senses" of young people in an immersive and youthful modern way. For example, "2023 Dragon Boat Wonderful Tour" takes the experience of four "Tang Xiaomei" in the Dragon Boat Festival as the main line, skillfully connects traditional Xi such as Qu Yuan, dragon boat racing, herb picking, and rice dumplings, and comprehensively displays various traditional cultural elements such as dance, music, opera, folklore, myths and legends. Finally, the program breaks the time and space limitations of theatrical performances, takes the great rivers and mountains and cultural landscapes of the motherland as the stage, and opens the hearts of young people who have been in classrooms, offices and factories for a long time with real scenes, real people and real things, immersively satisfies the psychological demands of being close to nature, and effectively alleviates and vents the pressure of ordinary life.
Hai Qingge: "Liyuan Opera + Lantern Festival" is not an unexpected coincidence discovered by our group of urban traditional opera lovers, but has its profound cultural relevance. First of all, the performance of traditional opera in important festivals is an important tradition in Quanzhou. The repertoire of Liyuan Opera "Chen Sanwu Niang" tells the story of Chen San, a talented son in Quanzhou, and Huang Wuniang, a beautiful woman in Chaozhou, who met at the Lantern Festival and started a love story through the ages. Therefore, the Lantern Festival is perfect for the excerpt of the excerpt "Watching the Lantern", which tells the relevant plot.
There is a festival custom in a place, and in order to form a cultural collective memory, on the one hand, there must be a deep cultural accumulation, and at the same time, there must be people who adhere to the cultural context. As an important starting point of China's ancient "Maritime Silk Road", thousands of years of exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations have allowed various cultures to be well inherited and blended here. The fundamental reason why Quanzhou people love festivals and festival folk customs is that they "need" festivals, and this festival culture has been deeply rooted in the blood and integrated into all aspects of daily life. 365 days a year, it seems like they celebrate the holidays almost every day.
Deep insight into the psychological appeal and aesthetics of the times for the festival of Generation Z
Moderator: I have noticed that young people not only celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, but also the traditional festivals that have been gradually forgotten in daily life, such as the Shangsi Festival and the Flower Dynasty Festival, have been salvaged by young people from the depths of history. Compared with traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, what "new expectations" and "new demands" do we have for young people to meet with the return of these "Chinese festivals"? What inspiration can we get from the unique way of celebrating the festival for young people?
Wang Fengjuan: Compared with the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, these ancient traditional festivals are actually very "fresh" for young people, and do not need to be guided by elders or bound by past Xi customs, thus becoming exclusive to young people's own festivals, satisfying young people's demands for self-expression. In the festival activities planned by themselves, young people are also more able to express their unique selves in the way they like, and they are psychologically satisfied.
In addition, these "niche festivals" are also one of the ways for young men and women to show their physical beauty, satisfying the demands of young people to confidently show their youthful beauty. In recent years, Qixi Festival has become more and more "Valentine's Day", and the sense of ritual and satisfaction of "begging" has weakened a lot. Therefore, young women's demands to show their own beauty need to find new ways to express themselves. These niche "Shangsi Festival" and "Flower Dynasty Festival" have gradually become festivals for young women to show their beauty. In the "Flower Dynasty Festival" on the birthday of the god of flowers, young girls wear the "Twelve Flowers" series of Hanfu together, and it has become a fashion to travel beautifully.
Li Canfeng: I agree with Mr. Wang. For me, the opportunity to fall in love with traditional culture was to see a group of photos of well-known Hanfu bloggers, which made me want to wear Hanfu to show beauty. The "February 2nd" Flower Dynasty Festival and the "March 3rd" Shangsi Festival are both concentrated at the beginning of the year when all things recover, and the intention and connotation they carry are also in line with the demands of young people who yearn for beauty and go out for youth travel.
On the other hand, for us, festivals such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival have become "reunion festivals", and they are more like special days to spend with the family of our elders. As a young person working in a foreign country, I have limited holidays and cannot return to my hometown to reunite with my relatives on every holiday. In addition to spending time with family, festivals can also be accompanied by friends. Having fun with people of the same age is a new demand that we attach to traditional festivals. Respecting the new needs of young people for socialization and expression will also enable more traditional festivals to "catch fire" and "live".
Moderator: Whether it is the "double creation" on the basis of tradition, or the establishment of a new connection between tradition and tradition, a large number of cases make us believe that it is not that traditional festivals are "outdated" and "unpopular", but that we still do not understand the current main group of cultural consumers - young people in the means and methods of presenting traditional festivals, which has led to some "dislocation" in supply. So, in order to make young people really like and participate in it, and really leverage the influence level of traditional festivals, what efforts need to be made?
Wang Fengjuan: In order to make young people fall in love with the "Chinese Festival", we must first have a deeper understanding of the demands of young people at the moment from the perspective of festival psychology, and we cannot take it for granted and wishful thinking. The reason why young people do not have a strong sense of gain in the existing traditional festivals has a certain relationship with the fact that most of the current traditional festivals are mainly used to worship ancestors and reunite. At the same time, under the influence of Confucian gentleness and generosity, some of the current major traditional festivals are often more "serious", which also affects the enthusiasm of young people who seek innovation and difference.
I believe that in the activities and product supply of traditional festivals, we should not ignore the continuous improvement of young people's cultural quality. Seeing that young people's perception of Hanfu in the video "Youying National Style Aesthetics" is not only limited to a certain big dynastic difference, but also pays more attention to the differences before, middle and late stages of the same dynasty, which is enough to prove that they have a deep understanding of traditional culture. Nowadays, young people are gradually becoming more educated and more culturally confident, so they have a natural affinity for literary stories. Therefore, I suggest that the "festival situation" in literature be used as a story resource to develop the cultural landscape of traditional festivals and cultural and creative products, so as to open up the emotional connection between young people and "traditional festivals".
In fact, there are very rich resources of festival stories in literature. Taking "Dream of Red Mansions" as an example, according to Mr. Guo Ruoyu's research statistics, it depicts the festival customs of more than 60 years old. And "Tokyo Menghualu" recorded as many as 24 Kaifeng festivals in the Northern Song Dynasty. Every year during the Lantern Festival, the Qingming Shanghe Garden Scenic Area in Kaifeng, Henan Province will develop some interesting Lantern Festival activities based on the records of books such as "Tokyo Menghualu". For example, from the 15th to the 17th of the first lunar month of this year, the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival was held, and my family and I wore Song costumes and walked in the Great Song Dynasty City lit up by millions of lanterns, immersed in the Song Ci Lantern Gallery and the colorful Song Ci famous sentences, and enjoyed the joy and romance of the festival. However, it is a pity that the festival landscape and cultural and creative products that are used as cultural resources have not been fully and deeply developed.
Li Canfeng: We hope to win the support of more resource providers. At present, the main body of traditional festival activities is mainly scenic spots and commercial complexes. They are usually driven by interests such as customer acquisition and consumption, which makes the event either have limited impact or too much commercial flavor.
Conversely, cultural venues and non-profit organizations will also hold corresponding activities, but due to the limited non-profit and operational capabilities, they often make restrictions on the scale of activities and the flow of people. In fact, in recent years, cultural venues and cultural landmarks with Chinese charm have been built in various places, which are high-quality venues for holding large-scale theme activities on traditional festivals. On weekdays, these places attract a large number of young people to "check in" and take pictures, and they are emerging Internet celebrity places. It's a pity that many people are looking for their appearance, and it is difficult to have a deeper cultural and emotional connection with them. As far as I know, the new cultural venues in my city also hold events around traditional festivals, but not many young people know about them, so it's hard to get involved.
In fact, there are many Hanfu clubs and non-profit organizations that spread traditional culture in various places, most of them are young people, and they have great enthusiasm and good creativity for traditional festivals and holdings.
Haiqingge: In order to let everyone take the initiative to celebrate the festival, spontaneously celebrate the festival, and fall in love with the festival, in addition to a number of activities to awaken cultural memory, the most important thing is to connect with daily life and have a common emotional memory. I still remember that a late local teacher in Quanzhou once said, "You and Liyuan Opera are now 'in love', and once the enthusiasm passes, they will not come again." "But in fact, going to Quanzhou for the Lantern Festival, from the beginning of watching a play and participating in local folk customs as a novel experience, has now become a Xi for us.
I have watched those plays many times, and I still watch them, I still go to those scenic spots after checking in many times, and I still have gluttony after eating those delicacies many times. In the final analysis, what attracts us is the drama, the scenery, and the people. Whether it is the actors on the stage or the audience watching the play together, we have become family because of the Lantern Festival, everyone gathers together after the performance, the famous actors cook and fry the dishes themselves, and the big screenwriter incarnates as a food blogger to visit the store for us in advance. It is precisely because of being with them that the Lantern Festival has a special meaning.
Text: Wang Fengjuan (Associate Professor, School of Liberal Arts, Henan Normal University), Li Canfeng (UP Master "Youying National Style Aesthetics"), Hai Qingge (Young Opera Lovers), Huang Qizhe (Reporter of this newspaper)
Picture: Screenshot of the traditional festival-themed video of "Youying National Style Aesthetics".
Editor: Fan Xin