The annual Songkran Festival in Yunnan has just passed, and in the envy of outsiders, there are a few particularly dazzling news.
Some people were sprayed with water from a high-pressure water gun and injured their eyes, and some girls were "given special treatment", according to the Internet, the more beautiful women are, the more likely they are to encounter sensitive parts being splashed with water.
How did a good special festival become an excuse for some people to play hooligans without a lower limit?
High-pressure water cannon shot in the eye
A female netizen surnamed Huang recently experienced what a "water spray festival" is.
After her eye injury, she complained about her real experience on the Internet on the 14th. A female netizen surnamed Huang mentioned that she went to Xishuangbanna specifically to experience the Songkran Festival.
And she also specifically mentioned that she had done enough protective measures in advance and did not "show her clothes". It can be seen from the statement of the female netizen surnamed Huang that she understands that the Songkran Festival has become more and more targeted at women in recent years.
But what the female netizen surnamed Huang didn't expect was that someone rushed out and sprayed water at her. The opponent was obviously a high-pressure water gun in her hand, because she couldn't see immediately after being hit by water in her right eye.
To her surprise, the people around her were still spraying her head with water guns. After a short rest for a few minutes, the female netizen surnamed Huang felt that her right eye still hadn't recovered, so she went to the hospital.
After examination, the visual acuity of the right eye hit by the water was 0.25, and there was blood accumulation in the anterior chamber of the right eye, blepharospasm, and mixed bleeding in the conjunctiva. The doctor told her to observe and rest first, but it is not known whether the condition of the eye will recover next.
She also specifically mentioned that the person who sprayed water used a high-pressure water gun with a price of one or two hundred yuan, which is different from the traditional water gun with low pressure and slower shooting, and the speed and pressure of this high-pressure water gun are very high. Huang Xing's female netizen said that she was hit before she could react.
After she spoke about her experience online, many people also talked about similar experiences. Therefore, this is not an isolated case, and it is often women who are "given special treatment".
玩笑无下限，祝福变耍流氓？
At last year's Songkran Festival, there were many videos or photos of girls being oversplashed with water on the Internet, including a girl wearing a raincoat who was even torn by a man.
The person concerned said that because he was worried about hygiene during his menstrual period, he wore a raincoat. But apparently to no avail, she was surrounded by a large number of men splashing and squirting water.
In addition to what happened to the girl, there were also many men who aimed their water guns at the women's private parts. Judging from the discussions of netizens and the video photos posted by splashing beats in various places, this situation has been a lot.
In the words of the besieged party, everyone should pay attention to the boundary when splashing water blessings. But the reality is that such boundaries have long been blurred or even non-existent.
Some people obviously did not participate in the activity, but just passed by the splashing area, and then because they were women, they were splashed with water for no reason.
At the Songkran Festival, women have become a group that is "treated specially". In the words of the Internet, if you are a woman, you will definitely be splashed, and the more beautiful you are, the harder you will be splashed.
Many netizens expressed helplessness about this situation in the discussion. It has also been suggested that the annual Songkran Festival should be demarcated. After all, some people are not involved, and if they are suddenly splashed with water, it may cause unnecessary trouble.
Last year, a girl was blocked and splashed with water on her way to work, which has greatly affected and interfered with the normal life of others.
If you look at it from this point of view, the direction of splashing water has changed in the past and in the present.
There is nothing wrong with traditional folk festivals, it is individual hooligans who are at fault
In the past, Songkran was a form of festival in which the Dai people celebrated their traditional New Year. As a people living in tropical and subtropical regions, the significance of water to them is self-evident.
However, unlike the traditional Han Chinese understanding of water, tropical and subtropical regions have abundant water resources, and the understanding of people living in these areas is not how to cherish water, but how to use it rationally.
This consciousness has gradually risen to become the cultural accumulation of a group, and water can not only nourish all things, but also bring cleanliness and health, eliminating the hidden dangers of summer heat and other diseases.
It is under the main impetus of this psychological consciousness that the Dai people gradually gave birth to the form of Songkran Festival.
Traditionally, water splashing during the New Year is attended by both men and women, young and old. Before the event begins, the Dai people who believe in Buddhism will first bathe the Buddha statue with clean water, and then the official water splashing activity will be held.
And this kind of water splashing activity has also changed over the years. According to local folk experts in Ruili City, the traditional Songkran Festival is not a water fight, let alone a water fight as modern people understand.
People simply hold water in their hands and splash it on each other's shoulders as a sign of blessing. As the festival continues to precipitate, the form of splashing water is no longer limited to a certain village, but beyond the scope of the village, and larger activities will be carried out.
It is in the process of becoming richer and richer in the connotation of the festival that the young men and women during the Songkran Festival have the direction of love. Whoever a young man or woman loves, he will pour water on.
This integration of love connotation seems to be explicit, but it is implicit compared to the traditional New Year's greetings.
Whether you like each other or not, there are many forms that can be expressed, and this form of splashing water is more formal in the sense of the festival, and it can express the feelings of loving each other. But the intimacy of love and marriage has made this formal expression relatively private.
The most important thing is that the mutual splashing of water under the call of love is based on the premise of love, not that you can see the eldest girl and the little daughter-in-law under the banner of "blessing", casually splashing water on people, or even deliberately splashing on private parts.
From this point of view, even if the traditional Songkran Festival has the integration of love factors, it is also an expression of people's desire to cover up and be ashamed in the traditional farming era.
The modern Songkran festival has obviously grafted this element on, and with the complete change of the form of water splashing, the target of splashing has also changed from the object of admiration to all women in a 360° range.
It seems that this is also a kind of "affection", but it is casual and aggressive. Moreover, the very explicit form of expression, deliberately splashing water on women's private parts, has completely alienated the meaning it expresses.
In Chinese terms, this is called molesting women and playing hooliganism. To use a term invented by Westerners, this is called sexual harassment.
Alienation after the expansion of the scope of the festival
One might quibble that affection itself doesn't have to be a two-way street, but can be one-way. This is true, but it ignores a very important premise, that young men and women in traditional life may not know each other, but they will understand each other to some extent.
This is because in the past, the radius of people's activities was limited to villages and towns, and within a limited range, the situation of people in each village and town was more or less understood.
Under the acquaintance society and acquaintance relationship, it seems logical to express affection to the beloved during the Songkran Festival.
The modern Songkran Festival has no regional attributes, and people from all over the world can participate in this grand occasion, and on a larger scale, they are strangers to each other.
Just like the female netizen surnamed Huang with an injured eye, and the girl whose clothes were torn last year, the men who poured water on them are all strangers, in this case, how can they love and understand?
The expansion of the scope of Songkran means that the traditional meaning behind it can no longer summarize the new festival relationship.
In this case, the locals may continue the traditional festival, and the outsiders come to participate, and their feelings are completely different from those of the locals.
As a result, the cultural connotation of the Songkran Festival has gradually changed as the scope continues to expand. It needs a new interpretation, and it needs a new definition.
In this way, some of the alienated Songkran behaviors in the new definition will inevitably occur. The more beautiful the girl, the more she is splashed with water, which is a kind of alienation. Some people deliberately get wet by splashing water, and then shoot videos to earn traffic, which is also a kind of alienation.
Behind the alienation, it shows that the scope of Songkran continues to expand. This is a good thing for the promotion and development of the local cultural tourism industry.
However, as more and more outsiders participate, how to build standards and establish order to prevent some people from breaking the circle has become a top priority.
New festive significance
Before the female netizen surnamed Huang was injured in the right eye by a high-pressure water gun, the local government had actually issued a special announcement that the use of high-pressure water guns was not allowed in Songkran activities, and the sale of this type of water gun was not allowed in the scenic area.
However, the announcement is only binding and not a law, and the local government can manage the sales of vendors through inspections, but if tourists bring high-pressure water cannons on their own, they cannot be confiscated without clear legal provisions.
In addition, Xishuangbanna also advocates a civilized Songkran Festival. These advocacy and suggestions can restrain people's behavior to a certain extent. However, the new meaning and connotation of the festival can only be gradually built up under the wear and tear of time.
In this process, it may not be possible to completely eliminate vulgar behavior, but by advocating restraint and supervision, some undesirable behaviors can be reduced.
As long as the activity continues every year, and the frequency and rhythm remain the same, new connotations will be gradually nurtured in the process.
Because festivals are a form that most people recognize and participate in.
epilogue
It is the Songkran Festival, the carnival is still going on, and the outsiders who are willing to participate recognize the connotation of the Songkran Festival psychologically and behaviorally. But out of the festive atmosphere of the era of acquaintance society, the carnival and celebration of unfamiliar relationships can easily make the sense of boundary between people disappear.
To re-establish a sense of boundaries is to create a new festival connotation. Just like the advocacy issued by Ruili locally, splashing water should be carried out under the premise of ensuring safety, and special groups such as the elderly, weak, sick and disabled should not be splashed.
On the one hand, it allows participants to strengthen their sense of identity with the festival, and on the other hand, it tells people that certain behaviors cannot be added to the new meaning of Songkran. Through the expansion of meaning and the reconstruction of order, the form of Songkran can truly transform from a traditional to a carnival for the whole people.
Resources:
"Woman said she was hospitalized with an eye shot by a high-pressure water gun on Songkran, Xishuangbanna Culture and Tourism Bureau: Banned" The Paper April 15, 2024
"The more beautiful the girls of the "Songkran Festival", the more ruthless they are splashed?ethnology expert: the local sexual culture is vulgarized after "breaking the circle"" CCTV April 19, 2023