Celebrations of the Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, in China have in recent years restored many traditional rituals that were once abandoned in the history of the People’s Republic, such as miao hui (temple fair, mostly held in parks, featuring traditional food, artifacts and art performances), firecrackers and traditional decorations. State media lately related the trend to a so-called “defending the Spring Festival movement” initiated by Mr. Gao Youpeng, a scholar from Henan province.
Xinhua news agency reported last week that “defending the Spring Festival has become a common view of Chinese society.” It also quoted Mr. Gao, who said that more and more traditional symbols of Chinese New Year were reappearing, which “demonstrates that Chinese people are returning to traditions.”
Mr. Gao first brought up the issue at the end of 2005, when he wrote “Declaration of Defending the Spring Festival,” warning about the infiltration of Western culture and stressing that “defending the Spring Festival is defending safety of the national culture."
He said he made such a call because he found that many young people who lived in the world of the Internet and video games worshiped Western culture, passionate in celebrating foreign holidays like Christmas but becoming increasingly indifferent toward their own traditional holidays, Xinhua reported. He said he felt “the safety of China’s national culture is to some degree under threat.”
Xinhua described the appealing of “defending the Spring Festival” as having gained recognition and support of the entire society, because people have realized the significance of cultural tradition for a nation’s development.
In fact, the Chinese public has noted for a long time that the Chinese New Year is losing its traditional flavor, while young people seem to enjoy more in celebrating Christmas or Valentine’s Day. But the discussion has rarely been put in the spot light of state media like Xinhua, and the Internet has facilitated a public debate on the issue to a larger scale.
The mast majority of the opinions on the Internet, not surprisingly, supported Mr. Gao’s view. People expressed a strong sense of the importance of maintaining China’s cultural tradition, as well as concerns that it is diminishing in the wake of Western culture influx.
One comment, for example, reads: “Without traditional culture, it is meaningless no matter how powerful [China becomes].” Another one says that Western holidays “are flooding into Chinese society and people’s life,” and under the challenge, traditional holidays like the Spring Festival “are fading away little by little.”
There are of course different views, but are mainly focused on whether it is necessary to call for defending the traditional holiday, or whether the best way to make it attractive is to simply fall back on old rituals. No one, it seems, actually challenges the theme of maintaining China’s cultural tradition.
A critic from Beijing questions in a newspaper article: “does Spring Festival need everybody to save or defend?” To him, nobody in China is forgetting the holiday and therefore no worry is merited. Another critic dismisses the worry by citing the increasing awareness of the Chinese New Year in the entire world.
While a group of people calls for bringing back traditional activities to celebrate the holiday, others insist that the holiday needs contemporary contents and label the defending theory “cultural conservatism.”
“Today’s Spring Festival of course needs to represent the modern life style,” one blogger writes, “don’t think that without traditional theater and miao hui, the Spring Festival will no longer exist.”
After all, people are facing one question: how to celebrate the Chinese New Year in a way that could both maintain an ancient tradition and make it fit the new time and attractive to the new generation.
People are debating between old and new approaches, and the solution is yet to come.
The reality is more of a mixed picture. While traditional festivities like setting off firecrackers, family gathering and visiting miao hui are still dominantly popular, new activities like tourism, text message greetings and partying with friends are also gaining grounds. Meanwhile, other old traditions, such as worshiping ancestors and kneeling down in front of seniors, have almost completely disappeared
