On the occasion of the Spring Festival in 2024, many ** interviewed me about the topic of Spring Festival consumption. Therefore, I have also been paying attention to the consumption dynamics of the Spring Festival. Almost every day, I also publish a little text about the phenomenon or story of the Spring Festival. But I always feel that the depth is not enough. Especially when it comes to the recognition of the Chinese New Year by the United Nations, I think about how to drive consumption (I mentioned earlier how many more New Year's goods will be sold in Yiwu). This year, we are three families together in Shenzhen for the New Year, it is very lively, and it feels very good. But from the perspective of a professional who studies domestic consumption, I always feel a little lacking.
There are two things that impress me in the past few days: First, the Chinese New Year's Eve, we haven't gotten up yet, and the hometown sent **, and it turned out that everyone started the reunion dinner. It turns out that in our hometown, there is a habit of eating New Year's dinner before dawn; Second, on the first day of the new year, I saw a bag of garbage in front of my relative's house, and I thought about doing a good deed, taking the initiative, and planning to send the garbage to the garbage station downstairs. As a result, the old man in the family immediately stopped it. Say that this garbage is not thrown away today, but will be thrown away tomorrow. When asked, the older generation spoke, and the first year of junior high school could not throw garbage and not pour water outside. It seems to indicate that there is no outflow of property.
So, I had a "flash of inspiration", yes. I know, the festival of the Chinese lacks words! There is a lack of a systematic explanation that can become public knowledge. Further, Chinese festivals lack Chinese stories. Why do we celebrate this festival? What is the saying of this verse? What's the rationale for this? In recent years, whether it is the Chinese Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, or the Qingming Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, etc., more and more attention has been paid to many countries in the world, especially in places where there are many Chinese, the Chinese Festival is also particularly colorful, but compared with some Western festivals, such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, etc., China's festivals look very lively, very atmosphere, but there are always shortcomings.
What's missing? What is lacking is not the form, nor the content, but the lack of stories, that is, the lack of stories that can be disseminated, inherited, believed, and carried. Like a sitcom, there are characters, theaters, and events, but one by one can string all these elements into a perfect plot story, whether the plot is a tragedy or a comedy, but it must have a strong enough explanatory power and discourse, and then it can be extended and let people play, forming a variety of versions of the sub-plot, forming a series or the first, second, and third episodes. Our Spring Festival Gala, should there be content in this regard?
Although all of us have formed a habit in our bones, we know that these festivals are the inheritance left by our ancestors and have a long history, there must be a logic for its existence and inheritance, and it must be said and reasoned. At the same time, because I have been exposed to it since I was a child, I also know the expressions, rituals and personal behavior constraints of these festivals, and I know what I need to do during the Spring Festival, what taboos and rules I have, but I don't know why, in short, there is a lack of a rational and scientific logical deduction, and a lack of a right to speak.
Affected by geographical and climatic factors, the history of Western countries is not long, and it is impossible to talk about how it has been since the Qin and Han dynasties, but they can be created out of nothing. For example, it is clear that the Middle Ages in Western Europe was a long dark period, and there was not much "literature and art" before, but they coined the word "Renaissance", as if they were similar to China's "Tang Dynasty" in the past. In the same way, there are no big holidays in the history of the West, but they have made a Christmas and Easter.
These two festivals are very sacred and grand in the West. Most importantly, it has the same description and expression as real people and real events. Among them, Christmas is the biggest holiday in the West, and its explanation is that because this day is the birth of Jesus**. Easter, on the other hand, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus**, the resurrection of the old man's family. And both festivals are religious festivals in nature. After two verses and believe in the stories in these two verses, it is equivalent to that you also believe in ** religion. Some adults and children began to celebrate these two festivals, and they were very solemn, quite ritualistic, and the explanations were also vigorous, as if they really understood what was going on.
However, most of the festivals of the Chinese originally had a very rich story. For example, the Lunar New Year, the Winter Solstice, etc., this is because China is an ancient agricultural civilization, these festivals are based on the scientific cognition and feeling between agriculture, life and astronomy and geography, and are a kind of understanding and respect for nature and science. Although there are a large number of folk customs, in essence, they are the experience and perception accumulated by us, the world's largest and most inherited agricultural civilization, in the process of survival and development for thousands of years. It is not superstition, nor is it made out of nothing. It is the expression and bearing of traditional Chinese culture. The reason why the Chinese nation can be inherited for thousands of years is also the result of the empowerment of these cultures.
However, for so many years, we have ignored this. While repeatedly emphasizing the inheritance of traditional culture and the self-confidence of national culture, it despises the interpretation of these festival events that affect every people. This big drama with nearly 1.5 billion people participated, but it lacks a sufficiently attractive plot. Many foreigners participate in the fashion and join in the fun, and it is not clear what is going on. The younger generation in China is even more unaware of these festivals.
In short, why children now attach great importance to Western festivals is not only because of the foreignness, fashion, and special sense of ritual of these festivals, but more importantly, Western countries are spreading these Western-derived cultures to China in various ways and capturing the minds of the younger generation. On the contrary, many of today's children participate passively during the Spring Festival, because few people tell them these stories that have a longer history and are more valuable than those of other countries.
Our cultural departments, experts and scholars, and people in the literary and artistic circles have attached great importance to this matter and told the story of every major festival in China. For example, during the Spring Festival, starting from a small age and continuing to the Lantern Festival, for 20 days, almost every day should have a different statement. I remember when I was a child, adults said that on the 29th of the lunar month, you must wash yourself cleanly, saying that you would wash away the dust and bad luck of the past year. The 30th year of the New Year should be reunited early in the morning (different places in different places), and so on. In a word, we need to tell the Chinese story of the China Festival to the next generation and the world!
If this story is well told, it will be extended further, and in a few years, more and more foreigners will start to celebrate the Chinese Festival. Can we welcome people from all over the world to China for the Chinese New Year with great fanfare? Then let them buy all kinds of Chinese specialties and national tide products, and at that time, will our international consumption really boom? Is the dual circulation smoother? Will it gradually become a global fashion for foreigners to come to China for consumption? **Wan Fan Incentive Plan (Wang Xianqing, Dean of Modern Industry Research Institute of Guangdong Baiyun University, President of Guangdong Business Economics Association).