麻辣校园

                             Culture: Flow In Blood

Why are we Chinese?

Why did we appear so generous, united, powerful in face of the earthquake?

Why have many foreign countries failed to completely conquer China?

Last night I watched a CCTV Channel-3 program on Chinese culture in the form of a talk show between the famous writer, Wang Meng, the former minister of the Cultural Ministry, and the host Ma, the son of well-known cross-talker, Ma Ji.

They explored the core of Chinese culture through a small opening, an unprecedented disaster--- Wen Chuan Earthquake by analyzing and summarizing the behaviour of the Chinese as a whole; they attempted to explain why Chinese appeared so in term of the culture; by recalling and comparing, they intended to illustrate the Chinese culture’s vitality, integrity and generosity.

Even an illiterate knows to protect the national interest and the people’s well-being when the country faces a crisis;

Most Chinese will appear more determined, more generous, more united when a disaster intrudes;

In face of that natural disaster the nation, the country seemed to only have one wish, and one voice---to unite, to fight, to tide over the hardest time, best illustrated by the slogan: “A disaster hits one place, the help comes from all the over country.”

Here, I remember a New York Times journalist once wrote in an article about his gratitude and guilt when an earthquake survivor treated him in his makeshift tent with a bowl of noodles though the family still faced food shortage.

Self-sacrifice and whole-hearted devotion of individuals, of collectives, of the nation, best display the Chinese culture, the core and value and power of the culture.

So we are not afraid of the other cultures because ours is able to lend and borrow, take and give, renew itself through an equal cultural exchange, pass its charm and beauty from generation to generation with some mighty and mysterious codes in the genes, in the blood of descendants of Emperors Yan and Huang.

From the talk show, I better understand what a Chinese is.

Well, if you want to know whether you are a typical Chinese or not, you’d better try something like these:

Read aloud some Tang and Song poems to see if you feel passionate;

Go abroad for some time without Chinese food to see if you miss it;

Sing our national anthem to feel if your blood turns hot.

(July 14, 2008)