The following is a survey among undergraduate students from three prestigious universities: Peking University, Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China.
The respondents, 100, each majored in liberal arts, science and engineering. About 1/3. Although this is an "incomplete" answer sheet with a small base, it may reveal the weight of tradition among young students in contemporary China.
Inadequate understanding of tradition
In the questionnaire, there are several sets of questions to examine people's understanding of tradition. When asked about their reading status of "Collection of Ancient Classics and History", 79 people said they "read it occasionally", 13 people said "stay away", 2 people said they "deeply hate it", and only 6 people said they "can't put it down".
As for the four major literary classics, 27 people answered "have read them all", 15 people "have read them many times", and as many as 48 people "have only read one or two of them".
There are also two sets of questions that examine people’s love and understanding of traditional art. As a result, 42 people said they "could go and see" Peking Opera or some other local opera, which was as many as "not interested" (42). There were 4 people who said they "very disliked" and only 11 people. "Like it very much".
As for the mastery of calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, and national musical instruments (erhu, guzheng, etc.), the vast majority of those who have “learned a little bit” (48) and “don’t understand it at all” (33), Only 14 people have "roughly mastered it" and only 5 people are "proficient".
This is roughly the same as the conclusion reached by several Beijing research units in a 1994 survey on Beijing youth and traditional culture: young people’s awareness and understanding of traditional culture is not high.
“Contemporary college students have not read enough traditional classics, and the functions of traditional festivals are becoming increasingly weaker,” Hu Xiaoming, a professor at the Chinese Department of East China Normal University, said sadly. Culture deprives students of too much reading time.”
“It can be seen from the statistics of the questionnaire that most contemporary young people gave a neutral answer to traditional culture, and to Chinese classical literature, art and customs. It’s also very vague.” Luo Yuming, a professor at the Chinese Department of Fudan University, said, “Has everything in traditional culture that does not need to be eliminated been eliminated? From the perspective of globalization, have we still had many questions about the inheritance of traditional culture? ”
Identification with tradition is okay
But in terms of identification with tradition, the questionnaire provided gratifying answers.
Wang Bo, an expert on the history of Chinese philosophy and professor of the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, divides traditional culture into three core levels: moral values, etiquette and life ideals.
It can be seen from the questionnaire that in terms of moral values, no one thinks that the core Confucian ethics of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, trustworthiness, filial piety, etc. are "outdated", while for benevolence, loyalty Regarding traditional morals such as filial piety and filial piety, more than 50 people chose "influenced by what they have heard and seen since childhood".
As for etiquette, as a special example, when asked about the traditional festival Qingming Festival, more than 50 people also chose "sweeping graves sincerely".
In terms of ideals in life, 10.69% of the people who believed that "organizing the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world" have always been their ideals chose "I will consider it", and the choices were "other people's affairs" and "outdated" , are 14 and 7 respectively.
Hu Xiaoming believes, “Compared with 85 years ago, today’s youth show an optimistic attitude toward traditional culture. This attitude of contemporary youth shows that traditional culture still has strong vitality and richness. "
The students who responded to this questionnaire came from three well-known universities, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Renmin University. They were born in the city in their 80s. "They represent a very outstanding group of Chinese youth and are themselves members of traditional culture. Their success proves that traditional culture is useful." Hu Xiaoming said.
Tradition and globalization go hand in hand
As for the future of traditional culture, 44% of the respondents chose "hard to say", while 44% said they were "not optimistic" and "very pessimistic". 33, only 23 chose "very optimistic" and "relatively optimistic".
However, compared with the generation of May 4th youth who once abandoned traditional culture and enthusiastically embraced "total Westernization", contemporary youth living in a "post-modern" environment have made great progress in how to treat the relationship between Chinese and Western cultures. different.
In this survey, 54% of people believed that "traditional culture and globalization go hand in hand", 30% of people believed that "Chinese traditional culture will be reborn under the baptism of globalization", and believed that "the global Only 10 said, "Globalization will lead to the decline or even disappearance of traditional culture."
This illustrates the openness of contemporary Chinese youth. This kind of openness should come from confidence in one's own country. Wang Bo believes that the more powerful a country is, the more confident people will be in their own traditional culture, and at the same time they will adopt a very open-minded attitude towards foreign cultures. For example, this was the case during the prosperous Han and Tang dynasties in Chinese history.
An open mind is the healthy attitude of a rising power.