Yearning for winter
2015-11-21
- Anming - There
are certain things in China, which foreigners simply can’t appreciate. When Starbucks
and H&M want to make us belief that the world is populated with tasteless,
uniform people, they are the last evidence of cultural difference. Engraved
stone steels and cabbage-shaped jade are among them. It
might be the oldest of all questions since the Tower of Babel, sliding into
obscurity over half a century of globalization and revived by Huntington’s clash of civilizations. Can different
cultures enrich each other or must they conflict? I am afraid, sentences like China is too big won’t be of much
help, one could swap it for the world is too
big, or – do something constructive instead and focus on the things everyone
can appreciate. Those are the things, which bring people together. Like an
honest smile, a sincere compliment, the nature, clean air. Like the first
snowfall… I
am certain, snow has never fallen more beautifully than on Chinese roofs. Just
like Venice reveals its true beauty only to the winter tourist, the Forbidden
City is most enchanting when covered with fresh, glistening snow. About Venice,
Russian-born author and Literature Nobel Prize winner Brodsky wrote:
“I would never come here in summer, not even at gunpoint. In winter you wake up in this city, especially on Sundays, to the chiming of its innumerable bells, as though behind your gauze curtains a gigantic china teaset were vibrating on a silver tray in the pearl-gray sky. You fling the window open and the room is instantly flooded with this outer, peal-laden haze, which is part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers.”
(from Joseph Brodsky, Watermark, 1992)
The Beijing resident enters the Forbidden City from the North Gate after climbing the Coal Hill in Jingshan Park. Once established as a private imperial garden, the park was opened to the public in 1928. To the south lies the Forbidden City, motionless with its golden roofs. To the north, a few roofs can be seen in the park, like small boats floating on a green ocean. Among these trees, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, hanged himself in 1644 while rebels approached the capital. He had a whole empire to waste, normal people just have their own lifetime. I wonder, what is less painful.
I am not Chinese. If I were Chinese, I’d give this essay a tacky ending using the snowflake as a symbol of different cultures, unique in structure, but sharing one origin. Instead, I make myself a cup of tea and wait patiently for the second snow to come. That’s a bit Chinese as well, I have to admit.
Pretty good，but anyway,there are many words they know me well,but I do not know them.
Ok.
I consider the terms to be classist and not racist - especially modern usage.
In my opinion Germans ( including Austrians ) are brainwashed from birth on anything 'nazi'. Germans cant even play the video game Wolfenstein for example. Yes quite cautious modern Germans are.
The nazi seem to be blamed for most things - so I am happy that you wont go that far. Madison Grant was not a Nazi. People were saying the things that the 'nazi' said long before the 'nazi' ever said them hey. And yes I would imagine that German dictionaries are kind of ridiculous on anything to do with 'nazi' due to modern German 'nazi' hysteria and denial. And caution.
Artificial cranial deformation pre-dates written history hey. It occurred all over the world. And why were humans artificially deforming their skulls to create a higher brow? Because a high brow is associated with being elite. It always has been. Long before the evil 'nazi' hey. This pre-dates written history.
So. For me I am happy to have a longer skull than a round one. I would have been accepted into the Hitler Youth as a child for certain. And as far as the evil 'nazi' go on classism - they were trying to create a classless society and to take the stigma away from being born into the 'working class'. As a working class person I would be much happier to have lived in 'nazi' society than in modern capitalist society that tells me that I am bad for being 'working class'. Another reason that I am happier to have a long head than a round one is because in my opinion a longer skull is more attractive than a round skull.
And yes it would be nice if global society had enough reasonable and self-responsible people to not need a 'leader state' but I do not dare hope it. I think that we do need a type of 'leader state' but I do not think that the leader state should be a country and certainly not degenerate capitalist USA. It is kind of ridiculous for a country to be a leader state really isnt it. The leader state of the future must be supranational. And led by a Vindex. More important than the leader state will be the Vindex. I hope for a great Vindex to lead us into our future.
Would you consider accepting a Vindex as your leader Anming?
First of all, you should be critical of anyone's writing. I read about the etymology of the word "low-brow" and I am disappointed that it has not been deleted from commonly used dictionaries by now. I wouldn't go as far as some people and say it is directly linked to Nazi Germany's racist anthropologists like some claim on the internet, but there is just everything wrong with this expression. Probably we are much more cautious with expressions linked to racist anthropology in Austria and Germany because of our history, especially WW2. I can't imagine an expression like that finding its way into a German dictionary. Sure I will handle English ones with more care in the future.
I hope the global society of the future won't be in need of a leader state. I hope there will be enough reasonable and self-responsible people.
I remember you saying that your Kahlenberg Near Vienna is better in your mother tongue. I liked it in English. I didn't mean to be critical of your writing. I like it a lot. My English is terrible even though it is my first and only language and yeah I probably read that wrong.
And yes I agree that we should talk on a level of global society rather than countries and governments when we can - but I do not think that Tue USA is a good leader state - or that we need one country to act as a leader state. The sooner USA loses reserve currency status the better for all of us in my opinion.
And thanks for saying such nice things about Australia. I guess that we are still culturally isolated in many ways which helps us resist certain things like Starbucks. Many of us have no idea that it is cool to drink Starbucks coffee. And few of us shop at The Gap because most of us have never heard of it. We only have a couple Gap stores too. But yeah there is an independence about our culture that helps too. We didn't stop Uber but then again it is promoted by all media and all government. If Starbucks was given half the help that Uber has been given by media and government here it would have been a great success
Thanks for your response. And sorry again - I didn't mean to be critical of your writing. I think that it is good..
Thanks for your comment. My native language is German, so I sometimes have torely on the dictionary when writing English blogs. I am afraid, it can happen that I make a bad choice in my wording, believe me, my German writing is much better... Starbucks coffee is bad and overpriced, still the company manages to make people believe they can't walk down a street without holding a Starbucks cup. It is very successful in most European countries and in China as well, I envy the Australians for not having Starbucks. Not all western values are bad (many "values" are good, hypocrisy is bad). Maybe we should think more on the level of society instead of talking about countries and governments. If you tell me, that Starbucks is not making good business, I think the Australian people are wonderful, aware of their own diversity and power as consumers. The other way round, I'd blame consumers worldwide for adopting unsustainable and questionable consumption patterns rather than only the United States as a country or the west as a region. In the end, it is the individual consumer who decides what to buy and which movies to watch. I know, that requires a certain level of education, but it seems not enough to blame a country.
Did Confucius say "and frankness uncontrolled becomes effrontery"? Maybe terms such as 'low brow' or 'high hat' should be avoided in the name of harmony.
We hate Starbucks in Australia. It came here but failed. Some say that the reason it failed here is because we have such a good cafe culture thanks largely to waves of Italians and Greeks that immigrated here from the 50s. Others think that the many McCafes that we have here made it hard for Starbucks. Maybe it was a bit of both. Is Starbucks for high-hats or low-brows? Low-brows in high hats? It didnt work here anyway.
Australia is proof that multiculturalism is good and that it can and does work. Diversity is strength.
Globalization seems to result in cultural degeneration because USA is leader state and they use their power to push low US culture onto the world. US cultural hegemony does not promote diversity. Modern 'globalization' is Americanization. Americanization does not enrich and educate. US culture and society is not noble.
So I see globalization throughAmericanization and so-called 'western values' as bad and as a new Tower of Babel.
edit- sorry for long comment but I agree that this is a good and important topic. Sorry.
Comment