"Over the years, China has been exporting its culture and has indeed achieved significant results. But I personally believe that to make cultural export effective, foreigners need to be involved."
“Take China’s dragon and lion dances for example. When we promote and tour them to foreign countries, they just find them interesting. But once they’ve seen them, they quickly forget about them and don’t keep them in their hearts.”
"But if we involve these foreigners, their memories will definitely be more vivid. Perhaps they can't perfect the dragon and lion dance, but this activity will definitely pique their interest."
"Besides dragon and lion dances, there are also simple and easy-to-understand traditional folk customs for the Chinese New Year. Paper cutting, pasting Spring Festival couplets, making dumplings... These fun folk activities can be incorporated to allow foreigners to participate and experience the festive atmosphere of the Chinese New Year."
Qin Zi'an explained his thoughts one by one, and the attendees nodded in agreement, showing great appreciation for his ideas.
Many promotional activities focus on showcasing, but Qin Zi'an puts his emphasis on creation.
This will definitely greatly enhance the enthusiasm of international friends and strengthen their sense of identity with Chinese culture.
Just when everyone agreed with Qin Zian's plan, a dissenting voice suddenly emerged.
"It's great to let foreigners participate in China's folk culture, but intangible cultural heritage like dragon and lion dances... visiting is fine, but participation is unnecessary. China's traditional culture needs to be passed down and protected; it can't be stolen by foreigners anymore."
Upon hearing this, the attendees exchanged bewildered glances, a sense of unease creeping onto their faces.
After all, this isn't the first or second time something like this has happened.
Japan's matcha originated from China, the kimchi of the eight Western countries originated from China, and the styles of high-end European and American fashion brands are copied from Chinese cultural relics...
At first, they also used the guise of learning to acquire the skills.
Natto in Japan is basically a semi-finished product of fermented soybean paste. They haven't actually learned how to make it, but that doesn't stop them from promoting their 'self-created' culture.
The Western Eight Kingdoms are even worse; they're nothing but thieves.
Not only did they copy the culture of the Dragon Kingdom verbatim, but they also dared to apply for intangible cultural heritage status after only changing the form.
In China, people put up Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, but in the Western Eight Kingdoms, they dare to put up funeral couplets, claiming that white represents something sacred and noble in the Western Eight Kingdoms.
The Western Eight Countries, when stealing culture, adhered to the principle of only copying half of it, using wreaths for weddings and the character "囍" for funerals... a hodgepodge.
With the revival of traditional culture, more and more Chinese people are paying attention to these issues and are beginning to protect the traditional culture of the Dragon Kingdom.
The culture of the Dragon Kingdom has undergone thousands of years of accumulation, and also experienced a long period of difficulty in its transmission.
Even though the Chinese government has been strongly supporting related projects, it is still difficult to pass on every traditional culture, and many niche intangible cultural heritages are on the verge of being lost.
After this, thieves from the Western Eight Kingdoms took advantage of the situation and plundered and stole cultural relics from the Dragon Kingdom on a large scale.
Because of these issues, there have been countless arguments within the Dragon Kingdom.
In the past, the people of the Dragon Kingdom could unite against external forces and try to reclaim the Dragon Kingdom's culture.
But those thieves and robbers had already registered the trademark and successfully applied for intangible cultural heritage status.
After repeated failures in their efforts to protect their rights, netizens in China became disheartened and no longer wanted to deal with these trivial matters.
Every time there's a cultural export issue, someone starts stirring up trouble.
The high-ranking officials of the Dragon Kingdom don't care about these things, so what's the use of ordinary people worrying about it?
Such rapid pace makes cultural transmission more difficult and makes cultural export more sensitive.
However, in Qin Zian's view, the other party's concerns were completely unfounded.
"It is precisely because of these acts of cultural theft that we must spare no effort in promoting Chinese culture and let the world see the authentic Chinese New Year."
"In recent years, the Western Eight Kingdoms have been trying to confuse the public and turn the Chinese New Year into the Lunar New Year. Then they will change the Lunar New Year back to the Western Eight Kingdoms' New Year."
"Involving people from all over the world in the Chinese New Year is not about making it easier for them to steal culture, but about cultural assimilation. On the other hand, the bizarre and incongruous New Year customs of the Western countries will become a laughing stock around the world."
As Qin Zian brought up the term 'cultural assimilation,' the expressions on everyone's faces changed.
Throughout China's thousands of years of history, there have been numerous instances of ethnic integration, and many ethnic minorities have become Sinicized as a result.
If people from all over the world could see the Spring Festival of the Dragon Kingdom, understand what authentic Spring Festival culture is, and participate in the Spring Festival activities, it would be a great blessing.
While people all over the world are putting up Spring Festival couplets, giving red envelopes, and performing dragon and lion dances, only the eight Western countries are doing the opposite.
Faced with this situation, people around the world will not think that the Western Eight countries are acting out of character, but will instead become more aware of their theft.
Perhaps for another year or two, the eight Western countries will continue to insist on their ridiculous practice of 'holding funerals during the Spring Festival'.
As the influence of the Chinese New Year grows, the eight Western kingdoms will inevitably face assimilation sooner or later.
Culture cannot be stolen; it can only steal the outer shell, but not the true core.
What is a developing country?
Isn't this just the literal meaning of developing the world into a dragon nation?
There's no need to be afraid of cultural theft and hold back; they just need to vigorously promote Chinese culture, and people from all over the world will naturally flock to it.
As Qin Zi'an elaborated on his views, Minister Zhang valued this young man more and more.
Only now did Minister Zhang realize that Qin Zi'an was not just a person who could only create drama, but that he actually had some knowledge.
Now that things have come to this, Minister Zhang agrees with Qin Zi'an's plan and wants to implement it.
The problem is that the planning team has too few members, while the number of countries and regions involved is very large.
In addition, there are less than two weeks left until the Spring Festival.
Completing such a large project is fraught with challenges.
"Qin Zian's plan is a good idea, but there are still many difficulties in putting it into practice. Expecting foreigners to learn dragon and lion dancing in half a month? That's probably a pipe dream."
"If we had seen this plan six months in advance, or even three months in advance... it would have been possible to implement it. But considering the current situation, let's postpone this plan. We can explore and develop this plan from this perspective next year."
"As for the other people's proposals, the content is too conventional and there is nothing outstanding about them. You should discuss them again and come up with a better publicity plan as soon as possible."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
