Tisch
The Forbidden City is the oldest building complex in China. It has experienced the Ming and Qing Dynasties and has a large number of precious historical relics in China. It can be said that the Forbidden City symbolizes the ancient history and culture of China. But in such a building, a Starbucks coffee shop quietly opened.
This incident has caused great controversy like a domino. Some people think that this is a cultural invasion of foreign consumerism and pragmatism, calling for "driving Starbucks out of the Forbidden City!" . From an economic point of view, there must be a market in this area, so someone will open such a coffee shop. As the establishment of this kind of behavior, I think as long as it doesn't really destroy the historical and cultural treasure house of the Forbidden City, its behavior is at most as understandable as that of ordinary tourist shops.
Some people say that Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day abroad have caused China people to be ignorant of the Double Ninth Festival and Begging for Qiaojie Festival. Foreign KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut have diluted people's desire for traditional food, while foreign Hollywood has neglected China's opera. Therefore, some people think that all foreign cultures are conspiracies and westerners' peaceful evolution of China.
And is this the case? Is everything brought by westerners a conspiracy? Now let's look at China. Isn't the system of today's country originated from Marx in the west? How many technologies that have brought great progress to our present life are not from the West? Therefore, this "one size fits all" statement is definitely problematic. We must admit that western culture has not only brought a little benefit to China, but even helped China in times of crisis.
Throughout history, we know that China's culture has also promoted the world. China's compass, shipbuilding, movable type printing and papermaking promoted the opening of new sea routes and the Renaissance in Europe. This shows the glory of China culture. Look at the Tang Dynasty, when Chinese civilization was most prosperous, it adopted an open policy to the outside world, absorbed a lot of foreign ideas and cultures, and exported many civilizations with China characteristics.
It can be seen that the prosperity at that time was due to China's opening up. The so-called tolerance is great, and we can also know that only an open mind can make the country strong. Of course, the harm of retreat can also be found in Modern History.
However, while we are broad-minded, we also have to admit that foreign culture has really brought great impact to domestic traditional culture. Comparing foreign industrial products with traditional handicrafts, we can easily find that industrial products flow rapidly on the production line, and thousands of products can be produced in just one day, while handicrafts can't be made even by the fastest craftsmen in a week. For example, the labeling behavior in the "teapot incident" some time ago fully reflected the shortage of manual production and the contradiction between supply and demand. For other aspects, we may face similar problems. For example, can traditional operas have all kinds of special effects like movies?
I think we should think about the development of traditional culture while inheriting it, and I think the impact of foreign cultures on traditional culture is largely due to their technological progress. Therefore, if traditional culture wants to go out, it must not be closed, and it must be combined with modernity.
Reflecting on the "festival phenomenon", it is true that many festivals have suddenly entered China. For example, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas have flooded into the China market, and many times they are ignorant, which means "painting a tiger does not make a dog". There is no Thanksgiving or Christmas here. ! This has become a turkey festival, a dessert festival and a gift festival. Many times it contains a strong spirit of "commercialism". Besides, isn't it the same with traditional festivals in China? Although Dragon Boat Festival, Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year are all legal holidays, what about them? ! Not all of them end with Zongzi Festival, Tangyuan Festival, Moon Cake Festival and Big Meal Festival. What's that smell? Five flavors are refreshing! Maybe it's just for the holidays in the end. Who knows how to get together? Who knows about moon viewing? The tranquility brought by the bright moon has been obscured by the smoke in the city, and the warmth gathered together has been buried by "delicious" food. The progress of the times, the progress of science and technology, and the progress of people have brought us an era of rapid development of "people". A survey shows that the pace of people's life is getting faster and faster. So when people are tired, they have no energy, so I think the invasion of business ideas is only a necessary condition for "cultural decline", not a sufficient condition.
Sometimes we need to "strengthen ourselves" and bravely "stand up" and "criticize" ourselves; "reflect" on yourself; "sum up" yourself! Instead of finding other people's reasons and finding fault with others. How should China develop? Where should China go from here? It was definitely not others, but China people themselves. And self-improvement must be the way out.
extreme
Starting from Starbucks in the Forbidden City, a Starbucks coffee shop has been opened in an antique corner of the Forbidden City for six years. This foreign shop in suits and ties stands out among the buildings of robes and jackets, which is particularly eye-catching, no, it should be particularly dazzling. It seems to be telling visitors to the Forbidden City something ... (There are examples in the description and comments) Starbucks coffee shop is a symbol of American consumerism and pragmatism. "It exists. It can survive in the Forbidden City for six years, which shows that it caters to the consumption psychology of many tourists, especially foreign tourists. The Forbidden City is the holy land of China's traditional culture, but it makes people feel different when Starbucks drives to the Forbidden City. It symbolizes the "soft power" of foreign culture in China, an ancient country with 5,000 years of civilization. In recent years, there are many examples of the infiltration and expansion of foreign cultures. Layers of English course posters posted on the university campus; Japanese TV dramas and Korean TV dramas, as well as various Western-style fast food restaurants, Japanese food and thai massage, occupy the TV screen all over the world. Japanese dramas and Korean dramas cover the sky (horizontal communication, contact real-life examples, talk about it). Faced with the powerful offensive of soft power, many compatriots, especially teenagers, unconsciously lost themselves. They spend a lot of time studying English hard, but they ignore themselves. They are familiar with Bill Gates and Jordan, but ignore Lao She and Ba Jin. They are obsessed with Japanese comics but don't read The Book of Songs and Li * ... (Again, for comparison, there is an existing point of view) Foreign culture is gradually eroding our limited spiritual space. There is a saying that there is a "biological invasion" in nature. The water surface of East Lake in Wuhan was once occupied by the exotic water hyacinth, a fast-growing pig feed, which led to the atrophy of other species and even the disappearance of culture. The same is true when people are only satisfied with the feast of the senses. Traditional culture is gradually being abandoned by us. Isn't it a typical example that Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province is going to South Korea to learn procedures? What an unstable record! If one day, we cut off the umbilical cord that once nourished our traditional culture and cut off the national cultural ties that closely linked us, where will our national cohesion be? Where is the root of our soul? Dr. Yang Shuzi put it well: "Science is backward, and it will collapse when it hits;" "Without humanity, we will be defeated without fighting. This is by no means alarmist, but aggression in the sense is cultural aggression. Goethe once said, "The decline of culture indicates the decline of a nation, and the decline of the two goes hand in hand. "It is true that foreign culture also has its essence, which is worth absorbing in today's increasingly frequent cultural exchanges among countries. However, we must bear in mind that we must carry forward the fine traditions of our own culture and maintain the characteristics of our own culture when carrying out "takenism" on foreign cultures.
Tisso
The Forbidden City is the carrier of China's traditional culture and architectural art! We are not criticizing Starbucks, nor are we against Starbucks. The Forbidden City is the holy land of China culture, and its environment should be harmonious. Opening a Starbucks in the Forbidden City is like adding a suit to a Confucian scholar wearing a robe and jacket. It looks a bit neither fish nor fowl! If the Forbidden City really needs coffee shops, please invite influential coffee shops in China! In fact, Chinese and foreign friends who visit the Forbidden City are not here for coffee, not for leisure! I'm here to experience the art and culture of China. Why not invite our tea culture to the Forbidden City, or invite our national quintessence-Peking Opera to the Forbidden City, because only in this way can we truly appreciate the culture of China and the charm of China! Starbucks can ask it to move downtown, where it will really get what it needs-money.
Palace used to be the political power center of China people, and it was also the spiritual pillar of people at that time. Of course, the system is different now, you can oppose the imperial power system, but you can't deny the historical role of the palace at that time! It's hard to imagine the difference between Starbucks in the Forbidden City and social spoof. The difference is only a little formal difference between text spoofing, picture spoofing and physical spoofing. Have you ever seen the China restaurant in the Louvre? Do you see Dick is the China restaurant in the Kremlin? Have you seen the China restaurant in the White House? Have you seen the China restaurant in the Japanese Palace? Now some people are spoofing, and the management department of the Forbidden City is doing physical spoofing, which is profit-driven. What interests drive relevant departments to destroy such precious historical relics?
Objectively speaking, Starbucks represents the American food culture, while the Forbidden City is the most traditional cultural symbol, synonymous with China and the most contemporary symbol of China. When the two are linked together, apart from economic benefits, it is really necessary to consider whether cultures can be integrated. Of course, for businesses, profit is the goal, and it is precisely because the Forbidden City receives hundreds of millions of foreign tourists every day. Only in this way can Starbucks have a certain market base in the Forbidden City and continue to operate. However, after all, the Forbidden City is not a business place, and it cannot rely entirely on market demand to formulate its own business development path. The more important significance of the Forbidden City is that it is an important carrier of China's traditional national culture and an unrepeatable cultural heritage. In this way, putting Starbucks in the Forbidden City is completely putting the cart before the horse.