- 最后登录
- 2011-11-25
- 在线时间
- 34 小时
- 寄托币
- 2061
- 声望
- 15
- 注册时间
- 2007-4-8
- 阅读权限
- 30
- 帖子
- 12
- 精华
- 1
- 积分
- 1897
- UID
- 2325187
![Rank: 5](template/archy_plt8/image/star_level3.gif) ![Rank: 5](template/archy_plt8/image/star_level1.gif)
- 声望
- 15
- 寄托币
- 2061
- 注册时间
- 2007-4-8
- 精华
- 1
- 帖子
- 12
|
TOPIC: ISSUE147 - "Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them."
WORDS: 672 TIME: 00:55:00 DATE: 2007-7-28 12:33:07
The twentieth century see great changes brought by highly advanced technology shaping the customs and traditions of our society. It is the truth that tradition is greatly affected by modernization. However, as the complexity that the term ' tradition' connotes, situation is not always as the author asserted. In fact, most cases we are able to find a balance between them.
Admittedly, there would be fierce conflicts when modernizations affect the of traditions. This is extremely true when it comes to traditions that have to do with our basic needs. For example, people once used to walk or ride on a horse for their destiny turned to automobiles and railways, which greatly facilitates the traffic and transport, creating efficiency and convenience. What's more, when modern propaganda manifest the main means of imparting information, people are more likely to utilize these electronic tools such as TV, Broadcast, and internet; for they provide a fast spread of news and knowledge, if compared with the traditional newspapers that once played a vital role in human history. In all these cases, we have to admit, these traditions, has already been taken place by the new comers, which implicates a incompatibility of tradition and modernization.
However, just like what we've discussed above, the phenomenon that modernization substituting the tradition mainly happened in the sphere of materialistic traditions, which are mostly related to our basic needs, and has little with the connotation of cultural background. That's to say, the traditions related to specific material needs of surviving carry little information about a culture. For example, compared with traditions of festivals such as Christmas or other cultural habits which influences the way of thinking or having special meaning in memorizing; the way that we get information or the way of transporting- though looms so large in the outer appearance of a society- is less important. In fact, as for those traditions relevant to our thoughts and cultural heritage, sometimes modern life just affected what it looks, remaining the pith of it unchanged; sometimes man managed to find a ballance between them, as we discuss below
Firstly, in respects related more with our thinking, traditions are more likely to be preserved, though the outer appearance might be adapted by modernization. For example, just like Chirstmas in the west, the Spring Festival is a tradition of Chinese which has maintained thousand years, the modern technology does make it different from the ancient times, and the traditional way of celebrating a new year, has stepped down and made room for some TV programs. However, the culturel connotation of it- embracing a new start and getting together with whole family-has not yet changed. For more evidences, in Span, the tradition of bull fighting even remains mostly unchanged. Then, we are sure to believe, although many looks different, the traditions that has more to do with our spirit are more likely to keep in harmony with the modern society.
Besides, when modernlization encountered cultural heritage sometimes man kind even developed an eclectic method to maintain the balance. For example, in Europe, many little town look the same as what they were hundreds years ago, from these architectures that mirrors the history and culture you can get a deeper understanding of the past. But if you enter into one of them, you would find the internal spaces with it are equiped with modern facilities: there will be TV, bulbs and computers In this way, the most significant characters of tradition-the appearamce of these architectures that could reflect the culture and history mostly-are preserved. This is a very good example illustrating our wisdom of find a balance between tradition and modernization.
To sum up, as the different meanings carried in traditions, we can divide it as materialistic and spiritual ones. For the former traditions, owing to their relatively little contributions to the memorizing of culture, these traditions are mostly likely to be replaced. Luckily enough, when it comes to the traditions containing more messages about our culture and the past, people either inherit the merits of the tradition or find an eclectic way to ballance them, therefore the real meaning and message of culture remain unchanged. So the statements that tradition and modernization are incompatible is insufficient.
[ 本帖最后由 norns 于 2007-7-30 20:42 编辑 ] |
|