Issue147【Triple Week】第8次练习by ahng

ahngUID: 2605383

TOPIC: ISSUE147 - "Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them."
WORDS: 620          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2009-7-27 21:08:20

The issue about tradition and modernization always arouses much controversy in the public. The statement above speaks that they are incompatible and thus one must choose between them. However, I do not agree with the statement. In my point of view, though tradition and modernization are contradicted sometimes, in most cases they are closely related with each othe and also they can be accepted by our society simultaneously.

To begin with, tradition is always regarded as a kind of fortune that is inherited by us from our ancestors. As we know, human beings have a history for hundreds of thousands of years. The wisdoms that accumulated for such a long time are definitely great fortune and property to the current civilization. In short, as history is always continuous, it is a must for us to have a good understanding of tradition. The traditional ideas have their sources and origins, which can also be instructive to the current society to some extent. For example, Confucious, a great educator in the ancient China, had said that it is important and effective for students to review their work sometimes. As a student, the concept is always useful and instructive to learning knowledge even in the education nowadays with high technologies.

Secondly, modernization is to some extent a result of the continuing development of tradition. To create new things without any precedents can be impossible for most humans. As an old saying goes, "Everything in the world always has its reasons and effects." Here, history and tradition can be the 'reasons' for modernization. It is easy and usual for people to develop new ideas from or even revise the old rules according to the present situations, in which case the traditional thoughts do not contradict to the contemperary fashions any more.

Thirdly, tradition and modernization can be in common in some certain parts. That is to say, in those areas, the modernization do not sufficiently developped, leading to the same thoughts and ideas of people nowadays and previously. As we know, China is a nation with long history. 'Respecting to each others' is the great tradition of chinese that has been handed down to the present society. Similarly, many traditions of China have been inherited and accepted by our contemperary world.

Last but not least, according to the compatiblity of tradition and modernization, it is also accepted for us to choose either of them or even make such a decision that composes the two kinds of ideologies. That's saying, either of them can be adapted and suitable to our situations, even though they have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Take clothes as example, traditional chinese style and thoughts of clothes is tidy and clean, while the current fashion in our world is to reveal characters of different kinds of people. However presently many people also holds the traditional dressing style due to their own interests and attitudes to the world and society. In this case, tradition and modernization do not contradict any more. What's more, it is better for us to develop our own ideas from the traditional ones. And then, the tradition and modernization won't be any contradiction. For example, most scientists regard the scientific research as a kind of such process - they read papers written by old researchers and then find out and further accomplish what can be developped in those papers and results of experiments. This is a pattern for doing research that is largely adopted in the academic world.

To sum it up, tradition and modernization are not necessarily incompatible to each other. In fact, they can survive at the same time and they can also be adopted by society or individual respectively or even in an integrated formation.