208 The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitude and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behaviors of its people.
As media for one to contact with the outside world, appearance tells the story of the certain individual, by looking into which, experienced expert may tell much about the inside world of the individual or society. However, I'm afraid that such study might offer information that is not precise or credible.
It's true that the appearance and behaviors of the people could betray their attitude and interests. After all, one's out looking represents the expectation for the status of him or herself, and would select the clothes at his or her pleasure within the former confront. Rock-singers would like to dress in frenzy clothes to show their unique personality while students that major in science are inclined to austere coat or normal T-shirt for their lack of desire in material benefit, and officials prefer to suit which help them a more reliable out looking. All these give out a signal of the inclination of certain groups, and on which people could make an approximate judge to the inside characters.
However, it's unevident to judge individuals through the external appearance or the ways they act in. Actually, signals might be similar and the same action could stand for different attitude, also it's normal that individuals conceal the true attitude or opinion according to certain intension or circumstance. The truths might, whether on purpose or not, be masked. High school students in uniform could either be interested in working in maths problems or singing in front of a large group of audience; people in austere could be squanders that spend a lot in furniture. Also beauty might be indifferent; giant might be intimidated; those whose behaviors are rude might be kind-hearted, while people in behavior could be interested in tricks and lucre. Superficial appearance probably stands for little or even nothing at all about the inner quality of individuals.
What's more, a society could be rather complex, though the costumes or behaviors of the citizens tells much about the custom and standers of beauty, they are insufficient to offer more information about the values and ethics. Culture is made up of many elements, and the behaviors and appearance could explain part of the values and ideas. It's manifest that most Chinese choose dress which differs from the traditional ones and look similar to the west nowadays, while the values and ideas of most Chinese stays derived from the old one; And keeping the custom of celebrating the festival called Spring-festival, the purpose have change from a holy rite into mostly opportunity for family to get together. The values and ideas, according to these examples, though have been showed to some extent, a study poked into further fields such as literature and art is needed for a comprehensive understanding.
In conclusion, it's a wonderful skill to attain as much as information from the external appearance, but it's far from enough.
发表于 2009-8-4 13:07:00
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