Cultural Renaissance
A Chinese couple wear hanfu for their wedding Dressed in a blue-colored hanfu costume and black hat, 6-yearold Xu Ruibin chants ancient Chinese classics with his classmates in the Jinglu Academy in Beijing, a traditional Chinese classics training institute. In recent years, retro-style private institutes have begun emerging in many cities across China, gaining in popularity. Instead of sending children to attend after-school English or dancing classes, more parents want to instill the traditions of Chinese culture in their children through studying the ancient classics.
And along with the youth, adults are also rekindling their awareness of classical culture with poetry, ancient clothing, calligraphy and Taijiquan all back in vogue. The resurgence of interest in Chinese traditional culture is being driven by the Chinese Government’s efforts to embolden public confidence in its heritage.
Starting young
“First, obey and care for your parents, and then practice true brotherhood. Learn to be careful and honest, and cherish all living beings. Draw near to good-hearted people, and study whenever you can.”
Xu can confidently quote these words from Di Zi Gui, or Standards for Being a Good Pupil and Child, written in the 17th century about Confucius’ teachings. In the eyes of others, Xu is a polite and principled child who respects his elders, which is immensely gratifying to his parents and vindicates their choice of sending him to study traditional Chinese classics.
“Compared with other training, traditional Chinese learning is a kind of enlightenment. Children follow the ancient manners of politeness and respect, while studying traditional culture,” Wang Qing, Xu’s mother told ChinAfrica. “At an early age, traditional culture learning is important as the philosophy will be deeply rooted in children’s hearts,” she added. With students aged mostly from 4 to 10, retro-style private institutes aim to expand children’s exposure to traditional Chinese culture through introductions to Confucianism, Chinese calligraphy and traditional values. Learning Chinese traditional classics is believed to be good for children’s moral development and the cultivation of their character. Some wisdom delivered through the Chinese classics might help children deal with the challenges of life.
Xu’s teacher Liu Junqi told ChinAfrica they are not conventional revivalists at the school, but are constantly exploring the essence of classical culture and bringing forth new ideas from traditional culture.
“We not only allow children to achieve ancient fruitful results in literacy, reading, writing and humanistic literacy, but also try to cultivate children’s traditional virtues such as filial piety, fraternity, independence and tenacity,” he said.
Now, Xu and his classmates have mastered several ancient traditional classics, including, San Zi Jing, or The Three-Character Classic, a 13th-century text for children on Confucian philosophy, and Qian Zi Wen, or Thousand-Character Classic, a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century. Along with this, they also study Chinese poetry, other classic texts and calligraphy.
“Learning traditional culture and ancient ethics does not conflict with the modern education system; rather, it supplements the modern education system,” said Peng Jinshan, a professor at the Northwest Normal University Literature Institute.
Children wearing hanfu learn caligraphy
Children chant ancient Chinese classics Di Zi Gui Popularity among public
Wu Yishu, a 17-year-old senior high school student from Shanghai, is now the idol of many Chinese adults and children.
Wu emerged as champion of the popular poetry recitation show “Chinese Poetry Conference” produced by China Central Television, a big hit among Chinese viewers. Her infectious charm went a long way to reignite the appreciation of classic Chinese poetry amongst the public.
“I admire her not only because she has memorized a large number of poems, but also because she has the capability of using them [effectively],” said Jin Jing, a 30-year-old lawyer working in Beijing. “For me, memorizing poems was painful. The program has enhanced my appreciation of the beauty of classic poetry and traditional culture,” Jin said that the stress of modern life can be offset by ancient poems, which act like a relaxant.
Apart from the revitalization of poems, in recent years, wearing hanfu, traditional dress of the Han people, has become popular in modern China, even being the preferred outfits for brides and grooms at wedding ceremonies. As a student in Southwest Petroleum University, Kang Wei wore hanfu for more than 300 days a year. “Costume is one of the carriers of our culture. Traditional cultural treasure will never be out of fashion,” said Kang.
Kang also enjoys composing ancient poetry, playing the Chinese zither, chess and weiqi, an abstract strategy board game invented in ancient China also known as Go in English, and practicing the tea ceremony.
“China always emphasizes people’s cultural confidence. I am wearing hanfu and advocating an ancient lifestyle to make other people realize that wearing traditional clothes is helpful in finding a visible cultural symbol to show the country’s uniqueness,” he added.
Rebuilding cultural confidence
China has always put emphases on constructing the nation’s cultural confidence and promoting traditional culture to be closely connected to people’s normal life. In the fall quarter of 2017, millions of Chinese primary or junior high school students received the new version of Chinese language textbooks. Written by the Ministry of Education, the textbooks attach more importance to traditional Chinese culture. Textbooks for threeyear junior high schools have more contents on traditional Chinese articles and poems - 132 in total. They make up 51.7 percent of all the texts. And primary school students’ books contain 129 ancient Chinese articles, which is 30 percent of all the texts.
In September 2017, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education announced that all primary school and kindergarten teachers in Beijing would be required to have received 40 hours of training on the core values of Chinese socialism and traditional Chinese culture by 2020. On March 20, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of traditional Chinese culture at the closing ceremony of the First Session of the 13th National People’s Congress. Premier Li Keqiang also made similar remarks in this year’s Report on the Work of the Government by saying that “we need to promote traditional Chinese culture.”
“China’s impressive economic development has greatly raised the living standards of the Chinese people; but it has also given rise to some imbalances in society. In such times, the revival of traditional culture will inject the much-needed spirit of integrity, kindness and fair play into society,” said Ye Zicheng, a professor at the School of International Studies with Peking University.
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