換個角度看文化

如果用幾個字來概括外國人對中國的印象，那么“古老神秘的東方大國”最合適不過了。中國歷史悠久，地域遼闊，但是為什么要用“神秘”二字來形容呢?在作者看來，這種神秘感的形成在于我們看待文化的方式。人們通常把文化看成一個名詞，但作者卻認為文化是個動詞，是關于一個既定群體如何談論、思考和看待本國以及這個世界。在擁有同樣語言、傳統(tǒng)、歷史、教育的大背景下，哪怕是從小我身上也能看到整個民族文化的共性。

 

 

I lived in the Round Square House during its first year as a Chinese and the only international student whose first language is not English. Since one of the six ideals of the house is internationalism, I felt a deep sense of responsibility to represent the hearts and minds of 1 billion Chinese people and five thousand years of Chinese history.

One night during tea we somehow started a conversation about favorite childhood TV shows. Just as it was always the case in conversations like this, I sat quietly in the corner of the room and listened, trying hard to understand what’s going on but did not have a clue. Perhaps because I was quieter than usual that night, Gemma noticed my awkward silence, and made the group to pay its attention.

“Let’s hear what Charlotte wants to say. She looks like she has something to share.”

“Well,” I said, “I think it is kind of difficult for me to be part of the conversation because I watched Chinese animation and TV shows when I was little. It is not because that I don’t want to speak—it is just that Chinese culture is very different from American culture.”

The group went silent for a while.

“Well, that makes sense.” A girl finally broke the silence, “But you should not lock yourself up. If you want us to learn and understand your culture, you should speak up more and share it with us.”

She was right. I was too quiet and shy to be a helpful messenger of my culture. However, even though I agreed with her suggestion, I also wanted to reject it simultaneously. It was really a strange frustration and bafflement that I could neither understand nor explain at that time.

What exactly is my culture? I asked myself.

The first answer that came to my mind was a picture of the Great Wall. Then I thought about the Tiananmen Square—the Chinese equivalent of the National Mall —and the Chinese National Flag. All of these are symbols that visually represent Chinese culture, but here’s the thing: They are relevant to me, but they are not so to someone who is unfamiliar with China. In order to engage my audience, I need something more tangible and interesting, something that could create empathy regardless of cultural differences. That object, as I came to realize much later, is, in fact, my life.

Answering the same question, “What exactly is my culture?” through the lens of my life, I came up with some better answers. My culture can mean sitting by a round table and sharing 15 dishes with family members. It can be the voice of the anchor of the national evening news broadcast or my Red Tie that I proudly wore as a member of the Young Pioneers. It can be the mixed smell of cigarette, sweat, green onions and cup noodles in a crowded train station before and after Chinese New Year when millions of people hopped on trains to head back homes. It can be a beautiful poem written in ancient Chinese from 2,000 years ago that I recite again and again even to this day.

Of course these are biased answers. However, coming from my own perspective, they are more effective to reflect something quite interesting but often subtle about China and its culture, because even though my story is only one out of 1.3 billion, it has been shaped and modeled and polished just like that of other Chinese people by the same language, the same history, the same political system, the same education and the same traditions. I now understand why I felt so rejected and baffled by the girl’s suggestion, that I should “open up and share my culture” with others. Culture is not a noun. Culture is a verb. It is how a specific group of people talk, think and see the world. However, like the girl, I saw my culture as a mere concept rather than how I engage with it. I was not frustrated with her suggestion. Rather, I was frustrated with the fact it is simply impossible for me to condense the years I spent growing up in China into a big box, hand it to people and tell them, “hey, this is my culture.” There is no better way to spread my culture than to simply tell you about my stories and my opinions. Ask me about China and I will give you an answer. It might not be close to the truth, but it is authentic and credible in that sense. A “wrong answer” could be revealing and thought-provoking as well. There will be differences and disagreements among us, but that’s totally OK. The first step towards understanding a culture is to have the empathy and curiosity for the spectrum of human experiences that comprises, legitimizes and enriches that culture.

We are living in an increasingly divided world where peace seems nowhere to be found. The prevailing cynicism and pessimism seem to confirm Samuel Huntington’s thesis that the fundamental cause of conflict in the world after the Cold War is no longer differences in ideologies but rather differences in cultures. However, why can’t we see cultures in another way? Instead of having only one worldview, we now have many different ones because of cultural exchange. Instead of having only one solution for peace, we can now look to different traditions for more inspiration. Instead of letting cultures clash, we should have them talk to each other—and we are the ones who can make such communication happen.

Every single one of us on this planet has a piece of puzzle inscribed with our stories. If all of the pieces are collected and put together, we will have the picture of universal peace, love and understanding. We can choose to ignore the little piece we have and keep living in our small world, or we can make our piece count if we remain curious about the larger world, understand culture as the sum of human experiences and make an effort to learn the stories behind any argument that we might disagree with an open heart and an open mind. We are all interconnected. Our threads of fates are interwoven. I am ready to contribute my piece for peace. Are you?

作者：陳梅婷，美國寄宿女子高中Emma Willard School 2017屆畢業(yè)生，愛好文學、歷史、國際關系和文化交流，擅長用有溫度的文字和相機鏡頭記錄生活。曾在校擔任模擬聯(lián)合國社長及文藝雜志文學版主編，并獲得過國際 學生英語獎。九月即將入讀耶魯大學。

Vocabulary

1. Round Square: 方圓組織，成立于1966年，是一個世界性的頂尖學校聯(lián)盟，成員學校間共享教育教學資源，開展深度的校級師生互訪，為更多擁有共同志向的孩子提供走出國門、走向世界的機會。

2. animation: 動畫片。

3. messenger: 信使，通信員。

4. simultaneously: 同時地。

5. bafflement: 困惑，不解，下文出現的baffle為其動詞原形。

6. National Mall: 華盛頓國家廣場，一個開放型國家公園，從林肯紀念堂延伸到國會大廈，是美國國家慶典和儀式的首選場地。

7. engage: 吸引住(注意力、興趣等);tangible: 摸得著的，有形的;empathy: 同感，共鳴。

8. lens: 鏡頭。

9. anchor: (電視、廣播節(jié)目)主持人;Young Pioneers: 少年先鋒隊，其成員佩戴紅領巾:。

10. biased: 有偏見的，片面的。

11. 然而我認為，思考中國和其文化中有趣但細微的部分會更有意義。雖然我的故事只占了十三億分之一，但和其他中國人的經歷一樣，它經過塑造、成型、打磨的過程，因為我們說著同樣的語言，有著共同的歷史，生活在同樣體制之下，接受著同樣的教育，也繼承著同樣的傳統(tǒng)。subtle: 不易察覺的，微妙的;polish: 修飾，潤色。

12. condense: 壓縮，精簡。

13. authentic: 真正的，真實的;credible: 可信的。

14. revealing: 有啟迪作用的，發(fā)人深省的;thought-provoking: 引人深思的，provoke意為“引起，激起”。

15. the/a spectrum of: 廣泛的，一系列的，spectrum意為“范圍，各層次”;comprises: 構成，組成;legitimize: 使合法，證明……有理。

16. 現下盛行的憤世嫉俗和悲觀主義似乎印證了塞繆爾•亨廷頓的理論，即冷戰(zhàn)后引發(fā)各地沖突的根本原因不再是意識形態(tài)的不同，而是各文化間的差異。prevailing: 普遍的，盛行的;cynicism: 憤世妒俗;pessimism: 悲觀主義，悲觀情緒;Samuel Huntington: 塞繆爾•亨廷頓(1927—2008)，美國當代著名的國際政治理論家，曾任教于哈佛大學并供職于美國政府部門，著有《文明的沖突與世界秩序的重建》;ideology: 思想體系。

17. clash: 沖突，不相容。

18. inscribe: 寫，刻

19. count: 有重要性，有影響。

20. interweave: 交織，交錯。