Modern Life and Traditional Customs

Guest post from Huang Shimeng in HIEC 109:

  Mordern Life and Traditional Customs

  Nowadays, people's life develops quite rapidly and things have changed a lot over the centuries. As the skyscrapers replacing the old buildings gradually, telephone, air-conditioner, TV, digital camera, computer and the internet have taken their place in our life. It means we've stepped into Information Age and apparently people are enjoying these newest digital products. 

   As we can see, people are leading a more colorful life than ever in their spare time with all these hi-tech products. Such as watching movies, surf the internet or just make a phone call with their friends and families whenever and even wherever. Compared to the previous age when people couldn't even feed themselves, how different the present life is! What's more, it differs a lot as well in transportation. Various modern means of transport have taken the place of human feet and horses. Airplanes, subways and even maglevs are offering people much convenience. In other word, people can save a lot great deal of time when on the way of traveling.

  However, there's always something remaining the same while people are enjoying the changes caused by hi-tech. For example, the traditional customs and festivals are typical to be carried on as the old time. Especially the customs that people gather to celebrate as well as ethical culture forms like Peking Opera, ancient architecture and traditional food. Peking Opera is spreading throughout and as to ancient architecture like Siheyuan and Hutong, people are still preserving them well as the symbol of the whole nationality's historical culture. Besides, when it comes to traditional food, people are still used to enjoy it. Even though the world has been extremely highly developed and all kinds of foreign culture are pouring into China, traditional food is still the mainstream. That's why I believe traditional culture will stay unchanged and develop further though those hi-tech products bring along unprecedented creature comforts. And on the original basis, it must create miracles one after another because it belongs to the soul of    our Chinese nationality.