What crisis are Chinese festivals facing?
Young people’s attitude
towards traditional
festivals has changed
The nature of traditional
festivals has changed
The importance of
Western festivals has
increased
- Indifferen​t→ value their own(individualism) → focus more on
their own right→ not willing to join/participate in family reunion→
understanding/atmosphere get weaker
- Find traditional festivals uninteresting and unfashionable​→ pay
less attention to the true meaning/ not willing to know more about
it→ lower understanding → lower atmosphere→ fading / less
people celebrate the festival.
- original: highlight the​ importance of family ties and reunion ​e.g.
Chinese New Year→ ​Changed to commercial activity​→
commercialization → Traditional festival: ​a season of
consumption​ e.g. candies, cookies, fruits etc→ spend less time
with family and relatives as gifts is a kind of compensation.
→ crisis: ​lower understanding/ traditional valu​e→ consumption
become the highlight instead of the true meaning which is
reunion and family ties→ ​↓​maintain the practice→ may
eventually disappear
- Trend of globalization reform and opening up→ exchange of
information and culture→​ influence of Western culture​→ more
important of Western festival e.g, Christmas, Halloween etc→
become more popular→ because young generation find the
Western festival more interesting and therefore favour the
Western one more than traditional one→ showing the Western
festival are being valued in China→ risk that traditional ones will
be replaced.
- Globalization→ exchange of info+culture→ importance, influence
 of Western culture increase​→ increase awareness→ become
more popular→ people think it is more fashionable, interesting→
willing to celebrate western festival→ refuse to adapt traditional
activity→ lower understanding towards local culture→ x sustain
and spread→ difficult to inherit to the next generation→ poor
development

‘Globalization is beneficial to the development of local culture?’ Explain your answer with reference to
the above sources.

Beneficial Not Beneficial

- (Help promote the local culture) Free flow
of info→ people access the info through
mass media ( internet and social
networking site)--> local culture spread to
other foreign country (promote
worldwide) → promote traditional
thought and culture→ reach a larger
group→ foreigner know more about the
local culture which is martial art→ more
people know this → help promotion
- Globalization→ increase cultural
interaction→ integrate foreign culture into
local culture→ enrich local culture →
diversify the local culture by adding new
element→ local culture become more
inclusive and can be maintained
- Globalization→ may lead to disappearance of
local culture→ increase awareness to western
culture→ ignorance to local culture→ leading to
cultural invasion → more variety of choice→ since
western culture is more fashionable → people
may refuse to adopt traditional activities→ lower
interest of Chinese local culture→ lower
understanding towards local culture → x sustain
and spread→ local culture difficult to inherit to the
next generation→ lowe development of local
culture
- cultural homogenization→ domination culture
replace the minority→ reduce the influence of the
minority culture→ potential extinction→
x favourable when they are replaced→ no longer
have influence in the world
What can the government and the public do to respond to the challenges that foreign cultures impose
for the traditional chinese festivals? Give some suggestions.

Government Public

- Promotion→ provide information to - Teenagers: Take the initiative to participate in

education citizens about the origin of the
festival (provide the info systematically)
e.g. festival and related customs
(promote through media/ advertising)-->
preserve the culture content + value so
that they would not be wiped out by
western one
- Setting the festival as a public holiday →
have time to celebrate → understand that
there must be reason when there is a
holiday/ increase atmosphere→ promote
festival
different family activities
- Businessman: Increase promotional strategies→
repackage→ more fashionable→ increase the
attractiveness to the youngster→ more willing to
buy→ promote the festival
- Community group: organize more activities to
make the festival more festive→ increase the
atmosphere→ promote the festival

Do you support the heritage application of the Chinese New Year?

Stance Argements

Support - Raise people awareness→ with the success application→ people start to focus on
the festival again→ promote content→ gov’t also promote the info of the festival →
people more willing to know more about the festival → consider the meaning behind
of being cultural heritage→ willing to put more effort and time to understand → more
willing to preserve the traditional culture→ increase people awareness→ successful
in promotion
- Strengthen the atmosphere→ after the application→ the community will put more
resources to promote the culture e.g restore monument, more activities will be held→
raise people awareness→ since more opportunity to get in touch with the culture→
people may willing to understand and celebrate → more able to sustain
- improve the sense of identity+unity→ after application→ focus more about CNY→
 systematically recognize/ receive the info about CNY→ people join related activity→
proud of CNY→ CNY being recognised as important festival→join tgt to celebrate →
improve unity and sense of belonging

oppose - Celebrating method of CNY are different from the past→ New method to
celebrate→ simplified nowadays (in the past: don’t wash hair before that, tidying
home) → may not have this customs nowadays but modify to a simpler way->
showing that they want to keep it→ able to adapt to modern life → reflect
importance of CNY→ no need to apply
- Heritage application only concern about the form of festival→ overlook intrinsic
value e.g. unity of family, respecting elderly etc→ x effectively protect it→ only
concern the action→ end up only preserve the form of culture but not the meaning
behind
- Heritage Application twisted the value of CNY→ more concern about the economic
value→ become the focus rather than cultural value→ fading, undermine the
content, value of CNY
1.What are the negative effects of traditional customs on environmental protection?

Perspective

Damaging the - Burning joss money→ create air pollution→ release carbon dioxide→ worsen
environment the air quality→ may cause wildfires→ damage the environment
- Red packet→ cut the trees→ destroy the habitat of the animals→ affect the
ecosystem

Creating waste - People use red packet and put money inside→ not reusing it→ use new red
packet each year→ 180 million each year→ create large number of waste→ go
to landfill→ increase landfill burden
- Sacrifices the food→ throwing them→ waste the food

2. What measures of balancing environmental protection and traditional customs are mentioned in the
above information?

Perspective Measures

Conserving trees - Online worshiping→ balance between environmental protection and traditional
and reducing custom( e.g. lower waste/ burning of joss money)
waste - Reuse/ recycle red packets→ encourage recycle→ lower the amount of red
packet used→ lower waste
- Introduce plastic wishing tree→ still can throw placard→ can protect the original
wishing tree

3. In your opinion, what changes do the above measures bring to traditional customs?

Perspectives

Changing the original - Plastic wishing tree→ original: magical power + wish come true→ now: x
meanings of contain element of the folk religion/belief→ throwing placard onto the trees
traditional customs only→ become gesture/ formality of the tradition

Simplifying the forms - ancestor worship is to show respect( walk a long way)/ memorial to the
of traditional customs ancestor( burn joss money) → now: simplify the rite through online e.g. few
clicks→ no longer need to travel.
4.Changes in the traditional customs are acceptable in consideration of environmental protection’ ?
Agree
- environmental is a global issue that
everyone in the world concern and care →
large amount of the countries in the world
are urge to lower the emission of
greenhouse gases and waste → showing
problem is significant and involve global
issue→ some custom can be simplify e.g
worshiping, red packet→ means can still
keep + wont bring a great effect on the local
citizens→ x global issue→ solving global
issue is much more important than reserving
local custom
- Environmental problem is more important
that it will affect our life( affect the
ecosystem, food chain etc) → problem may
become more serious and affect us/ our next
generation→ vs tradition→ only make
change to a small part→ x cancel all of the
tradition can help to save the environment→
more urging needs to be solved
Point of angles
→ urgent?
→ gloabl issue?
→ influential?
→ effect size?
→ long/short terma?
Disagree
- Change in traditional customs→ involve
simplifying the process e.g x using red
packet→ however some of the customs
contained traditional cultural value e.g. filial
piety→ change in customs may lead to a
change in the meaning of the traditional
cultural→ lower understanding→ only regard
as a normal holiday→ fer ppl will celebrate
especially youngster→ fading of the festival →
x rmb the meaning behind→ some of the
traditional chinese festival are fading
nowadays→ urging need to protect core value
and the unity of the country→ vs
environment→ environmental problem x urgent
as it won't affect human immediately and
directly
- there are alternative measure to protect the
environment