A city's cultural destiny

At the beginning of this year, I wrote a series of articles about the deep second generation, and then I reflected on why I wrote this topic. The most likely answer is that I began to need a geographically determined "identity", or to put it bluntly, I needed a sense of belonging when I was middle-aged.

I have said in many places that I don't have much identification with the identity of "Chaoshan people", so I have some expectations for the identity of "Shenzhen people" or "Shenzhen second generation". Unlike people who developed in Shenzhen after graduation, I don't have a special liking for the speed of this city's development. I feel its unreserved embrace of emerging technology, its courage to join international competition, and the convenience and opportunities it brings, but to a certain extent my identity is paying the price. During my middle school days when the popularity was cold, I built a literary world to protect myself with some material support. I imagined the home with balcony at the junction of Hongling Road and Honggui Road as the small attic of John Christophe on the left bank of the Seine. I named the distance from that intersection to Hongbao Road. For Claude Simon's "Flanders Road", the sunset over the lake in Lychee Park, is Tagore's miser, collecting his last gold. Later, the small attic was demolished, Hongling Road subway station was built, and KK mall rose up on Flanders Road. The gold is still there, but I can no longer find the light of that era.

It has been seven years since I returned to Shenzhen. During these seven years, the material life of our family has been greatly improved. At least I don’t have to curl up in the dark bunk to steal light, and I don’t have to take a 40-minute bus just to borrow money from the Luohu Library. One book (only one book can be borrowed with a deposit of fifty). It's just that I can't establish that kind of "help in the snow" connection with Shenzhen again. That is a city that is rushing forward with all its heart to accommodate a poor and lonely teenager. I can't "respect and cherish each other" with it now, because what it shows me now is exactly what forced me to marginalize myself.

In elementary school, middle school, and high school, every time I entered a class, I secretly made up my mind to have a good relationship with my classmates. I have been in harmony with each group for a period of time. For example, when I was in fourth grade, Chen Zhile would invite me to play game consoles at his house every Friday. In the first year of junior high school, I and Wu Haizhong went to Luoling to eat rice rolls for one year. I also tried blowing water in the hallway with pheasants between classes. In the end, I will be fiercely rejected by them, and the reasons for rejection are similar: when I question the atmosphere in the group, I often end up being defeated.

My biggest dissatisfaction with Shenzhen is that its cultural activities are small in quantity and not high in quality. Shenzhen people also have a natural disdain for cultural undertakings that cannot make money. These two things are the cause and effect of each other, and finally make Shenzhen a city without culture. I am not saying that the quality of cultural undertakings that can make money is not good, but if a city only wants to attract cultural undertakings that make money, what it can get in the end is only money. Because of this, my Hong Kong and Macau Pass will work well once I want to participate in any cultural event. This situation has even developed to the point that I want to find someone to talk about some serious topics, and I will give priority to some friends on the other side of the river.

Since being restricted from crossing the river, my cultural life has been suppressed as never before. I just recently received a lot of invitations for cultural activities in Shenzhen, and I suddenly thought, maybe my impression of no culture in Shenzhen in the past was a prejudice. This may be an opportunity for me to truly take root in this city spiritually. At the end of last month, a friend who was studying acting in London came to Shenzhen and asked me to watch a play called "If You Are Well, You Can Come". After watching it, we were both very embarrassed, he was sorry for wasting a few hours on me, and disappointed that such a drama could be popular in Shenzhen.

To ease his apology and disappointment, I invited him to attend a lecture in Shenzhen Reading Month by Alan MacFarlane, a professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge, titled "The Birth of Modern Thought and the Future of Shenzhen." I consider myself a researcher of intellectual history, and am particularly interested in such topics. The person who organized this event first found me through a friend I knew and asked me if I could help translate the dinner. I guessed that I might not be professional enough (this is the truth, but it turns out that the translation of the lecture that day was not very professional) Don't dare to be ugly, but you can go to the dinner party. The friend said with a smile that their dinner seats are being auctioned, and the auction starts at 1,000 per person. However, because of Brother Chen's reputation, if you tell the teacher, I think you can avoid the auction. When I saw the word "auction", I felt a sense of disgust in my heart, saying, "This favor is too much, I think I can't stand it."

I don't know if it was affected by this incident, but I was very uncomfortable listening to the lecture that day. Hosts and Undertaker spent a lot of time introducing themselves and touting each other, leaving McFarland aside. McFarlane may also have been hired with a lot of money, and he did not dare to lose the owner's face. He has been boasting that Shenzhen is a "city of the future", and repeatedly listed the economic growth data of China and Shenzhen. The lectures also took great care of the English level of Shenzhen people. Not only did McFarland speak very slowly, but there was also a straightforward Chinese translation on the side. The environment with such low information density and high copper odor made me physically uncomfortable, and I left after sitting for less than 40 minutes.

Later, I found out in Mr. Wesson's circle of friends that he hosted a lecture by McFarland in Fudan, entitled "China, Japan, Europe and the Anglo World: A Comparative Study of Four Civilizations". A week before Shenzhen. Judging from the records and interviews after the lecture, McFarlane played quite normal, that is to say, his level in that lecture reflected his evaluation of the audience in Shenzhen.

I know some very good writers, poets, artists and researchers in Shenzhen, but all of them play their own way, because when they get together to do something, there is a risk of being found. One of them listened to my feelings and comforted me by saying that this kind of activity was not meant for people like you in the first place. I said, what kind of cultural activities can people like me have in Shenzhen? He said half-seriously, half-jokingly, eat yourself.

What finally broke out for me was the "Green View Famous Forum" that Jiang Fangzhou came to Shenzhen to participate in. This forum is not so much a cultural event as it is a large-scale promotion event for real estate developers. From the first step of stepping into the venue, I smelled the smell of Vanity Fair from all kinds of people and dogs. I wanted to run away, but the one who was with me was a fan of Jiang Fangzhou, so I must take a photo with Jiang Fangzhou and go after listening to everything she said. I had no problem with several speakers, and even got interested in the work of documentary director Gu Tao. During the dialogue, the moderator who lacks cultural literacy must pull a few speakers to talk about the theme of the forum, "the strange city", so the painting style of the dialogue is as follows:

Moderator: Jiang Fangzhou, do you think you have any special connection with "Xiqi"?

Jiang Fangzhou: I don't think I'm a very "exotic" author...

Not only was this conversation embarrassing to those present, it also left me with a strong sense of humiliation. Although the host has a friendly face, he still has a face of "everyone is taking money, no one should pretend to be a force". Her prior knowledge of the works and achievements of the three speakers may be limited to Baidu Encyclopedia, but her task was only to highlight the theme of this real estate project, so she recklessly labeled them as "rare writers", "rare entrepreneurs" Author" and "Odd Documentary Director" labels. In the middle of the speech and the dialogue, the person in charge of the project ran up to the podium aggressively, slammed an advertisement like a tiger, and then went down with satisfaction. She said that she worked overtime for this project, and others felt that she had no life, but she had no regrets, because "this is Shenzhen people", the more she said, the more excited she was, and she almost shouted "007 is the blessing of Shenzhen people". The weak cultural flames lit by Jiang Fangzhou and Gu Tao were all crushed by this strong "Shenzhen value". This is probably the attitude of most Shenzhen people towards culture: while taking advantage of it, it is dismissive at the same time.

On the way back, I asked the person who was with me, you like Jiang Fangzhou so much, have you actually read Jiang Fangzhou's article? She said no, she just watched Jiang Fangzhou's "Round Table School". I said, so do you think being on The Round Table is what a writer is all about? Have you ever thought that some of her deeper thoughts will only be written in the article, but will not be said in a public program? I saw her ignorant expression, and felt a little guilt in her heart. I thought I shouldn't take my anger at this city on someone who met by chance.

Some people disagree with what I said above. They think that Shenzhen emphasizes practicality over empty talk, and it is itself a more advanced "culture". The development of China in the past 40 years is based on this "culture". Shenzhen is a model of it. Others believe that the formation of such a cultural atmosphere in Shenzhen is the result of the self-selection of individuals in Shenzhen. According to the liberalism I believe in, there is nothing wrong with this. Others may say to me, you can do it.

If that really reflects the combined efforts of individuals, if we really have the freedom to create the culture we want, then I have no complaints. When I commented on the above activities in the circle of friends, a friend from Shenzhen left me a message saying that they felt the same way and hoped that you could break this situation. Can I break this situation? Not to mention whether I have this ability or not, given the current situation, it is hard to say whether I can do any public activities, let alone public activities related to my research field (ethics, political philosophy, intellectual history).

A few days ago, mainland students in Hong Kong kept evacuating to Shenzhen. Someone in a group posted a post from a professor of Shenzhen University calling for Hong Kong scientific research talents, which contained the following words: "If you are considering changing your living and working environment, you might as well come in person. Take a look at Shenzhen University, there are good teaching and scientific research conditions, a strong atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the soil of concentrating on academics to cultivate masters. I believe you will definitely find a new career development platform in Shenzhen University." In the words of a friend, this is " Shenzhen wants to buy Hong Kong at the bottom." But whether or not Shenzhen wants to buy Hong Kong, with the brand and price of Shenzhen University, it is estimated that Hong Kong's scientific research talents will not be willing. At least according to my understanding of Shenda, "concentrating on academia to cultivate the soil of masters" is bragging without drafting.

However, this example reflects one point: Shenzhen has always benefited from Hong Kong at all levels, but with Shenzhen's deep pockets, it has become more and more reluctant to admit it. When I was growing up, the second generation of deep learning listened to Cantonese songs by Jacky Cheung, Eason Chan and Miriam Yeung, and watched cartoons dubbed by Hong Kong people and TVB series. Even our understanding of Japanese pop culture was indirectly through Hong Kong. . If Stephen Chow, "A Man in a Bottle", the Golden Song Awards Ceremony, "I Have a Date with a Zombie", "YES" and Ayumi Hamasaki were wiped from my teenage memory, I wouldn't know those literary masterpieces Will the supported cognition of the world be too rigid and rigid?

Someone asked me why I didn't go to cities like Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Xi'an, which I thought had culture, since I thought Shenzhen had no culture. Apart from climate and family reasons, the most important consideration for me to stay in Shenzhen is its proximity to Hong Kong. In the two years when I first returned to Shenzhen to write my doctoral dissertation, I went to Hong Kong to listen to lectures and participate in various cultural salons, which to a large extent buffered the gap between my doctoral life and secular life. However, the cultural radiation effect of Hong Kong does not mean a one-dimensional cultural export from Hong Kong to the mainland. One of the cultural events that impressed me the most in Shenzhen was an introduction session about Hong Kong writer Xixi. At the Old Paradise Bookstore, the speakers were two Hong Kong literary editors. On the other hand, many of the cultural events I have attended in Hong Kong have mainlanders as the organizers, hosts and speakers. At least four of my friends who completed their undergraduate studies in mainland China are now teaching at the University of Hong Kong. I tend to think that today's "Hong Kong culture" also includes the joint creation and efforts of cultural people from Hong Kong and mainland China over the past two decades. For Chinese cultural people, Hong Kong is not only an international financial center and a free port, but also a pearl of the Orient that injects elements of freedom into Chinese civilization.

Shenzhen’s GDP surpassed that of Hong Kong last year, and it was recently established by the central government as a pilot demonstration area for socialism. Now some Shenzhen people are eager for Hong Kong to decline, so that Shenzhen can replace Hong Kong. This is really a nonsense. No matter how many policies the central government is willing to give Shenzhen, or how many resources it is willing to mobilize to support Shenzhen, it is impossible for Shenzhen to take over all the functions of Hong Kong. Not to mention that Shenzhen University is far behind Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and the campus of Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen is far less than its campus in Zhuhai. Someone suggested to take this opportunity to dig out professors from various universities in Hong Kong and set up a Shenzhen United Congress. The first in Asia is just around the corner. This really looks down on the leaders of Shenzhen. Hasn't this kind of condition been opened before by a leader? Those world-renowned professors don't come to Shenzhen, is it just because there are those universities in Hong Kong who are cutting off the hustle and bustle? What Shenzhen people don't understand is that for top-notch minds, it's not just a decent income, but a free and open university culture and research environment. This Shenzhen does not exist now, and it will not exist in the future.

However, I heard that the chaos in Hong Kong is attributed to the problems of general education in Hong Kong. If this is the case, Shenzhen will be even more proud, because not only is its economy better than Hong Kong, but it is also absolutely safe in terms of culture and education.

After all, if you don't want anything, there is no danger.