Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, February 21stQuestion: Is the "taste of the year" weak? — — Perspective on the Change and Invariance of Spring Festival Customs

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Zhi, Yuan Junbao and Wang Yang

　　The Spring Festival is a grand and lively traditional festival in Chinese, and it is also an important moment to reunite with relatives and friends. With the development of society and the progress of the times, people’s custom of celebrating the New Year has changed greatly. Experts believe that although the "ritual sense" of the Chinese New Year is weakening now, the New Year custom branded with the new era is passed down in evolution, and the "cultural gene" of the Spring Festival reunion remains unchanged.

　　The change of "smell": the city does not smell firecrackers, and it is green and environmentally friendly to celebrate the New Year.

　　"This year’s New Year’s Eve is quiet, I can’t smell the sultry smell, I can’t see the firecrackers scattered everywhere, I see the blue sky, leaving a comfortable mood." In the early morning of the first day of the first month, Zhao Lijuan, a citizen of Jinan, wrote this feeling of Chinese New Year in his WeChat circle of friends.

　　The sound of firecrackers said goodbye to the old year. During the Spring Festival, people will set off fireworks to welcome the New Year. However, the environmental pollution and safety hazards caused by fireworks and firecrackers have become more and more prominent. It has become people’s common wish to keep green mountains and green waters and blue sky and white clouds.

　　From January 1st this year, Jinan City banned the discharge of fireworks and firecrackers in the core area. At the same time as the ban was issued, Jinan also issued a policy that citizens can replace the remaining fireworks and firecrackers in their homes with daily necessities and souvenirs, and set up special "exchange points" in residential communities.

　　Luo Baoyu, director of the Aolong Community Neighborhood Committee in Shunhua Road, Jinan, said that although setting off firecrackers is a traditional Chinese New Year custom, the centralized discharge produces serious air pollution, leaving debris on the ground and the hard work of thousands of sanitation workers. When the tradition is contrary to the real environment, we should advocate green festivals and civilized festivals.

　　According to the data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the air quality in 338 cities across the country has generally improved on New Year’s Eve this year, and the maximum hourly average concentration of PM2.5 decreased by 22.1% compared with last year’s New Year’s Eve.

　　The change of "human touch": not seeing each other is like meeting each other, but it is more "normal" when it is "light"

　　"In the past, it took more than 20 hours to get on the train from Lanzhou to Xuzhou. Now it takes only more than 7 hours to take the high-speed train." Sun Xia, whose hometown is in Junan County, Shandong Province, said that the train is fast, the plane tickets are relatively cheap, and there are more times to go home, which is not as exciting and exciting as going home once in previous years.

　　The data shows that last year, China’s railways completed 3.039 billion passenger trips, of which 1.713 billion were sent by EMUs. By the end of last year, the number of motor vehicles in China had reached 310 million, about one motor vehicle for every four people.

　　At the same time, with the popularity of communication means such as smart phones and video calls, it is easier to "meet" between relatives and friends. Liu Lifan, a citizen of Jinan, said that although his 70-year-old mother can’t read, she has learned to connect WeChat videos with a tablet computer, and several old brothers and sisters often have video group chats together. "Now there are more interactions between relatives and friends on the phone, WeChat chat and friends circle. Although it is not seen, it is just like meeting each other." Liu Lifan said.

　　According to the data released by China Internet Network Information Center recently, as of December 2017, the number of netizens in China reached 772 million, with a penetration rate of 55.8%, which was 4.1 percentage points higher than the global average (51.7%).

　　Cui Shuyi, director of the Institute of Demography of Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said that due to the restrictions of transportation and communication conditions, the "homesickness" such as family and friends exchanges was a concentrated release when they returned home during the Spring Festival, but now it is as usual. "It seems to be bleak, but in fact it is more opportunities and times of communication."

　　The change of "taste of the year": the "sense of ceremony" is weakened, and the "cultural gene" of reunion remains unchanged.

　　"Watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV when I was a child", "Waiting to wear new clothes and have a good meal", "kowtowing to the elders on New Year’s Day" and "setting off firecrackers with friends" … … Many people are deeply impressed by these memories.

　　However, with the continuous improvement of the living standards of Chinese residents, the changes in urban and rural population structure and the development of science and technology, people’s participation in the Spring Festival has decreased, and the ways of buying new year’s goods and greeting the New Year have been constantly changing, and the "sense of ceremony" of the New Year has also weakened.

　　"Twenty-three, candied melons are sticky; Twenty-four, sweep the house; … … Twist on the first day of the New Year. " Li Wei, a citizen of Zibo, said that although some traditional Chinese New Year folk customs are less involved, people’s habit of going home for reunion in the New Year remains unchanged.

　　Experts believe that with the development of economy and society, the concept of Chinese New Year is also changing in people’s minds, and the annual customs as a specific form of expression will inevitably change. For example, setting off fewer firecrackers, eating a low-sugar and low-oil diet, and paying New Year greetings online are all changes that have taken place to adapt to the new situation. Professor Sun Yu, Dean of the College of Literature of China Renmin University, believes that the taste of the year is actually the human touch. As long as the human touch remains unchanged, the change of form is the normal state of custom.

　　Song Aijun, deputy director of the China Local Folklore Professional Committee, said that there should be more tolerance for the changes in the form of annual customs. "New life and New Year customs can be regarded as a kind of circulation of annual tastes, from rural folks to urban space, from offline to online."

When we talk about famous Korean Mesozoic actors, we have to mention Lee Dong Wook, who is famous for her immortal beauty.

In 2005, starring in "My Girl" exploded, and the corner of Xue Gongcan became the standard for countless girls to choose a spouse; In 2016, "Lonely and Brilliant God: Ghosts", the messenger of Yin Cao was refreshed to a new level of cuteness, and several generations of sadism with Sunny earned enough tears from the audience.

In 2019, "Others are Hell" became a phenomenal explosion, and all the villains set up+madly approved killer characters, which made people want to stop. Recently, starring in the new drama "Evil and Madness" is a challenge to the "double-faced personality" of the elite police, bringing the audience the story of Gao Shuang, who scored 8.2 points as soon as she went online.

First, dark suspense stories

In Evil and Madness, Lee Dong Wook plays Liu Xiuyue, a policeman who has climbed all the way from the bottom and finally got a chance to be promoted to the head of the major crimes unit. He is a hypocritical philistine.

At the beginning, I tried the exciting picture of Jin policeman, who is also a policeman, and asked him why he wanted to kill his companion Zhuo Minshui policeman. It seems to be seeking justice for the deceased Zhuomin water police, but it is actually a show for the police chief. Because the director had a personal feud with the interrogated police officer Jin, and Liu Xiuyue was trying to please her boss regardless of the existence of the bottom line, a few cameras were set up and stood firm.

However, things are unpredictable. In the process of promotion, a related household was killed, which led to the place that originally belonged to Liu Xiuyue. In order to get back the quota, Liu Xiuyue reached a cooperation with the powerful congressmen through the bridge of his superiors: Liu Xiuyue helped Councillors to deal with the disaster of "beating the police" committed by his younger brother, so as not to affect the political election, and Councillors guaranteed Liu Xiuyue’s promotion.

From here on, the story of Evil and Madness officially entered the high-energy stage. Under the double-line narrative, the case of Du Councilman’s brother beating the police and the disappearance of drug addict Zheng Jun ‘e were closely linked — —

The beaten policeman named Wu Jingtai was viciously attacked by his brother, who was also a policeman, while tracing the cause of Zheng Jun ‘e’s disappearance. Obviously, Wu Jingtai was not allowed to continue the investigation. When dealing with this case, Liu Xiuyue actually found something wrong, but she finally chose to ignore it for fame and power.

At this time, it was the turn of the mysterious K. Every appearance is a hilarious form of "beating up Liu Xiuyue", accusing Liu Xiuyue of ignoring justice to help others.

Liu Xiuyue was forced by the mysterious person K to find the truth of the case together, and the stories of high-energy units, such as disregard for human life, a political high-ranking congressman, colluding with drug dealers to make profits, and the existence of an umbrella for drug dealers in the police station, continued to unfold, and the police in the black system of the South Korean government were bold and dared to shoot again.

In addition to the genre of unit stories, the whole story of Evil and Madness is connected in series by the same story line: Zheng Jun ‘e, a woman who was killed by a member of parliament, was an anti-drug informant who died at the beginning of Zhuomin Water Police; The gold policeman who was accused of killing Zhuo Minshui police was not a good person either. He had already reached a deep cooperative relationship with Councillor Du and the drug trafficking groups behind him, and even had something to do with the death of Zhuo Minshui police.

In the case of a large number of characters, the series did not give the audience a sense of confusion. But through multi-line narrative, the characters appear one after another, and the pace is very fast. After all the characters appeared, they closed the net bit by bit, followed the perspective of Liu Xiuyue and the mysterious man K to trace the truth, and connected all these clues in series. Finally, when they revealed the secret, there was quite a pleasure in solving the mystery.

Second, nonsense absurd comedy

When the first episode was first broadcast, the audience thought that the mysterious man K who always appeared suddenly was a Korean enthusiastic citizen. Because he hated Liu Xiuyue’s bourgeois attitude of "bowing to power", he repeatedly beat Liu Xiuyue up and forced him to investigate the case with himself.

It was not until the last 5 minutes of the second episode that the screenwriter finally understood that Liu Xiuyue, a hypocritical philistine, and the mysterious K were the same person.

Under this setting, the series quickly became nonsense and absurd: Liu Xiuyue wanted to cover up the truth, but K wanted to punish the wicked, so she kicked the murderer in the face in front of everyone, and the scene was once very hilarious.

K always ran away after the disaster, so that Liu Xiuyue had to clean up the mess. From making an apology to Councillor Du, I went to the river at night to find evidence that could prove Councillor Du’s crime, and I was soaked to the skin. Coupled with Liu Xiuyue’s helplessness, she sat by the river and said to herself, "My life is finished and ruined." All the pictures revealed a sense of joy.

On this side, it is the love and killing between Liu Xiuyue and the second personality K. When trapped in the elevator, K suddenly appeared the line "Do you miss me so much" to make the audience laugh at the abdominal muscles; When K rode a motorcycle to force Liu Xiuyue to investigate the truth of the case, Liu Xiuyue said, "How can I walk backwards?" The picture of the collapse was even more funny when it was said twice in a row.

The funniest thing is that in order to make K disappear, Liu Xiuyue is willing to believe in the unreliable idea therapy of the half-assed psychologist, chanting "Only I am the real guy is an illusion" while posing strange gestures, and the absurd atmosphere is full of nonsense.

On the other hand, there is a "magical love triangle" between Liu Xiuyue, the second personality K and Liu Xiuyue’s ex-girlfriend Li Xiqian. Liu Xiuyue has broken up with Li Xiqian, but K fell in love with Li Xiqian at first sight. Every night, K will secretly ride out to send flowers to Li Xiqian while Liu Xiuyue is asleep. When Li Xiqian was mistaken for a murderer, he wrote one childish love letter after another to comfort him. Every time I meet Li Xiqian, I am very shy.

It seems that the love triangle is presented in the form of dual personality, but it actually conveys the romantic love core of "people who like it will not like it only once", and at the same time, there are many comedy elements to bless, and the whole process of watching the drama is very comfortable.

Third, evil and madness

Finally, let’s get back to the original intention of the setting that the protagonist in Evil and Madness is a "double-faced personality". Obviously, this setting is based on the movie Fight Club, with the intention of completing the discussion of evil and madness in the process of the second personality leading the main personality to break the rules crazily.

Liu Xiuyue undoubtedly represents "evil". Fully aware of the dark crimes of power and political parliamentarians, but pretending not to see them; Even in cases where justice needs to be done again, as long as the other party gives enough money, they will sew up their mouths. Bow to the superior, panic and admit your mistake when you are caught, and live a false image of a bad policeman.

The second personality K is synonymous with "madness". I’m K from HIJK, crazy and cute. When I took off my motorcycle helmet for the first time and appeared in front of the audience, I was accompanied by a high-burning line: I specialize in executing hopeless scum, and I am the last hero of our time. Almost instantly, the atmosphere became dry. Every time Liu Xiuyue can’t successfully deal with criminals, K will just appear, and the criminals will be beaten with fists and meat. Although it is evil against evil and violence against violence, it seems to be cool enough to take off.

In the first half of the story, it was the second personality K that forced Liu Xiuyue to trace the truth of the case, and there was coercion in it. However, with the continuous development of the story, the powerful and powerful embarrassed Liu Xiuyue’s family and his ex-girlfriend Li Xiqian to be framed as murderers, and Liu Xiuyue began to have the idea of confronting the powerful and the dark forces. It is no longer Liu Xiuyue who said that "people who have no power can only kneel and apologize", but completely reconciled with the second personality K and became both good and evil.

Here, the idea of the drama "Evil and Madness" is clearly revealed. It is Gao Shuang when Liu Xiuyue punched and kicked evil people, and it is also the irony and exposure that "justice can only be recovered by violent means under power". Corruption in the system forced Liu Xiuyue to go along with it and do whatever it takes to climb to a higher position; At the same time, the inner justice never goes out, so it splits into another reckless crazy personality.

Obviously, the main theme of this drama is the audience’s favorite drama of using evil to control evil, and it is also the best drama in South Korea to satirize the dark legal system of the government. The two complement each other. In addition, each episode has a reversed suspense story, and the hilarious mode between Liu Xiuyue and the second personality K, the coexistence of crime and comedy, and a proper explosion drama.