Chapter 22 across

I finally arrived in Istanbul, and I couldn't help but feel a little excited. When the cruise ship slowly sailed into the Bosporus Strait, my excitement was made clear by the turquoise water waves: this is by no means an ordinary trip, because this water is by no means ordinary water—the ripples in this area Starting from: Europe and Asia. At the junction of these two continents, the snow-capped Caucasus Mountains are formed in the north, like an eternal exclamation point between heaven and earth, with a cold face, questioning the final victory to the sky; in the south, the bright and colorful Bospo Russ Strait and Dardanelles.Although the two sides of the strait confronted each other head-on, there was no shadow of sword, light or sword. Each left a leeway for the other, and found that the opponent was not hideous in appearance.

Thousands of twists and turns meet here, and the mountains and rivers in this area are lush and lush, blending into a perfect scenery in the warm sunshine of the Mediterranean Sea.The architectural styles of the castles and houses on both sides of the strait are very similar, and both have Eurasian characteristics.There is also the Bosphorus Bridge spanning the two banks, firmly linking the already similar nature and humanities together.If the sense of direction is not clear, it is really hard to tell which side is Asia and which side is Europe. Back in the day, whether it was the young and energetic Alexander the Great, the descendants of Genghis Khan, or the Ottoman monarchs decorated with gold and silver, they all stopped at this natural moat, full of ambitions to cross continents and conquer the world.This ancient boundary is more romantic because of these heroic and romantic stories.

I was intoxicated in the passion of ecstasy, when I suddenly heard someone from the tourists around me say: "Actually, this is an ordinary strait, but people have given different names to its two sides." This is really not pleasant to hear.When I arrive at a famous place, I don’t appreciate its benefits, but stand on the sidelines and make a few sarcastic remarks. This is the kind of hypocrisy that I can’t tolerate. If I knew this, why did you come here when you were old? Sonia is my classmate at Columbia University.Remember to introduce yourself on the first day of class.When it was her turn, before she could speak, she laughed first, and then hurriedly apologized: "I'm sorry, I really don't know how to introduce myself. It's like this:

My name is Sonia, my father is a child of German and English and my mother is a child of Spanish and Peruvian.I was born in France when my father was a diplomat in France.When I was less than two years old, my family moved to South America and lived in Brazil, Chile, and Peru for three years each. Later, I went to school in Germany and France, and then went to Hungary and Russia.I am 24 years old this year, and I came to the United States to study for a master's degree.I can speak six languages.My self-introduction is over, it is too long, sorry. " Everyone was confused: "Sonia, you are a true citizen of the world. Which country do you think you belong to first?"

"I don't know," Sonia replied solemnly, "I really can't figure it out, and I don't even want to figure it out. Although I have two passports, the earth is my real country." For me, Sonia's experience is truly legendary.But I soon discovered that many of my classmates had backgrounds similar to hers.Whenever they were asked the question "Where are they from?", they shrugged their shoulders and then began a lengthy explanation: they were all mixed-race or immigrants. It's my mother's, or my own birthplace... In short, it's a mess. The depth of confusion, however, depends not solely on the number of countries they cover, but on the diversity of cultures that affect them.They often ask back: "Where do you come from? Do you mean my bloodline, or my birthplace, or my culture?"

Akiko's parents were both Japanese who immigrated to Brazil.She was born in Rio de Janeiro and received Portuguese education since she was a child. After graduating from high school, she came to the United States to study and has lived here for eight years.She likes to eat Japanese food, but she is not used to sitting on tatami mats; she thinks Brazil is the most beautiful country, but her behavior is becoming more and more American.However, her English clearly has a Portuguese accent. "I'm a Portuguese-speaking Japanese who likes the American way of life," she describes herself.

"Which culture has influenced you the most?" I asked her. "I can't tell, there's a little bit of each. They've become one in my head, and it's hard to separate each other. I think the most important thing in life is to be a whole person, not to distinguish which ideas belong to which culture. To Yes, cultures are interlinked, but people give them different names." Akiko answered me like this. I suddenly remembered the gossip of the tourist on the Bosphorus, and I vaguely sensed something in my heart, but it didn't seem to be clear. In my research on the history of international media development, I found two opposite but co-existing threads: internationalization and localization.Even more interesting is that both trends are increasingly evident.On the one hand, modern communication methods, such as satellite technology and optical cable technology, have made global communication more convenient and efficient than ever before, making the earth increasingly a small village.In particular, the internationalization of television has brought the remotest corners of the earth into close proximity. A Gulf War was broadcast live to all parts of the world through CNN, and the ever-changing computer technology is also weaving countries, especially developed countries, into the same network.This earth no longer exists only in geography, but also in the invisible electric wave and digital space in history.In a sense, it is impossible for anything that happens anywhere on this planet to not have an impact on other regions.

On the other hand, the call to preserve the culture of the nation and the region is also growing.People express unease about cultural assimilation and, after all, care more about what is happening around them.As a result, European and American media companies that have set up channels in Asia have discovered a pattern: the ratings of local programs are higher and more stable than imported programs.Even in European countries with similar cultures, local news and dramas, rather than American soaps, are the TV programs that local audiences follow most.Worldwide, regional cable TV is taking share from the big national and global networks every day because local programming is more adaptable, more targeted, and more unique.

All in all, at the end of this century, all nations and cultures are facing similar paradoxes: on the one hand, there is the great mixing and fusion of races and nations, and the great penetration and assimilation of cultures and lifestyles; on the other hand, there are sharp religious, The bloody conflicts of the clans and the outcry to preserve the pure traditional culture.Faced with these two opposite trends, people are really confused: "It's not that I don't understand, the world is changing fast!" The longer the civilization, the more proud the nation, the more painful it is before this paradox.The collision of ideas and emotions is no less than the encounter of geographical plates.Some people stick to the ostrich policy of turning a blind eye and want to reject the impact of this big world, while some people's inner inferiority complex develops into superficially exaggerated arrogance, sticking to the logic of "what's so great about you, I still don't like it", or Spit viciously on the ground with a "bah" to vent their anger, but it doesn't actually hurt others; some people think that by keeping some cultural symbols, they can keep their ancestors' foundation.When talking about Chinese artworks, one must bring out some snuff bottles with paintings of "Chang'e Flying to the Moon" and "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea". A child carved dozens of Tang poems on a single hair.I don't want to belittle these handicrafts, but I am addicted to the proficiency of skills, forgetting that the essence of art is to sublimate the soul, and I can only waste a nation's precious talent and life in the reproduction of craftsmen, and what we need are masters.

In New York, I interviewed Han Feng, a fashion designer from Hangzhou who is popular in the New York fashion industry, and found that there are no obvious traditional Chinese patterns in her works.She explained that the influence of Chinese clothing culture on her is not reflected in buttons and embroidery, but in the overall charm.For example, the evening dress she designed absorbed the simple and smooth features of cheongsam, with two pieces of fabric on the front and back to set off the graceful curves of women.Her designs have not only appeared in leading American fashion magazines and high-end stores, but have also been exhibited as works of art in modern museums.American fashion experts say that her style reflects the unique temperament of the East in the integration with the fashion mainstream.This made me understand the following: the so-called carrying forward the tradition should refer to the spiritual inheritance, not the imitation of the details.Our culture is deeply rooted, so why cling to some pots and pans?

When the ancient civilizations of the East were confused by the prosperity of the past and the challenges of today, the developed countries of the West also encountered their own "misunderstandings" and showed childish arrogance.For example, the American society, which was once formed by the compatibility of various foreign cultures, has bred a self-enclosed consciousness of "the world is me, and I am the world" in its prosperity after World War II.When a minister of our country visited the United States in 1994, the chairman of the American "Time" magazine asked him: "When will your Chinese media open?" The minister replied: "30% of China's TV Programs are imported from all over the world, but how many foreign programs are there on American mainstream TV? Which medium is more open?" In 1996, one of the topics of the "Yang Lan Sight" program was a survey, looking at China and the United States Fourteen-year-old middle school students (graduating from middle school in 2000), who know more about the world, the results show that Chinese students have far more knowledge of world history, geography and science than American students.A Chinese student can answer in English the name of George Washington, the first president of the United States.But many American middle school students can't tell which country Shanghai is from.The United States, it is time to worry a little about the intellectual literacy of the masters of the next century. In this era when civilizations collide with each other, both the East and the West need to face reality.It is impossible to refuse the impact, and it is foolish to give up the roots.I think of Akiko's words: "The important thing is to be a whole person...the cultures are interlinked, but people give them different names." At this time, what appeared in front of my eyes were the mountains and sea water at the junction of Eurasia.I think that a profound civilization can withstand collisions, but it is even more valuable because of the evenness of its opponents.At the place of confrontation, there will be majestic mountains; at the place of fusion, why not the willows and flowers? Let me go back to my travels in Turkey.In its capital, Istanbul, I visited the Hagia Sophia Mosque, which has a history of more than 2,500 years.It was built in the Byzantine period of the Eastern Roman Empire. It was an Orthodox church at the time. In the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was the capital of Istanbul (called Constantinople at the time), so it was converted into a mosque.Today, it is still one of the symbols of the city, and its magnificent dome (more than 30 meters in diameter) is the largest in the world.It is more like a museum, where the famous aphorisms and tile paintings describing the stories of the "Bible" are displayed peacefully side by side on the ancient walls, and the Greco-Roman columns firmly support the gorgeous Islamic patterns.Tourists from all over the world peacefully linger in this blend of Eastern and Western cultures. Differences in geography, religion, race, and culture have not caused anyone to feel anxious or lost.In the stained glass windows, through the charming sun's rays, time seems to be frozen in an instant.The guide told me that "Holy Sophia" means "divine wisdom". After all, people don't live for those boundaries.Crossing boundaries allows us to broaden our horizons.