Culture is the heartbeat of a nation

Chiayi City Government officials have have been having a keen debate with Nanhwa University (南華大學) professor Cheng Chih-ming (鄭志明) over whether the traditional Ghost Festival (中原節) ceremony should continue. Cheng believes that the cere-mony, in which different temples, neighborhoods, streets, and lanes take turns hosting, is an unique tradition that needs to be preserved and developed further. Chiayi City's culture department, however, claims that the ceremony, with its traditional luxury feasts, is a waste of money and should be discarded.

Reports of the dispute made me think back to an interview I did on a radio talk show on cultural policy, when a listener called in and asked me about my opinion regarding the burning of paper money for the dead.

"If it's commonly recognized by the public," I said, "then we should not negate it but try to regulate it by setting up new laws."

Apparently, my answer was not accepted by the caller, who immediately called in again and asked me, "Aren't we pandering to the lowest common denominator if we give people whatever they want? How can this advance our society?"

What does the word "culture" mean anyway? Is it the total amount of people's lives? Or as the Book of Changes (易經) says, is culture the regulations set up to cultivate people? The answer is exactly the key point in making cultural policy.

Culture is the heartbeat of a nation and cultural policies cannot be carried out unless people are willing to believe and accept them. According to an old saying, "The characteristic feature of human culture is what you believe is how you live."

People from the Ba tribe (巴族) of ancient China believed that tigers were their ancestors, while Hindus believe cows are sacred and must not be killed. Today, many still believe that instructions written on bamboo slips used for divination have the power to cure illness. All of these may be seen as superstitions, but this is the way many people live their lives.

Since ancient times, Chinese people have tended to view culture from the perspective of high-level officials. The upper class usually believed that the purpose of culture is to cultivate people's behavior. Hence, many cultural policies and regulations are geared toward influencing people so that they all become gentle and docile. The range of regulations is so wide that it includes almost all the details of daily life, from clothing to hair styles and even religious beliefs.

As a result Chinese people usually view government officials as emperors or teachers who are responsible for setting up all the rules and controlling everything. It may sound ridiculous, but it is exactly how we live. In Taiwan especially, people are used to following the directions of their superiors in order to obtain a "bright future."

If this situation continues, we will soon become a nation which does not know how to think and lose our precious culture and traditions.

There is a great variety of explanations for the word "culture." Generally speaking, "culture" is equal to a "historical process" -- it is the traces left by human beings in their fight with the ruthless nature for their lives, and the process continues from generation to generation.

For others, the historical process has become a distinguishing lifestyle for certain groups, delineating their beliefs, social and civil mores and regulations.