Huizhou heritage comes to life

It was a natural choice for veteran Huang Yu, after serving in the army and owning a business in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, for years, to go back to his hometown in Xidi village, Huangshan, Anhui province, in 2016. He took over the homestay his parents opened when he was a middle school student.

In 2000, Xidi and the nearby Hongcun village were declared World Heritage sites by UNESCO for their outstanding     1     of rural architecture dating to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Now, walking along the bluestone streets in Xidi or Hongcun, visitors can appreciate the distinctive Huizhou-style houses,     2     white walls, dark tiles and layered horse-head gables, and feel like they are immersed in a traditional Chinese ink painting.

This level of preservation could not be achieved without the participation of local residents. According to Huang, this awareness is not new - since all streets and alleys in Xidi are paved with bluestone,     3    , street dealers carrying wares on shoulder poles were forbidden from letting their poles touch the ground in order to protect the bluestone.

A local folk     4     says: “One is not lucky to be born in Huizhou. At 13 or 14 he is kicked out of his hometown to make a living.” It     5     at the struggles once endured by the people of Huizhou. Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty, a group of Huizhou merchants became famous, trading in salt, wood and tea, and working as pawnbrokers (当铺老板) with a reputation for     6     and honesty.

“Some folk customs have been retained and newly     7     toward tourism, offering glimpses into the lives of the ancient Huizhou people.”These customs are revived as a demonstration for tourists, and to maintain the     8     of traditional culture. Zhang Wangnan, director of the China Huizhou Culture Museum in Huangshan says “This     9     the combination of intangible with tangible cultural heritage.”

He further suggests that the old Huizhou villages explore and find their own unique, marketable themes. “Each of them should find a     10    local feature, whether it is tea, chrysanthemum or rapeseed flowers, and then make it the theme of the village, so that they can give full play to their distinctive cultural charm.”

2 . In the film Inside Out, 11-year-old Riley’s emotions are personified as brightly colored internal figures that drive her behaviors. The same five emotions—anger, fear, disgust (憎恶), sadness, and joy—appear in every other character’s head as well, functioning in much the same way in each individual. In Western cultures, this is the case, argues psychologist Batja Mesquita in Between Us. Emotions in such contexts, she writes, are considered “MINE,” or “Mental, INside the person, and Essentialist,” the latter defined in the book as always having the same properties.

This conception of emotion is not universal, however. Emotions elsewhere, she argues, are thought of as “OURS”—“OUtside   the   person,   Relational,   and   Situated.”   Using   this   distinction,   Mesquita   sets   about contrasting emotions in “the West,” where the individual is the top concern, with “the Rest,” where community is prioritized.

Mesquita describes amae as a central emotion in Japanese culture, where it builds interdependence by encouraging tolerance in parenting process. She describes hasham—which includes shame, embarrassment, and   social   respectability—as   a   fundamental   emotion   for   Egyptian Bedouins   (游牧人).   Such   observations provide a background for her to explore a range of issues, including childhood socialization, the nature of friendship, the role of language in shaping emotions, and cross-cultural communication in a globalized world.

Despite   Mesquita’s   emphasis   on   cross-cultural   emotions,   there   is   little   discussion   of whether   the MINE-OURS dichotomy (二分法) accurately explains global cultural variation. Other scholars have noted, for example, that hunter-gatherer societies at the same time emphasize both individual self-government and social cooperation. And in an apparent contradiction to her earlier arguments, Mesquita herself ultimately concludes that Westerners have OURS emotions.

Taken as a whole, however, the book contributes much to the discussion of the origins of emotions, presenting a remarkable collection of cross-cultural studies intermixed with personal stories about foreign residents’ struggles to reunite   diverse   emotional   and   social worlds.   In   chapter   8,   for   example,   Mesquita describes   an   incident   where   she—a   Dutch   native   living   in   the   United   States—bumped   into   the   famous American   psychologist   Hazel   Markus   at   a   conference   Markus   helped   organize.   Wishing   to   express understanding of Markus’s workload, Mesquita declared “You look a little tired.” The remark appeared to make Markus nervous and confused but was intended as an expression of sympathy—to sympathize in Dutch is to acknowledge suffering, not offer comfort as in the US.

The book’s take-home message is fundamental: There are no natural emotions, no inborn emotions, no universal emotions. Mesquita argues that emotions are “meaning making” and “a preparation for action” and that the idea of “emotions as inner states” is a Western construct. Instead, she suggests that emotions are a “dance” cocreated between people who live in a specific cultural context at a particular historical moment.

3 . When officials from Brazil’s Indigenous (原住民) protection agency approached the hut in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, their fears were confirmed: They were witnessing the first recorded dying out of an uncontacted tribe in the country’s history.

The man lying there, the last member of his tribe, had died, and with him an entire culture and answers to a thousand questions.

Even his name was a mystery. He was known only as “the Man of the Hole” because of the dozens of holes he had dug over the years in his territory. His age, too, could only be guessed at. He appeared to be about 60, officials said.

It was a sad milestone for a country that in recent years has seen protections for Indigenous groups undermined by an administration that has prioritized development of the Amazon over conservation.

In Rondônia, the only resident of the 8,000-hectare (公顷) area lived in complete isolation for at least 26 years after the rest of his group was killed by ranchers (农场主) advancing the agricultural frontier.

Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency, Funai made direct contact with the last surviving man only in 1996. Marcelo dos Santos, an Indigenous expert, who led the Funai exploit that met the man, said he was found hiding in his hut. “We tried to establish a conversation and offered corn and arrows, but he was terrified and very aggressive. From this moment on, we had to respect his isolation.”

Even with protections in place, the territory suffered widespread deforestation up until about 13 years ago. Attacks on the last surviving man continued, as well, including one by armed gunmen in 2009, according to local news reports.

“For me, he was somehow a miracle: to be able to survive on his own, not speak to anybody and avoid all contact maybe out of grief or determination,” said Fiona Watson, a research director at Survival International, a London-based rights organization.

4 . Huizhou Architecture Comes to Life

Huizhou has a long history. When successful Huizhou businessmen got old,they often went back to their hometown and built houses to spend their remaining years.    1    Now, walking along the bluestone streets there,visitors can appreciate the distinctive Huizhou-style houses,featuring white walls,dark tiles (瓦片) and layered horse-head roofs, and feel like they are lost in a traditional Chinese ink painting.

Huizhou architecture, with its long tradition and great diversity, occupies an important place in Chinese architectural landscape, says Zhang Wangnan, director of the China Huizhou Culture Museum in Huangshan. Huizhou houses tend to be built on the natural places, since Huizhou is a mountainous area with few flat areas of land, according to Zhang. Moreover, daylight is valued in Huizhou houses, reflected in the building of open interior courtyards, allowing sunshine to enter the rooms. “Huizhou businessmen also believed that water symbolizes wealth.    2    It stands for keeping windfall profits,” says Zhang.

Huizhou is famous for its stone, wood and brick carvings, which are widely used to decorate local houses. “    3    In this way,they integrate their aesthetic (审美) values and emotions into the buildings,making them more beautiftul and educating their children through the meanings contained in the patterns,” says Zhang.

    4     “If you look at the outside of a Huizhou house, it seems simple, enclosed by walls, but the insides are open and broad, with complicated decorations. It is just like Huizhou people, who are often reserved toward strangers but friendly when you get to know them.” says Zhang. He also says that Ming houses differ from those of the QingDynasty in many aspects, for example, having fewer horse-head roofs and less complicated carvings.

5 . Students’ Journey to Empower Rural Heritage

From Aug. 18 to 22 a team of 15 Tsinghua University students, representing diverse backgrounds from China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia, set foot on an overseas research exploration focusing on rural revitalization(振兴) in Indonesian villages, particularly within Nusa Tenggara Barat(NTB).

With the diverse cultural heritage, Indonesia is home to over 83,000 villages, each radiating its own charm and character.     1    

The research mission took the students to Sukarara and Sade villages, two of NTB’s tourist destinations.     2    Sukarara and Sade are a world apart from the busy cities to which most of us are accustomed. The villages are a living test to Indonesia’s rich culture and its devotion to preserving traditions. The Revitalizing these villages goes beyond mere economic development.     3    The weaving skills and architectural techniques of Sukarara and Sade villages are not only beautiful, but they are also an inseparable part to the identity of these communities. It’s essential that they strike a balance between progress and preservation.

As the journey came to an end, the students carry with them not only the memories of their experiences there, but also the responsibility to make a positive impact on these remarkable places.     4    They are optimistic that Indonesian villages can experience meaningful development, ultimately leading to increased opportunities for employment and an improved quality of life.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge in southern England ranks the world’s most symbolic archaeological (考古的) sites and one of its greatest mysteries. The huge stone circle on Salisbury Plain inspires     1     and fascination—but also intense debate some 4,600 years after it was built by ancient Britons who left no written record.

The monument’s mysterious past has     2     countless tales and theories. According to folklore, Stonehenge was created by Merlin, who magically transported the     3     stones from Ireland, where giants had put them up. Another legend says the armies from Denmark put the stones up, and another theory says they were the ruins of a Roman temple.

Modern debate over the monument’s meaning has two main camps: those who see it as a religious site, and others who believe it represents a scientific observatory and also a kind of     4     computer used for working out dates. Both camps base their theories on the site’s     5     influence. The position of the stones     6     to the sun and moon is taken as evidence of rituals linked to the changing seasons and the summer and winter solstices (冬至和夏至).

Competing to solve the     7     prehistoric puzzle is Sheffield University’s Mike Parker Pearson, co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is partly funded by the National Geographic Society. Discoveries by the project team supported the claim that Stonehenge was a center for religious activities linked by the River Avon and two ceremonial avenues to a matching wooden circle at nearby Durrington Walls. The two circles with their temporary and permanent structures     8    , respectively, the living and the dead, according to Parker Pearson.

“Stonehenge isn’t a monument in     9    ,” he says. “It is actually one of a pair—one in stone, one in wood. The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of     10     home to the ancestors.”

10 . The peony has gained extraordinary support in an online vote to be chosen as China’s national flower. The final result of the poll, initiated by the China Flower Association, will be unveiled on Friday.

The five days of voting began on Monday, and an official from the association revealed that the peony has collected more than 90 percent of the votes to date among 10 options.

“We are stepping into the new era and the country is witnessing social prosperity,” the official said. “People also have better living conditions. It is time to have an official national flower that can represent our state image and the nation’s spirit.”

According to the association, China’s national flower should meet four standards: It should originate in China and have a long history in many regions; it should be beautiful in shape and color, to represent the Chinese culture and personality; it should have a profound historical culture and be widely known to the public; and it should be extensively used in many fields with a competitive ecological and economic value that could benefit the public.

“The peony was the national flower in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Apart from ornamental (观赏的) value, it also has been used as a food and a traditional Chinese herb, for which it has strong economic value,” Dong said. “It is widely known by Chinese people. Even my 10-year-old son and his classmates in primary school have voted for it.”

By Wednesday afternoon, nearly 600,000 people had joined in the discussion on WeChat, with about 470,000 agreeing that the national flower should be only one certain flower.

Among several colors being considered, the red peony has gained the greatest support from the public with nearly 30,000 votes on Sina Weibo, followed by white and yellow.

Many netizens said they didn’t realize that China has no national flower. In fact, many people said they had already accepted the peony as the national flower years before they saw the vote.