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Monday, December 29, 2008
Culture and Beauty
I'm now in Yunnan. Bored out of my wits since I finished Brisingr yesterday. I'm thankful that the hotel I'll be staying in for the next two nights has a computer with internet.
Yunnan has thus far been the most boring trip I've ever been on. The scenery isn't thaaaat great (still better than Singapore though) and the history isn't thaaaaat rich. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Yunnan is that it is home to about half of the minority chinese races. Over the past few days, I've seen numerous tribal dances, songs and men and women in their respective tribal attire. I can' t say that I'm really that much of a fan of chinese minority culture (even though chinese culture does interest me to a certain small extent), but this holiday has made me realise a very sad truth. That in much of today's society, tourism is a large motivating factor for the preservation of culture. Culture is no longer being preserved because it simply is the way of life for some people. Culture is being preserved because it is an eye-opener, something interesting and foreign to foreigners. I think it's sad that the staged harvest dances and wedding ceremonies and men and women in costumes will be (in the near future and perhaps already is in some places) the only way for the younger generation to deepen their understanding of their cultural roots. I think it's slightly ironic, that the globalisation that is supposed to deepen understanding of different cultures is destroying culture in the first place (though I understand this statement is very very debatable).
I've also been taking plenty of picures of the scenery and anything I find interesting and whenever I do so, I feel dirty and horrible inside because I feel like such a tourist (even though I AM a tourist). I realised that even though I try my best to take the most beautiful pictures, I'll never be able to capture the true beauty of being there. I think the reason why I want to take beautiful pictures is because I want to savour the beauty of the place, and share it with the people I know when I get back home. But even though my pictures are nice (considering I'm using a noob camera and that I know absolutely nuts about photography), I don't feel satisfied. I guess it's because I don't know how to savour an object's beauty and to express the way I feel when I glance upon say, a wonderful work of architecture, or a mountaintop view of the world below. That's something I'd like to learn to be able to do. To be able to see and share an object's true beauty.
Lol.... I'm not being very understandable aren't I?____________________________________________________________________________________
