What is ＂culture＂

In an era, it not only updated our understanding of culture, but also refreshed our ideas again.

Just as knowledge is not equal to culture, it subverts our rational knowledge and perceptual habits all the time.

In fact, in our thinking logic, people often regard culture as the code of conduct of civilization.

For example, benevolence, courtesy, wisdom and trust, gentleness, courtesy and frugality are all concrete manifestations of behavior culture.

Therefore, when a person walks under a tree or an obstacle below his height, there is no doubt that he will bend down.

It should be said that few people even think about how to change it. This is a kind of culture.

Especially when the elevator door is opened, some people stand aside and wait for others to get off the elevator, and some people are eager to squeeze in.

These actions are the intersection of behavior and culture, and have nothing to do with education and knowledge. This is also a kind of culture.

[1] What is culture

Now that we have talked about "culture", how should we understand and recognize these two words? Of course, in other words: "What is" culture "?

Generally speaking, what we call "culture" in a broad sense refers to the sum of all material products and spiritual products created by human beings.

In a narrow sense, it refers to spiritual products including language, literature, art and all ideologies.

Here, we emphasize that as a kind of "culture", it must have six characteristics:

(1) universality. The universality of culture is manifested in the common cultural forms in social practice activities, even though different national consciousness and behavior are manifested, they have the same forms of expression.

(2) Diversity. Under different natural, historical and social conditions, different cultural types and cultural models have been formed, which makes the world culture present the characteristics of diversity as a whole.

(3) nationality. The traditional culture rooted in the nation is complementary to the development of the nation. So different nationalities have different national cultures.

(4) Inheritance. The inheritance of culture is the basis of carrying forward and developing culture. If there is no inheritance, of course, there will be no culture.

(5) Developmental. The essence of a national culture lies in its continuous development and change. A series of cultural products, including today’s automation and informatization, are the results of cultural development.

(6) the times. In the historical process of human development, each era has its own typical cultural type.

[2] Cultural background

I remember that Mr. Li Yanjie, the former professor of Beijing Normal University and vice president of the World Association for the Promotion of Chinese Education, once gave an open class entitled "Virtue, knowledge, talent, truth, goodness and beauty" at the lecture tour in Peking University.

He said; What is culture? The sum of truth, goodness and beauty is culture.

It can be seen that what we call "culture" is the product of all-round, multi-level and three-dimensional intersection of fields.

It not only covers a person’s cultivation, temper and disposition, but also includes family environment, living space, and even genetics and so on.

My neighbor, Aunt Song, once said, "Without culture, you are illiterate.". This statement is very incisive and hits the nail on the head.

You can imagine, living in the present, if you don’t even know a big word, this is not a scene, and it has nothing to do with the bridge, but it is incredible.

[3] It’s terrible to have no culture

Once upon a time, there was a saying circulating in the society: "It’s terrible to be uneducated", although it was just a network language. But it is a culture in itself.

Do you know that the cultural content contained in this sentence is far and near, false and real, true and false?

Perhaps, it may be trying to explain a thing or an action. But I hope it’s just a humorous remark with no practical significance.

[End]