【周日文稿】“偶遇节”还是”艳遇节“

Xiaohua: Recently, the ancient town of Fenghuang in Hunan province sparks some controversy again by holding a 偶遇节, or chance meeting festival. Is this a good way for single people to meet each other or just a tasteless commercial activity? Heyang: Actually, there has been a sort of tradition there, for young people to meet each other, in a setting and it is called “赶场”. So there is a history of that. But this time why this is controversial, it is because I think of the slogan that has been devised for this festival, in Chinese is “邂逅一个人·艳遇一个城”. So you have a chance meeting someone, then you have a romantic history with this city. That’s a nice way to put it. But in Chinese, it’s sort of implies a fling, a one night thing. So something I think that a lot of people would interpret towards that side. And that’s really not that…… You know it sort of rings alarm bells for some people. John: They need to get off their moral high horse and pay attention to their own lives, their own problems, because usually we find that people get all huff and puff about these kind of things. They are the type of people that look at every else and say: oh, you know, that person is a horrible person because of that, that person she is like this, that’s why I am better than her, and so on and so on. So really this is just the chance for everyone to take a deep breath and understand it really doesn’t matter what the slogan is. So actually I think it’s quite clever. So in English it can also be roughly translated as “run into someone, and have an affair with the city”. So there is a big difference between having affair in a city and having affair with a city. So even in the end, I think that “having affair with the city” is a great promotional slogan. I kinda wish I have thought, other city around the world, wish they have thought of it. But I think that in general, I don’t have much faith that this is going to be a very tasteful event. I don’t think it’s going to be all that successful, in terms of matchmaking. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But the way that I see it, take away all the moral crap that people are arguing about, and really what this comes down to is a city government trying to take advantage of and exploit a traditional ritual that has used to happen in the city. Heyang: This is actually gonna be a huge match-making event. In the festival, there will be a “friendship wall”, so to speak, but with the affair thing, friendship might behind, I don’t believe that whatsoever. Okay, don’t get too over heated here, okay? So let people fill in this card, those who are interested in the details, they get the card, then they get in contact with this person. So I don’t think there is anything particularly new, or captivating about how they are gonna facilitate the whole thing, but this slogan is really the key. It is creating so much attention to it. Xiaohua: Actually one of our listeners Elmar, I think she agree with John in a way by saying that wherever there is an official background to it, an official hosting or organization that people get such impressions, ulterior motives, commercialization, over commercialization and a misinterpretation of the original cultural ritual. John: Yeah, exactly. I think this is what we see all over the country where you have like the “农家乐”, all these other things you can go to these restaurants, “with ethnic flavor”, quote on quote, and you see a stage performance that supposed to be local culture, and it’s really not. It’s like going to the zoo, looking at the tigers and saying to yourself: oh, this is like their natural habitat. No, it is not, it is the zoo. Xiaohua: Yeah, I think the organization part of it and the official background of it really just keeps people off.