Chapter 37 shrinkage space

one The concept of space in Hannover has always been weird. There was a Hanoverian dynasty in England.It was due to the marriage of the two countries, and the son of the Hanoverian royal family became the king of England. As a result, the two countries shared the same head of state and inherited it from generation to generation.This matter did not end until shortly before the Opium War between Britain and China. After the reunification of Germany, Hannover, as an industrial base, frequently exported tools of aggression and suffered devastating blows. According to records, it became the target of Allied air strikes at the end of World War II. There were tens of thousands of residents in the city center. Hundreds of people survived huddled in air-raid shelters.Once a kind of brute desire for space gets out of control, it may be transformed into the narrowest and most dangerous small space, which can be described as shrinking and shrinking.

After getting out of the air-raid shelter, Hannover encountered the United Kingdom again, but this time its relationship with the United Kingdom was quite different from before, which was a bit embarrassing.The old feelings of the British occupying forces were still there, and they wanted to bring something to Hannover, which was in ruins, so they held an industrial exposition on the site of a factory. Unexpectedly, this idea gradually developed into a worldwide cause.Now, Hannover Fair has become an important coordinate of the development trend of major enterprises in the world.I have been here many times, and every time I see crowds of people and vehicles from all over the world concentrating there and departing from there again, I think that this city is still talking about space shrinkage, but this time it is really beautiful.

To the United Kingdom, the Hannover Dynasty is a legend of crossing the sea in classical politics; to the Allied forces, the Hannover ruins are a bloody feud in modern geopolitics; to the world, the Hannover Fair is a triumphant triumph of the concept of globalization. As a result, Hannover has become an extremely elastic perceptual image. two The German Pavilion at the World Expo in Hannover looks like a sculpture workshop when you enter the door. Dozens of rough giants are placed in a haphazard manner.There is also a long message board on the wall, imploring audiences from all over the world to write the name of the person who should be added, of course it should be German.

So many statues can be recognized by foreign visitors at a glance even if they are not completed, and they are impressive even if they are not arranged properly. National pride. This pride spits out in such a humble tone: the whole list has not yet been determined, and all the greatness has not yet been accomplished.This is the preamble of the German Pavilion. three The main hall of the German Pavilion displays people who have made contributions to human civilization selected by various states. However, as a visual exhibition, there must be real objects. Therefore, we saw the podium where Martin Luther preached, the sculpture of the sixteenth century The wooden guardrail is old and smooth, surrounded by modern metal guardrails, allowing visitors from all over the world to look up at an important spiritual turning point.

As a religious reformer, Martin Luther had a deeper ideological background than Hus, because he had been deeply influenced by Italian humanism at that time; he was also luckier than Hus, being protected by the German princes. Like Huss, Martin Luther was also an educator.He personally translated the "Bible" into German, and in fact regulated the teaching of German, combining the popularization of religion with the popularization of education. Martin Luther's religious reform was successful, and it had a chain reaction in Europe. The Holy See also carried out some self-reforms under the urgent situation.As a result, Western religions have stepped out of the Middle Ages in terms of existence.

It is for this reason that Germany today invites Martin Luther to the main hall of the German Pavilion at the World Expo.They really can choose, and only this one person has allowed Germany to promote the religious spirit of modern Western culture. A Chinese-speaking German friend who accompanied me on the tour told me that probably because of Martin Luther, the churches in Germany now give people a good impression.During the Second World War, different sects jointly opposed the fascist dictatorship; during the confrontation between East and West Germany, the churches on both sides had close relations and made contributions to the later unification; in the current social welfare and charity, The church sponsors more than half of the country's kindergartens, nursing homes, nearly half of the hospitals, and all the homes for the disabled, and has developed these businesses to many non-developed countries.

Humanism, religious spirit, and philanthropic feelings combine to form a palpable warm current that nourishes the world. The noble level of German civilization is slowly recovering in the depths of the spirit and expanding its space, so that it can regain trust in front of the people of the world. Four I really don't want to criticize the China Pavilion at the Hannover World Expo. I remember explaining it to dissatisfied visitors around me, hoping they would forgive us Chinese for being newcomers in this regard.However, when I turned around and finally read them all, I learned that the China Pavilion was listed as one of the pavilions that German audiences most wanted to visit in the local newspaper polls, and I saw audiences from all over the world queuing up at the entrance to enter. If it's so much, it's not a good feeling in my heart.

Perhaps the undertaker should not be entirely blamed. The background of the problem lies in a rigid system, an outdated concept, and a culture that has been misinterpreted. Most incomprehensible is the careless sloppiness.The World Expo is full of people, and the images of countries are compared at close range. No matter how arrogant the developed countries are, they dare not be sloppy about it.Either you don’t know the depth of the moment, just don’t come, like the United States; or gather the most creative thinkers and artists in a country to conceive and present it brilliantly, like Germany, France, Japan, the European Union, and the United Arab Emirates.Countries always have to find a refreshing theme and present strong evidence.The China Pavilion can’t find a theme, let alone an artistic idea. As usual, there are photos of the Great Wall and Peking Opera facial makeup outside the door. In addition to a simple model of the Three Gorges Project, there are only two things that I have a slight impression of. One is the fantasy Chinese landing on the moon. The first model, the second is an introduction to traditional Chinese medicine centered on an acupuncture point mannequin.This is really too sloppy and outrageous. I don't know how the audience from all over the world who lined up under the scorching sun felt.

How can the imaginary Chinese land on the moon as a content to be exhibited in advance?After all, this is not a children's palace.We are too bold in this regard.But on the other hand, it is too modest. International acupuncture conferences have been held in Europe and the United States, and the China Pavilion is still introducing acupuncture and moxibustion, and put a few bottles of ordinary Chinese patent medicines.The acupuncture point model is in direct contrast to the exhibition of the world's first medical mannequin in a German state.They made the human circulatory system and visceral structure into an interesting viewing object with modern high technology, and clearly showed the life story of the pioneering doctor.

It is not that China has nothing to exhibit, but many years of thinking habits have made many people only memorize some economic data and technical indicators in detail, and they are at a loss when they want to refine the overall culture.After much deliberation, only the photos of the Great Wall, Peking Opera facial makeup and acupuncture models remained.The combination of these three is the most popular and simple, but it is the most common misunderstanding of Chinese civilization. There is an aesthetic issue hidden here: the majestic Chinese culture has been promoted for so many years, why can't we extract symbols and find emotional images?

Not just for exhibitions.Civilization should be visible, and culture should be perceivable. Chinese culture is not good at abstract thinking, so why has it become less visible and less sensible than German culture, which is good at abstract thinking?Why do many Chinese cultural people become more boring than Kant and Hegel, and more proud than Nietzsche and Wilde?They ridicule all attempts to perceptualize Chinese culture, perhaps in this way it is convenient for them to pretend to be dignified in the fog of chaos. If cultural images cannot be found, neither the front door nor the back door of the spiritual home can be found, and of course the place of return and departure in the cultural sense cannot be found. On the contrary, many countries demonstrate their qualifications to enter the new century in a cultural sense, and they do not hesitate to expose their current difficulties and shortcomings.For example, the French Pavilion sincerely confessed that their country was just an eternal laboratory before.The French are willing to imagine and dare to experiment, but the experimental results have been harvested by others, and they are always restless. Now, even the laboratory is at a crossroads, and I don't know where to go.Such candor proves that it has found a place it is ready to explore, and it has attracted international attention as a result. Self-examination is for creation, and self-deprecation is also for creation.In the various pavilions of the World Expo, all countries rushed to promise the world with the same sincerity that they will invest in innovation and creation in the new century. In contrast, the gap in the China Pavilion is overall.It is a bit accidental that the exhibition was made like this, but behind this accident lies a cultural, spiritual and ecological necessity. The problem is not only cultural but also directed at culture.Therefore, I really hope that one day more domestic cultural people will come to such a place to have a look, make some comparisons, and then understand that these years have become more and more narrow, more and more mutually exclusive, and more and more boring. , what was the result. Chinese culture used to be upright and bold. At that time, cultural people had a small foundation for survival, but they were working hard to open up space: open up the unknown space, open up the creative space, open up the acceptance space, and for this reason they did not hesitate to challenge the limit time and time again.No matter how many sensational academic reasons today's cultural people have, if they just blindly seek smallness, rigidity, mystery, and deviation, sooner or later they will make everyone shame.