Nearly 90% of respondents look forward to more traditional folk activities in spring

64.4% of respondents feel that people's enthusiasm for traditional folk culture has increased

Huazhao Festival, garden parties, special folk culture festivals... This spring, traditional folk activities held in many places have attracted many people to visit and check in. While enjoying the beauty of spring, people have also come to know and love traditional folk culture more. Last week, a survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily in collaboration with wenjuan.com among 1,333 respondents showed that 64.4% of respondents feel that in recent years people's enthusiasm for traditional folk culture has increased. To bring spring traditional folk culture "alive," 59.7% of respondents suggest holding more group activities such as tree planting, spring outings, flower viewing, country excursions, and kite flying, and 55.5% of respondents hope to step up efforts to explore and promote the connotations of traditional spring festivals.

Expert analysis: There are not only many traditional festivals in spring, but they also carry substantial cultural weight

"When it comes to spring festivals, the first that comes to mind is Qingming Festival." Li Yang, a post-90s native now living in Nanjing, recalls that when she was a child, her family would make qingtuan (green rice balls) for Qingming, and her father would take her to pay respects to ancestors. It was from that time that she began to understand her family's origins. "Although I rarely return to my hometown for Qingming after settling in the city, going home for the Spring Festival every year always involves ancestor worship."

In Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, the dragon dance gathering held on the second day of the second lunar month this year left a deep impression on Tao Tao, a post-00s. "There were dragon dance teams from various provinces; some performed fire-breathing, some let the audience touch the dragon's head after the performance, and there were also Ansai waist drum and Yingge dance performances—it was very lively."

As for spring folk festivals, respondents are most familiar with Qingming Festival (68.5%) and "Longtaitou, the Dragon Raises Its Head on the Second Day of the Second Lunar Month" (64.1%), both selected by more than 60%. In addition, 37.0% of respondents know about the Shangsi Festival on the "Third Day of the Third Lunar Month," followed by Cold Food Festival (35.6%) and Huazhao Festival (22.6%). As for spring folk activities, spring outings to enjoy the season rank at the top with 46.4%, followed by flying paper kites (34.0%), worshipping the Flower Goddess (21.3%), and making flower foods (16.7%).

In the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the "Third Day of the Third Lunar Month" is a traditional festival; not only is it a public holiday, but various colorful activities are also held. Qin Xuebin, a post-00s Zhuang student studying in Baise, Guangxi, said that as the "Third Day of the Third Lunar Month" approaches, the school holds special sports meets and performances, and some students wear ethnic costumes to showcase ethnic culture. In his hometown of Guilin, singing folk songs, bamboo pole dance performances, and foods such as glutinous rice and mugwort rice cakes are part of the celebrations. "Now many people learn about Guangxi's 'Third Day of the Third Lunar Month' through the internet, and some come to travel, wear ethnic minority costumes, and join local activities. This lets more people learn about the customs and culture of ethnic minorities and also enhances exchanges between different ethnic groups, which is conducive to ethnic unity."

A few days ago, Tao Tao and friends wore Hanfu to attend a local Huazhao Festival event. "More and more people are interested in traditional folk activities now, and people's affection for traditional clothing has also grown." Tao Tao feels that more people are now wearing Hanfu when going out. "Behind the Hanfu craze is a manifestation of national pride; a high sense of identity with the nation and the country also means greater love for our traditional culture."

The survey shows that 64.4% of respondents feel that in recent years people's enthusiasm for traditional folk culture has increased.

"'Longtaitou on the second day of the second lunar month,' the Shangsi Festival on the 'third day of the third lunar month,' plus the Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival—there are many traditional festivals in spring." Tian Zhaoyuan, a professor at the Institute of Folklore Studies, School of Social Development, East China Normal University, said that spring has not only many traditional festivals but they also carry substantial cultural weight, symbolizing prosperity and filling people with strength. Celebrating spring festivals well has positive significance for both individuals and society.

"In recent years the popularity of traditional festivals has risen, but the related cultural self-awareness still needs to be further improved." Tian Zhaoyuan believes that for festivals like Qingming, many people now focus on holidays, travel, and consumption, which dilutes the cultural heritage significance behind them. Although the worship at the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, tomb-sweeping at martyrs' cemeteries across the country, and grave-sweeping activities of individual households all continue, communities, schools, and enterprises still need to strengthen the organization of related commemorative activities. For example, university founders, scientists with outstanding contributions, community moral models, people who acted courageously for justice, pioneering entrepreneurs, and model workers who have passed away should receive people's respect and commemoration. When there are local figures to memorialize, a social trend of remembering past sages and honoring contributions can take shape, which is also of great significance for local cultural heritage and campus culture heritage.

Nearly 60% of respondents suggest holding more group activities such as tree planting, spring outings, flower viewing, country excursions, and kite flying

Li Xinran, a post-95s interning in Weifang, Shandong Province, recently attended a local Huazhao Festival event. Having grown up in Northeast China, she admitted she had not known about the Huazhao Festival before. "I saw online that Jinan had held a Huazhao Festival, and after noticing on WeChat that Weifang was also holding one, I decided to go. After arriving, I felt it was quite lively." Li Xinran believes that to spread traditional folk culture, local culture and tourism departments need to take the lead in creating distinctive cultural scenes. "In my hometown Changchun, there is a Korean ethnic folk village built around local ethnic characteristics; such scenes make people more interested in Korean ethnic culture."

Tao Tao feels that many traditional folk activities are now spreading rapidly through the internet, thereby attracting more participants. To bring traditional folk culture "alive," she believes that, on the one hand, more care should be put into the ritual procedures of activities to form distinctive features; on the other hand, holding traditional folk activities does not have to be limited to certain festivals—on ordinary days, local intangible cultural heritage projects can also be combined with experience activities to enhance people's sense of participation.

The survey shows that 89.8% of respondents look forward to more traditional folk cultural activities being held in spring.

"To make traditional folk culture loved by more people, the first step is to increase public participation." Li Yang feels that for some festivals, such as the Cold Food Festival and Shangsi Festival, many people do not understand their origins, let alone what customs they involve. On the one hand, publicity should be strengthened to popularize the history and folk customs of traditional festivals; on the other hand, related activities should be designed, such as creating local spring tour routes and holding special cultural festivals and garden parties. "This can both become a distinctive local cultural tourism brand and let more people understand traditional festivals and fall in love with traditional folk culture."

To bring spring traditional folk culture "alive," 59.7% of respondents suggest holding more group activities such as tree planting, spring outings, flower viewing, country excursions, and kite flying; 55.5% of respondents hope to step up efforts to explore and promote the connotations of traditional spring festivals; and 49.8% of respondents look forward to localities actively marketing spring outing health-preserving specialty foods. Other suggestions include: launching spring scenery cultural tourism routes and related products (48.7%); scenic areas "using flowers as the medium" and letting the flying-flower drinking game (feihualing) spark visitors' poetry socializing (46.6%); combining the Hanfu craze to launch the most beautiful guochao youth photo-check-in spots (31.8%); and providing necessary facilities to make it convenient for urban and rural residents to sweep tombs or pay respects to ancestors nearby (22.6%).

"To make spring festivals more popular, the first step is to tell two stories of spring festivals well—the traditional festival story and the festival story close to home—so that people feel festivals are integrated into life while also feeling their connection to tradition." Tian Zhaoyuan believes that telling Chinese festival stories well requires more people to understand the related rituals of festivals, and local folklore experts can play a leading role, for example by strengthening the design of traditional festival rituals that both conform to tradition and keep pace with the times, while also reflecting cultural characteristics and being lively and interesting, so that ritual behaviors of festivals become habits and truly become part of folk custom. "At the Start of Spring this year, our school held activities at the Huang Daopo Memorial Hall to worship the Spring God and Huang Daopo. Many university and primary school students participated, wearing traditional clothing and jointly commemorating this textile technologist who made outstanding contributions to China's cotton textile techniques—it was very ceremonial."

In addition, Tian Zhaoyuan believes that creating a festival atmosphere requires creating an environment, such as guiding more streamers to become disseminators of festival culture, letting traditional clothing enter modern life in daily life, and organizing related activities in universities, middle schools, and primary schools to drive the whole society to value the customary culture of traditional festivals.

Among the respondents to this survey, 48.2% were male and 51.8% were female. Post-00s accounted for 13.4%, post-95s 20.3%, post-90s 39.4%, post-85s 16.9%, post-80s 8.2%, and others 1.8%. Respondents from first-tier cities accounted for 29.6%, from second-tier cities 41.8%, from third- and fourth-tier cities 24.7%, from county towns or small towns 3.3%, and from rural areas 0.6%.