Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
I am a little confused by this discussion. It's like arguing whether or not the sun should come up or not. Traditions are like living things. If they a vibrant and healthy, they will live a long time. If not, they die. We cannot decide whether or not a tradition is maintained or not, the culture decides that.
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You still gave me your opinion though. :P
Are you sure about traditions are like living things? Than I'm almost certain the traditions I'm speaking of are still 'breathing' because they are kept alive artificially. On the other thread(at JF) I read that 99.9% of the time they don't wear kimono, and although their fashion is world-famous it hasn't got too much in common with their traditional clothes. If I was talking about the manga/anime or the latest things in necktie tying, even I'd think I'm stupid. Of course I was curious about the current situation, but also the ancient customs in it. While it's obvious they maintain beautiful traditions, if you place them into the present time aren't they become strange, as a foreigner who never visited Japan I couldn't possibly know how it is when a festival begins. But sometimes I have the impression (from videos) that those are just some sort of shows, which don't really have other meanings than to remember they had it in the past or to make attraction. I often wander how long can any culture maintain it's unique self? In the case of islands and peninsulas it was tolerably easy before, but now it's totally different. Now there are continents and islands online or we have multinational companies (for example) which affects more and more to 'OUR' civilization, comparing to that old traditions are small. I just wanted to know if they can keep things frozen for some more time, or two generations from now they'll have totally different things called traditions. By the way I basically have my answer in the second post.
And again, thank you for your answers, I'm really grateful.
