Chatting

YANG MIAN

Chatting is one of society’s best ways of caring.

We chat about ideals, ideas, history and politics to mention just a few. I sang the song “ I Love Tian An Men” when I was a child, but the full meaning of it’s powerful words only became apparent when I grew up.

In the 1980s, people recited, read and wrote poems in the Poem era. The way the poem was written enabled scholars and ordinary people to judge the level of the education by how much they understood.

In the 90’s we judged people’s ability by their wealth, which in turn was generated by how successful they were in trade and commerce.

In the 90’s there were a number of different fashions and trends. Every time a new fashion came in the standard for measuring people also changed but the reason for the change in trends was not clear. However, they all had a beautiful excuse to change and develop.

What has our life become? What kind of change do we need? Is the standard that we live by now the right one or will that also change in a few years time?

Nowadays, Julia Roberts, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell…… They are all beautiful women and so set the standard in beauty. If Ms. Ruan Lingyu sees this as the bench mark for beauty will she take what ever measures possible to become that kind of person? This would include things like cosmetic surgery and changing your hair color. It might be possible that if you have black hair, nobody will believe that is your natural hair because everybody dyed the hair brown, yellow, pink or red.

Recently young people followed Korean fashion then Japanese fashion and this will most likely change to another fashion in the future – maybe Thai or Vietnam fashion. Have people lost their own identity? When will they discover their true selves? Perhaps people will eventually follow their own true selves after the Vietnam fashion era.

After the APEC summit, the Tang-Dress was regarded fashionable national dress in China. China is making the STANDARD. But on the other, is the STANDARD genuine?