Introduction to Hansheng Magazine

Since its establishment in 1971, Hansheng Magazine has been committed to rescuing, protecting and promoting traditional Chinese folk culture. It has personally worked among the people, completed the collection and arrangement of a large number of folk culture, and rescued dozens of kinds of folk culture that were on the verge of being lost. Folk handicrafts. It has collected and established the "Chinese Folk Culture Gene Bank" over a long period of time and published more than 140 issues of magazines, covering several aspects such as folk culture, folk life, folk beliefs, folk literature, folk art, etc. This is the reason why Hansheng has devoted itself to the cause of folk culture protection for 36 years. The precious wealth accumulated has long been rated as the "endless treasure" of the Chinese nation by people who like Eastern culture. It is even famous in the global cultural circle. In the summer of 2006, it was even listed in the famous American "Time" magazine ("TIME"). Awarded "Best Expert Publication" by best of Asia. In 1971, the English version of ECHO of Things Chinese was founded. In view of the estrangement and misunderstanding of Chinese culture between Chinese and Western societies at that time, the English version of Hansheng adhered to the publishing purpose of "balancing cultural exchanges between the East and the West" and used field surveys of traditional folk customs of Chinese people in Taiwan to present the true and living face of Chinese culture, so that the culture would not be forgotten. It is limited to abstract concepts, but reveals a side with interest and life wisdom. The purpose is to introduce the unparalleled Chinese culture to the world and balance the exchanges between Eastern and Western cultures. ECHO magazine reports its content through field investigation, pictures, and photography. It enjoys a good reputation and has become famous both at home and abroad.

In the past seven years, 61 color-printed volumes of ECHO have reached the hands of sinologists and Chinese and foreign people who love Eastern culture in 33 countries. At the same time, Hansheng also gradually established classified text and picture archives for traditional folk activities within the society, which laid the foundation for the later Chinese version to advocate the establishment of a "traditional folk culture gene bank". In 1978, the Chinese version of Hansheng was founded. If the purpose of the earlier ECHO work was "exchange between east and west" and the horizontal axis of space, the Chinese version of Hansheng belongs to the vertical axis of time of "connecting ancient and modern times". Mr. Yu Gangyang, one of the instructors of Hansheng, once said: "Tradition is like a human head, and modernity is like a human foot. In the sudden changes of the times, a strange situation suddenly evolved where tradition and modernity were separated, and the head and feet were separated... Cultural workers should be responsible for this break, so that modern Chinese people can connect tradition and modernity and act wholeheartedly.” In this way, Hansheng is based on the inheritance of traditional culture and spares no effort to promote the improvement of modern life. .

●Folk culture’s work goal—Chinese traditional folk culture gene bank

In 1988, the opening up of both sides of the Taiwan Strait opened up a vast stage space for Han Sheng’s folk custom field investigation. First, we launched the "Root-seeking Series" related to Taiwanese people, conducted a survey on Taiwan's three major immigrants returning home to find their roots, and launched a special collection on Quanzhou people, Zhangzhou people and Hakka people in Taiwan. The series of special topics "Preliminary Exploration of the Cultural Matrix" also includes the investigation of artifact culture, living patterns and ancient customs and habits, and completed "Tiger Culture", "Fujian Round Tower" and "Northern Shaanxi Customs Album". Publishes 6 rich topics in one year.

After the release of the nearly lost "New Year Pictures" in the following year, Han Sheng had a deep understanding that in remote villages on the mainland, there are many precious and "living fossils" of folk cultural projects. Under the impact of the trend of modernization, it will quickly disappear without a trace. To this end, we use "Chinese", "traditional", "living" and "folk" as the criteria, conduct comprehensive, rapid and large-scale investigations, collections and compile them into books, and advocate the establishment of "Chinese traditional folk cultural genes" "Library" proposed a detailed plan for collecting and preserving folk culture, which was divided into five types, ten categories, and fifty-six items. Traditional life wisdom and expressions such as food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, and entertainment were all included in the collection. This plan is still the standard for Hansheng's work to this day.

We firmly believe that the "Chinese Traditional Folk Culture Gene Bank" is a treasure house that belongs not only to the Chinese people, but also to mankind all over the world. The era of the "global cultural village" is coming. However, world culture without the participation of Chinese people and Chinese culture will be an incomplete world culture. Only by injecting China's thousands of years of accumulated cultural wisdom can the global cultural village present excellent results. Colorful appearance.

After more than thirty years of work: We are convinced that as long as everyone is willing and willing to continue working together on culture, traditional wisdom, beauty and vitality will not disappear, and all precious "Traditional cultural genes" will also reappear in subsequent human lives, so that Chinese culture can truly gain a foothold in the forest of world cultures. With this belief, Hansheng will continue to move forward.