Parties are cultural, and parties have no rules

In Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and in many cities in China, parties are either high-profile or low-profile. Performed loudly. A party is the expression of a city. It has both intentional and unintentional aspects: if you want to understand a city’s degree of internationalization, business vitality index, people’s openness of thought, and people’s mentality, you can go to its parties; if you want to know a city How extravagant, how fragrant, how shameless, how many strange people are there, and even more so, she can go to her party.

pleasure. Compared with the Chinese translation, this English explanation is not only simple and clear, but also meaningful. It talks about the three elements of a party: 1. The party is a party; 2. The party has a host; 3. The party is for happiness.

A little scheming and a little pure

But things are not that simple. Simply having fun is not what a party is all about.

“Party is a loose way of socializing that people use to expand their social circle. Its main social function is to enhance people’s mutual understanding and get to know people of the same social class, and its other content is to spread Information can only be spread in a small area. Professor Liu Dehuan explained to China News Weekly

It can be seen that parties are ultimately a way of socializing, which is different from serious and rigid purely utilitarian socializing. Completely natural and spontaneous emotional communication is not the same thing. Being free from these two states, this intermediate state has greater space and flexibility.

Human beings are emotional animals, and the normal operation of social machines requires more space and flexibility. Favor is needed to lubricate it. Parties have taken on this task very well. Moreover, judging from the current situation of endless types of parties, people’s desire to communicate has become stronger, and the way of communication has become more professional-to achieve their own clear goals in different forms. The purpose of communication.

Parties are culture

There is a famous saying in communication: Communication is culture, and culture is communication. As a way of socializing, parties must carry their own unique party culture. .

The history of the development of party culture can be traced back to ancient times: ancestors gathered together to watch religious ceremonies with performances, or sang happily around a campfire before sharing animal meat. Dancing is a party in itself. Ancient Roman nobles would discuss the future of the country and even political plans while taking a bath in well-equipped bathhouses. The French court dances during the Louis XIV period became an insurmountable peak in the history of high-end parties.

The simplicity of parties in ancient times and the luxury of medieval parties, from basic to high-end, have created a gradually fuller party space.

Americans have always said that they invented the cocktail party, which is popular around the world. Types of parties, but now their children get drunk next to beer barrels at campus parties every weekend - a country's traditions will also undergo huge genetic mutations in the new generation's understanding of culture.

< p>The day when the Super Bowl is held is the second largest party day in the United States, after New Year’s Day. “People gather at home to eat pizza, watch live broadcasts, and party at the same time. This has become an annual event for Americans. This is a necessary activity. " Pan Yaxiang, an old man living in Chicago, explained to China's "News Weekly" the close relationship between a country's culture and its parties.

Judging from the name, the party seems to have an exotic flavor, but the party is by no means foreign. It’s just that the Chinese didn’t use the word party in the past: in the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, there was a party custom of throwing pots and drinking wine. If you can’t remember how the scholar-bureaucrats in ancient China gathered together, you can take a look at " "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion"; if you still can't remember how they roared in the mountains and forests, you can read "The Drunkard's Pavilion"; if you even forget how the young sons and daughters of noble families took advantage of the opportunity to exchange poems at parties to express their affection, then warmly A review of "A Dream of Red Mansions" and even the "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection" were created in the harmonious atmosphere of parties.

Parties in the modern sense of the word in China originated more than a hundred years ago. Foreigners were the first to be introduced to Shanghai. Unlike the old-school society where men dominated, "Sunrise" records the life and death of old Shanghai parties very well.

Obviously, the soul of the party is the hostess. The party style of a country is closely related to the country's culture. Even if it is playful, such as the new generation of beer parties in the United States, it clearly reflects the relaxed culture of the free country of the United States.

Even if the party has the same theme, it will be very different due to the different regional cultures of each city. "The elegance of Beijing, the sophistication of Shanghai, the warmth of Guangzhou and the gathering of celebrities in Hong Kong are very different." Lei Jia, the marketing director of Modern Communication Group and known as the "party grandma" by her friends, explains the difference between urban culture and party culture. I also deeply understand the difference.

No family tree

Parties are a product of social classes looking for political consciousness. Historically, Western aristocrats evolved and solidified parties in order to gain social recognition and mutual recognition. It is a social fashion that makes people proud of attending parties.

In ancient Chinese society, people’s interactions were mainly festivals, worship, birthday celebrations, weddings and other ceremonies. With the rise of Western culture, modern China has borrowed many Western forms of communication, and parties are one of them. A form of social interaction favored by the emerging fashionable class. Professor Liu Dehuan of Peking University believes that although social activities similar to parties have begun in ancient China, this positive communication and interaction attitude is not inherent in us and needs to be continuously learned and enhanced. "Parties actually reflect an attitude of active communication and interaction between people." Professor Liu Dehuan believes.

In a kind of social consciousness and the need for people to communicate, the party gradually takes shape. Whose child is she? No rules

Parties are not exclusive to the night: yes, the prime time for parties is in the evening, or even at night; cocktail parties and a large part of business parties are usually held in the afternoon; if it is a place to invite friends To have a party in the countryside, you have to pack up and go early in the morning. The duration also varies: some parties end in an hour or two; some carnivals last for more than ten days and nights, making people with serious masochistic tendencies cry with joy.

The rules of the party cannot be found in time: everything is casual.

Parties are not exclusive to big cities: in rural areas, various parties are staged during festivals or festive days, and the whole village is often mobilized with great fanfare. The party was no less professional. For example, there is a martial arts-themed "Shaolin Club" in rural Hebei; the duets at parties in rural areas of Northeast China have also been transferred to the Spring Festival gala; and the methods of teasing people during wedding ceremonies in rural areas will probably stun urban children who have never seen the world. All of these are definitely in line with the party spirit of GET

TOGETHER, BY INVITATION, FOR PLEASURE.

Shanghai party socialite Lei Jia once had a strange party experience. In an event attended by more than 1,000 people, no one spoke. “Don’t think that the party would have lost its atmosphere if no one spoke. On the contrary, the participants that day were very engaged in the fun,” Lei Jia said.

You won’t find any rules regarding the class of participants or the theme of the party.

Given that parties are formed spontaneously and gradually by everyone in order to communicate, no rules can be found, which is most consistent with the reality that everyone will find their own fun in the party. The party queue ranges from moderate banquets and cocktail receptions to wild rave parties; from warm gatherings of family and friends to intense sensory stimulation; from quiet chamber music to manic rock music...