"Horse, left punch, closed, very good …"
This summer, every Friday night at 7: 30, Song Jialin (a pseudonym), a girl born after 90, passed the bustling pedestrian street of Beijing Road on time and went to the night school of Guangzhou Youth Cultural Palace to study Wing Chun.
Song Jialin is a consultant studying abroad. She communicates with 4-5 clients on average every day.After work, she turned into a "city exploration" sharer on a social media-going to night school, watching dramas, visiting bookstores and listening to talk shows are all her favorite spare time pastimes.
Under the topic label of "Daily Life after Work" on the platform, more than 10.26 million notes have been uploaded. A large number of notes cover museums, evening classes, offline exhibitions, Citywalk raiders …
Correspondingly, there is a wave of cultural tourism in China. One of the most popular courses in Guangzhou Qinggong Night School, 1000 people grab 25 places at the same time; This summer, the Guangdong Provincial Museum is full of appointments every week. Every day, about 200,000 people abide by the Guangdong Bo applet, and once the tickets are released, they will be "empty".
What are those people who flock to museums and exhibition halls and wander around theaters and night schools after all?
At the 2024 South China Shuxiang Festival Hanfu Wear Competition, the contestants are showing their costumes.
"Night school is an interest class for adults"
Li Yimu (pseudonym), a girl born after 00, has only been working as an intern in a fast-moving consumer goods company in Guangzhou for two months, and she already feels that she "smells too bad".
"Once you step into the workplace, you will exude an indescribable sense of fatigue." This is the most popular explanation about "Ban Wei" on the Internet.
She lives in Zengcheng and works in Haizhu. It takes her three or four hours to commute every day. As an IP designer, sometimes she has to work overtime until 90 pm.
Lack of novelty in work, overtime commuting, and disorientation are all considered as the sources of "class flavor".
Li Yimu likes visiting museums best in his spare time. "The museum makes me feel a quiet atmosphere, and my mind and heart can have a good rest."
A study by the University of Toronto shows that whether a person has a good rest depends on how much autonomy he has in the activities he has during his rest.
"Brushing short videos, mobile games and other ways to constantly stimulate dopamine and stimulate pleasure will actually lead to greater emptiness." According to Zheng Huanzhao, an associate professor in the Chinese Department of Jinan University, this is a "passive and inefficient" way to rest.
Choosing night school, visiting offline exhibitions, Citywalk and other ways can make people get multi-level satisfaction in knowledge improvement, aesthetic improvement, physical exercise, offline social interaction and so on, thus regaining their mental and physical vitality.
"Night school is an interest class for adults." Song Jialin regards night school as a process of "trial and error" and "screening".Since 2019, she has taken various evening classes such as ukulele, magic, darts, baseball and beer appreciation.
You can’t change your job if you want, but interest classes can. She said that different interest courses made her feel that she would not become too "boring".
The baseball class at Guangzhou Qinggong Night School is very popular. The picture is provided by the interviewee
Paradox of "Happiness" and "Modelling"
"What should a person do if he finds that he has lost the motivation to move forward?"
"Relaxation is the highest enjoyment of life. The premise of enjoying’ relaxation’ requires’ using some force’ in life. "
This is a dialogue between a young book fan and best-selling author Fang Qi during this year’s South China Book Festival. Sitting in the audience, the "post-95 s" Guangdong Tsai Alin (a pseudonym) nodded silently.
For Alin,The best way to "go to class" is to study."None". As a member of the "New Life Plan after Work" of a platform network community, he is most interested in the activities to increase happiness, which are various book fairs and bookstores in the Pearl River Delta region.
In recent years, "special forces punching" has become a magic weapon for traffic, which is particularly popular. However, Alin made it clear that compared with "punching in" or "stamping",He prefers to wear flip-flops and "walk the street" easily.
"Visiting the exhibition itself is a kind of relaxation. Why do you want to be busier and more nervous than going to work?" Alin said.
However, this seemingly "relaxed" situation is actually "rolled", which is not rare.
In addition to "special forces punching in", many young people "follow the trend" to go to night school. The reason may be "experience", "friend invitation" or "not being left behind". "One relaxation at a time" becomes "relaxation without relaxation", which only aggravates its own "internal friction".
"The positive significance of the word’ going to class’ is itself to get rid of utilitarian workplace values and consumerism desires." Zheng Huanzhao said that once "going to class" becomes a single behavior of patterning, punching cards and routines, it will be easily used by commercial marketing driven by herd mentality, and the positive life energy originally possessed by this hot word will aggravate the anxiety of young people to escape from life.
Wang Fang, a member of the expert group of the China Museum Association, also believes that if young people just browse the exhibition and blindly pursue "special forces to punch cards", they will not get much gain like completing the task.
"What is important is that young people can stop in these activities, remain curious, and slowly experience and feel, in order to truly form the inner strength to nourish themselves." Wang Fang said.
In 2024, the number of visitors and sales of Nanguo Shuxiang Festival reached a new high.
"Two-way Going" and "Spiritual Resonance"
There are many ways for young people to "go to class".It also puts forward higher requirements for the existing public cultural service system.
Song Jialin was keenly aware that the courses in evening classes have become more and more difficult to grab in the past two years. "Hand speed is the biggest threshold for attending evening classes." For example, the Youth Night School jointly launched by the Shanwei Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Municipal Cultural Center in 2024 attracted thousands of young people to sign up enthusiastically, and it was full in ten minutes, and the popular courses were even robbed in two minutes.
The audience wearing Hanfu immersed themselves in the theme performance of "Guangdong Expo Night" and "The Book of Songs".
The Guangdong Provincial Museum is also a popular place for citizens to punch in. "One ticket is hard to find" has even attracted the eyes of scalpers who resell tickets.
In order to meet the peak of passenger flow, the museum has extended its opening hours to 18: 00 every day since July 23rd, and increased the daily admission quota from 10,000 to 16,000, and added an additional 3,500 places every Friday night. As of August 30th, the Guangdong Provincial Museum had received about 760,000 visitors during the summer vacation, with an average daily reception of about 15,000 visitors.
In the theme activity of "Guangdong Expo Night" in Guangdong Provincial Museum, young singers sang "Wild Weeds".
In addition to the contradiction between supply and demand,Public cultural content needs to have more "spiritual resonance" with young people.
"A good museum exhibition should realize dialogue with young people, pay attention to society and be close to life." Wei Jun, a second-class researcher and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Cultural Relics and Museums of Fudan University, believes that the content and form of the exhibition should be more diverse.
The trend of cultural and cultural institutions "actively seeking change" is also increasingly obvious. For example, on August 16th, Shunde Museum launched "Seeking for Richness in Silk"-a new live script tour experience activity of Shunbo, which guided players to understand the social and historical development track of Shunde in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China by completing multiple scene challenges such as Sangji Fish Pond, Market, Silk Reeling Factory, Silk Village and Silver Bank.
This year’s South China Book Festival has entered the lives of young people in a more relaxed, fashionable and social way. Cutting-edge technologies such as AIGC, Metauniverse and 6G applications, as well as the integration of fashion elements such as games, animation, trendy play and Citywalk, have driven the number of visitors and sales to a new high.
During this year’s Nanguo Shuxiang Festival, the movable type printing experience booth attracted many young readers to stop and participate.
On the occasion of the "two-way trip" between the summer cultural tourism activities and the young audience, this "going to class" is still on the road.
After work, Li Yimu found his mood of visiting museums changed. From the back of each exhibit, she read more meanings-"Just like Ru Ci in a museum with perfect appearance, but only half a piece". She said that she began to learn to reconcile with life and accept the existence of regret.
Song Jialin intends to continue the evening school plan to the end. "In the past, we always emphasized that people should be better and stronger than in the past. In fact, this is a one-way time dimension. If you think more in space and’ open’ your life, you may be able to have less’ internal friction’. " She said.
"The ultimate goal?" She thought for a moment and smiled and replied, "Give your heart a place to live."
Source: South+Editor of Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng: Mo Liping
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