More than once, I have read in the newspaper that we have to save from extinction something with traditional Chinese characteristics. Craftsmanship in making clay, cloth or flour creatures, embroidery, paper cutting ¡ª all have become subjects of concern due to their diminishing number of practitioners. Very few youngsters select traditional Chinese medicine as a university major, and even if they do, there are not enough experts to teach them. The same is true with the various types of Chinese opera, with Peking opera taking the lead. Due to a bleak market, actors and actresses are leaving in droves for other more lucrative professions. As a result, a spate of excellent arias or works disappear with the deaths of the masters.

It seems a natural rule that when something fails to keep pace with the development of society, it is doomed to step down from the historical stage, and be replaced by surrogates. Over the past 10 years, my family has changed more than six TV sets, five washing machines and three fridges, and there is no sign of this ending ¡ª all thanks to advancing technology. My son received boxes of toy mobile phones, warriors and cars for his birthday, which more easily arouse his interest than clay, flour or cloth figures. When my colleagues catch a cold, they swallow various pills or tablets that are convenient to use instead of bitter traditional Chinese herbs that have to be simmered in earthen jars for hours.

However, can the rule justify the fading of our traditional culture? I doubt it. Take the Peking opera as an example. A widespread view about this opera is that it is out of fashion. The stories are too old, the rhythms are too slow, and it is neither exciting nor thrilling. Pop music and many other more entertaining forms seem to be better alternatives.

But I often fancy making an experiment ¡ª let someone rewrite the script of an opera, train the actors and actresses to sing or talk in English (better invite English performers), and advertise it as a ¡°European classic¡± and introduce it to our audience. I bet that we Shanghainese would swarm to buy the tickets as feverishly as we did for The Phantom of the Opera. Slowness, simple plots, plainness, or being ¡°out of fashion¡± would no longer be problems. We would watch attentively, nodding and clapping hands warmly from time to time.

In that case, appreciating an opera would already go beyond the opera itself, it would be a matter of taste and status. I wonder how many people are real fans when they swarm to watch foreign concerts, operas and dances? There are definitely not many, for I am sure that a person with real artistic taste would appreciate everything beautiful, regardless of where it comes from.

Indeed the Peking opera can be favourably compared to any other opera in the world. For more than 200 years, it has developed into a perfect form of singing, recitation, acting and acrobatics. If you are a real lover of art, you will appreciate its exquisite melodies, fine librettos, marvellous arias, charming performances, as well as the beautiful costumes and makeup.

In our eagerness for Westernized modernization, we are gradually losing our own culture. We regard it as obsolete junk and are willing to discard all of it without any hesitation. It might have something to do with the early stage of reform and opening up that we take such a negative view of our traditions. But when China has developed to a certain level, it is likely that we will look back and pick up what we have thrown away from our splendid culture.

The only problem is time. I hope it won¡¯t be too late when we finally end such cultural snobbery.