2010年10月14日，朝戈金所长作为国际哲学与人文科学理事会(CIPSH/ICPHS)副主席，应邀出席在京举办的主题为“现代社会生活方式的文化根源”的论坛，并用英文发表主旨报告。

　　该论坛由中国社会科学院主办、由中国社会科学院文献中心及国际哲学与人文科学理事会承办。来自希腊、匈牙利、泰国和韩国的学者及来自京内外的中方代表约四十人出席了论坛。共有八位中外学者作了学术报告，话题涉及传统文化、文化自觉、现代性、体制变革、私人与公共生活、佛教、韩流、巫文化等。报告之后，中外学者进行了热烈的学术讨论和交流。

　　该论坛隶属于“中国社会科学论坛”(CASS Forum)系列活动之一，武寅副院长发表了致辞，院职能局有关领导出席了本次活动。国际哲学与人文科学理事会原副主席黄长著和现任副主席朝戈金分别主持了研讨活动。

　　附朝戈金所长的主旨报告录音及全文：

Keynote Speech

The Cultural Origin of Lifestyle in Modern Society

Prof. B. Chogjin (Chao, Gejin)

Director of Institute of Ethnic Literature, CASS, 
Vice President of International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies

Distinguished chairman, ladies and gentlemen,

　　It is a great honor for me to make a very brief speech to welcome domestic and foreign participants, and deliver my good wishes to a successful forum in advance.

　　“The ocean admits hundreds of rivers for its capacity to hold (海纳百川，有容乃大) .” This is one of my favorite Chinese aphorisms, it means one should be as encompassing as the vast ocean which admits hundreds of rivers and should draw upon other"s strengths. It would be a wonderful experience to meet you all here to discuss topics we all concern and to share our expertise.

　　The theme of this forum is The Cultural Origin of Lifestyle in Modern Society; I must say that it is a right time and right place to discuss such topic, my point supported by the following four factors:

　　Firstly, we are going to talk about cultural origin, and China is a country with a long history and splendid cultural traditions. Her rich culture can be observed via voluminous historical documents and numerous archeological sites, as well as countless "survival in culture" (Edward Taylor). Thus, if we “think globally”, China’s cultural diversity and creativity may bring us very interesting notion and practice.

　　Secondly, if we take China as a whole a Modern Society, we get a wide spectrum of lifestyle. Huge gaps lie between different regions from east to west, between urban area and countryside. In the middle and east part of China, people enjoy modern facilities like e-commerce, third-generation mobile telecommunication, and so on, while in the west part of China, especially in rural areas, cattle and plow are still used to raise crops. And in some animal husbandry regions, nomadic peoples are still living in traditional yurts, moving about with their domestic animals. Their lifestyle, by any means, is quite different from those who live in metropolitan areas.

　　Thirdly, China is such a country that there about one hundred and thirty languages are spoken! Fifty six ethnic groups with their unique cultural traditions make this country’s cultural profile a rich and plural one. I strongly believe, culture can only be explained by comparison. And we all know China is one of the most suitable places to make such comparative studies.

　　Fourthly, it is now the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Traditional cultures are declining swiftly. A large amount of cultural forms, like epic singing, folk handicraft, rural performing arts, rituals of ancestor cult or rites of evoking deities, traditional festivals and ceremonies, and the like, are all gradually getting out of people’s daily life. It is our duty to safeguard the cultural heritage, so as to keep our past footprint, and foresee our future.

　　With the four above-mentioned factors, I’d like to stress again that the topic of cultural origin is, of course, need international society’s urgent attention, as well as academia’s deep participation.

　　If we choose one representative item to link the past to present, to show cultural power and dynamics, as a folklorist, I prefer “oral tradition”.

　　When you ask people what oral tradition is, some people will tell you that oral tradition has to do with something common, old fashioned, quaint, rural, rustic, grass-roots, backward or even primitive. But oral tradition means much more than that. No need to mention in those non-literacy societies, all the knowledge about universe and nature, all the notion about deities and ghosts, all the oral expressive arts, like myth, epic, legend, tale, saga, ballad, lyric and so on, all the historical memories, all the surviving and developing wisdoms, and the moral principles, are totally kept in oral tradition.

　　That’s to say, oral tradition is age-old but everlasting skill that we mankind have for approximately from one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand years so far. And though different civilizations invented a lot of different scripts, to exchange information orally is still a major way for us today in every corner on this planet. I think that is the reason why in the UNESCO’s relevant documents, Oral Tradition is one and the first of the five principal domains of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

　　Nowadays, scholars tend to agree that pure form of orality and literacy are two ends of our communication spectrum, in between there are a lot of intermediate forms. In a word, orality and literacy are overlapping with each other. And oral tradition as a time-honored ability, will last forever.

　　Due to the limited time, we can hardly describe the pervasiveness of oral tradition in everyday life as it is lived, shared and practiced in contemporary settings, including its modern uses in literature, film, television, cartoon, comic strip, mass media, street sign, decoration, and advertising. Picking up one example from diverse oral genres in China, epic King Gesar gives us a strong connection—from heroic songs to cultural continuity, from traditional functions to modern life-world, and from the remote Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Mongolian Grassland to the coastal Shanghai EXPO 2010.

　　As a Tibetan proverb goes, “On every person’s lips there is a canto of King Gesar.” Epic performances in local communities have been not only the primary vehicle for religious belief, indigenous knowledge, local wisdom, folk memory, and mother-tongue expression; but also a constant inspiration for other traditional art forms, including Thangka painting, Stone-carving, Tibetan opera, mural, sculpture, architecture, as well as contemporary ethnic literature and arts, such as novel, poetry, TV play, radio drama, fine arts, and so on; in addition, as a wealth of cultural and artistic resources for advertising design, creative industry, digital media, network game, school textbook, and so forth, the Gesar epic imbues the audience both young and old, insider and outsider, with a sense of cultural diversity and historical continuity, and, in turn, contributed unceasingly with their creative inspiration to the treasure-house of Chinese culture and global civilization.

　　As the longest epic in the world, King Gesar is unique as a wellspring of indigenous cultural diversity and evidence of sustainable, yet dynamic, human creativity. This oral epic tradition, shared by multiple ethnic groups represents the broad and deep spectrum of cultural origins, demonstrates the vitality of oral tradition and verbal arts, and epitomizes the achievements of traditional folklore and oral culture.

　　According to Dell Hymes (American anthropologist) and his idea of traditionalization, the past is actively constructed and produced. Through long years of its dissemination, the cultural traits of epic Gesar, move beyond the boundaries between orality and literacy, between the rural and the urban, between language and community, between genre and type, and between space and time. Consequently, this time-honored oral tradition will become a real “common heritage” of human beings.

　　Here I’d like to say, this forum of a multi-disciplinary discourse comes at a welcome time, it permits us to take a step back and see where the position we take, and how we deal with the crucial issues concerning the past, the present and the future of human being as a whole. I’m sure the forthcoming presentations and discussions will be beneficial to all of us.

　　Last but not the least, Chinese ancient sage Confucius once said, “What a joy it is to have friends coming from afar!” I really have the same feeling today. Dear friends, hope you enjoy our getting together here, and have a nice stay in Beijing.

　　Thank you for your attention.