On the second day of the Lunar New Year, it is customary in Taizhou to visit ancestral graves. All my direct ancestors except my mother have passed away. Because of the time gaps between their deaths, they are buried in different cemeteries. Those who died earlier are buried in cemeteries in the city, while those who died later are gradually moved to cemeteries in the suburbs and more distant suburbs. It must be a similar situation where you live.
A generation later, people will probably find themselves unable to keep up with all the tomb-sweeping activities during the Qingming Festival.
I was curious how the Chinese solved this problem before. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that we were actually the first Chinese to encounter this problem.
In ancient society, large families typically lived together in a dedicated cemetery to bury their deceased members—the so-called ancestral graves or family cemeteries. It was only with our generation, the first in Chinese history to enter modern society, that the need to rush between multiple cemeteries arose. Modern society is characterized by commercial cemeteries, where burials are done on demand and scattered throughout the country.
Since there are no precedents to follow, and we are the first group, we will set the rules ourselves.
In fact, there was a tradition in ancient China of only worshipping five generations (or three generations in some places). At that time, it was believed that blood relations were too distant after five generations, and there was no emotional foundation, so there was no need to worship them anymore. In our modern society, because people are getting married at an older age, the original five generations can be reduced to worshipping only three generations.
That is, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. That's the end. Going further back, we probably haven't met them, so there's no need to force it.
The issue I'm talking about will be encountered by more and more people in the future, and by 2040, it will probably form a new social consensus. In the end, worshipping ancestors is a folk custom, and it should be done in a way that is convenient for the living.
By the way, I guess many of you may not know that none of the public cemeteries in China have permanent property rights. The longest you can buy is a 20-year lease. After 20 years, the management will contact the family to renew the lease. If the family cannot be found, there is a fixed procedure in the country. They will contact you three times by phone, text message and newspaper announcement. If they still cannot contact you after three times, they will move the ashes out for unified ecological burial.
This situation will become very common after 2050. At that time, there will be many cases where descendants cannot be contacted, descendants are unwilling to renew their fees, or people are unmarried and childless with no descendants. The government will not be able to waste large areas of idle cemetery plots and will carry out large-scale clean-up. Therefore, unless you are a high-ranking official or a wealthy person, there is really no need to buy an expensive cemetery plot, because decades later, you will end up with ashes and hundreds of strangers dumped in the same grave.
P.S.: While I was burning gold and silver ingots today, I was wondering if gold and silver in that world also surged, or if they also experienced a 35% drop in a single day, and if there were people in that world who lost money and were seeking compensation. 
I watched "The Swordsman" today and would like to share my thoughts.
The film faced many obstacles before its release because the original female lead was Narnaxi, but she exposed her cheating on the college entrance exam. The production team had to urgently sever ties with her and find Yue opera actress Chen Lijun to temporarily reshoot the scenes.
To be honest, I had high expectations for this movie before watching it, because it's adapted from a famous Chinese animation and is a martial arts film, which is rare in recent years. So I was thinking that Wu Jing might be able to deliver some surprises. But after watching it, I was disappointed.
The flaws are obvious: the plot is a mess, telling a childish and uninteresting story from beginning to end. I asked a friend who had read the original work if the story in the comic was this rough, and he said that there were several other storylines in the original work that were cut from the movie. In addition, there were major changes to the specific character settings. For example, the character played by Nicholas Tse in the original work was a monk, but somehow he was changed to a former colleague.
Okay, if you're saying this is an action movie adapted from a comic book and the plot doesn't matter, then watching just the action fight scenes is pretty boring. Classic action movies often build up the atmosphere before the fight scenes and then provide plot connections afterward. For example, Ip Man's "I'm going to fight ten of them!" is already very exciting, and Chen Zhen's fights in Fist of Fury all have a reason behind them. It's not like a bunch of people just randomly appear and start fighting for the sake of fighting, especially since the fighting isn't particularly impressive.
The film had a large cast of characters, but they were all rushed through, and none of them were well-developed. In particular, the lead actress, Chen Lijun, was a last-minute replacement, but her performance was indeed somewhat stiff and rushed. Yue opera and film are not the same thing.
Overall, *The Legend of the Swordsman* isn't a bad movie. The costumes, props, and sets clearly cost a lot of money, and the cast is decent. However, the overall quality is just average. The initial 7.5 rating on Douban is definitely inflated. I suspect it's because several popular young celebrities are in the film, and their fans are giving it positive reviews. In my opinion, it's a 7 out of 10.
Oh, by the way, the actress who plays Yanzi's mother in the film is Li Yunxiao, a very famous Yue Opera actress from Linhai. She graduated from Linhai Middle School, and I often see her actively promoting her hometown. I'll add another 0.2 points for her, so I'll give it 7.2 points.
Before posting this report, I checked Maoyan's box office data and did some extended analysis based on its basic data. It's clear that *Pegasus 3* is far ahead, not only in total box office and screenings, but also in the efficiency of each screening's contribution to box office revenue (see the rightmost tier). So, if I were a theater manager, I would increase the screenings of *Pegasus* to make more money. Second place is *Boonie Bears*, which I watched yesterday and it's indeed quite good. *The Legend of the Condor Heroes* should manage to come in third, breaking even.
"Silent Awakening" has a 6.3 rating on Douban. I won't bother with such a terrible movie. I'm not interested in this kind of subject matter either. It's bound to flop.
Original Article: View Chinese Version
