When we say the word “culture”, we think of many things. If we take every aspect of today’s society as the stones, then culture is the water in the river, which seems to be nowhere, but actually is everywhere. Today the culture I want to talk about is the “Buddhist Culture”, which nowadays is popular among the over-worried teenagers.
当我们提到“文化”这个词时，我们会想到很多事情。如果我们把今天社会的方方面面比作河里的鹅卵石，那么文化就是河水，乍一看感知不到它的存在，实则它无处不在。而今天我想要介绍的文化是流行在焦虑青年中的“佛系文化”。
Due to the rapid development of Internet, teenagers nowadays could enjoy the sharing of people whose rank is at the top of the society. On the one hand, teens’ horizons are broadened, but on the other hand, when they try and try again, only to find sometimes the goals they try their best to achieve are someone else’s starts, they get confused, or even depressive. That’s why “Buddhist Culture” appears, which provides a path for those poor dreamers to release themselves for a while in this competitive world.
由于互联网的日益四通八达，今天的年轻人可以见识到世界尖端人士的生活。一方面，他们的视野得到了拓展；但另一方面，当他们发现一次次地尝试，最终发现自己全力以赴的终点，竟然只是一些人的起点，他们 会困惑，甚至感到焦虑。在这种背景下，“佛系文化”产生了，为在追梦路上感到焦虑的人们提供了在这个被竞争充斥的时代中喘息的机会。
However, the valuations towards it differs.
然而，对于“佛系文化”，人们莫衷一是。
Some regard “Buddhist Culture” as a kind of negativity. They think no matter how much pressure teens are faced with, they should push themselves and never give up. From their point of view, by compelling themselves, teens are actually raising their confidence, they believe they can solve the problem sooner or later, so they try. On the contrary, teens who choose to give up the original goals actually badly lack for confidence. So they draw the conclusion: Buddhist Culture cause teens to under-evaluate themselves.
一些人认为“佛系文化”是一种消极文化。他们认为不论青年人面对多大压力，他们都应该继续努力，永不放弃。在他们看来，当他们面对焦虑选择通过逼自己一把面对困难时，他们的自信心事实上已经得到了提升，他们相信自己早晚会解决，所以他们选择继续尝试。相反，选择放弃最初目标是缺乏自信的表现。因此，他们得出了结论：“佛系文化”使青少年低估自己的潜力。
Others consider “Buddhist Culture” as another kind of outlook. They consider pressure as what others think they should do, rather than their own views of happiness. So why should we compel ourselves to accept their outlook? We are not selfish at all, on the contrary, if the society forces us to do the things we don’t want to do, then it is the one who is selfish.
另外一些人认为“佛系文化”是另一种世界观。他们认为焦虑、压力来自他人对自己该做什么才能幸福的强制规定，而不是自己的幸福观。所以为什么我们要强逼自己去接受他人的幸福观呢？我们选择践行自己的幸福观一点也不自私，相反，那些逼迫我们按照他们的想法去生活的人才是真正的自私。
Actually, no matter “Buddhist Culture” is good or bad, it is if we finally get our own happiness that matters. So how do you think of “Buddhist Culture”?
事实上，不论你是否认同“佛系文化”，我们感到幸福才是最重要的，所以你是如何看待“佛系文化”的呢？
Translator：Wang Xiaoyu
Date: Oct 30, 2020
