China News Service, Chengdu, January 6 (Wang Peng and Zhu Yuxi) Recently, "Citizens buy calendars are hard to find tiger calendars" on Weibo's hot search. Some merchants said that due to the fierce face of tigers, consumers are worried about the "hedging" of the zodiac , So the tiger calendar is cold.
After visiting the calendar market in Chengdu, the reporter learned that the calendar industry as a whole was in decline, and many wholesalers said it was “not a tiger’s problem”.
On the morning of January 5, in Huapu Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu, the stall owner, Ms. Wu, set up a sales calendar early on.
The reporter saw on the scene that there are many kinds of tiger-patterned wall calendars, including photography, Chinese painting, New Year paintings and other styles.
Ms. Wu said that she has been selling calendars for more than 20 years, and purchases them according to the zodiac sign every year.
Regarding the tiger’s ferocious face, Aunt Wu said that everyone’s views are different, “Some people look at tigers scary, but some people want to use tigers to ward off evil spirits.” She said that from the perspective of sales, although buying There are fewer calendars year by year, but the sales of tiger calendars are still higher than other styles.
Tiger calendar for the wholesale market.
Photo by Wang Peng
Ms. Min, who is shopping for a calendar, said that buying a tiger calendar for the year of the tiger is very suitable.
However, another customer has a different view-he has two family members who belong to tigers, and thinks that the tiger calendar will "fight". At the same time, if someone in the family is a dragon, he would not choose the tiger calendar because "the dragon and the tiger are fighting each other." , Not auspicious enough.
How can there be so much "controversy" in a Chinese zodiac calendar for the Year of the Tiger?
In this regard, Sun Zhengguo, a professor at the Faculty of Arts of Central China Normal University, who studies folklore, told reporters that the "hedging" or "matching" of zodiac signs is a phenomenon that has always existed in the zodiac culture. This is the mainstream tradition, "Chinese people wear tiger-head hats and tiger-head shoes when they are born. This is also reflected in many of our festivals."
After visiting the calendar retail market, the reporter went to the lotus pond market, a small commodity wholesale place in Chengdu. The red lanterns and couplets and other holiday products created a strong New Year atmosphere.
But when reporters asked merchants whether to sell calendars, most of them waved their hands, saying that they hadn't sold calendars for many years.
After many inquiries, I finally found a calendar wholesaler.
"It's not that tiger calendars are not easy to sell, but the whole calendars are not easy to sell. In the past, the order quantity for calendars was tens of thousands, but this year only thousands." Whether it can be sold has nothing to do with the pattern, but is closely related to the advancement of science and technology and the decrease of rural population. "With the rise of the Internet, more and more mobile phones are used. You can know what day it is without looking at the calendar. And now the population in rural areas There are fewer and fewer calendars. Maybe in rural areas, you have to buy more calendars, but now they are all going to the cities. The decoration of homes is so good and there is no place to hang them. Therefore, there are fewer and fewer calendars when they are used."
Mr. Wang said that such a change is also reflected in the calendar manufacturers. Previous manufacturers had to launch dozens of calendars a year, and one calendar had more than a dozen patterns. Now calendar manufacturers are launching fewer and fewer styles and more and more products. The more singular, "Many manufacturers I know have ceased production or changed their businesses, and the calendar will withdraw from the stage of history in the future." (End)