A flurry of excitement passed through the nation's columnists and bloggers over the past few days.

Anticipation of Valentine's Day-style romantic festivity at the traditional Qixi Festival, followed by rather lacklustre observance on the day, has been the hot topic.

Both folklorists and florists called for Qixi the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar to be officially named China's "Lovers' Day."

And the cry was particularly loud this year, as this is a lunar leap year with the intercalary month falling on the seventh month, meaning there are two Qixi days.

But yesterday florists said they were disappointed so many less young people had bought roses than on Valentine's Day.

Columnists and bloggers quickly stepped forward to offer their interpretation of the phenomenon. Quite a number sounded cynical, jeering at the idea Qixi could be transformed into a Chinese version of Valentine's Day, and claiming the festival is a far cry from its Western counterpart.

One columnist said Qixi is only a mythological legend about the celestial Queen Mother's suppression of the love between the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid and thus has nothing to do with ordinary people's romances. Valentine's Day, on the contrary, originates from a true story.

The Western lovers' day, the writer said, symbolizes young people's "brave pursuit of romantic freedom," and typifies the Western value of personal human rights. That is the reason, he claimed, why Valentine's Day has won the hearts of today's Chinese youths, who merely regard the Cowherd and Weaver Maid's romance with reverence.

This is sheer nonsense.

Today's Chinese youths favour Valentine's Day rather than Qixi simply because they have been bombarded by the commercial fanfare the Western festival brings for the past decade or so, while Qixi had seldom been mentioned until recently.

I respect freedom of love and I do not generally object to Western values of human rights. But I do not subscribe to the theory that today's young Chinese like Valentine's Day because they appreciate the humanitarian ethics involved in the festival. They know little about Qixi simply because they have never been told about it by their parents, who have been too busy with the "modernization" drive to give enough attention to our cultural heritage.

Neglect of education in cultural traditions has lasted for dozens of years in China. It was completely suspended during the "cultural revolution" from 1966 to 1978. And, although revived briefly in the early 1980s, it soon waned amid a nation-wide pursuit of material wealth, before almost being swept into oblivion by the arrival of Western culture, bringing McDonald's, the NBA, MTV and Disneyland-style carnivals.

In recent years, people of insight in educational and cultural circles have called for the whole nation to note the weakening of the sense of cultural tradition among youngsters.

Scholars of Chinese culture have initiated a campaign, supported by commercial circles, to protect our national heritage. The calling for Qixi to be recognised as China's Lovers' Day is part of this effort.

It may sound a little bit artificial or arbitrary, but it is definitely not an unfounded idea. The Qixi myth is unquestionably a love story and does reflect Chinese people's yearning for faithful and lasting love. There are countless stories of young men and women expressing their love privately on the eve of Qixi in ancient times. It is not in the least "inferior" to Valentine's Day in the sense of innocent love.

Whether Qixi will be observed by young Chinese as a Lovers' Day will only be determined by time.

But there is nothing wrong with the idea protecting of our culture and heritage is not foolish and should not be ridiculed.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/02/2006 page4)