Traditionalist gives a huge culture shock

A video clip of a man wearing traditional Chinese dress and cloth shoes leading a buffalo carrying his son home from school has gone viral online, and made the man an instant internet "celebrity". The resident of Chengdu, Sichuan province, has said he practices "traditional Chinese culture" and wants his son to follow in his footsteps. And that's why he usually uses a donkey or a buffalo as a vehicle.

A person is free to ride a buffalo or donkey as long as he doesn't disrupt the flow of road traffic. But that person should realize this is not the 18th or 19th century, and the din created by traffic on city roads today can easily frighten buffalos, donkeys and other beats of burden. And if he still insists on riding buffalos in order to preserve "traditional Chinese culture", he is simply wrong.

From the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the mid-20th century, when foreign cultures and modern science and technology entered China in a big way, dozens of scholars of "traditional Chinese culture" realized the importance and value of Western products such as coffee, bread, bicycles and automobiles, instead of rejecting them.