2009—Know Zhangjiajie, Love Zhangjiajie, and Work Together to Play the "Zhangjiajie Card" (Part 3)
2. To love Zhangjiajie, we must form a powerful synergy, work together to play the "Zhangjiajie card," and build Zhangjiajie with one heart. Forming this synergy is a systematic undertaking. I offer the following suggestions from three aspects: (1) Unhesitatingly raise the banner of "Zhangjiajie culture" and vigorously promote the "Zhangjiajie..."
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
II. To love my Zhangjiajie, we should form a powerful synergy, work together to play the 'Zhangjiajie card' well, and with one heart and one mind build Zhangjiajie well.
Forming a powerful synergy of knowing my Zhangjiajie and loving my Zhangjiajie is a systematic project. Here I offer the following suggestions from three aspects:
(1) Without hesitation, raise the banner of 'Zhangjiajie culture,' vigorously promote the 'Zhangjiajie spirit,' and form a strong sense of cultural identity, cultural belonging, and cohesion.
1. Raising the banner of 'Zhangjiajie culture' without hesitation is a need for establishing cultural confidence, cultural self-respect, and cultural awareness, and a need for achieving cultural identity and a sense of cultural belonging.
Last year's 'March 18 riot' in Tibet and the Wenchuan earthquake became a grand review of the patriotism and national cohesion of over a billion Chinese people, greatly shocking those hostile forces that always seek to scheme against China. Culture is the most powerful thing; even if a country is destroyed and a nation is conquered, culture cannot be destroyed or conquered. Among the world's four great ancient civilizations, the only one that has not fractured is Chinese civilization, with Chinese culture as its soul. In Chinese history, there were instances when the Mongol and Manchu peoples entered and ruled the Central Plains, but the cultures of their own peoples were quickly dissolved into the vast Chinese culture, and to implement rule and govern the country, they still had to rely on Chinese culture.
To illustrate the tenacity and cohesion of culture, let me give another type of example: after Japan's defeat in the 1940s, the news of the death of Japanese Army Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Expeditionary Army Hisaichi Terauchi, whose hands were stained with Chinese blood, shook a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. These Japanese prisoners of war, then undergoing public trial, busied themselves with building a tomb befitting a marshal for their former commander Terauchi, and decided that the tombstone must use stone from a rocky mountain in southern present-day Malaysia, because Japanese forces had fought fierce battles there with British and Australian allied forces, and many stones were soaked with the blood of Japanese soldiers. So, under the pretext of building prisoner-of-war camp dormitories, they obtained the consent of the British officers guarding them and began large-scale quarrying and transporting of stone. The blood-stained giant rock far away in southern Malaysia could only be secretly transported under the stars at night. We can imagine the Japanese prisoners of war during the secret transport—their low cries, swaying footsteps, alert ears, and especially those pairs of eyes under the starlit and moonlit night that refused to admit guilt or concede defeat, making one touch the most terrifying part of the human spirit. From the materials, we learn that these prisoners of war also built tombs and erected steles one by one for other Japanese soldiers who died in battle. Even for war criminals publicly tried and executed by the International Military Tribunal, they tried every means to obtain the blood-stained soil from each war criminal's execution, collected it, and 'buried' it at this cemetery. The gloomy cemetery, with tombstones neatly arranged, seemed still to be awaiting some command. While you are indignant at how stubbornly incorrigible this militarist-worshipping nation is, you cannot help but shake your head inwardly at this nation's never admitting defeat. After World War II, the island nation of Japan rapidly recovered and re-emerged. Evidently, this is inseparable from the cultural cohesion of the Yamato people.
As a newly built tourist city, it needs to form a strong sense of cultural identity and cultural belonging, and needs to form strong cohesion. Therefore, it is especially necessary, by promoting 'Zhangjiajie culture' and carrying forward the 'Zhangjiajie spirit,' to unite people's hearts and form a synergy.
2. 'Zhangjiajie culture' is an indispensable and important part of the 'Zhangjiajie card.' It has a style of its own and can fully 'set up its own household' with complete confidence.
There was once a saying about "seizing the commanding heights of Xiangxi culture or Greater Xiangxi culture." At first hearing, it seems full of bold spirit, but on careful reflection, seizing the commanding heights of Greater Xiangxi culture is still somewhat defensible; seizing the commanding heights of Xiangxi culture, however, is a bit off, because the premise of seizing presupposes that you already acknowledge yourself as being within the Xiangxi cultural circle—your confidence is already lacking. It's not as if Zhangjiajie has no culture of its own. If it truly had none, then we would have no choice but to find a neighboring or similar culture to dress up our appearance—like the analogy made earlier: if you truly cannot bear a child yourself, you have to make do with adopting one. But now that we know Zhangjiajie's culture is in no way inferior to others', then the resounding "Zhangjiajie brand" should no longer belittle itself, abandoning a "Zhangjiajie culture" that is every bit as good as anyone else's, to seek some other culture to decorate its appearance and bluff its way through, placing itself under the cultural shadow of Xiangxi. This is not narrow localism, but a sense of responsibility that brooks no shirking—a manifestation of cultural confidence, cultural self-respect, and cultural self-awareness. When something is clearly your own culture, yet you insist on labeling it with someone else's tag—it's like when a child is clearly your own flesh and blood, yet you muddle-headedly let the child call someone else "father." This loss of self due to lack of confidence should rightly be corrected. To put it another way, if we really want to seize the commanding heights of Greater Xiangxi culture, we can only do so with our Zhangjiajie culture—we can't just grab the Xiangxi banner and plant it on Zhangjiajie's high ground. To use an analogy: the Bai hero Gu Zhuangyou from Sangzhi led his battalion of brothers in bloody battle and was the first to plant the flag of uprising atop the walls of Wuchang. If that flag had been the flag of the revolutionary army of the 1911 Revolution, that would have been right. But if what he planted was still the flag of the Qing Dynasty, then wouldn't the battle have been fought in vain, the blood shed in vain, the flag planted in vain? In short, the richly distinctive "Zhangjiajie culture" is an indispensable component of the "Zhangjiajie brand," and it is fully capable of "establishing its own household" with complete confidence, without any need to serve as a cultural appendage to others. Zhangjiajie brand, Zhangjiajie culture, Zhangjiajie spirit—placed together, how naturally they fit!
(2) Ground ourselves in reality to conduct basic research and applied development of Zhangjiajie culture, and push forward the implementation of the construction strategy of "cultural connection" and "cultural grounding."
1. To transform culture into productivity, cultural connection and cultural grounding are the only way.
(1) Regarding "culture is also productivity," the most convincing example in China is the performance show "Impression Liu Sanjie" in Yangshuo, Guilin. World-class natural scenery of Guilin's mountains and waters, the world-class local cultural brand of Liu Sanjie, plus a world-class director Zhang Yimou—together they make many people travel to Guilin specifically for this show. Not seeing "Impression Liu Sanjie" when in Guilin is equivalent to not having been to Guilin at all—this has become a trend. Even against the backdrop of the financial crisis, Guilin's tourism bucked the trend and rose; in 2008, the number of tickets to see "Impression Liu Sanjie" in Yangshuo was 1 million, with ticket revenue of 180 million yuan. More importantly, one show drove the rolling development of Yangshuo's entire tourism industry chain. Before this show, Yangshuo was merely a stopover for Guilin tourism—typically departing from Guilin city in the morning, taking a boat or bus to Yangshuo for three hours of sightseeing, then returning to stay in Guilin city. Since the show appeared, Yangshuo quickly became a tourism destination; several hotel streets sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, popping out in no time. The tourism miracle created by "Impression Liu Sanjie" is undoubtedly a vivid example of "culture is productivity."
(2) Regarding the importance of culture in urban construction and the building of a world-class tourism destination, the city's decision-making level already has a clear understanding. In 2007, Secretary Bojun wrote in a signed article: we must "strive to enhance local ethnic culture," "strive to enhance cultural soft power," "realize the connection between ethnic culture and urban construction," and "rapidly enhance the city's image." For ease of communication, I will tentatively call this "cultural connection." Mayor Xiaoming also proposed the idea of "cultural grounding" on relevant occasions. Both vividly and accessibly point out the operational path for transforming culture into productivity. Therefore, "cultural connection" and "cultural grounding" can fully be regarded as the construction strategy for our city's tourism city and world-class tourism destination. For Zhangjiajie to build its city well and become a world-class tourism destination, and to transform culture into productivity, cultural connection and cultural grounding are the only way.
2. The shortcoming in basic research on "Zhangjiajie culture" urgently needs to be changed.
"Cultural connection" and "cultural grounding" specifically consist of two major parts: one is basic research, the other is applied development. The former is the root; the latter are the flowers and fruits that grow from the former's roots and vines. The more solid the basic research, the more outstanding the results of applied development; if basic research work is not done or not done well, applied development is like duckweed on water or a castle in the air—nine out of ten times it will be neither fish nor fowl, incongruous, and flashy without substance. The relationship between the two is: plant beans and get beans, plant melons and get melons; plant nothing and reap nothing.
In terms of valuing basic research, the approach of Hubei's Enshi Prefecture is worth learning from. Enshi in neighboring Hubei only established the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the 1980s; initially when outsiders went in, they felt it didn't seem like an ethnic minority area. Comrades in Enshi Prefecture started from basic work such as excavating and organizing ethnic culture. Relying on the Prefecture's CPPCC, the Prefecture Ethnic Affairs Commission, and the Ethnic Minority Research Center of Hubei Minzu University, they successively published dozens of volumes of local culture book series, both documentary and academic; they organized the rescue of tangible and intangible cultural heritage throughout the prefecture, organized the selection of folk art masters and folk craft masters across the prefecture, and the prefectural government provided them with fixed living subsidies; they leveraged the folk song "Dragon Boat Melody" and loudly raised the banner of "Hometown of Dragon Boat Melody"; they developed the "Daughter's Gathering," originally a traditional folk custom confined to a narrow range in remote mountain areas, into a distinctive ethnic festival at the prefecture-wide scale; they built distinctive ethnic architecture such as the Tujia Wind-Rain Bridge spanning the Qingjiang River in the prefectural seat of Enshi; they seized influential national events like the National Original Ecology Singing Competition and the National Youth Singing Competition to promote Enshi culture and Enshi's image by showcasing Enshi's artistic talents, and so on. Hard work pays off—Enshi Prefecture's strategy of dedicated restoration of the region's ethnic character has borne gratifying fruit. Comrades who visited Enshi back then and go again now feel it is vastly different.
3. The prospects for applied development of "Zhangjiajie culture" are extremely broad.
Innovation through reviewing the old and bringing forth the new is the policy that cultural connection and cultural grounding should follow. In a tourism city like ours, around the six elements of tourism—"food, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment"—the applied development of local culture has extremely broad space. In many fields such as the catering industry, performance industry, and handicraft industry, there is much to be done. The reason Li Junsheng's sandstone paintings succeeded is certainly related to the use of sandstone as a painting material, but that is not the key. The key is that he concentrated Zhangjiajie's two most distinctive themes: one is the sandstone peak forest scenery and Tianmen Mountain scenery; the other is the local culture represented by stilted houses. The first impression gives people tremendous visual pleasure. I reckon this is the secret of his success. Therefore it can be said that sandstone painting is a model example of basic research and applied development of "Zhangjiajie culture."
The ongoing "Four Roads Renovation—Dressing and Topping" project is likewise a major move in the applied development of local architectural culture. In the "dressing and topping," wherever stilted-house element symbols are successfully applied, the result is as beautiful as can be—compared with the original "matchbox" buildings, it's like night and day. For example, the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Urban Management Bureau, Municipal Family Planning Commission, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Grain Bureau, Municipal Federation of Trade Unions, Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau, Municipal Tobacco Company dormitories, and so on—a batch of works successfully or relatively successfully applying stilted-house element symbols has emerged. Combined with nighttime lighting beautification, they truly excite tourists and citizens alike. In fact, applying stilted-house element symbols to modern architecture has successful precedents both elsewhere and in our own city. For example, Chongqing's Hongyadong Folk Culture Scenic Area and Shanghai's Chenghuang Temple Yu Garden Commercial City are entirely in the Tujia stilted-house style of modern architecture, finely crafted, with most buildings around five or six stories, some as high as twelve or thirteen stories—truly breathtaking. Zhangjiajie has also achieved good results in the excavation, enhancement, and application of the stilted-house style. The Pipa Xi Hotel, built in the late 1980s, is still regarded as a landscape-type hotel; the Expert Village Hotel at the seat of Wulingyuan District government, rebuilt entirely in stilted-house style, is truly gorgeous! The newly built Dayong Prefecture City and Cross Street Shopping Mall in Yongding urban area are both sizable modern building complexes in stilted-house style; the nine-story stilted-house building Weidi Hotel, facing the lower station of Tianmen Mountain Cableway, in the words of Mr. Wan Min, the famous architect who designed the Macau Taipa Cross-Sea Bridge and the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Bridge: "This stilted-house building puts all the buildings near Guanliping to shame."
Over several years, I took advantage of business trips to successively investigate various ethnic-style buildings both domestically and abroad. Domestically, such as the Tibetan-style modern buildings in Jiuzhaigou, the yurt-style modern buildings and Islamic-style buildings in Hohhot, the Dong drum-tower-style modern buildings in Guiyang, and so on. I found that Huizhou-style architecture in places like Huangshan in Anhui and Wuyuan in Jiangxi, as well as Jiangnan water town residential-style buildings in Suzhou and Hangzhou, all look very good at around three stories; but once they reach five or six stories, eight or nine stories, the high-perched horse-head walls and upturned eaves appear weakened and no longer harmonize with the large-volume walls. The stilted-house style is different—its stilts, verandas, silk eaves, corners, and wooden decorations can organically cover any part of the wall. Once these element symbols are well applied, they are far richer than Huizhou-style architecture and Jiangnan water town residences. Therefore, in terms of applicability to contemporary urban architecture, the stilted-house style is far superior to them. Thus from a technical perspective, establishing "stilted-house-style modern architecture" as the principal style of urban architecture is entirely feasible.
Zhangjiajie's urban construction—not to mention that it currently cannot compare with developed cities domestically and abroad—even catching up with nearby Changde is a matter of many years away. Moreover, even if it took many years and great effort to catch up, if what is built is still high-rise buildings that can be found in any city you happen to visit, then the original intention of building a world-class tourism destination and international tourism city would still be difficult to achieve. Too many examples tell people that relying solely on modern high-rise buildings that look the same in a thousand cities makes it very difficult to achieve urban tourism and become a tourism destination. Just as Huangshan highlights Huizhou-style architecture and Jiuzhaigou highlights Tibetan-Qiang architecture, just as many beautiful small cities in Europe with red tiles and white walls do, Zhangjiajie can only hope to overtake others and make people sit up and take notice by blazing a unique trail—designating modern Tujia stilted-house architecture as the principal tone of urban architecture, thereby highlighting individuality and distinctiveness. In this sense, we have ample reason to affirm and champion the currently ongoing "Four Roads Renovation—Dressing and Topping" project. This major move implementing cultural connection and cultural grounding in the field of urban architecture will not only become the highlight of our city's "visible change in three years, great transformation in five years," but also, through trial and exploration, accumulate experience for applying stilted-house style element symbols in urban architecture. That the Tujia stilted house, as Zhangjiajie's most distinctive local ethnic architectural culture, can connect with urban construction in a new era and serve a great purpose for Zhangjiajie's distinctive city building—this is truly providence. As far as I know, there is currently no city in China whose new and old urban areas are unified under a single regional ethnic architectural style. Once we do it, we will rightly be "China's first"—rightly "China's number one city." This kind of applied development of Zhangjiajie culture, this cultural connection and cultural grounding, is truly a grand undertaking in the truest sense!
Of course, the stilted-house style as applied development of local architectural culture also has a "make-up lesson" issue in basic research. I suggest that on the basis of existing exploration and practice, we should summarize and improve well and organize technical research: first, define several effective basic element symbols for use in the ongoing "dressing and topping" and future urban architectural design; second, solve the problem of how large-volume buildings can apply these element symbols to embody the stylistic characteristics of stilted houses.
(3) Resolve with determination the long-standing problem of confused publicity messaging, and work together to promote the "Zhangjiajie brand."
We have the greater Zhangjiajie of a prefecture-level city administrative body; under greater Zhangjiajie there is Wulingyuan District; under Wulingyuan Scenic Area there is the smaller Zhangjiajie administered by the "Zhangjiajie Management Office," namely Zhangjiajie National Forest Park; and there are also the Suoxiyu Nature Reserve, Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve, Suoxiyu Scenic Area, Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area, and so on, which existed historically but now have little practical significance. Just these alone are enough to leave outsiders utterly confused, making it hard for them to figure out the subordinate relationships among them for a while—and on top of that, Xiangxi and Greater Xiangxi get thrown into the mix! There are also flights from Guangzhou, Shanghai, and other places to Zhangjiajie that still sternly insist on the original designation "Dayong," continuing to cause pointless conceptual confusion for passengers. As far as I know, the appearance of the name "Yangjiajie" is not unrelated to the chaotic free-for-all in publicity messaging. I have checked the records: the area now called Yangjiajie was historically always called Yeijipu, and was originally a reserved area for Wulingyuan tourism development. In the early 1990s, a few comrades in Wulingyuan had a sudden impulse and sent press releases to over a hundred media outlets at home and abroad. Overnight, Yeijipu became Yangjiajie; overnight, Yangjiajie became the latest discovery. The result of the hype, besides making Yangjiajie famous overnight, created at least one misconception: that Hunan has a Zhangjiajie and also a Yangjiajie. We have no intention of investigating the true reasons for such hype, but looking back on this so-called sudden event, one always feels something is not quite right. Actually, what a good name Yeijipu is! We should understand a most basic principle: safeguarding the "Zhangjiajie brand" well is safeguarding one's own interests—especially long-term and fundamental interests; whoever damages Zhangjiajie's overall image is directly or indirectly damaging the interests of all Zhangjiajie people, including the damager himself.
The Zhangjiajie brand was formed through history, and it is a good brand that the people of this city take pride in and that outsiders envy deeply. When we are away from home, we all have personal experience: once we reveal our identity or hand over a business card, and the other party knows you are from Zhangjiajie, their eyes immediately light up and they treat you with extra courtesy. Comrades in the municipal departments and the two districts and two counties, and comrades at the various scenic areas and spots, should all share this feeling—whether or not the three words "Zhangjiajie" are added in front makes a huge difference. As the old saying goes, "If the skin does not exist, what will the hair attach to?" Zhangjiajie is the shared skin of our 1.6 million people, and every unit and department is hair attached to this great skin—truly "if one is damaged, all are damaged; if one prospers, all prosper." Some comrades, out of a narrow sense of hometown attachment, are reluctant to describe established names such as "Sangzhi Folk Songs," "Yongding Yang Opera," "Cili Golden Pomelo," and so on as belonging to Zhangjiajie. Their reasoning is: this brand of ours has been formed for how many years, while Zhangjiajie has only existed for how long? True, it has been only 15 years since this territory was called Zhangjiajie City, but the equivalent of Zhangjiajie City's predecessor was Tianmen Commandery in the Three Kingdoms period, comparable to a prefecture-level city, dating back more than 1,700 years, and the territory it governed included our present two districts and two counties. Would you say that history is long or not? It is a universal phenomenon for the name of a region to change: Beijing was called Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty and Beiping during the Republic of China period; Changsha also had names such as Linxiang, Tanzhou, and Xiangzhou; Changde was once called Wuling, Linyuan, Langzhou, and Dingzhou; Yongding District has successively been called Chongxian, Linli, Chongyi, Yongding, Dayong, and so on. Therefore, mocking Zhangjiajie for having existed only a short time is a statement that disrespects history. Moreover, Sangzhi, Yongding, and Cili are each our respective hometowns, while Zhangjiajie is the shared hometown of the two districts and two counties; once outside the province, Hunan is the shared hometown of all 14 cities and prefectures. I have collected multiple editions of anthologies of China's finest folk songs, which label "Huangyang Shoulder Pole" as a Sichuan folk song, "Dragon Boat Tune" as a Hubei folk song, and "Liuyang River" and "The Mulberry Tree and the Lamp Stand" as Hunan folk songs—I have never seen anyone take offense. Therefore, while calling things Sangzhi folk songs, Yongding Yang Opera, Cili golden pomelo, Yongding chrysanthemum-core tangerine, Sanjiaguan yellow cattle, and the like, one can perfectly well call them Zhangjiajie folk songs, Zhangjiajie Yang Opera, Zhangjiajie golden pomelo, and so on by analogy. The reasoning is simple: Zhangjiajie belongs to all of us, and by leveraging Zhangjiajie's existing fame and reputation, only by clenching into one fist and striking out together can we be especially powerful.
Li Junsheng, born and raised here, certainly loves Zhangjiajie, and subjectively he would never think of weakening or harming the "Zhangjiajie brand." But he has a sand-and-stone painting that clearly depicts Zhangjiajie's sandstone peak forest and Tianmen Mountain, as well as Tujia stilted houses, yet its title is the grand and vast "Soul of Xiangxi." This shows that a major reason for the chaotic messaging in publicity is a lack of cultural self-awareness and a lack of awareness to protect the "Zhangjiajie brand." We all have painful personal experience of the negative effects that chaotic publicity messaging has caused to Zhangjiajie's development, and it is time to unify our understanding. For the whole city, to properly manage the chaos in publicity messaging, a great deal of work lies with the relevant functional departments. And in recent years, the chaos in publicity messaging has to a large extent been related to some of our functional departments: either, based on departmental and parochial interests, they have objectively become the originators or protectors of "chaotic publicity messaging"; or they have lacked the proper understanding of "promoting the Zhangjiajie brand" and turned a blind eye, letting things drift, resulting in feeble management. So if everyone feels that chaotic publicity messaging is indeed harmful and of no benefit to Zhangjiajie's development, then we must all take action together to set things right. To this end, I venture to offer the following suggestions:
1. Begin preparations to apply for the establishment of "Zhangjiajie National Park," and through the model of a Zhangjiajie National Park Administration, unify the National Forest Park, World Natural Heritage, and World Geopark designations under one entity; at the same time, assign personnel to consult with the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to change Wulingyuan World Heritage to Zhangjiajie World Heritage. Before the national park is approved, we can draw on Huangshan's practice and establish a "Zhangjiajie Scenic and Historic Area Administration." This is the fundamental solution.
2. Unify the naming. First, the city's two districts and two counties, all scenic areas and spots, all enterprises and products should uniformly be prefixed with "Zhangjiajie." For example, Zhangjiajie City Cili County, Zhangjiajie City Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Area, Zhangjiajie Sanguansi Grand Canyon, Zhangjiajie Junsheng Sand-and-Stone Painting, Zhangjiajie Jiutian Food Factory, and so on. Second, the formulation of the three major scenic areas of Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Area (Zhangjiajie, Suoxiyu, Tianzi Mountain) or four major scenic areas (adding Yangjiazhai), as well as names like "Suoxiyu Nature Reserve" and "Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve," were products of specific historical conditions and now have little practical significance. Could we consider unifying them under the model of tour routes, such as the Golden Whip Stream tour route, Tianzi Mountain tour route, Yejipu tour route, Yellow Dragon Cave and Baofeng Lake tour route, and so on, all unified in the future under the banner of Zhangjiajie National Park or the Zhangjiajie Scenic Area Administration? Third, change Yuanjiajie to Yuanjiazhai or another name, and restore Yangjiajie to Yejipu or Yangjiazhai or something similar—by all means do not create so many "jiajie" names, as if afraid of not muddying the waters. Fourth, all traffic signs in urban areas, scenic areas, and roads within the city should be unified and standardized. For example, on the Changsha-Zhangjiajie Expressway there are several signboards: at the Yong'an Bridge junction in Cili County it says "Suoxiyu Scenic Area," while at the Yanghe junction it says "Wulingyuan Scenic Area."
3. Formulate and issue normative provisions on publicity naming, and clean up and correct those names and advertising slogans that lack cultural confidence, self-respect, and self-awareness and are not conducive to marching in step to promote the "Zhangjiajie brand," including content in both official and private publications that inappropriately replaces Zhangjiajie with Xiangxi or weakens Zhangjiajie. For example, the names of performance programs involve the direction of publicity messaging and are different from opening restaurants or snack shops—Jishou pickled radish, Jinshi beef rice noodles, Northeast dumplings, and the like: for restaurants and snack shops, the more widespread and diverse the better. The names of performance programs, however, should be conducive to promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand."
4. Resolutely change the "Guangzhou–Dayong" and "Shanghai–Dayong" designations at airports in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and other places.
5. Promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand" well is not only Zhangjiajie's affair but also Hunan Province's affair. Therefore, report well to the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, and clearly explain the reasoning for why Zhangjiajie should establish and carry forward "Zhangjiajie culture." When Zhangjiajie, the Autonomous Prefecture, and Huaihua are placed together, it is suggested that the provincial government and higher-level departments draw on the expression "Western China" (rather than "Huaxi region") and use the expression "Western Hunan region" rather than the now-customary "Xiangxi region"; nor should Zhangjiajie any longer be stuffed into the Xiangxi cage.
As long as understanding is raised and there is enthusiasm and a sense of urgency, I believe everyone will gladly and voluntarily stand under the banner of Zhangjiajie and contribute to promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand." In this way, by designating a dedicated agency to take the lead, breaking down tasks, and drawing up a schedule, everything will be accomplished one by one. Moreover, once understanding is in place, everyone will consciously guard the gate for promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand," and there will no longer be so many aftereffects. The industry and commerce department will not grant business licenses to enterprises and product names that are not conducive to promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand," such as "Charming Xiangxi" and "Into Xiangxi"; the tourism department will proactively intervene in behaviors at scenic spots that harm the promotion of the "Zhangjiajie brand"; the urban management department will promptly stop and clean up outdoor advertisements that harm the promotion of the "Zhangjiajie brand"; the culture and publishing department will say no to publications that clearly describe Zhangjiajie as Xiangxi, and will value the cultivation of local literary and artistic talent and support local stage arts, rather than running off to invite other people's troupes whenever there is a large event; the ethnic affairs commission will put its mind to work, like Enshi, to restore Zhangjiajie's ethnic minority features; the planning and construction department will make promoting the Tujia stilted-house style in urban architecture a major part of promoting the "Zhangjiajie brand"; the news department, journalists, and literary and artistic workers will no longer weaken Zhangjiajie in their works, nor turn Zhangjiajie into an appendage of Xiangxi; the tourism department will vigorously strengthen industry management and reshape Zhangjiajie's good image through the integrity and dedication of tour guides and tourism service personnel; the public security department will strike hard and severely punish lawbreakers engaged in pornographic extortion; the relevant functional departments will do their utmost to create a good investment and business environment, and no longer, for departmental or personal interests, do foolish and stupid things like "invite investment with the door open, then beat the dog once the door is closed" that smash the "Zhangjiajie brand," and so on.
Comrades! Heaven has bestowed upon us such a treasured land—this is truly our blessing. The best way to show that we cherish this blessing is to work together in harmony and unity, and to stand together through storm and stress, sharing joys and hardships, to build a fine, civilized, and harmonious Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie is our common home, and we are family members eating from the same pot. As the saying goes, "If the family is harmonious, everything prospers." We must doubly cherish this brotherly bond, more consciously gather under the banner of Zhangjiajie, make concerted efforts to promote the "Zhangjiajie brand," and with one heart and one mind build our homeland Zhangjiajie well.
I have come to Zhangjiajie to work and live for 20 years. I have always felt fortunate that I chose to come to Zhangjiajie to work and live, and I have always been proud to be a Zhangjiajie person. I feel heartfelt joy at every great and small progress of Zhangjiajie, and I am anxious or pained by the various abuses that affect Zhangjiajie's image and development. Through my works, through my suggestions and proposals in the field of political participation and deliberation, including today's "personal opinion," one should be able to sense that I have a love for Zhangjiajie that comes from my very bones. It is precisely out of deep love that I have today spoken so many views and opinions that may not be appropriate; for any bias or errors, I hope to receive criticism and correction from all leaders, comrades, and friends.