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Are you journeying to the West to bring back the scriptures, or to charge your phone?


While travelling on the Chongqing subway last summer, I noticed a series of public adverts designed to encourage healthy use of smartphones, all based on the 四大名著 (four great works of Chinese literature). Being both a lover of the 四大名著 and a hater of smartphones, these humourous ads caught my attention enough for me to want to take a photo of each. This first one is based on 西游记 (Journey to the West).  

 

IMG_20180610_123844150.jpg

 

Quote

这样还能取经吗?

 

贫僧从东土大唐而来,去往西天充电玩手机

 

取经圣僧成手机迷弟,行万里路怎忘记初心?

为了自身的梦想与目标,请合理正确使用手机。

 

It asks if the monk (贫僧/圣僧) is travelling all the way to the west just to recharge and play with his phone ("去往西天充电玩手机"). Has he forgotten his original aim (初心) of bringing back the scriptures (取经)? It ends by encouraging people to use their phones in moderation ("合理正确使用手机") in order not to be distracted from achieving their goals and dreams ("为了自身的梦想与目标").

5 Comments


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StChris

Posted

I often think of this ad when at the gym. For many people, although they are physically at the gym for an hour, only 15 minutes of that is actually spent working out, with the other 45 minutes spent looking at their phones. Of course, it's easy for anyone to forget their 初心 and phones aren't the only thing which distract us and knock us off course.

  • Like 1
abcdefg

Posted

13 hours ago, StChris said:

I often think of this ad when at the gym. For many people, although they are physically at the gym for an hour, only 15 minutes of that is actually spent working out, with the other 45 minutes spent looking at their phones.

 

Isn't that the truth! Even worse when they lounge around on a busy machine while updating their Facebook page or WeChat message center wall or whatever. Then they smile and snap a couple of narcissistic selfies, do two or three fast reps with light weights and move on to the next station. 

 

 

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imron

Posted

Quote

Being both a lover of the 四大名著 and a hater of smartphones, these humourous ads caught my attention enough for me to want to take a photo of each.

 

Taken with your hated smartphone? :mrgreen:

StChris

Posted

10 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Isn't that the truth! Even worse when they lounge around on a busy machine while updating their Facebook page or WeChat message center wall or whatever. Then they smile and snap a couple of narcissistic selfies, do two or three fast reps with light weights and move on to the next station. 

 

Thankfully, there are at least half a dozen lads at my gym who are pretty seriously into working out, so they help stop the standards from dropping too low. While I'm on a rant about mobile phone usage, I might as well add another common situation: students "studying" at the coffee shop. All the books and pens are all laid out on the table, so it certainly looks like there's some serious studying going on, but when you look a little closer you'll notice that on top of the book/notepad is the ubiquitous smartphone. Like the gym, it's probably a 75/25 phone/"doing what you actually intended to do" time split.

StChris

Posted

10 hours ago, imron said:

 

Taken with your hated smartphone? :mrgreen:

 

Actually, I'll have you know that I took it with my 35mm camera, scanned it onto my computer and then...ok, you got me ?. I'm pretty good when it comes to not wasting time on my phone (the kind of "wasting time" you regret afterwards, not the John Lennon "wasting time doing something you love isn't time wasted" type).It's almost always on silent and normally sits unnoticed on the table by the door when I'm at home, which can admittedly cause problems with Chinese acquaintances (how tend to assume you're dead and go into panic mode if you don't reply within a couple of hours).

 

News and Youtube (using my laptop) has traditionally been my poison (the former has been largely dealt with, but the later is still an issue...)

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