Thursday, September 22, 2005

Symbolic Immortality...

is something that I've learnt in class today...

It basically means a person leaving something that is representative of him/herself behind after they pass on, such that the item that is left behind symbolises his/her presence even when they are no longer alive.

In an even simplier explanation, an example of symbolic immortality is somewhat similar to the chinese tradition of procreation and carrying on the 'family name'. So when you hear someone say, "You are like an exact print out version of your mom... You look like her when she was young." That's some form of symbolic immortality...

Who would have thought of it as a form of immortality? At least not me, maybe I'm naive. I've never thought of leaving something behind that is significant to the person who was once alive as an alternative for attaining immortality.

We've heard crazy stories about people who try to live forever and the extent they go with bizzare experiments on people. The first person that came to my mind when I think about immortality is Qin Shi Huang, Emperor of Qin Dynasty. His world was coloured with conquests and domination, each time he conquer something, he want more. He feels that life's too short, he won't be able to unify China before he die.

So he went on a search for the 'eternal pill', which can let him live forever. If my information is correct, he was later found to have consumed pills which has lead content. What was suppose to let him live longer, backfired.

However, it is not true to say that Emperor Qin has left the surface of earth, because he has left behing many great artefacts which are priceless reminders of the late Emperor, e.g. The great wall of china.

Other than Qin Shi Huang, other people who we can relate to are people like, Deng Lijun, or even Zhang Guorong（张国荣） mainly because his departure came in a shock. Xiao Hei（小黑）... the Hong Kong stun man who flew his car across the yellow river (黄河). Other people like Vincent Van Gogh's contribution to the aesthetic world, Florence Nightingale for her self-less contributions to the less fortunate, etc...

So apart from great architectural remnants, paparazzi stuffs, songs, paintings, we as commoners (I should really use a more present day language...) can leave behind stuffs that are symbolic of us when we're alive too. Things that will invoke emotional rushes, for example, someone who collected stamps, after few years after his death, those stamps can be recovered from a hidden corner, "This is your dad's first stamp, he was only 10years old then..." It usually either brings a smile or tears to those who can relate to it (I know it's a bad example...).

Symbols of one's existences allows them to leave forever... thus gaining immortality through it... So when someone passed on, though we're never ever going to see them or hear them calling our names, we still live in these memories, which we're constantly remind us of their presence. It's never easy coming to terms with 'death', as that the only thing that separates love ones and people in general. When someone leaves the country for a period of time, be it 10 or 20 years, once they are back, they're reunited. No doubt death marks the end of one's life, but the symbols allows one to live forever...

As I finish off, I do wonder, does the person who has pass on decided what is symbolic of themselves or is it defined by those who are still around...?

Sorry for the boring post... Just felt strongly towards the notion...

Posted by Piglet at 5:53 PM

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