CIN Province

Hope (in Chinese “希望”)

The chosen photo depicts wheat. In northern China, wheat is a common crop and an essential food for survival. Its growth cycle is rich in meaning: sown in autumn, it seems to die during the cold season, only to be reborn spontaneously in spring. Particularly significant is how, the thicker the snow covering it, the more lush the spring wheat will be. This plant withstands frost, defies the elements, and each spring reaffirms the hope of return.

Meaning of wheat:

1. Cultural roots

- Cultivated in the Yellow River Valley for more than 5,000 years, wheat is part of the DNA of Chinese civilization, as evidenced by the verse “They give us wheat and barley” from the Classic of Poems (Shijing)

- The northern peasant proverb “Three blankets of snow in winter, pillows of buns in the coming year” dialogues poetically with the description of the snow-growth relationship.

2. Poetics of resilience

The life cycle of wheat constructs a perfect metaphor for hope:

- Fall sowing: Laying down hope in the desert of the dying season (analogy with Hope as a theological virtue in Dante's Divine Comedy)

- Winter hibernation: Apparent death concealing accumulation of strength (reflects Daodejing Taoist wisdom: “In stillness, the return to the origin is accomplished”)

- Snowy oppression: Adversity becoming nourishment (echoes Nietzschean philosophy “That which does not kill me makes me stronger”)

- Rebirth in the golden tide: Concrete manifestation of hope.

3. Contemporary revelation

This image embodies:

- The essence of hope: Not illusory consolation, but a vital process of sowing, patience and transformation

- The dialectical value of suffering: Frozen difficulties as a spiritual breeding ground

- Fusion of Eastern cyclicality and Western hope: Integrates the Christian narrative of “resurrection from the dead” with the Taoist vision “Everything flourishes, I observe the return.”