Fifty-Six Ethnic Groups or Fifty-Six Constellations？ Who Tampered with Collective Memory？

　　Remember the song "Love My China" that we all know and love? I’m sure both kids and adults can hum a few lines. But here’s a fun fact: many of us have been singing the first line wrong for years! Instead of "Fifty-six ethnic groups, fifty-six flowers," we’ve been singing "Fifty-six constellations, fifty-six flowers" in music videos and during the Spring Festival Gala.

　　If you’re like me, you can’t help but wonder – did all our memories get tampered with? Are we living in a world where timelines intersect, with parallel universes out there? Or did we all just ‘imagine’ that "fifty-six ethnic groups" part?

　　This kind of scenario is something many of us have encountered in one way or another. You might be wondering, is this a bad thing?

　　Quite the opposite. Studies by scientists in the field of human perception and cognition suggest that memory lapses might actually be an optimal way for our cognitive system to function.

　　Take the tragic events of 9/11, for instance. Even though more than two decades have passed, the sorrow hasn’t entirely faded. A study published in the "Experimental Psychology" journal showed that as many as 40% of Americans remember their experiences on September 11, 2001, incorrectly.

　　In real life, our psychological behavior is often constrained. It’s not always possible to perceive or cognize optimally. The key is, without these constraints, our perception might not be any better; and with them, our cognition is not necessarily subpar. This method of ‘restricted optimization’ is sometimes referred to as ‘resource rationalization’.

　　Imagine your memory as a message you’re sending to your future self. But the ‘channel’ has limited capacity, so it can’t transmit all the details. That’s why the information you retrieve later might be different from what was originally input.

　　This is essentially why memory lapses happen. If your memory storage is limited and can’t maintain all the details of a stored item, it’s best to keep the most valuable information.

　　Our brain is like a filing cabinet drawer; it can only hold so much. Researchers have found that people tend to remember details related to the task at hand and forget the irrelevant ones.

　　Moreover, we often remember the main idea of a project and forget the specifics. When a meeting only provides a general outline without detailed content, our minds tend to fill in the gaps with general knowledge.

　　Considering the plethora of details in our daily lives, memory lapses (not complete memory blanks) are inevitable. In fact, we should see them as ‘beautiful mistakes’. They show that our memory is working hard and efficiently within its constraints. Not only is this not a bad thing, it’s actually a remarkable demonstration of our brain’s efficiency.

　　So, this explains why we get the lyrics wrong. Our brain fills in the missing details with the most common attributes. Maybe deep down, our inherent impression is "fifty-six ethnic groups" instead of "constellations," so we naturally sing it wrong. Even if we hear "constellations," we automatically ‘correct’ it to "ethnic groups" in our minds because it’s so ingrained. Isn’t that a fascinating thing?

　　Anyway, whether it’s constellations or ethnic groups, the point is to love China. There’s no need to dwell on this trivial matter.

　　The images in this article are from: Stock Photo Website.

　　Dr. Zhiping Zhou, a medical doctor and associate chief physician in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Ruijin Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, is also the executive director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Wuxi Branch of Ruijin Hospital. He serves as the academic secretary of the Ruijin Branch of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, a member of the Committee of Pulmonary Tumors of the Chinese Medical Education Association, a member of the Youth Collaborative Group of the Lung Cancer Group of the Chinese Thoracic Society, an editor of the Prevention Common Sense Column of the Chinese Asthma Alliance Website, a member of the Fifth National Council of the Chinese Association for Tobacco Control, a member of the Interventional Medicine Group of the Shanghai Thoracic Society, a member of the Oncology Endoscopy Branch of the Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association, a youth member of the Seventh Committee of Respiratory Diseases of the Shanghai Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Society, a youth member of the Shanghai Medical Society of Science popularization professional committee, the chief medical expert of the Shanghai Physician Volunteer Alliance, a member of the Third Youth Federation of Huangpu District, Shanghai, and the director of the Tobacco Control Group of the Health Education Committee of the Shanghai Science Popularization Writers Association.