Wen/Zhang Guoqing is a young scholar at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a well-known expert on international issues of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an expert on media discourse, and a columnist of Fortune Times magazine.
Figure/Photo Network, the figure has nothing to do with the content
Social psychologists have brilliantly argued about cultural infiltration and value export, "Infatuation drives us spiritually." We all like people to say how right we are (some experts on radio and television make a lot of money by flattering listeners or viewers)... For example, many late-night disputes at bars are due to someone trying to get someone to see the world in the same light as him. Conflicts between states are not just about territorial, wealth and interests, but are often aimed at forcing each other to see the world through their own eyes. Some conflicts between countries are entrenched because both sides want each other to accept their own views of history. ”
If a country is always wishful thinking and demands that other countries accept their culture and values, there will be endless disputes, contradictions and conflicts, especially in the face of those with strong national pride and self-confidence.
In fact, many conflicts that occur on the Internet, especially in social media, also have the problem of "trying to make others see the world in the same way as him", which is what Confucian culture repeatedly emphasizes, and do not do to others what you do not want.
I. Cultural infiltration and cultural imperialism
In recent years, the changes in the perception of China in the US media and public opinion are ostensibly inseparable from China's competition in various fields, but in fact, they are also the product of long-term ideological exports to China, which are closely related to the infiltration and counter-infiltration from "cultural imperialism"
Many commentators have argued that "the dissolution of the Warsaw Organization and the collapse of the Soviet Union are related to the continued infiltration of information from the Western world into the theme of 'democracy', all through electronic dissemination." That is to say, the long-term infiltration of the Western world into warsaw and the Soviet Union played a key role in the eventual "wall-pushing" operation, in which electronic communication played an important role. Today, with the development of the Internet, the penetration of the Western world is more powerful, the penetration is more comprehensive, the effect is more obvious, and the power that can be mobilized is also greater.
As the French scholar Mr. Gabriel Tard said, faith is the shaping force of society; conversely, if it can destroy the beliefs of a society, a people, a country, it can weaken or even disintegrate it to a considerable extent. That is to say, if we can carry out ideological infiltration through the Internet (social media) for a long time, gradually weaken a nation's traditional culture, moral beliefs and language beliefs, and suppress and erode people's beliefs in the government's ruling and judicial beliefs and political beliefs in the future of national development through attacks and smears of various types of individual cases, it can completely play a role in subverting a political regime and disrupting a country, at least, to a certain extent, it can delay or even prevent the rise of a country.
The long-term dissemination of negative information is a very effective way of cultural penetration. "All interlocutors carry a living space full of information, with a wealth of experience stored into the communication relationship, to explain the signals they get and decide how to respond." Then, if more and more communicators are carrying or even full of negative energy, negative information (many of which are the result of infiltration) into the communication relationship, then these people will not only be full of obsession to explain reality, but also will affect each other, so that the entire Internet, especially the emerging media, the social platform is full of all kinds of negative news and fake news, its ecological environment is very unpleasant, and it will inevitably have a negative impact on social life and social development.
Experiments have shown that "if it happens gradually rather than suddenly, we are more likely to accept cheating from others." That is, the most effective penetration is gradual. In this way, even if it is mixed with malice and lies, it is more easily accepted by people, and gradually believe that those are facts, that is, the truth, and are likely to become "network consensus". Just as you come up and say that a person has committed a terrible sin, it is very difficult for people to accept it, unless he has committed a heinous crime; but if you say every day that the person has some bad things, three points true and seven points false, and you have not encountered a strong rebuttal, it will not be long before the negative and even evil image of the person will be solidified, and in the eyes of people, he will not be far from the great evil of sin. Similarly, smearing the image of a government, lowering the moral standards of a nation, and weakening a country's self-confidence can also be used to "peaceful evolution" in this way. This actually coincides with the "peaceful evolution" plan of the United States more than half a century ago.
In this regard, American scholars also believe that the United States has "rich experience" in cultural infiltration and ideological struggle, and its "nationalistic and capitalist image of the United States has been enhanced by blatantly denying the image of socialist countries and peoples." Its typical strategy is to create or promote a favorable feeling for the United States by directing viewers to ridicule the incompetence of other vilified ethnic cultures (or races). In the 1980s, Russia (then the Soviet Union) was a frequent target of ridicule by the United States. In the Internet age, this method of the United States is still pure fire, hiring watermen and overseas "iron fans" on the Internet, especially on social media, to carry out long-term all-round ridicule and attack on target countries such as Russia, so as to achieve the role of demonization, and strive to make the people's minds of the target countries shake and chaos through this special cultural infiltration and cultural struggle, and weaken their national cohesion.
Successful cultural penetration is necessary to maintain international hegemony. In fact, social identity can be a long-term more effective means of control than coercion and violence. Because for hegemony to work, people must believe in their institutions and dominant culture. It also helps us understand why the United States should persist in cultural infiltration in order to maintain international hegemony, because strengthening the rationality of American hegemony, and even this social recognition that is beneficial to the world, is a very low-cost way to maintain hegemony.
In the same way as demonizing opponents, strengthening people's recognition and acceptance of their hegemony is conducive to the maintenance of hegemony. This, in the Internet age, is more "colorful" and well-intentioned.
Second, as an output of a cultural system
As a cultural system, capitalism also spares no effort in terms of ideological output. "The core part of an ideology is the basic propositions about the world and justice, and the judgment of these basic propositions makes those who accept the ideology convinced that their own knowledge is absolutely correct." It is precisely for this reason that some countries with strong ideological colors are firmly convinced that their understanding is absolutely correct and that their so-called so-called is just and humane, so they are unswerving and full of confidence in their external exports.
This cultural system also exerts great tangible or invisible pressure on the forces that oppose them. "Any newspaper that is more or less inconsistent with the country's culture is in danger of a serious decline in circulation. As happened to the Daily Mirror, when they objected to the U.S. government's invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it led to an instant collapse in sales. They had to quickly change their own code of ethics to win back some readers. "Because, when the Iraq War broke out in March 2003, the cultural systems of the United States, Britain, and other countries were pro-war, and any opposition to them would be marginalized." This "feature" still exists in the Internet age, especially in the social media era.
From an ideological point of view, "commercials, news, entertainment programs, and movies may seem trivial, but when they circulate in social interactions, they all exert ideological influence." John Thompson calls this the "rambling interpretation" of ideology. Since ideological information is transmitted from one person to another, from one medium to another, the ideas it contains are modified, reinforced, and expanded. Intriguingly, in the age of social media, the "rambling interpretation" of this ideology is more casual (and more acceptable), more durable (because of the low cost of dissemination), and more diffusive (faster and more refreshed) because of its greater impact. In other words, if the main body of communication is planned and has long-term investment in the spread of ideology, then the effect will be far greater than the dissemination and penetration of traditional media. And it is less likely to prevent and dilute.
In fact, long-term negative communication is somewhat "brainwashing". Unlike the traditional emphasis on the "fluidity" of communication, we today "better see the message of communication as a catalyst, which has little power in itself, but it can exert a great deal of power in the recipient of the message." "If, over time, some planned and carefully disguised infiltrative messages are repeatedly disseminated, and cleverly stimulate people's sense of excitement and catalyze people's dissatisfaction with the status quo, especially the government, over time, a strong anti-government and anti-social undercurrent will be formed, which will become an obstructive force when the government is strong, and a force that pushes the wall when the government is weak."
Third, the sublime beauty and cultural infiltration
The sublime beauty on the Internet is also the result of cultural penetration. For the long-term and persistent foreign cultural infiltration of the United States, German scholars lamented with concern: "Most of my contemporaries have fully accepted the positive phenomena of the United States when they have reached adulthood. We've been Americanized, and we're probably proud of that role. 'Americanization' is considered something positive, worthy of fervent pursuit, something to show off. This is even more pronounced in developing countries like China.
Under the long-term infiltration of the American concept and American manufacturing, supplemented by the wide and high-speed dissemination of social media and the conscious guidance, many people have unconsciously accepted the positive image of the United States, and the United States is packaged as a free, democratic, prosperous, green, livable, and opportunity-filled country. As a "contrast", China was once smeared as a place where people are backward, negative or even not treated, and many netizens have no morality and no mercy in disgusting their motherland, but whoever says that the United States is not good will often be insulted and besieged. This long,systematic cultural penetration by the United States into China and many other countries appears to have been fruitful.
Traditional culture will still play a role after all. Unless generations are fully infiltrated and brainwashed, thousands of years of cultural accumulation will still make people correctly view the information and ideas they come into contact with on the Internet. In fact, "the people on the receiving end are not passively accepting, allowing others to pack in new content and replace old ones." In fact, they are also actively interpreting and tampering with these new contents. They will resist... This helps explain what selective diffusion is, a concept used to refute cultural imperialism. In short, people will use historical experience to interpret some things, while traditional culture helps people to calm down, and in the struggle between infiltration and counter-infiltration, the people will gradually mature, selectively spreading to resist cultural imperialism, and responding to various doubts and cultural provocations in a way that is truly beneficial to the interests of the country and the nation.
Fourth, the international significance of reverse infiltration
Anti-infiltration is not just a matter of China's online discourse power. The Sri Lankan scholar Sushansa Gonnatirak pointedly pointed out that "there are two colonial institutions in the guise of missionary work lurking in the shadows." One is our nemesis: the church. The second is a new hidden enemy: foreign-funded NGOs. "In his view, the role of NGOs in cultural infiltration cannot be underestimated." The new private sector, namely non-governmental organizations, is accountable only to itself and its donors. Foreign-owned NGOs have access to the resources that come with money, and local and foreign media campaigns often marginalize genuine local motives. This has led to a new type of NGO colonialism, giving rise to a new non-independent class. They have become, in particular, a sinister force in the cultural, ideological and political spheres, almost traitors to foreign interests... How foreign NGOs have distorted the cultural reality of Sri Lanka, and I would venture to say, have distorted the academic and cultural scene in many third world countries. This problem is even more prominent in the Internet age, and many non-governmental organizations with foreign backgrounds or pro-American and pro-Japanese non-governmental organizations (including some charitable foundations) have played a worrying and even shameless role in cultural infiltration. What is happening in Sri Lanka, in Brazil, in Africa, in many countries is playing out in different ways (but the same examples), blocking the social development of some countries and contributing to the social divisions and upheavals in many countries.
But there are two sides to everything. Like offline, the Internet also has a double-edged sword function in terms of penetration. As Bernid Hamm put it, "America has invaded our brains and bodies, our language and our understanding of others and the world, our way of dressing and behaving." We all went through a thorough brainwashing. The dialectic here is astonishing. It is American values that have made me, and many others around the world, a thorough anti-American, including some Americans. The two-faced nation of the United States taught me to oppose The political and economic leadership of the United States. On the one hand, it is because of the truth that "too much is too late", which has been repeatedly expounded in traditional Chinese culture; on the other hand, it is because of globalization and the development of the Internet. Although the propaganda and infiltration of "Americanization" is still active, the development of the Internet, especially the emerging media, has made more and more truths in front of people, from the blind obedience of "America is all right" at the beginning, to the later questions, doubts and constant doubts, coupled with the subversive truth revealed by "WikiLeaks", so that people have a more and more comprehensive understanding of the real situation in the United States and its unscrupulous means in seeking global interests, and more and more people have begun to be vigilant against the infiltration attempts of the United States and the spokesperson of the United States in their own country Agents are vigilant, anti-Americans are increasing, and in recent years there has been a trend of acceleration. In this regard, the several unpopular wars launched by the United States after 9/11 and the series of "color revolutions" they planned played a catalytic role in "anti-beautification."
Fifth, the impact change worth mentioning
"The essence of influence is to get closer, not farther away." To a large extent, Sino-US relations are maintained by influence. As with personal relationships, the essence of a person's influence over others is that people want to get closer to him or her, not the other way around. In fact, the same is true of Sino-US relations, but in the Internet, especially in the era of social media, this kind of closer or farther away is very obvious. In this sense, people appreciate and respect each other, rather than quarrelling and being contemptuous, which is more beneficial to enhance interpersonal influence, because all efforts are to get closer, not to push farther. The same is true of international relations.
Trust is the cornerstone of maintaining influence. Prestige and integrity are key to enhancing and maintaining influence. "Believing another person's point of view may be due to that person's prestige, or because what he says seems to be justified or related to his own interests. It is clear that prestige plays a huge role in all influences. The higher the prestige of the people who influence us in the group, the higher the degree of our alignment with them. If the person is very important, the more plausible the results he presents seem to be. ”
However, in the past few years, due to the many irresponsible words and deeds of the US media, academic elites and public opinion on China, the Chinese's sense of trust in the United States has shrunk significantly, and the influence of the United States in China has naturally decreased. This is worth playing and pondering.
Interestingly, all this is exactly equivalent to creating difficulties for the United States to infiltrate Chinese culture and export values, which may be unexpected by Americans.