Learn the methodological significance of "telling the Chinese story well" in the exchange of human civilizations |

"Telling the Chinese Story Well"

Methodological significance in the exchange of human civilizations

General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the opening ceremony of the Eleventh National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Tenth National Congress of the China Writers Association (hereinafter referred to as the speech) has pointed out the direction for the vast number of cultural and artistic workers to more consciously play the role of the "clarion call" of literature and art at a new starting point and a new journey. On the basis of comprehensively and profoundly summing up the achievements and experiences in the mainland's cultural and literary and artistic fields, this important speech conducted an in-depth analysis of the essence, function, and significance of culture and literature and art, further clarified the important position of culture and literature and art in the development of the cause of the party and the state, and highlighted the mission, cultural consciousness, and historical initiative of cultural and artistic workers. It is of great guiding significance for comprehensively promoting the prosperity and development of socialist culture and literature with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Among them, the new exposition on "telling the Chinese story well" especially reflects the methodological value in the field of human civilization exchanges.

"Telling the Chinese story well" is an important concept repeatedly emphasized by General Secretary Xi Jinping since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and it is also the unshirkable mission of literary and art workers. In the past decade, this concept has attracted more and more attention from all walks of life, and has become a common expression of the exchange actions and communication methods in various fields of society and culture between regions or countries. Based on the feeling of "under the heavens" from the perspective of internationalism, the speech pointed out the important role of "telling the Chinese story well" in enhancing national self-confidence and disseminating Chinese voice and Chinese values, but also profoundly explained the consciousness of all mankind and the care of the world contained in it, and revealed its richer and more diverse significance in the exchange of international civilizations. This will not only help expand the vision and mind of literary and art workers, encourage everyone to not only care for the motherland and the nation, but also care for the world and mankind, and enhance the conscious awareness of building a community with a shared future for mankind, but also, combined with the theoretical perspective of folk literature research, it will inevitably provide a new mode of communication for the international community facing various challenges.

According to the theory of folk literature research, storytelling belongs to the comprehensive human cultural exchange activity, which contains at least five elements: who speaks, what to say, to whom, why, and how to tell. For cultural and artistic workers, in order to tell the Chinese story well, we must solve these five problems.

First of all, who is talking about the problem is actually a question related to the sovereignty of discourse, and it is also a problem closely related to cultural self-confidence: only by strengthening cultural self-confidence can we tell the Chinese story well; telling the Chinese story well will inevitably help strengthen our cultural self-confidence.

For a long time in the past, in the process of world cultural exchanges, the parties that occupied the sovereignty of discourse, especially the theories and methods that had a wide influence and dominated the field of culture and literature and art, mostly came from western academic circles, and Chinese cultural circles and academia were often in the position of passively accepting listeners. In the words of the late mr. Zhong Jingwen, a famous folklorist, many of our disciplines have long been in a state of "red grid" for Western theory, and have less of their own theoretical innovations. This makes China's various cultural contents and related achievements, only through the help of Western spokespersons, or at least through the form of Western discourse to express, can be disseminated and recognized to a certain extent in the forest of world culture and scholarship. The reason for the emergence and existence of this phenomenon has a lot to do with the lack or inadequacy of national cultural self-confidence, and it has also aroused more and more attention and reflection from the academic circles and all sectors of society on the mainland. In the past two decades, especially since the new era, with the rapid rise of China's comprehensive national strength, with the continuous enhancement of national cultural consciousness and cultural self-confidence, the timely proposal of General Secretary Xi Jinping's concept of "telling the Chinese story well" has largely met the increasing common aspirations and goals of all sectors of Chinese society, and has played a prominent guiding role in breaking through the previous discourse hegemony in the international academic field or hidden or present in the context of the world's multicultural exchanges and integration, and actively building a pattern of equal exchanges between multiple subjects.

It should be pointed out that this form of communication based on the "storytelling" communication mechanism is not to simply replace the discourse dominance in the past discourse hegemony pattern, but to break the "teacher"-style dialogue mode in the previous Western-dominated communication framework, and promote the construction of a new type of human communication mechanism while promoting the subjectivity of the nation or group that was in a weak position in the past. The methodological guidance contained in this is self-evident.

Second, what to say. Discovering valuable content and telling it is a prerequisite for telling a good story. So, what is a valuable "story"? The speech clearly pointed out that it is necessary to "tell the Chinese story well with affection" and "show the world a credible, lovely and respectable image of China." This "credible, lovely, and respectable image of China" constitutes the main content of the story. Specifically, this image comes from the outstanding traditional Chinese culture, from the creative transformation and innovative development of china's excellent traditional culture under the party's overall leadership, and from the century-long history of the indomitable struggle of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. These contents and the academic achievements formed around these contents, especially the theories, methods and concepts that can stand the test, constitute the basic materials and experiences that cultural and artistic workers need to pay attention to when telling Chinese stories well.

But at the same time, this kind of material must also be consciously screened and processed by the narrator according to the interests and demands of the audience, in order to finally become a good "story", in order to have the power to attract and move people. The criteria for processing and screening mainly include two aspects: First, we must firmly grasp the main line centered on the people, take root in the fertile soil of the times, and strive to discover and display the people's vivid creativity and fighting spirit with the spirit of integrity and innovation, sing songs for the people, and cast the soul for the times. The second is to always maintain a world vision, a "world" mind, and consciously refer to the internationally recognized values and aesthetics to choose and tell our stories. The latter requirement is particularly crucial for telling the Chinese story well. The speech pointed out that Chinese has always had a profound sense of the world, and contemporary Chinese literature and art should set their sights on the world and to mankind. That is to say, the telling of Chinese stories can only be carried out with the history of China's five-thousand-year civilization and the turbulent world pattern as the basic reference, with a broad historical comparison and international comparative vision, and containing thick and far-reaching universal values, can it have the charm of attracting international audiences. This kind of summary based on the big historical view and conscious comparison especially reflects the important methodological significance for the cultural and literary undertakings.

Third, to whom is the Chinese story to be told? Naturally, it is to speak to countries in the world outside China, and the reason why the "cultural others" of other countries can become the audience of our storytelling is inseparable from the tolerant and broad mind of the narrator. Since its birth, the Communist Party of China has always had a broad vision of the world and the broad spirit of "Internacionale". This is not only the inheritance of China's traditional view of the world, but also includes a broader and richer expansion, and behind it is a firmer cultural self-confidence. Specifically, it is actually to use a broad cultural comparative perspective to understand oneself and others more deeply and comprehensively, and to further adjust and enhance oneself in the exchanges and interactions with others, so as to achieve a community of human destiny of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence through mutual reference and mutual promotion. It is precisely under this line of thinking that the mainland has become increasingly active in international exchange activities in recent years. On the one hand, we actively participate in and promote various existing international cultural activities such as the protection of intangible cultural heritage, on the other hand, we strive to actively contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to improve the international situation, and advocate the launch of new international undertakings such as the "Belt and Road" construction. Concrete actions to tell China's story well complement the goal of strengthening cultural self-confidence, and have achieved outstanding results.

Fourth, why tell the Chinese story well? As mentioned above, spreading China's voice in the world and enhancing China's national cultural soft power and Chinese cultural influence is of course an important purpose, but this is not the ultimate goal. For the current world, telling the Chinese story well is actually not only a simple cultural dissemination action, but also an important initiative with methodological significance. Its significance lies in the ability to find new solutions for the international community at a time of new challenges, and to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind by promoting mutual learning among human civilizations.

The last and most important point is how to tell the Chinese story well.

The theory of the study of storytelling activities in the discipline of folk literature believes that storytelling is a communication activity in which the narrator and the listener actively interact, in the process of communication, there is a difference between the speaker and the listener on the one hand, and on the other hand, the narrator is also the listener, and must always pay attention to the feedback of the listener and adjust their telling strategies and telling methods according to their immediate reactions at the exchange site to ensure the smooth progress of the exchange. At the same time, the listener can also participate in and influence the process of communication through various forms, such as expressions, body language, or direct verbal expressions, and even by refusing to listen to interrupt communication. That is to say, storytelling is not a monologue, but a chorus. All parties involved in storytelling activities are on an equal footing in the exchange, and for the narrators who occupy a relatively dominant position in the communication process, special attention should be paid to accepting the suggestions and opinions of the audience. This may be the deep meaning of General Secretary Xi Jinping's image expression of "telling the Chinese story well" to summarize the mainland's international exchange ideas and specific strategies - that is, to break the discourse hegemony established by powerful countries and build a new international order of resonance and equal exchanges. This is also the theoretical and method growth point that needs to be explored by practitioners and researchers in the field of culture and literature. For the vast number of cultural and artistic workers, how to help the storytellers who occupy the relatively dominant power of discourse, more consciously adjust the narrative strategy, promote exchanges with an attitude of inclusiveness and equal dialogue and an infectious way of telling, and use this as a basis to promote mutual learning among human civilizations, and then promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, which is the most worthy of our deep thinking, and it is also a place where we need to contribute specific plans.

In short, exchange in the form of storytelling is a process of mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual communication, mutual recognition and mutual reference under the positive and equal exchange position. The concept of telling the Chinese story well on the standpoint of firm cultural self-confidence is not only conducive to enhancing the international influence of Chinese culture, but also helps us to better promote the prosperity and development of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, promote the construction of the discipline system, academic system and discourse system of culture and literary and artistic research, and is particularly important to help the international community get rid of the various communication dilemmas facing the world at present, especially between different countries due to economic and literary and artistic research. The imbalance of rights in exchanges and dialogue relations caused by the inequality of objective forces such as the military provides a completely new communication mechanism and solution ideas, which has great methodological enlightenment significance.

(The author is Vice Chairman of the Chinese Association of Nationalities and Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

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China Literature and Art Network New Media

The author | Andremin

Source | China Art Daily