Gather the light of the times and cultivate the flower of the spirit

Gather the light of the times and cultivate the flower of the spirit

-- Reflections on adhering to the people's nature of online literature and art

Zhe Hu (Postdoctoral Fellow in Art Theory, Northeastern University)

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in his 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 that originating from the people, serving the people and belonging to the people is the fundamental position of socialist literature and art, and it is also the driving force for the prosperity and development of socialist literature and art. The vast number of literary and art workers should adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, put the people in the highest position in their hearts, regard the people's satisfaction or dissatisfaction as the highest standard for testing art, create more outstanding works that meet the people's cultural needs and enhance the people's spiritual strength, and let the hundred gardens of literature and art bloom for the people forever. The general secretary's important exposition is of important guiding significance and far-reaching practical significance for us to correctly understand and profoundly grasp the people's nature of literature and art, especially the people's nature of online literature and art.

From the day of the emergence of China's new literature and art, the people's nature and its related issues have become one of the important topics in the narrative of China's new literature and art, and have run through the entire process of the history of the development of China's new literature and art, which is concentrated in the issues of who writes literature and art, who writes, what to write, and how to write. It can be said that the theoretical construction and practical practice of the people's nature and its related issues are one of the most distinctive characteristics of China's century-old new literature and art, and it is also the fundamental difference from Western literature and art.

The formulation and in-depth implementation of a series of the party's literary and artistic policies have made the people's nature of literature and art and its related issues clearer and clearer. On the whole, the people's nature of China's new literature and art is mainly embodied in five kinds of relations, namely, the relationship between the people's nature and China's nature, the relationship between the people's nature and the national nature, the relationship between the people's nature and the epochality, the relationship between the people's nature and the aesthetic nature, and the relationship between the people's nature and the spirituality. The above five relationships basically summarize the internal characteristics and external forms of the people's nature of China's new literature and art, and are applicable to the people's nature of judging online literature and art.

When Babe can't walk, she can maintain her balance on the skis. After the video of her first skiing became popular on the Internet, she attracted the attention of the director team of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and Bei Bei's cute image on the ski slope also appeared in the short film "Future Champions" of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The picture shows the video screen of "Future Champions". Profile picture

When explaining the people's nature of online literature and art, most researchers emphasize the openness, freedom and anonymity of online literature and art, so that new changes have taken place in the main body of literary and artistic creation, the content of literary and artistic creation, the aesthetic form of literature and art, and the public participation in literary and artistic creation. In other words, the problem of the people's nature of online literature and art is related to the unique characteristics of the Internet as a new literary and artistic communication medium and carrier. For example, the main body of online literature and art creation is no longer limited to professional literary and artistic workers, and ordinary netizens can also independently create literary and artistic works in cyberspace, so online literature and art are more popular than traditional literature and art. At the same time, the aesthetic forms and expression methods of online literature and art are also more diversified, and the wide application of Various new media such as WeChat, Weibo, and Short Videos provides the people with a literary and artistic narrative form with a low threshold and easy to operate. From this point of view, the Internet and new media have effectively strengthened the relationship between literary and artistic creation and the masses of the people. However, this still belongs to the external carrier and form of online literary and artistic creation, and the intrinsic attributes, essence and spiritual issues of the people's nature of online literature and art have still not been clearly explained.

Depict the spiritual trajectory of different individuals in the context of the new era

To expound the people's problem of online literature and art, the first thing to be solved is what is the "people". The people are not abstract symbols, but concrete people, flesh and blood, emotions, love and hate, dreams, and inner conflicts and struggles. It is necessary for contemporary literary and art workers to go deep into the spiritual world of the people, grasp the complexity and richness of human nature, and depict the spiritual trajectory of different individuals in the context of the new era. Therefore, online literature and art should focus their creative eyes on the masses of the people in the process of building a socialist modern power, from which they can perceive their rhythm with macro history, and feel the daily life and spiritual outlook of the people under the grand history.

Qi Orange, author of the online novel "Big Country Heavy Industry", believes that the focus of telling the history of China's modern industrial development should be on workers, factories and industries, of which shaping the typical image of Chinese workers is the top priority. Because the main body of China's modern industrial development history is workers, in the course of a hundred years of development, many workers' brothers who dare to struggle, dare to take responsibility, and are good at pioneering have emerged, and they are the source of literary creation on industrial themes. In addition, "workers" are not only a single, specific character image, but also a group of portraits around workers, front-line workers, technicians, managers are directly related to "workers", they are a community of destiny in China's modern industrial development, and are the people who participate, promote and witness the miracle of China's industrial development. Only by creating a vivid and typical worker image can we tell a good story about the development of Modern Industry in China.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, online literary and artistic works with ordinary people's participation in ice and snow sports as the main content have attracted wide attention. People all over the country, inspired by the fighting spirit of ice and snow athletes on the field, have "electrocuted" ice and snow sports, based on climatic conditions, to create various possibilities, to appreciate the pleasure and fun brought by ice and snow sports. The solemn promise of "bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports" is achieved through the specific actions of specific people. Online literature and art have played their own "strengths" and recorded all this, so that the world can understand the enthusiasm and confidence of ordinary Chinese people to participate in ice and snow sports.

On February 25, the China Internet Network Information Center released a report showing that as of December 2021, the number of mainland Internet users reached 1.032 billion, an increase of 42.96 million over December 2020. More and more Chinese carry out literary and artistic life and enjoy spiritual food in the online world. Online literary and artistic creation should take the people as the narrative focus, let the people become the protagonists of literature and art, and convey the Chinese's interest in life, life aspirations, emotional worlds and life experiences. This is the fundamental principle and the direction of development.

It not only continues the traditional context but also pays attention to the current reality

One of the important functions of online literature and art is to carry forward and disseminate the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and continue the traditional context. For example, Li Ziqi's short videos with the theme of expressing Chinese idyllic and poetic culture have caused a sensational effect around the world, which has widely recognized the chinese nation's "unity of heaven and man" philosophy of life and life aesthetics. For another example, the film and television drama of the same name adapted from the online novel "Qing Yu Nian" once became a hot topic. The costumes, makeup, utensils used, places of residence and daily life situations of the characters show the characteristics of traditional Chinese aesthetics. The characters' pursuit of fairness and justice, their indomitable courage, and their faith in loyal love all fully demonstrate the leading role played by traditional Chinese virtues in building a social spirit upward trend.

In addition to carrying forward the spirit of tradition, it is also necessary to point to the current reality. Paying attention to the rapidly changing social life and practical problems of the current era is also an important mission of online literary and artistic creation. In particular, the earth-shaking changes that have taken place in Chinese society since the reform and opening up have become the focus of online literature and art. This change sinks into the daily life of the individual and is manifested as a new change in the micro level of the individual in the family, career, love and so on, which contains the people's personal experience and sincere feelings.

For example, the TV series "Great Rivers and Great Rivers", adapted from an online novel, tells the magnificent history of reform and opening up, closely combines the life experience of ordinary people with the process of reform and opening up, and shows the actions of college students, farmers, self-employed individuals, intellectuals and entrepreneurs in the tide of the times. A generation that grew up with the reform and opening up found its own figure in the play, which caused collective emotional resonance. At the same time, contemporary young people can also understand the hardships and twists and turns of reform and opening up, as well as the far-reaching impact on the production, life and spirit of Chinese.

Presentness also points to a series of social hotspot issues. For example, the online novel "Medical Line Vitality" takes the doctor-patient relationship as the theme, objectively analyzes the complex reasons for the tension between doctors and patients, so that readers can find tolerance and warmth between people; "Caiyun Shimmer" tells the growth story of left-behind children, paying special attention to the realistic logic behind their behavior of feeding their hometowns when they grow up; "Special Returnees" and "Ladders" and other works present the hard work of governments at all levels and rural cadres to overcome poverty and revitalize rural areas. It fully shows the ruling concept of the Party Central Committee that cares about the people. The attention of online literature and art to current social issues conforms to the expectations of the people, reflecting the feelings and responsibilities of being grounded and warm.

Take into account both aesthetic character and spiritual energy

What form of literature and art should be used to appropriately and appropriately express the needs and feelings of the people is an issue that China's new literature and art has always been thinking about and exploring. Under the party's call and guidance, the vast number of literary and art workers have gone deep among the masses of the people to study the literary and artistic forms that the masses of the people like to hear, and the forms of folk songs and arts such as cross-talk, allegro, and yangge, as well as language styles that are easily accepted by the masses of the people, such as daily vernacular and colloquialism, have come to the forefront. One of the important characteristics of online literature and art is the folk nature, and ordinary people express the real life they are familiar with in the form of literature and art that they are good at. However, this also brings about the problem of some shoddy literary and artistic forms, lack of aesthetics, and even some vulgar literary and artistic forms are popular in the online world. This requires us to carefully identify, strengthen supervision and fair criticism, and when emphasizing the people's and aesthetic relationship of online literature and art, the focus should be on the effective integration of the people's favorite art forms and aesthetic experiences.

For some time, some online literary and artistic works have won attention with content such as hunting curiosity and vulgarity, indulging in deformed aesthetics, reveling in vulgar tastes, keen on "rice circle culture", and promoting negative values such as unearned gain, blind comparison, and pursuit of fame and profit. This kind of behavior of "running off the road" and "taking the wrong path" is not conducive to the creation of a clear cyberspace, nor is it conducive to the construction of a healthy literary and artistic ecology, and it is contrary to the expectations of the people and the wishes of society, and has been universally resisted and resolutely spurned. After the vigorous development and heavy blows of the comprehensive rectification action of the cultural and entertainment industry, the atmosphere in the field of online literature and art has been significantly improved. The people's nature of online literature and art means that it is necessary to convey correct and scientific ideas and concepts, and to convey spiritual energy that meets the requirements of the core values of socialism.

On the whole, people's nature is the fundamental issue of online literature and art, and only by properly handling the relationship between online literature and art with China's nature, nationality, epochality, aestheticity and spirituality can network literature and art achieve healthy development, radiate endless vitality, and have a broad future. This requires network literary and art workers to always maintain a strong sense of home and country, take the pulse of what the people think, understand the people's needs and feelings, follow the law of network communication, innovate the path of literary and artistic expression, explore aesthetic methods that meet the needs of the people and the characteristics of the times, not only gather the light of the times, but also cultivate the flowers of the spirit, and strive to tell the Chinese story of the new era in the vast cyberspace.

(This paper is a major project of the National Social Science Foundation of China "Collation and Research of Historical Materials of The Literature and Ideology of the Communist Party of China [1921-1949]" [21&ZD255])

Guangming Daily ( 2022-03-19 09 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily