【Paper Sharing】Zheng Zheng: Chinese cultural images and cultural symbols facing the 21st century

Chinese cultural images and cultural symbols facing the 21st century

-- Theoretical thinking on building a socialist cultural power

Author | Zheng Zheng

One

Cultural symbols and cultural self-awareness

Spiritual culture is expressed in terms of symbols... Da's. The creativity, advanced nature and particularity of culture must ultimately be transformed into the form of symbols, so that they can be preserved, understood, disseminated and developed. Culture has both material and spiritual attributes. The main content of spiritual culture is symbols, rules and concepts. Symbols are highly condensed cultural representations. Cassirer argues: "Man is not so much a rational animal as a symbolic animal." It is the symbol that makes man's creativity get the greatest play, and the cultural forms of art, language, religion, philosophy, history, art, etc. can be produced; it is the symbol that makes man and animal in the same physical world, and can have the power to build his own world and build an 'ideal world'. "Spiritual culture is expressed in symbols.

The process of stereotyping a culture is also the process of gradually forming, shaping and shaping the characterization image of a culture. The representational image of culture is multifaceted, and scholars who study cultural models have proposed different classification criteria for cultural representations: Vico believes that the 12 gods of ancient Greece actually symbolize the 12 stages of human social development in the ancient period; Spengler distinguishes world culture into 8 types such as Western culture (Christian culture), Chinese culture (Confucian culture), Arab culture (Islamic culture), and Indian culture (Hinduism) according to cultural representations such as religion Toynbee distinguished cultures into 26 types according to the way culture responded to environmental challenges; Benedict distinguished cultures into the Sun God (Apollo) model and dionysus (Dionysus) model according to the differences in national cultural psychology; Margaret Mead distinguished cultures into pre-symbolic cultures, mutual symbolic cultures and post-symbolic cultures according to different ways of cultural transmission. These different cultural classifications all use the positioning method of cultural symbols and cultural symbols. In The Six, Rudolph Locker uses six people, Faust, Don Juan, Hamlet, Don Quixote, Medaldus and von Afteldingen, to represent 6 different paths of life, which are actually 6 different personality patterns within Western culture. These symbols eventually condensed into different cultural symbols, becoming special and exclusive signs of a certain cultural characteristic.

The typical representation of culture is cultural symbols. Cultural symbols are typical representations that have been formed through historical accumulation and are universally recognized. The formation of cultural symbols is a natural historical process. Culture is created by people's conscious behavior, but the rise and abstraction of a cultural phenomenon into a unique representation of culture is finally determined by a nation through conscious or unconscious continuous selection and elimination in the long-term historical development and change. In the West, Christianity was originally only a religion popular among the Jews, which was repeatedly brutally suppressed by the authorities of the Roman Empire. It was not until the Roman Empire issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD that the legitimacy of Christianity was finally recognized. Since then, Christianity has gradually developed into the main symbol and cultural symbol of Western culture. In China, Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period was not welcomed in the country of Lu, so he traveled around the world, ran into walls everywhere, and even suffered from Chen Cai, and could not even eat. It was only when Emperor Wu of han accepted Dong Zhongshu's proposal that he deposed the Hundred Schools and exalted Confucianism alone, and Confucianism gained dominance, eventually becoming a symbol of traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, the formation of cultural symbols is a process from unconscious to conscious. As Marx said: "History has done nothing ... It is not 'history' that creates all this, who possesses it and fights for it all, but man, the living man of reality. 'History' is not a special personality that uses man as a tool to achieve his own ends; history is nothing more than the activity of those who pursue their own ends. ”

Once a cultural symbol is formed, it first marks the formation of the core values of culture. Cultural symbols are representations of the spirit of culture. A cultural phenomenon is generally accepted as a symbolic feature, indicating that the things, people, events it represents and the spirit it embodies are universally recognized by people, thus producing group consistency. Hegel said that history is composed of two lines of longitude and latitude, "the first is the 'idea', the second is the human passion, and the two are intertwined into the longitude and latitude lines of world history." Cultural symbols are the most representative waves of many historical enthusiasms, and they reflect the historical characteristics of a nation behind it. Confucius was only one of the hundred families of the Sons of the Spring and Autumn Period, but his ideas were gradually recognized by posterity and rose to be representative and iconic. The family-oriented collectivism, ethical moralism, and affinity-oriented nationalism advocated by Confucius eventually became the spiritual pillar of the Chinese nation, universally recognized by traditional society, and also became the common psychological basis for the formation and development of the Chinese nation.

Secondly, the formation of cultural symbols contributes to the process of cultural self-awareness of the characteristics of culture itself, and is also an important symbol of cultural consciousness and cultural self-confidence. According to Cassirer, "Self-knowledge is the highest goal of philosophical inquiry—this seems to be universally recognized." In all the controversies between the various philosophical schools, this goal has never been changed and shaken: it has proved to be the Archimedean point, the firm and unshakable center of all currents of thought. "Cultural symbols are the symbolization of cultural consciousness. All cultural phenomena that are not symbolized are accidental, scattered, and representational, and cannot produce cultural consistency. The biggest difference between idolatry and religion is that there are too many idols, the relationship between idols is too chaotic, and there is a lack of consistency and logic between them. Cultural symbols are cultural symbols recognized by cultural groups and are the representation of common cultural consciousness. One can find one's real self and imaginary self in cultural symbols. Li Bai's romantic dashing, Du Fu's sadness and compassion, and Yue Fei's fierce ambition are not only the true portrayal of Chinese, but also our ideal pursuit. They did what we wanted to do, and we have done or will do what they have done. They are our image, and that's why we identify with them as representing us.

Third, the formation of cultural symbols contributes to the inheritance and dissemination of culture. Cultural symbols are condensed and abstracted results of people's activities that contribute to cultural inheritance. Education is the transmission of cultural symbols. Language, national flag and national emblem, heroes, mythological stories, Tang poetry and Song poetry, etiquette and morality, are all symbolic lives, and accepting all this also accepts Chinese culture. At the same time, the spread of culture is achieved through cultural symbols. Primitive peoples without writing lacked sufficient ability and means to symbolize culture, and they could also inherit culture through long-term ear and mouth. Exchanges and dissemination between different cultures must rise to the level of symbols in order to be fully realized. The Western world knows China through the products of silk, porcelain and tea, through the great wall, the Forbidden City, the Grand Canal, through the techniques of Peking Opera, Kung Fu, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and through the ideas of Confucius, Sun Yat-sen, and Mao Zedong. Chinese understanding the Western world, it is also achieved through the science and technology of foreign guns and cannons, through the art of film ballet, and through the ideas of napoleon and Washington. Non-symbolic culture requires life experience, and symbolic culture is easy to touch and bypass, expanding influence.

Two

The contradiction of the inheritance of Chinese cultural symbols

The Chinese nation has a long history and a splendid culture, and has never lacked cultural symbols. However, today's world is in a period of great development, great change and great adjustment, the world is multipolar and the economic globalization is developing in depth, the traditional structure of a single national culture has been broken, cultural development has entered an era of diversified coexistence and competition, and various ideological and cultural exchanges have become more frequent. The reality we are facing is that contemporary Chinese culture is no longer a monolith, but a contradiction of the interaction, collision and conflict of four cultures. This contradiction is composed of four major plates: ancient traditional culture, modern revolutionary culture, foreign culture, and new culture. Ancient traditional culture mainly affects people's daily life, living customs, cultural psychology and ideology, especially in the moral field; modern revolutionary culture mainly affects the field of political life and ideology; foreign culture penetrates in various fields, especially in daily life, science and technology, economic field and cultural field, and the new culture is mainly manifested in scientific and technological culture, information culture and mass culture. There are intricate contradictions between traditional culture and revolutionary culture, between traditional culture, revolutionary culture and foreign culture, and newborn culture.

These contradictions are also reflected in the identification and choice of Chinese cultural symbols. According to the Internet, recently, the US "Newsweek" selected the 12 most influential cultural countries in the world since the 21st century and the 20 major image symbols of the culture of these 12 countries according to the votes of netizens in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. Among the 20 cultural symbols selected by Newsweek in the United States, Hollywood, McDonald's, NBA, Coca-Cola, Hilton, Disney, Silicon Valley, Superman, Starbucks, Walmart and other 10 belong to the emergence or influence of the 20th century; among the 20 cultural symbols of British culture, 6 belong to the Appearance or Influence of the Beatles, Rolls-Royce, Harry Potter, Churchill, BBC, Beckham; among the 20 cultural symbols of Japanese culture, Sony, Issey Miyake, Three of the Shinkansen cultures belong to the 20th century; among the 20 cultural symbols of Russian culture, Lenin, Stalin, the quiet Don River, and Gagarin belong to the 20th century; among the 20 cultural symbols of Korean culture, Suwon Hwaseong, Samsung, LG,and Sakih (SK) belong to the 20th century. In this survey, Chinese culture ranks second in the world. Among them, "Confucius, Chinese, Forbidden City, Great Wall, Suzhou Garden, Taoism, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Terracotta Warriors, Mogao Grottoes, Tang Empire, Silk, Porcelain, Peking Opera, Shaolin Temple, Kung Fu, Journey to the West, Temple of Heaven, Chairman Mao, Acupuncture, Chinese Cuisine" are the 20 cultural symbols representing China. Except for Chairman Mao Zedong, the other 19 items belong to traditional culture. South Korea's "Asian Economy" published an article titled "China Needs Iconic Cultural Symbols" on February 6, saying that the song "Uncle Bird" "Gangnam Style" became popular all over the world in 2012, helping South Korea's national brand ranking rise by 2 places year-on-year and become a Korean cultural symbol. But cultural symbols that represent China, such as "Confucius" and "porcelain," are somewhat outdated, and China needs to create cultural symbols that represent modern China on the basis of tradition.

Regardless of whether these cultural symbols fully represent traditional Chinese culture, it at least reminds us to reflect on whether modern Chinese culture has formed some iconic cultural symbols since the Xinhai Revolution or since the May Fourth Movement. Why do these cultural symbols have a limited spread around the world?

Since the Xinhai Revolution, especially since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, the Chinese nation has been in the historical process of more than a hundred years, constantly exploring and pioneering, reforming and innovating, including the efforts of updating cultural symbols. The May Fourth New Culture Movement put forward the slogan of science and democracy, replaced the vernacular with the vernacular, advocated individual freedom and women's liberation, and worked hard to transform the old culture. After the founding of New China, revolutionary culture became the mainstream culture, and cultural innovation was carried out in a big way, including the renewal of cultural symbols. Mao Zedong Thought, the People's Liberation Army, Lei Feng, Jiao Yulu and the spirit of Daqing have become cultural symbols of the new era. Mao Zedong Thought is the cultural achievement of the Chinese nation after the May Fourth Movement put forward the idea of "overthrowing Confucius", and its basic spirit is the revolutionary idealistic spirit of seeking truth from facts, the mass line, independence and self-reliance, arduous struggle, people's war, guerrilla war, rural encirclement of cities, armed seizure of political power, and yearning for a communist tomorrow. Derived from this was the collectivist spirit of Lei Feng, who did not benefit others at all, cared for each other, helped each other, and served the people wholeheartedly; the Daqing spirit of independence, self-reliance, and arduous struggle; and the revolutionary heroism of the People's Liberation Army, which was not afraid of suffering, was not afraid of death, forged ahead, and sacrificed heroically. Revolutionary idealism, revolutionary collectivism, and revolutionary heroism, following the decline of Confucian culture, became the cultural symbols of new China and had an impact on a worldwide scale. The famous American sociologist Baker summed up the representative achievements of human social sciences in the 20th century, a total of 43 items, and Mao Zedong Thought is the only achievement selected by China.

The problem is that revolutionary culture treats culture with political radicalism, adopts a basically negative attitude toward traditional culture, and creates utopian cultural symbols such as the People's Commune, the Great Leap Forward, the "Cultural Revolution", and the Red Guards. These symbols were abandoned by society after the reform and opening up, so that they hurt the cultural symbols of revolutionary idealism, revolutionary collectivism, and revolutionary heroism themselves.

After the reform and opening up, the revolutionary culture gradually faded out, and a new culture is rising. There are two foundations of the new culture, one is the market economy, and the other is globalization. The two are essentially identical, blending into Western culture, the matrix of the market economy and globalization. If China has made brilliant economic achievements in the more than 30 years of reform and opening up, in terms of culture, the problem is not so simple. First, the generation, dissemination, and identification of cultural symbols require a certain amount of time to accumulate; second, Western culture cannot solve the problem of the rise of Chinese culture. If China relies on the market economy and globalization to achieve economic rise and develop culture in the same way, the result will inevitably be the prosperity of the West and the decline of the East, the economy is Chinese, and the culture is Western. Such a rise is tantamount to cultural suicide. This is the special contradiction of Chinese culture in the process of modernization. This is also the crux of the economic development for more than 30 years, and the renewal of cultural symbols is too slow.

Three

Reflections on the Creation and Renewal of Symbols in Contemporary Chinese Culture

The report of the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "The key to building a socialist cultural power lies in enhancing the vitality of the whole nation's cultural creation. It is necessary to deepen the reform of the cultural system, liberate and develop the cultural productive forces, carry forward academic democracy and artistic democracy, provide the people with a broad cultural stage, let all the sources of cultural creation flow fully, and create a new situation in which the vitality of the whole nation's cultural creation continues to burst forth, the social and cultural life is more colorful, the people's basic cultural rights and interests are better guaranteed, the people's ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality are comprehensively improved, and the international influence of Chinese culture is constantly increasing. ”

To enhance the vitality of the whole nation's cultural creation, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between culture and politics and strive to get rid of the negative influence of political pragmatism. The development of Chinese culture in the 20th century was deeply disturbed by political pragmatism. Political pragmatism is to confuse culture with political needs, to detach from the characteristics of culture itself and the cultural needs of the masses of the people, and to start only from the current political needs to turn culture into a political appendage. The result is an overpoliticalized culture that lacks universal identity and capacity to spread. Politics is the direct embodiment of interests, on the one hand, there are conflicts between interests and ideologies in cross-cultural communication; on the other hand, it is easy to detach from the daily life of the people. Therefore, in the extremely "Left" era when politics was in charge, although it was called the "Cultural Revolution", it was in essence a great cultural destruction. As soon as the political storm changes, the pan-politicized cultural symbols are like a heavy rain poured on the eaves at midnight, and at dawn, there is almost nothing left.

Culture and politics, economy, society and ecology are all important components of society and are inextricably linked to politics. Cultural ideas are the foundation of political ideas, and culture is also an important means of political dissemination. But culture is not the same as politics, and the people facing culture are often non-utilitarian, and their influence is silent and durable. Kong Menglaozhuang and Li Bai Dufu are both people of feudal society, one or two thousand years away from us, and their political ideas are even more distant from us, but they are close to us as cultural symbols. Politics is an act of power, is hard power, in order to safeguard interests, political propositions must be realistic and clear; culture is soft power, ideological, but more belong to daily life, popular, cross-group and even cross-ethnic and cross-cultural. A culture that is completely divorced from politics is not necessarily vital; a pan-politicized culture is even less vital.

To enhance the creative vitality of the whole nation's culture, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between culture and economy and strive to get rid of the negative influence of economic utilitarianism. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's economy has risen rapidly, but it is not satisfactory in terms of cultural creation and renewal, and the influence of economic utilitarianism cannot be ignored. Economic utilitarianism is the conflating of culture with economics, the simply transformation of culture from a political tool into an economic tool. The development of culture requires the creation of cultural industries, but cultural development cannot be simply equated with the development of cultural industries. Industrialized culture is only the functional part of culture, and the main body of culture is spirit, thought, and concept, which cannot be realized only by industrial behavior. Culture is related to beliefs and core values, and industrial behavior can only popularize and disseminate cultural symbols, not create cultural symbols. As for the cultural stage and economic singing, it is the same as when culture became a simple tool of political propaganda.

The difference between culture and economy is that economy is utilitarian, while culture has the duality of utilitarian and non-utilitarian. Culture is a symbol of meaning, and meaning does not equal utilitarianism. Meaning is the relational attribute of things that can be understood and communicated, and utilitarianism is the relational attribute of things that directly meet people's material needs, as Marx said: "The usefulness of things makes things use value." "The value of culture lies primarily in the field of meaning, while its utilitarian value is derived. It is true that fast food in the United States and fashion perfumes in France have also become cultural symbols, but not because they make money, but because they make more money in the financial and oil industries. Fast food and fashion perfumes are iconic modern lifestyles that are why they have become cultural symbols. Only by respecting cultural characteristics and laws, paying attention to the development and improvement of the cultural content of economic activities, can we build cultural brands and generate cultural symbols while obtaining economic value.

To enhance the creative vitality of the whole nation's culture, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between multiple cultures and strive to get rid of the negative influence of cultural nihilism. Cultural nihilism is an attitude or ideological tendency to blindly deny the cultural heritage of mankind, the national culture, and even all spiritual and cultural values without analysis. In the modern and modern history of the mainland, there have been three major agitations in cultural nihilism: the first was the "theory of total Westernization" during the May Fourth Movement, which simply attributed China's feudal autocracy and backwardness to the defects of traditional culture and fundamentally negated the actual value of national traditional culture; the second was the ultra-"Left" ideological trend in the "Cultural Revolution", which negated all history and culture in the name of "smashing the old world and creating a new world"; the third was the ideological trend of admiring foreign countries since the reform and opening up, blindly admiring Western culture and system. Negate national history and culture, negate the revolution, demonize major historical figures, distort national cultural identities and symbols, and then disintegrate national spirit and belief.

Culture and ideology need to be characterized and embodied, each nation has its own glory and dream, great historical events and great historical figures, constitute the historical totem and historical memory of all ethnic groups. The modern revolutionary culture produced by traditional Chinese culture and the May Fourth New Culture Movement represents the two major cultural achievements of ancient and modern society, and is the spiritual foundation for the Chinese nation to stand among the nations of the world. Cultural nihilism proceeds from Western values, grasps and exaggerates some of the shortcomings of these two major cultural achievements, and negates the rationality of these two major cultural achievements. Any cultural achievement has its historical limitations unless it never becomes history. If the above two major cultural achievements are negated with a cultural nihilistic attitude, the spiritual foundation of the Chinese nation's own identity will collapse. Cultural nihilism negates the traditional culture of a nation, thus negates the historical legitimacy of a nation, and the "symbols and beliefs of the commonality of the people" disintegrate.

We should regard the interaction between the diverse plates of contemporary culture as a multi-level integration process, strengthen the communication and integration of cultural commonalities, advocate the relatively independent existence and richness of cultural personality, and carry out cultural innovation and transformation with the requirements of modernization and socialist market economy. Eliminate the conservatism in those traditional cultures, adjust certain contents of revolutionary culture that are only suitable for class struggle and the war years, reject factors in foreign cultures that are not suitable for China's national conditions, prevent simplistic and unipolar value appeals, and strive to move forward in the direction of "the beauty of each other, the beauty of the United States, the beauty of the united states, and the unity of the world" as Mr. Fei Xiaotong said.

(Original source: Social Science Front (Changchun), No. 3, 2013, pp. 12-16)