China News Service, Beijing, April 23 Title: Yang Qingxiang: World Book Day, how to "let Shakespeare find you"?
China News Service reporter Gao Kai
"Does listening to books count as 'reading'?" "Will the influx of information anytime, anywhere affect the nature of reading?" "Does fragmented reading ruin reading?" ...... It is another year of World Book Day, and in the ever-changing human society, reading that is considered to "coexist with civilization" has also taken on a different look than before.
Yang Qingxiang, deputy dean of the School of Letters of Chinese Min University, literary critic and poet, said in an interview with China News Agency's "East and West Question" that reading is a very personal behavior, and as the tide of information becomes more and more turbulent and the sources continue to expand, while reading is more convenient for daily life, true readers need to accept new challenges in ability. He firmly believed that free reading would "make Shakespeare find you."
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: The German aesthetician Yao Si once said that even if a work has been printed into a book, it is only a semi-finished product before the reader reads it. What do you think of the reader's relationship to the text?
Yang Qingxiang: Yao Si is the representative figure of "acceptance aesthetics", and "acceptance aesthetics" believes that the final completion of all texts must be based on the reader's reading comprehension, because readers tend to be "infinite", so the solvability of the text also tends to be "infinite". This is similar to what we often say about "a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people." Everyone, even for the same text, will have different emotions and judgments in different states, and the text will bring him different values, so reading is a human behavior with a high degree of subjectivity and free direction.
For example, when the reader reads Dostoevsky's work at a certain time, he may feel a hard diaphragm, but reading it at another time may feel the greatness and richness of the work. The reading experience is subtly and closely related to the reader's age, experience, daily life experience, and even the mood and weather of the day.
Reading is an individual behavior that can be repeated over and over again, but can never be completely overlapped, and cannot be sampled. This is precisely what I think is most fascinating about reading – extreme personalization and empiricization. Because of this, each "encounter" that truly fits the reader with the text is able to obtain a unique and wonderful experience. When the reader is attracted to a book, it is a powerful and deep feeling of life, no less beautiful than a two-love relationship. Sometimes we are in it and are not even willing to read a book.
Of course, the emergence of this experience is not inevitable for every reading, and requires us to find and wait in a large number of readings. No matter how the times develop, the charm of reading is eternal. Free and wide-ranging reading, as the critic Bloom put it, "let Shakespeare find you"—classics work in you, and your interest and appreciation will continue to improve.
Visitors view the manuscripts of Shakespeare's works on display at the National Library of China. China News Service reporter Ying Ni photographed
China News Service: Data show that in recent years, the book reading rate and the contact rate of digital reading methods have shown an upward trend, especially the "listening" population has increased exponentially. Does reading in different media have an impact on the nature of reading?
Yang Qingxiang: Audiobooks have ushered in explosive development in recent years, but in fact, strictly speaking, they are not completely new. Chinese listened to the commentaries very early, and on a large scale, this is also a kind of audio reading. It is just that the development and popularization of the network and various smart devices have expanded the promotion of the "sound" approach.
As for the meaning and effect of "reading" of "listening to books"? I think that different media, different content, different reading states and moods, sometimes like the emotional experience in life, it is difficult to say that one is necessarily good, the other is not good, not so either/or. The so-called good reading experience is actually a state of establishing a common emotional space with the text, which can be a moment of reading or hearing a sentence, or it may be a long experience in a deep reading.
Of course, audiobooks also have their limitations. At present, the more popular content is mainly some novels, inspirational works, biographies, historical science and other content, and the common point is that it is relatively easy to understand.
Overall, I have a very positive view of the broadening of the reading medium. Audiobooks and paper books each meet different reading needs of the crowd, there will be no so-called audiobook squeeze paper book development space problem. On the contrary, the development of science and technology will inevitably appear in different media or media, which are in line with the expectation of more personalized and diversified reading.
Digital intelligent reading "listening experience" at the 2020 Shanghai Book Fair. Photo by Chen Yuyu, China News Service
China News Service: People live in a huge wave of information every day, and when knowledge becomes readily available, the original functions of reading, such as seeking knowledge and self-cultivation, seem to be affected. How do you think about people's ability to read?
Yang Qingxiang: In the past, we had an elite, humanistic imagination of reading, but in fact, reading itself has many aspects, sometimes for practical information, sometimes for entertainment or relaxation, and sometimes even for socializing. Each aspect of reading has its emotional logic and value gain.
The multi-media communication method makes our understanding of the world very broad, but the influx and reading of information is also very likely to lead to the unilateral transmission of information, forming a so-called "information cocoon" state, and the screening and push of big data makes the situation worse. For example, on the mobile phone, the reader may only read big data to think that the reader wants to see, which will actually lead to the self-closure of the reading information. This is something that contemporary people need to be particularly vigilant about in the current reading environment.
For the reader, the key is to develop a discriminating ability to process massive amounts of information. The paradox is that if readers want to have accurate information, they must have a larger amount of information. In the context of the "post-information age", the first thing that should be done is not to reject or deliberately cut off some information acceptance channels, but to obtain stronger judgment through more free reading without prejudice. This judgment determines whether a person can become a capable reader.
In the past, the main basis for judging the ability to read was how much knowledge and information they could obtain, but now the criteria for judging have changed. Being able to distinguish from the uninterrupted massive amount of information which is valuable information and which is truly related to oneself is a truly capable reader, and it is also the challenge posed by the reading situation of the times to every reader.
Passengers in the beijing subway cars. Photo by China News Service reporter Hou Yu
China News Service: In the touch screen era, too much information is attracting reading while also distracting people's attention, what is your view on the saying that fragmented reading will destroy reading?
Yang Qingxiang: I personally disagree with this view. First of all, I don't think that the so-called fragmented reading is caused by the touch screen era, and reading itself has various forms, which is an inevitable manifestation of reading individuation.
Secondly, what is the so-called fragmented reading of the standard, what is the complete reading? If it is understood to be a real sinking heart to complete a large-scale reading, then this form of reading has not always belonged to most situations, this reading state is worth pursuing, very precious, but because of various reasons, in fact, it can not happen often in many people. Therefore, in reality, there is no binary opposition between so-called complete reading and fragmented reading.
I have always believed that formal things do not affect the meaning of reading. Whether emotionally or cognitively, truly effective reading is to give people an intimate relationship with the text, and reading should not be hierarchical. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Yang Qingxiang is a poet and critic. Professor of the School of Liberal Arts, Chinese Min University, and doctoral supervisor. His major works include the criticism collection "After 80, What to Do", "Social Problems and Literary Imagination", the poetry collection "I Choose to Cry and Love You", "The World Equals Zero" and so on. He is the chief editor of the large-scale young writers research series "New Coordinate Book Series", the science fiction series "Green Science Fiction Series", and the English version of the "Post-80s" short story collection The Sound of Salt Forming.