Changing "Silent China": The Visual Spread of Lu Xun's Thought

Author: Liu Runkun Zhang Huiyu

Lu Xun is the most important symbol in the history of Chinese thought and culture in the 20th century, and the significance of Lu Xun lies not only in his participation in the process of China's modernization as the May Fourth generation, but also in his continuous influence and currentity as a rare ideological resource that has been fully interpreted in different eras, and the interpretation of Lu Xun has become the core of understanding the chinese thought and cultural history of the 20th century and even the present. With Lu Xun as the intermediary, we can see the difficult transformation in the process of China's modernization, and we can also depict the spiritual landscape and spiritual picture of the Chinese in the new era. In the era of visual culture, exploring the visual dissemination of Lu Xun's thought is of great significance for deepening and enriching its ideological connotation and expanding and innovating its communication path. Taking the change of "silent China" as the clue, the visual dissemination of Lu Xun's thought has gone through three stages: modern image media represented by fine arts, image media represented by movies, and digital audiovisual media represented by online video, and the media characteristics of Lu Xun's thought in different historical periods are closely related to the social and historical changes associated with it.

"China with Sound": Spreading China's "New Voice" through Modern Image Media

At the beginning of 1927, during his short stay in Hong Kong, Lu Xun gave a speech to the Hong Kong Youth Association entitled "Silent China". Lu Xun mentioned, "Now, Zhejiang and Shaanxi are all fighting, and the people there are crying or laughing, we don't know. Hong Kong seems to be very peaceful, living here Chinese, comfortable or not very comfortable, others do not know", this "do not know" in Lu Xun's view, is caused by ancient writing, "although you can speak, and only a few people hear, people in the distance do not know, the result is also equal to silence." And because it is difficult, some people treat it as a treasure, like a trick, and only a few people understand ,—— in fact, they do not know how to understand, and most people do not understand, the result is equal to silence", and the ancient text can only carry the voice of the ancients, "not our modern voice", therefore, the so-called "silent China" does not only mean that most people can not use the ancient language and "make a sound", but also that the ancient text can not make a "modern" sound, which causes "everyone can not understand each other, just like a big scattered sand". Only the vernacular, the "modern," "own," and "living word," can "turn China into a China with a voice," and this "china with sound" is meant to "be able to live in the world with the people of the world." In other words, the effect achieved by "Sound China" should be "synchronized with the world". The problem is not how to make China "speak up", but at this time for Lu Xun, the construction of a "mutual understanding" and "knowing" China has become a necessity. Behind the opposition between ancient chinese and vernacular is not so much the opposition between the elite and the masses, but rather the opposition between "silent China" and "sound China".

Lu Xun pinned his hopes on young people and an attitude toward "truth", "Only a true voice can move the people of China and the people of the world; with a real voice, you can live with the people of the world", and this consciousness of "truth" is not only an ethical requirement, but also an understanding of reality. Here, sound has a dual meaning, it is (silent) is both a representation of Chinese reality and an embodiment of modern Chinese imagination (sound). In fact, sound has always been a very important motif for Lu Xun, whether it is the "most powerful voice" in "Moro's Poetic Theory" and "Don't seek new voices in foreign countries", or the "Theory of Breaking the Voice of Evil" that calls for "sound from the heart" to break the closed world of "silence as the government", or the imminent metaphor of revolution with voices such as "shouting", Lu Xun tries to find a way for China to speak, and the voice must have a corresponding medium, so it can be said that the appropriate medium is to complete the transition from "silent China" to "sound China" The key to transformation.

Images have always been a medium form that Lu Xun highly respected, which not only gave birth to Lu Xun's shock and awakening in the early days, but also carried Lu Xun's ideals of "mass literature and art" and "revolutionary literature and art". Modern image media such as "slides" and "anatomical diagrams" have shaped the modern cognitive structure of young Lu Xun to a large extent, and are the basis for the individual awakening of "Enlightenment Lu Xun". In the "revolutionary Lu Xun" period, the image undertook the important task of popularizing and publicizing the revolution, especially for the people with a relatively high illiteracy rate, the image played an irreplaceable role of words, lu xun advocated the emerging printmaking movement will be Western modernism, Soviet art and Chinese classical plastic arts integration, creating a highly recognizable formal language, not only promote the innovation of painting language, but also directly promote China's political and social revolution.

From the perspective of globalization, China's social revolution was accompanied by the visual cultural revolution of the world from the era of words to the age of images, so it can be said that at that time images were a more "modern" and "progressive" medium form than words. However, it should be noted that Lu Xun's attempt to use modern image media to speak for China does not mean that he is completely on the opposite side of Chinese tradition. If the criticism of the ancient chinese is that it cannot be used as a national language by the "majority" and therefore requires the use of the vernacular, then Lu Xun's views on Chinese painting and Western painting are exactly "opposite". Lu Xun's understanding of pictures has always adhered to a "Chinese" stance. In "Trivia of Comic Strips", Lu Xun mentions that "because Chinese characters are too difficult, they have to use pictures to alleviate the products of the poverty of characters." From here, it can be seen that the enlightenment significance for painting or pictorial is mainly reflected in a kind of popularization function of "women and children are easy to know", which can also be seen from Lu Xun's vigorous promotion of printmaking in the later period.

Lu Xun's love of painting can be traced back to his youth. In "Chao Hua Xi Shi Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas", which remembers the nanny Ah Chang (chang mother) who once took care of Lu Xun, this nanny hates and loves "me", hates her for killing the hidden mouse and likes to complain, loves her for buying "me" a painting of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" ("Others refuse to do, or can't do, but she can do it successfully"). If Lu Xun believes that there is a rupture between vernacular and ancient Chinese, then painting is not so in his opinion. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Erya Yintu, Mao Shi Pin Wu Tu Kao, and Shi Pai Fang are the same picture books, the function of painting is that it is more acceptable to the public, and its significance is put forward in the context of building a majority community, and the significance of "DianShi Zhai Pictorial" is that it is widely circulated, which also means that Lu Xun's views on the masses have been readjusted, from the mediocre people who are the objects of enlightenment and transformation to the masses as the recipients. This also means that Lu Xun's image practice and ideological transformation have always been accompanied by each other, and in lu Xun's imaginary picture of modern China, images as a modern media form undertake the ferry mission of spreading China's "new voice" and reaching the other side of "sound China".

Cross-media adaptation: The Double Face of Lu Xun's Thought in New Chinese Cinema

In 1956, in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Lu Xun's death, the movie "Blessing" based on Lu Xun's novel of the same name was released. After the release of "Blessings", it caused a heated discussion, and the "theme idea of being faithful to the original work" proposed by screenwriter Xia Yan was widely recognized. Xia Yan mentioned a key issue here - the main idea of the original work, because how to understand the theme idea of the original work involves the problem of how to interpret Lu Xun. Qu Qiubai describes Lu Xun's ideological process as having undergone an important "transformation", that is, "from the theory of evolution to the theory of class, from the enterprising individualism of seeking liberation to the collectivism of the world of battle." Although there is still a lot of controversy in the academic circles about whether the above "transformation" exists, no matter which side of the controversy is undeniable, it is undeniable that lu xun's thought is the duality of Lu Xun's thought - Nietzsche's and Marx's Lu Xun, humanitarian and class struggle Lu Xun, Lu Xun who exalts personality and goes to the collective, literature and art and politics - these seemingly opposing images actually represent the game dialogue between enlightenment discourse and revolutionary discourse in modern Chinese history, so it can be said that Lu Xun in the history of New China is like the two-faced god Janus, on the one hand is the enlightened Lu Xun. On the other side is the revolutionary Lu Xun. This means that it provides the possibility of narrating and reconstructing the richness of Lu Xun's thought, and how to tell Lu Xun is inseparable from the background of the times at that time, as Wang Hui mentioned in "Resisting Despair", anyone's understanding of Lu Xun is limited by factors such as his own era, values and knowledge structure. Director Sang Arc explains the "theme idea of the original work" in "Explanation of the Director of 'Blessings'" as "through the suffering of the industrious and kind Xianglin sister-in-law, reflecting the author's great humanitarian spirit and his deep hatred of feudal forces", depicting the humanitarian face of Enlightenment Lu Xun. If one of the core threads of new Chinese cinema is the dialogue between the left-wing tradition and the Yan'an tradition, then Lu Xun, who expresses the "theme of the original work" as the "great humanitarian spirit" and constructs the theory of human nature, embodies the development and inheritance of the left-wing tradition.

Because of Lu Xun's special symbolic significance in Chinese history, how to say Lu Xun is not only a literary and artistic issue, but also a political issue, and even became a tool of political struggle in the period after the founding of New China. The reason why "Blessings" can interpret Lu Xun's thought as "great humanitarianism" is inseparable from the background of the era of "a hundred schools of thought contending and a hundred flowers blooming". In the 1960s, the film "Lu Xun Biography" was personally proposed by Premier Zhou Enlai, and then received strong support from the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and other institutions, as well as the best film creators in China, which according to the usual logic should be a magnificent masterpiece. However, after two years of argumentation and discussion in the early stage and the six drafts of the script, "The Biography of Lu Xun" was announced before filming began.

In 1981, in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, a number of film works adapted from Lu Xun's novels, such as the documentary "The Biography of Lu Xun", "Death of Injury", "Medicine", and "A Q Zheng Biography", were released in a concentrated manner. The common feature of this batch of films is the return of Lu Xun, who was enlightened, humanitarian, and literary artist. In the documentary "Biography of Lu Xun", the above characteristics are specifically presented as paying attention to the presentation of Lu Xun's literary works, and 13 poems/digests are run through the film in the form of subtitles; Highlighting Lu Xun's feelings as a human being, portraying the intimate interaction between Lu Xun and his lover, confidants, and comrades, explaining the spatial environment and life interests of daily life, reconstructing the "mythical" and "alienated" Lu Xun into an ordinary person with vivid feelings and full of flesh and blood; respecting historical truth, editing Qu Qiubai, Zhou Yang, Mao Dun, Ba Jin and other literary and art circles into the film. It is even highlighted by close-up shots, alluding to the historical discourse of "correcting the chaos". Reconstructing Lu Xun's image and reinterpreting Lu Xun's thought unfolds in a depoliticized way, on the one hand, it is embodied in the rectification of chaos and reform and opening up, and on the other hand, it is presented as the ideological emancipation movement and the new enlightenment cultural movement, which together constitute the cultural context of the new era.

If the reconstruction of Lu Xun in the documentary "The Biography of Lu Xun" is more prominently reflected in echoing the ideological emancipation movement, then the novel adaptation film represented by "Wounded Death" more clearly reflects the intellectual interest and "new enlightenment" discourse. In an interview, the film director Shui Hua stressed that the core principle of adaptation is to be faithful to the original work, so the cinematic adaptation of the novel is actually to present Lu Xun's thoughts in the form of images. The film runs through the structure of a trickle of inner monologues, telling the tragic story of the May Fourth-style new youth rebelling against feudal etiquette and bravely pursuing individual liberation and marriage freedom, but failing to achieve their wishes. In 2005, the film "Lu Xun" directed by "fourth-generation" director Ding Yinnan was released, which is the only biopic of Lu Xun so far. The film selects three important events in lu xun's life course to present the story of Lu Xun's resistance to power and support for young writers. Compared with the "new enlightenment" discourse in the 1980s, which constantly returned to "May Fourth" to speak of its own legitimacy, the films represented by "Lu Xun" reinterpreted his historical status as an Enlightenment thinker through the humanized expression of Lu Xun's thought.

The "top stream" of the second dimension: the subcultural reconstruction of Lu Xun's thought in the digital age

With the rise of online subculture, Zhou Shuren, who wrote and wrote articles and called middle school students "three fears", quietly became the "top stream" of the second dimension, and gained a large number of loyal "fans" on video platforms such as Station B. According to media statistics, there are more than 10,000 videos about Lu Xun on the B station, with a total playback of nearly 200 million times and more than 10 million likes, which is the most popular writer among young people at present. Station B is an influential platform among young people, and through the analysis of relevant videos published on this platform, it can be seen that the perception picture of contemporary young people about Lu Xun and his thoughts has the following characteristics:

The first is the inspirational and lifelike content of the ideas. Inspirationality includes network evaluations such as "hot blood" and "high combustion", which are embodied in the identity of the sons and daughters of China born from Lu Xun's works, consciously combining the fate of individuals with the destiny of the country and the nation, and highlighting the positive and upward spirit of striving for the prosperity of the country and the nation. The most prominent representative is the video "Wake Up: It's Time for the Sons and Daughters of China to Get Up", the UP master will edit the interpretation of the current situation in China from all walks of life, the last frame of the video is Lu Xun's aphorism "May Chinese youth get rid of the air conditioning, just go up, do not have to listen to the words of self-destructive and self-abandoning people." Do things that can be done, make a sound that can be heard. If there is a point of heat, a point of light, it is like a firework, and you can also emit a little light in the darkness, without waiting for the torch, and if there is no torch after that, I am the only light." The picture quality and editing techniques of this video are quite rough, but it has received more than 28 million hits and more than 250,000 bullet screens, becoming the most played video about Lu Xun on the B station. The comments section reflects a strong historical and practical concern: some people review the difficulty of the Chinese revolution, state the difficulty of national awakening, some discuss the problem of poverty and the international situation... "If there is no torch after that, I am the only light" The barrage continues to brush the screen. What gathers netizens here is the "hot blood" and "high burning" of the video, and this "hot blood" not only contains the "enlightenment Lu Xun" who pursues ideological progress and dialogue with the world, but also shows the "revolutionary Lu Xun" who saves the nation from danger, and also contains the understanding and expression of the national spirit in the context of the changes in the pattern at home and abroad in the new era. Through the expression of network images, Lu Xun gradually became the spiritual leader of the second dimension, but what accompanied the role of the spiritual leader was not the heroic world, but daily life. The so-called daily life refers to both Lu Xun's life and the life of contemporary young people, Lu Xun teaches you how to "scare people", "Xun Ge teaches you how to hammer the 'bar essence'", "Lu Xun the dry rice man Lu Xun" and other video content, the hit TV series "The Age of Awakening" provides a wealth of Lu Xun's life scenes, and related shots and video clips have become the material created by B station netizens for the second time. Lu Xun's life and thought and the life of contemporary young people see each other, on the one hand, Lu Xun's image is thus "cute", "cute to" Lu Xun has attracted much attention, netizens continue to shout "Mr. too cute"; on the other hand, Lu Xun's thought is more rich and contemporary through reinterpretation.

The second is the romanticization and digitization of expressive techniques. The romanticization of expression refers to the poetic presentation of Lu Xun's works, ideas and images, in which music plays a vital role, with highly infectious methods such as soundtrack poems and soundtrack video mixing as the carrier. UP master lu xun prose poetry collection "wild grass" in the 16 prose poems in the form of rap, and cross-edited with woodblock prints, catchy original music with stylized print language, fully mobilize the viewer's vision and hearing, the video on the B station to get more than 8 million plays. There is also the UP master will be "The Age of Awakening" in the Lu Xun lens and "the wind up", "Eutopia" and other popular music for mixing, and so that the camera conversion, scene scheduling, character lines and actions and music rhythm to fully mobilize the mood of the viewer, some netizens in the video "If the prosperity will fall, the abyss is on the side, my generation should die to go to lu Xun" Under the evaluation: "BGM climax part together, immediately tears, 'Are we not winning' direct tears." As the main audiovisual expression method of romanticized style, soundtrack, mixing and cutting are inseparable from digital means in all aspects of material acquisition, recording and mixing, video production and upload, so it can be said that romanticizing Lu Xun is also a highly digital Lu Xun.

Lu Xun's thought in the digital age resonates with the lives and emotions of young people through the interpretation of online subculture. Lu Xun, who is hotly praised as the "top stream" by the second dimension, plays an irreplaceable value leading role of other star idols, and in the context of the chaos of the "rice circle", it highlights his preciousness as a "qingliu" idol.

(The author Liu Runkun is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University; And Huiyu Zhang is a researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University)

Source: China Art News