English Abstracts

The Classical and The Modern: Two Concepts of Class in the View of Cultural Sociology

Zhang Hong

Abstract: By close-reading two typical texts by Aristotle and Weber in the view of cultural sociology formed recently, this article analyses and compares their thoughts of class and argues that every concept of class in different eras, including the classical and the modern, is the phenomenal product of special cultural fields with profound historical and cultural marks. The concept of class, as a result of cognition, is one of the meaning structures human beings have given to the society, in which they also search for their own existence in return. It is through the process in which meanings emerge, evolve, transfer, back-feed, use up and reset that cultures are shaped. However, the functional power of the cultural field is so gigantic and invisible that it is hard for human beings to recognize and then transcend it. The self-evident essence would be the object of scientific researches.

Practice As the Way of Existence: On Practice, Life Aesthetics and Existential Aesthetics

Shi Changping

Abstract:Practical aesthetics is based on Marxist theory of practice as its philosophy and pactice as its basic concept. It studies the aesthetic relationship between human beings and reality from practice. Life aesthetics, inspired by life philosophy proposed by Dilthey and Bergson, regards human’s life activities as the logical starting point of aesthetic research and explores the signi fi cance of aesthetic activities to life. Existential aesthetics pays attention to the living condition of life, which is mainly represented by Liu Gangji’s “Practical Critical Existentialism Aesthetics”,Zhu Liyuan’s Practical Existentialism Aesthetics and Zeng Fanren’s Eco-Existentialism Aesthetics. These three theoretical forms of aesthetics,including practical aesthetics, life aesthetics and ontological aesthetics, are different, in fl uential and even intersecting. Human practice includes productive labor, daily life, criticism and communicative action. Practice is the beginning of life and the way of existence. Man exists and develops in practical activities. Practice is the basic way of human existence.

Splendid Turning Around: “Gaining the World with Love”(Part Ⅰ)

Pan Zhichang

Abstract: The conversion from aesthetic liberty to aesthetic redemption is the only way for Chinese aesthetics, and also the puzzle of Chinese aesthetics. It urgently awaits the “fundamental transformation” of life or “pupate into butter fl y”, and awakens the “unprovoked” awareness of the “marginal situation” of life. However, what we have seen in the history of Chinese aesthetics is often just blind obedience, unfettered and resistance. Therefore, turning around for love and “gaining the world with love” should be the historical choice of “crossing the boundaries of life”from aesthetic freedom to aesthetic redemption.

“Sang Culture”: A Racial Resistance to Modernity

Yi Na

Abstract:“Sang Culture” is an outdated trend, but the collective anxiety behind it is not out of date. The contemporary situation of “Sang Culture” is similar to the “Confused Generations” and “Lost Generation” of the past 100 years and the various kinds of confusion that China has experienced in the modernization process. New technologies have brought racial changes in new social behaviors, which results in the reorganization of social relations. Although anti-modern behaviors are not advocated by the mainstream, they have always been accompanied by the development of modernity. “Sang Culture” is also in a similar social change. After the rise of social media, a series of similar fuses pave the way for the social ideological trend that breaks out in the form of broken window effects. Now that the entire era is in a state of anxiety, the tide of“Sang” may not only behave like a wave but give us a deeper insight.

Internet Conspiracy: The Emergence of Embarrassment Culture and Its Business Expansion

Wang Linsheng

Abstract:Embarrassment culture is a popular cultural category, which originates from the realistic context of the Internet era. As soon as embarrassment culture emerges, it merges into various types of cultural forms. Variety of Arts with embarrassment as the groove, films and TV with embarrassment as the gimmick, dances with embarrassment as the style, marketing with embarrassment as the characteristic and extensive entertainment with embarrassment as the content, etc., endow embarrassment culture with diversified contents. The growth and dissemination of embarrassing culture is closely linked with the inter-generational transformation of consumers in the Internet era, which is the embodiment of the self-identi fi cation of post-90s and post-00s groups in the “small circle” cultures. Although embarrassment culture relates to entertainment, it embodies the value pursuit of sharing, equality and openness of the Internet in communication and practice.

Does China have Hip-Hop?A Cultural Criticism Based on the Internet Variety Show “Rap in China”

Sang Ziwen

Abstract:With the heating Internet program “Rap in China”, China’s Hip-Hop culture has been spotlighted completely. However,influenced by the vulgar lyrics and PG One affair, it hits a bottle neck in its development. Hip-Hop culture is not an isolated phenomenon,accompanied by the fl ourishing cultural tide of cyber literature, electrical sports, fi lm market, variety shows, online celebrities and live videos. The energetic consumption and new-generation cultural groups constitute the youth subculture ecological community in the interaction. Hip-hop rap is essentially a reproduction of cultural consumption in the youth subculture community. What’s more, its development problem stems from the ethical anomie in the development of Internet industries. Hip-hop culture is an important part of building cultural con fi dence and strengthening international competitiveness for China, which calls for the needs to regulate the Internet industrial ethics and re-mediate industrial ethical soil,thus rendering the hip-hop culture its own place in the sun.

An Analysis of the Swaying Attitudes and Values of the Remainders in the Transition of Political Culture of the Early Republic of China

Xue Chaorui

Abstract:After the Revolution of 1911, the survivors who entered the Republic from the monarchy faced the impact of the dramatic changes of the times and were involved into unprecedented embarrassment: the old and new, the differentiation between Chinese and foreigners,the struggle of state system, the tangle of traditional intellectuals’ realistic origins. Their cultural standpoint and identification are important propositions in the study of the alternating groups of the old and the new. Through Fan Zengxiang’s poems, pictures, notes and newspaper materials, this paper investigates the political choices and value orientations of an atypical survivor, thus exploring the deconstruction of traditional concepts by social transformation.

The Paradox of Aura Disappearance and Invisible Control:Aesthetic Reflectionon Virtual Reality Art

He Shuangzi

Abstract:During the fourth Industrial Revolution, the development of virtual reality technology provides new possibilities for artistic creation and acceptance, and also impacts and reforms the traditional aesthetic paradigm of arts. With the scientific and technological innovation,art goes towards singularity with an expectation to achieve no interface state in the future. The viewers move from contemplation to immersive interactive experience in the process of art acceptance.

Pursuing the Simple Beauty of Art: A Dialogue with He Weimin

He Weimin, Wang Chunjie, Wang Mo

Abstract:The connotation of simplicity includes plainness, sincerity, generosity and so on. What I hope to express is something beyond the subject matter, something that can move me and something with simple aesthetic feeling, which is not only based on personal aesthetic experience,but also rooted in the soil of Chinese arts. From ancient times to today, countless immortal arts are made of these simplest tools and materials,but have immortal vitality. The use of new materials nowadays is justi fi able, but if we rely too much on the physical shapes and modern sense of materials themselves, it will inevitably show the lack of spirit and lose its immortality to just fashion.

Concentric Circle to be Achieved by The Integrated Development of National Strategy and Local Cultures in the Yangtze River Delta

He Jianhua

Abstract:The Yangtze River Delta region, which covers provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shanghai the city, has a long history,rich cultural resources and close geographic and humanistic affinity, laying a good foundation for the cultural integration and development of the Yangtze River Delta. The development of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy. Therefore, in implementing this major national strategy, great attention should be paid to cultural construction so that a “concentric circle” of cultural integration and development in the Yangtze River Delta should be jointly woven. The Yangtze River Delta has attached great importance to cultural construction recent years, whether in mega-cities, medium-sized cities or small and medium-sized towns. It has focused on cultural construction as a powerful grasp to achieve high-quality urban development. With the cultural soft power at the spiritual value level, the Yangtze River Delta has continuously strengthened its voice, demonstration, leadership and contribution in the whole country and even in the whole world.

Review and the Prospect of Shanghai’s Cultural Construction in the Past 40 Years of Reform and Opening-up

Hu Jirong

Abstract:General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the report of the Nineteenth CPC National Congress: “Culture is a country and nation’s soul. Our country will thrive only if our culture thrives, and our nation will be strong only if our culture is strong. Without full con fi dence in our culture, without a rich and prosperous culture, the Chinese nation will not be able to rejuvenate itself.” His remark is not only a profound exposition of the relationship between culture and the nation, but also a review of the experience of the Communist Party of China in promoting the construction of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. Reform and opening-up has opened a new chapter in the history of the prosperity and development of Chinese culture. This is the 40 years of adhering to the road of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics,the 40 years of continuous cultural reform and innovation, stimulating the vitality of cultural innovation of the whole nation, and the 40 years of steadily strengthening cultural con fi dence and striding towards a strong socialist cultural country. Over the past 40 years, Shanghai’s cultural construction has always been guided by the national strategy, with the reform and opening-up to release the vitality of urban culture, enhance the soft power of urban culture, enrich the spiritual and cultural life of citizens, and promote the construction of a socialist international cultural metropolis. Many important achievements have been made, and the brand of “Shanghai Culture” has become an important business card of Shanghai.

The Trend of Literature Industrialization in Shanghai and Its Unsolved Problems

Zhang Yonglu

Abstract:In the social and historical context of cultural and creative industries as a major national strategy in the 21st century, Shanghai literature presents a new trend with the industrialization of literature being one of its important features. The industrialization of Shanghai literature is mainly manifested in the abundant forms of cultural industries, the marketization of writers’ identity and the improvement and perfection of urban public cultural services, which is not only in line with the rapid development of international cultural and creative industries, but also demonstrates its unique wisdom and creativity. But the existing problems can not be ignored. The core of literary industry lies in the innovation of content, and the key to lasting prosperity lies in the talents. What’s more, cultural criticism is an important mechanism, and the public cultural service at the government level should create the necessary atmosphere.

Study on the Connotation of “Self-cultivation”in the International Cultural Metropolis Construction

Yang Jianlong

Abstract:In order to build an international cultural metropolis for Shanghai, an excellent global city and a civilized global city, it is necessary to pay attention to the citizens’ self-cultivation and improve the civilized level of the city. In the process of cultivating and Practicing Socialist Core values, we should actively carry out civic self-cultivation activities and form civic self-cultivation culture with Chinese characteristics, characteristics of the times and Shanghai characteristics. According to the city spirit of Shanghai, the self-cultivation norms of Shanghai citizens include opening and developing, learning from all the strengths, being brave in innovation, striving for strength, being honest and trustworthy, devoting to work and love posts, helping others for pleasure and keeping civilized relations.