Intersection and alienation in the era of "scarf". Photo courtesy of People's Pictures The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a document taking "time travel" seriously in radio, film, and television. Photo courtesy of People Pictures Like culture, cultural criticism is obviously an incredibly complex concept. The level of cultural criticism is related to a country or a nation's ability to observe, reflect, and develop culture. However, precisely because of the all-encompassing complexity and inclusiveness of this concept, it is also difficult to define in our social life. and unavoidable topics. What is worthy of vigilance is that due to the mediocrity of cultural criticism, quarreling Weibo, gag shows, pan-entertainment stages, power-rent-seeking theoretical journals... are overshadowing mainstream criticism and converging into new discourse positions. 1. A new type of cultural poverty surrounds criticism. Cultural criticism has become pan-entertainment. Critics tend to red envelope, and the carrier of criticism expands in an disorderly manner. "I am not RMB, how can I make everyone like me?!" "If people don't offend me, I won't do it." Prisoner; if someone offends me, I will give you three points of courtesy; if someone offends me again, I will give you a shot; if someone offends me again, I will eradicate it." "In view of the rising domestic oil prices, the country has decided to establish new oil-producing enterprises to break the monopoly and curb oil prices. There are four refined oil production companies in China: PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, and CNOOC." This is the "Zhou Libo Quotation" that is popular on screens and the Internet. The themes of the quotations are scattered and the focus is wandering. "There is no style, only tone." However, these quotations, compiled by a huge behind-the-scenes team from popular "jokes" on the Internet, gather all the "jokes" in the current surrounding society, life, and emotions - ridicule, pranks, social emotions, human chaos, Gossips, fashions, and vicious events quickly “go viral.” It cannot be denied that due to the lackluster nature of cultural criticism, quarrelsome Weibo, gag shows, pan-entertainment stages, power-rent-seeking theoretical journals... are overshadowing mainstream criticism and converging into new discourse positions. “Everyone is a news agency, and everyone has a microphone.” The rapid development of science and technology has changed the way information is released, giving everyone equal power to release information. Some people even exclaimed, “In such an era, even Even discussing the Internet seems a bit outdated!” According to CNNIC, the total number of Internet users in my country reached 457 million in 2010, and the total number of mobile phone users in the first quarter of 2011 was 889 million. In the public opinion field of “more than 1.3 billion microphones”, Chinese public opinion The formation mechanism, communication mechanism, intervention mechanism, and evaluation mechanism are all undergoing profound changes. The all-media era is an era of “attention economy”. In the new media field, where the boundaries are constantly expanding, attention is attracted amidst the "noise of many voices". If one cannot make timely and pertinent cultural judgments, one can only rely on the "different voices" that "preempt others". However, the fact is that cultural criticism is both abundant and seriously lacking, and cultural theory is both rich and scarce. As cultural criticism is increasingly lost, "opinion" leaders who frequently express "dissenting voices" are scrambling for space. "A new type of cultural poverty is shrouding all kinds of criticism. Cultural criticism is as flashy as promotional advertisements and lacks content." A netizen asked: "Cultural criticism, what can I do to save you?" The loss of cultural criticism is not only widespread. It was questioned by the cultural circles and deeply criticized by the critics. "The development of cultural criticism is faced with constraints from many factors. Among them is an abnormal tendency, that is, some cultural criticism is not aimed at pursuing truth, but is more centered around certain needs." Tao, a professor at Capital Normal University Dongfeng believes that there are two extreme phenomena in cultural criticism that are worthy of people's consideration - one is excessive praise, and the other is blind abuse. Excessive praise and undoubtedly inadequate. Blindly verbal abuse, equating criticism with scolding, cold shots, cold punches, and group fights are also very harmful. Cultural criticism is a research method that uses cultural studies to analyze literature or use texts to explore culture. But unfortunately, cultural criticism has become fashionable, marginalized, colloquial, prose, documentary, and vulgar, and critics have been absent, absent, aphasic, gibberish, and disorderly about major cultural phenomena, which has made criticism The carrier has become media-oriented, slogan-oriented, red-envelope-oriented, and core publication-oriented. These are important reasons why cultural criticism loses its vitality and lowers cultural taste. It is also an important reason why cultural criticism loses readers and loses applause. It is also an important reason for "Weibo to pry open cultural criticism" "Gate" and criticism are important reasons for "pan-entertainment". Someone has pointedly said that the more culture spreads, the less culture the entire society will have. "Nowadays, culture not only appears as a lively superficiality, but there is also obvious abuse of culture. When anything can be labeled as culture, in fact, culture has been almost completely eliminated." Fudan University University professor Qian Wenzhong thinks. The same goes for cultural criticism. When aphasia and gibberish become the norm, comments gradually lose their independent character and are even "employed" by commercial interests to shout for others, hype in disguise, grab eyeballs, and create selling points. Culture is no longer a dignified existence. 2. Be wary of "group blindness" and "information cocoon room". If information aggregation and cultural judgment are improper, people will quickly lose their rationality and the crowd will soon turn into thugs. The emergence of Weibo has greatly lowered the threshold for speech. Mobile terminals make it easier to publish such remarks.
In the era of information explosion and media expansion, there are noisy voices and mixed opinions. The "opinions" and "ground-breaking" expressions of "opinion" leaders have not only become a new "entrance" to the information world, but also dominate hundreds or thousands of people. The value judgments of thousands of "fans" then affect the concepts and attitudes of social life. What cannot be ignored is that with the development of Weibo today, it is not only a communication media and entertainment tool, but its huge potential is being tapped. At a time when Weibo's "opinion" channel is becoming a battleground in the "land enclosure movement" of Internet companies, the hundreds or tens of millions of "fans" are actually controlled by certain interest groups. "The role and commercial value of Weibo are based on the successful operation of a Weibo. Just imagine, if you have very few Weibo fans and very few followers, how can you achieve the effect." Shi Guangqi researchers wrote. He gave an example. On Twitter, Dell's @DellOutlet, a microblog that specializes in selling out inventory at discounted prices, currently has nearly 1.5 million followers; and personal computers and computers sold through promotions through this channel Accessories and software have earned Dell more than $6.5 million. It is worth being vigilant that in an era of information overload, people's drifting with information can easily cause them to regress to the prejudices of the information blockade era. Cultural judgments are easily influenced and can be imitated - 86 years ago, Mr. Lu Xun used his short stories to write out his basic judgment that the Chinese people's tendency to seek common ground is too strong and easily lead to cultural blind obedience, and thus shouted : "Declaration of war on mediocrity!" "In a world where right opinion and gossip are increasingly indistinguishable, the efforts of many minds coming together online may provide the best path to an information utopia." White House Information and Regulation said Keith Sunstein, director of the Office of Foreign Affairs and former Harvard Law School professor. Sunstein compiled his many years of research on the information society into a book, "Information Utopia," in which he reminded everyone to be wary of "groupthink" and the "information cocoon" effect in the era of all media. In the flood of information, group decision-making is often unable to "work together" and "each express his or her own opinion." Instead, they often follow the crowd due to various reasons. Especially on the Internet, when a certain voice becomes mainstream, many people may no longer delve into its rationality, but try their best to appear consistent with the values ??of the majority, leading to "groupthink." At the same time, in the flood of information, it is easy for people to only pay attention to the people and things they are interested in, and only follow the voices that are similar to them, thus trapping themselves. He is very optimistic about the potential of human beings to accumulate information and use knowledge to improve our lives, but he is also worried that if information aggregation and cultural judgment are improper, people will soon lose their rationality, and "the crowd will soon turn into a mob." "Someone once thought that we would be destroyed by what we hate," said the famous cultural critic Neil Postman. "No!" In a vulgar culture where culture has become a game of sensory stimulation, desire and rule-free play, "We will Destroyed by what we love." This "thing we love" is "excessive entertainment" and "pan-entertainment". "News, culture, sports, and business have all willingly become appendages of entertainment, and we have become a species that is 'entertained to death'." 3 . A small step for culture, a giant step for freedom. Cultural criticism is related to the imaginative resources of national freedom and the eternal value judgment of mankind. "The night gave me black eyes, but I used them to find light." In the 1970s, Gu Cheng recited in a poem. In today's more diverse, more open, and more tolerant era, aren't critics the eyes that guide the cultural world toward the bright future? From the perspective of the origin of the discipline and the genealogy of knowledge, cultural criticism, which was born in the 1980s, has a special historical background and cultural value. Originating from the Frankfurt School, cultural criticism integrates linguistics, semiotics, structuralism, narratology, psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology and other ideological and academic resources. It is the cultural and ideological circle's analysis of the complex relationship between politics, economy, culture and society. A new understanding. In this sense, the research method of cultural criticism is far away from the trivial separation of literary texts, narratives, metaphors, symbols, prototypes, styles, signifiers, signifieds, and rhythms in literary criticism, and away from the abstract grasp of artistic forms and artistic techniques. , the value of its existence is that it pays more attention to human nature, the present, practice, the aesthetic judgment and meaning identification of daily life, the cultural industry, the cultural market, popular culture and the Chinese modernization model, which mark the society of contemporary Chinese intellectuals. The renewed prominence of their sense of responsibility and participation marks their sense of social responsibility and participation. “Criticism and creation are based on common sense. The inquiry and presentation of the charm of heaven, earth and people are related to destiny, situation, emotion, body, ethics and breaking the rules, and the imaginative resources of national freedom and basic human values... Shi Zhanjun, deputy dean and critic of Lu Xun Academy of Literature, wrote affectionately. Understanding culture, loving truth, being perceptive, knowing right from wrong, and being knowledgeable about history are undoubtedly the qualities that an excellent cultural critic should possess. Only from this starting point and these qualities can we build a city of light for cultural judgment. Judging from the Chinese usage habits, "criticism" includes at least two parts, "criticism" and "comment". Qian Wenzhong believes that "criticism" is not the "criticism" of great criticism, but the traditional Chinese reading method, that is, the "comment" of trying to be calm and rational.
This is the channel and way to obtain knowledge and express opinions in the traditional Chinese cultural system. "Comment", we especially need to pay attention to the "ping" next to the word. We should strive to be gentle in our words, tone, and attitude, and we should especially avoid deliberately going to extremes for the sake of sensationalism. "Critics should always remind themselves that the life of criticism is a process of striving towards justice, fairness and peace." "Every small step in human culture is a giant step towards freedom." As Engels pointed out Yes, the prosperity of culture in history has always been accompanied by the activity of criticism. When culture is prosperous, the channels of speech will be smooth. An era when criticism is healthy must also be an era when culture is prosperous. Compared with the past, cultural criticism has a more tolerant space today. How to live up to this space, proactively maintain the purity of culture and criticism, and actively resist the temptation of human relationships, commercial temptations, and the temptation of fame and fortune. This is worthy of the majority of cultural work. Questions for readers to ponder. The rapid changes of the times have created the ever-changing character of culture. Whether it is the improvement of scientific and technological means or the reform of cultural systems, whether it is the diversification of information resources or the opening of public opinion platforms, Chinese culture is in the best era of unprecedented development and construction. The value of positive and healthy cultural criticism lies in the fact that critics should not just linger in the spotlight of the cultural stage, but should also travel to the boundaries of cultural thought and the pinnacle of the human spirit. Today's era is an era of cultural prosperity and development. At this important historical turning point, the stricter the constraints we impose on critics and the higher their self-discipline, the greater the cultural responsibility they need to bear. Critics should standardize the rules and styles of cultural criticism and predict the future development prospects and directions of Chinese culture through mutual training, mutual response, and mutual integration with cultural works, cultural products, and cultural environments. Although cultural criticism in the "transformation" has lost the glory and edge of the 1980s, it should be affirmed that since the 1990s, cultural criticism has been moving forward in self-reflection, and its pace has become more and more determined. Wu Yiqin, executive deputy director of the Museum of Modern Literature of China, believes that many serious critics have always been conscientious in the front line of cultural criticism. On the road of cultural criticism, their steps are firm and calm, and their reflections are rigorous and profound. From this, we see the hope of Chinese cultural criticism and the hope of Chinese culture.