Jin Danyuan

English Abstracts On the Deficiency of the Neo-Martial-Arts Films in Contemporary China

Jin Danyuan

The contemporary martial arts films are developing with an salient tendency of being more commercial, comsumptive, entertaining and spectacular. As the films’ production is increased and the box office is promoted,there are different opinions and criticism on these neo-martial-arts films, among which the deficiency of these films becomes obvious. The main deficiency lies in the films’ aesthetic popularization, especially the blankness of the films’cultural connotation featured by their discarding of thoughts and values, as well as their discursively parody of history, blindly worship for image spectacles, over-consumption of film stars, and so on.

Abstract: The traditional writing paradigm of art history centered on the Western is unsuitable for the reality of art development in a globalized times. It is bound to be replaced by the writing of “global arts’ history”. The new book The World is Flat and Beautiful by Liu Yuedi tries to make a contemporary construction of the art history in a globalized perspective. Based on a globalized culture featured by the daily-life normalization of aesthetics and the aestheticization of daily life, the book tries to formulate a new aesthetic pattern which integrates with daily life. This aesthetic pattern is a localized theoretical construction in that it is founded on Chinese traditional artistic life experience and philosophy, and thus obviously refers to reality and people’s concrete concerns. It opens up a feasible research method for the future development of Chinese aesthetics.

A Well-Off Society and Belief Predicament: Review of“To Urge Some to Have Belief First”

Chen Bohai

Abstract: Belief is a reflection of human’s ultimate concern which is deeply rooted in reality. As the process of building a well-off society involves differentiation and contradiction, China should be empowered with an open life idea based on the principle of “harmonious coexistence”which takes legal justice and reciprocal benefits as the premises, in an end to have the ability to communicate with the Heaven, and have the experiences for the development of a new belief centered on nature and humanity.

Questions on Belief

Yan Guozhong

Abstract: Truth, goodness and beauty is transcendental over times and nations. Aesthetics is the best point to begin the discussion of belief because true belief is oriented to truth, goodness and beauty. This paper begins with the analysis of belief from anthropological and phychological perspectives, and then traces back to Laozi’s, Confucius’ belief and Plato’s, Augustin’s belief, stduying the relationship between belief, religion, philosophy and arts as well as questions concerning belief crisis. It concludes that the highest level of human spiritual life is belief which embodies world outlook, philosophy on life and values. Therefore, to reestablish the divine status of truth, goodness and beauty is a gigantic task for the whole society.

Dress: One Element of Contemporary Mythology

Yan Xianglin

Abstract: In postmodern consumer society, dress, streaked with myth by the popular social consciousness, has undergone a profound revolution from form to concept, from symbols to meaning, from the signifier to the signified. In whatever view of aesthetics of dress, passive or active, dress is thought to have surpassed its own false consciousness, which is the primary cause of the birth of “dress mythology”. The second cause lies in that dress is given a certain false idea in comsuming, and thus is added with a symbolic meaning which transforms into a symbolized capital. It assumes the over-loaded expectation from appreciators and comsumers, helps the birth of mythological consciousness, and thus strengthens its myth odor. This is the connotation and secret of contemporary dress mythology.

Collective Selection Between Ideology and Taste: Xinmin Evening News and the Dress Fashion In Early Years of Socialist Shanghai

Dong Qian

Abstract: Based on the coverage drawn from Xinmin Evening News, this paper summarizes the major fashion mechanism and framing of Xinmin Evening News during early years of the socialist Shanghai by explicating the three aspect of dressing: costumes in transitional stage, dressing reform campaign and ‘wearing old dress’ campaign. The conclusion of this paper is:although the role of the ruling authority in the fashion constructing of Shanghai is significant, ordinary people shows a kind of pragmatic collective selection when they distinguish, select and integrate between the officially advocated fashion and other fashion resolutions. This rational style lasts from modern Shanghai till now as a relatively stable part of the culture of Shanghai. Xinmin Evening News shows the clues as a sample of complicated cultural memory.

The Multicultural Question

Stuart Hall

Abstract: Britain’s multicultural situation now appears as more frequent racist incidents. On the one hand, there is an urgent need for a fair and just society to protect the ethnic minority people. On the other hand, we also need to recognize the role of the politics of recognition, and our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence. Expansion and colonization, globalization, migration, and mixed community not only intensify the generation of racism, but also promote the development of multiculturalism. What needs to be recognized is that ethnic is not an anthropological issue but a political one. The generation of ethnic began with cultural differences, and then promoted physical characteristics difference. Therefore, they are not only citizens' political entities, but also the imagined communities. It is a kind of collective identity, within the system of cultural representation. Of course, the value of freedom of multiculturalism is also important. It enables ethnic no longer closed and single, becoming a characteristic of multicultural, which needs to recognize and coordinate with other features.

Inactuality and Originality of the Contemporary French Literature

Jean Bessière

Abstract: The contemporary French literature is mainly composed of two parts of work: one innovatively inherits the tradition of the Avant-Garde in the 1920-1930s and the 1950-1970s, the other refuses this tradition. Through analysing novels, poetries, dramas and literary criticism in contemporary French literature of the past forty years, this paper intends to illustrate the properties of each part of literature respectively, the differences between contemporary French literature and its counterpart worldwide and therefore, to analyse the originality of contemporary French literature and its role in the world history of ideas, art and literature.

The Sobbing Breast: Susan Sontag and Her Illness as Metaphor

Zhou Jun

Abstract: Susan Sontag suffered breast cancer when she was 43 years old. After two years of treatment, she was lucky to be recovered. However, she sufferd a lot from and out of the illness. During the treatment, she contemplated her illness and its metaphor, and tries to decode illness as metaphor by words and thoughts in order to embrace truth while clearing up shadows and calling for pluralism by terminating unitary. Sontag and her Illness as Metaphor shed a new and brilliant light on human thoughts.

Interpretation of Liu Xie’s Literary Thoughts (Part I)

Tong Qingbing

Abstract: Every generation of learned man tries to interpret Liu Xie’s The Litrary Mind and the Carving of the dragon after its publication. So does this essay. This essay analyses Liu Xie’s literary ideas from these four aspects: wen ben hu dao, literary style, shensi composing and zhiyin appreciation. Firstly, he proposes the general question of yuan dao. Secondly, the book of The Litrary Mind and the Carving of the dragon epitomizes the stylistics in Wei-Jin, Southern & Northern Dynasties, composing of four elements. Thirdly, The Litrary Mind and the Carving of the dragon involves discussions on literary composition from the beginning to the end, with the essay of shensi as the genenal idea. Fourthly, the book expounds the idea of appreciation.

The Boom of Jiangnan’s Local Multi-Genre Theatres in Shanghai

Zhou Xishan

Abstract: Many local theatres once boomed in Jiangnan moved to Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century, and achieved a prosperous development, It includes not only Shanghai opera, Kunqu opera, Peijing opera and other 11 genres of Jiangnan operas, but Guangdong opera from the south and Bangzi opera from the north. All these constitute are formed a shared cultural resources, which embody shared themes, shared music and exchange of performance. The presents of these local operas contribute a lot to social and economic benefts such as the contribution to Chinese culture and theatre, the boom of media, and the enrichness of residents’ life. It is also signifcant to the proposal of “to cultivate and heighten cultural awareness and cultural confdence” by Chinese government.

Hongkou Area and the Mystery of Distribution of the Early Cinemas in Shanghai

Huang Bei

Abstract: The cinemas in Shanghai were mostly located in Hongkou area on the north bank of the Suzhou River before 1920’s. Due to its advantage in location and the establishment of the American Concession, Hongkou enjoyed not only prime price of the land but also multi-culture from immigrants. The scale of the modern cinemas marked a new phase of development of entertainment industry in Shanghai. It also shows that the requirement of the land in Hongkou had evolved into a comprehensive function of a city from single oriented of trade function.

Contemporary Writing of Art History & the Construction of Life Aesthetics

Li Lei