Source: trendy Meditations (id:xinchaochensi)
Author: Mu baitonggan
From a historical perspective, the capitalist system has cultivated the typical characteristics of art and science. Fashion, an imported product from English fashion; As an industry completely subordinate to the western discourse system, the fashion industry seems to be leading a certain trend since it was introduced into China. The curiosity about new things and the inseparable relationship with the film and television entertainment industry make the public easily and quickly accept its arrival. Since the incident of dujiabanna humiliating China, the “creation” of the “yellow disaster face” image in the fashion circle began to attract public attention, which surprised us that we have long been infiltrated by western fashion aesthetics.
Current situation of domestic fashion industry
Most domestic fashion magazines are Chinese editions of Western magazines, and most of their contents are based on the so-called international fashion trends, international luxury brand shows, art exhibitions, etc. it is almost difficult to see the systematic dissemination of Chinese traditional clothing and excellent culture. Even though a number of domestic fashion magazines have emerged in recent years, they are still no different from other Chinese magazines in form, content and overall operation: the same photographers, the same fashion stylists, the same makeup stylists, the same “cutting leeks” mode, the only difference is probably the shooting stars.
The operation system of fashion magazines shooting star covers in order to get more attention (earn more profits) has brought a group of fashion photographers into the public view, and most of these photographers are a group of people affected by the western art system. Chen man, who shot “Chinese twelve colors”, “Young Pioneers” and other “works” to cater to Western stereotypes, actually hung one of his photos at his home in Shanghai.
A photographer surnamed Zhang said that he studied traditional Chinese painting when he was a child, but he was deeply influenced by Japanese culture and shot many works full of Japanese style; With the gimmick of Oriental culture and Chinese culture, he shot “masterpieces” from the perspective of Oriental colonialism one after another with various forms of strange symbols (for example, part of his work “romantic China” was filmed, full of stereotyped China in the eyes of Westerners in the last century, even if the brief introduction of the work is “love in the revolutionary era”), However, the fashion industry has set up the title of using the “unique style” of oriental aesthetics for it, which makes many photography or fashion lovers and clothing brands strive to pursue.
In the author’s opinion, what is more serious is that these photographers often establish a relatively absolute right to speak within the industry. Under the influence of their various works, college students in the learning stage think that this is the “new Chinese style” of photography and makeup, and carry out reference, imitation and cycle, leading to the fact that most of today’s Chinese style commercial photography is full of similar style symbols.
The following two films are the most confusing and angry for the author. In the first scene setting effect, the huge red five pointed star is actually placed with Japanese ukiyo elements; I wonder if the author is too “sensitive”. The second “element” is very similar to the party flag. Can the party flag be used in this way?
Even photographers who have gained attention with “Chinese style”, “freehand brushwork” and “fine brushwork” still cannot escape the neglect of cultural knowledge and regard the dry landscape as Tang style. Taking Chinese culture as the inspiration and the gimmick as the banner, the films and magazine covers are not subordinate to the aesthetic system of China’s excellent traditional culture at all. Such cases can be found everywhere. At the same time, the author believes that behind the operation of each complete “work”, costume stylists and hair dressers cannot be completely separated from their responsibilities.
Chinese aesthetics stresses the unity of knowledge, emotion, meaning and action. It stresses conciseness, conciseness and moderation. In the field of fashion design, “new Chinese style” has become a key word of clothing trend, but as long as you pay a little attention to it, you will find that “new Chinese style” is mostly a simple and direct use of Chinese elements. It is a stack of combinations of various elements such as cheongsam, buckle, crane, auspicious cloud, and so on. There is no deep research and Reform in shape (style) and style implication. Some brands are in modeling The propaganda map also has more or less Japanese style.
Most domestic independent designers boast that they are “spring and snow”, holding a set of Western thinking mode learned from abroad to express their so-called “artistic freedom”. At the same time, they also call on the public to pay more attention to independent designer brands, and “sigh” that the domestic creative environment is not friendly. The author believes from beginning to end that, on the one hand, it is not that the domestic creative environment is not friendly, nor that the public has not paid attention to it, but that most designers have never really understood the meaning of Chinese culture, and have not designed clothing products that are truly revolutionary and highlight Chinese cultural heritage and Chinese style images.
On the other hand, the high product prices of independent designers cannot sink the market. When we review the art of the Renaissance, we will find that the art of the Renaissance was produced for the emerging bourgeoisie, and the artists who produced them depended on the members of the bourgeoisie, which was their art, not the mass art of the people at the bottom. Similarly, fashion itself never belongs to the people at the bottom. Its emergence and existence is to serve the interests of the upper class.
Even though the foreign clothing brand boycott of Xinjiang cotton once caused a climax on the Internet, with the passage of time and domestic public opinion has been in a state of uncertainty, all kinds of humiliating events seem to have been forgotten. Dujiabanna’s products can still be quietly published in fashion magazines. Red bloggers on various networks still carry out the so-called “craft designer training program” for some brand platforms that resist Xinjiang cotton. Even the China Women’s development foundation and China’s textile industry have launched the so-called “craft designer training program” with one of the brands that resist Xinjiang cotton, and the training content is minority handicrafts. It is ridiculous that the development of handicrafts of ethnic minorities in our country actually needs to cooperate with a foreign brand that boycotts Xinjiang cotton.
Costume film and television drama modeling is mostly “design guidance” by Hong Kong and Taiwan stylists who have firmly mastered the vast majority of resources in the industry. Mainland film and television makeup makers in the industry are likely to be affected by Hong Kong and Taiwan stylists. The phenomenon of “Japanese instead of Tang” and “Korean instead of Ming” in film and television clothing is emerging one after another. The recently broadcast online drama “my name is liujinfeng”, the extremely obvious Japanese clothing has caused many dissatisfaction, but it has not attracted the attention of all parties; In terms of setting scenery props, Japanese courtyards and food are countless;
There will always be some people who accuse the party who raises the problem of “making a mountain out of a molehill” with a similar diction “it’s also passed from us anyway”. No matter where the culture, art, clothing and other sources of other countries come from, they have already formed a complete and systematic system unique to them over the years of development, which is obviously different from Chinese culture. This is by no means an excuse for the above behavior.
Monopolized voice
Both art and science can create identity and cohesion, but they have long been completely capitalized by the monopoly capitalist system for their own interests. If you pay more attention to fashion magazines or film and television modeling, it is not difficult to find that most of the projects in this industry are in the hands of a few people, forming a monopoly of literature and art. The film and television entertainment and fashion industries are showing a bright image, which makes people feel that most of the relevant practitioners will earn a lot of money.
It happens that the author once had a very short internship experience in the fashion industry. The real situation is that the salary of marginal employees is very low, and they are basically below the level of life. The salary of internship modeling assistant, internship Editing Assistant, internship broker assistant and so on ranges from 1000 to 3500 per month. Yes, you are right. The salary range of 1000 to 2000 is normal, and the places of relevant work are basically in Beijing and Shanghai, The salary after becoming a regular is generally 3000 ~ 5000 per month. (the post names after becoming a regular are modeling assistant or assistant stylist, editing assistant and broker assistant in turn.
Naturally, there will be people who get higher salaries. What the author describes here is a relatively common salary range), not to mention that most magazine companies and film and television companies basically have no chance to become regular, which is called “one radish, one pit”. As netizens said, “80% of the profits are in the hands of 20% of the people”, which also indirectly leads to the fact that most of the practitioners who can survive in the industry are people who do not need to consider economic issues, and how to obtain more industry resources, how to steadily promote, how to have a certain say in the industry is even more difficult.
Constantly catering to western aesthetic disciplines seems to be one of the important ways to gain attention in the industry. After all, most recruitment information will indicate that “having studying abroad experience is preferred”.
It is reasonable to say that China’s cultural discourse power is very much in need of industry practitioners, namely industry leaders, to take the lead in establishing, but most of the discourse leaders of the industry also have a sense of “public knowledge”. With the rapid improvement of economic level, the improvement of China’s international status and international discourse power, the enhancement of national cultural self-confidence, the popularization of compulsory education, and the improvement of the public’s aesthetics and thoughts, people no longer blindly worship western culture and are easily attracted and confused by Western things as they once were, and there are more and more talents with high academic qualifications and high-level ideology and culture, The “household name” of the entertainment industry has also led to the “widespread awareness” of fashion and related industries. The ideological cognition and professional skills that have remained unchanged in the industry for more than ten years day after day are no longer in line with the development requirements of Chinese culture, but the employees still stay in the past ideological cognition, maybe they are incompetent, or they have never thought of change in their subjective will.
Art Colleges and universities are established by the state to develop the standards, styles and skills of art, but in the field of culture and art, almost all of them are westernized education systems. There are countless scholars and teachers who worship the west, regard foreign countries as their religion, and are obsessed with Japanese culture; The discourse leaders in the industry, “out of the circle” photographers, designers, etc. go to universities and platforms with a pile of titles to give lectures, share and output, and become the object of many students’ pursuit, worship, learning, reference and reference; Most students have a biased understanding of the content of Ideological and political courses, but blindly praise the so-called artistic freedom in the west, which makes colleges and universities send batch after batch of “high-end art talents” under the western art aesthetic system to the industry.
Constructing a literary and artistic system with Chinese characteristics
Films, television, advertisements, magazines, and even the outer packaging of products have undoubtedly become the carrier of cultural communication. How to build a socialist communication system and how to realize the autonomy and autonomy of the socialist realistic cultural system to avoid a high degree of dependence on capitalist culture is still an unavoidable problem.
In terms of theory, there is no systematic Chinese Marxist literary theory system that can guide practice at present; In the specific practice of related industries, it is inevitable that there is a misunderstanding of Chinese culture and even cognitive bias; The system of Chinese clothing has not been effectively inherited, and most clothing majors in Colleges and universities use the plate making textbooks compiled by the Institute of Japanese culture and clothing.
Innovation is never made out of thin air. Innovation must be a creative change based on fully absorbing excellent traditional culture, taking its essence and discarding its dross, making the past serve the present, making foreign things serve China, and weeding out the old to bring forth the new. Without a full study and understanding of excellent traditional culture, and without the process of in-depth research, it is impossible to make the works created with Chinese style and Chinese style.
Why do we begin to reaffirm the ideological role of literature and art? It is undeniable that we mistakenly introduced the methods of struggle in the political field into the field of literature and art. After the reform and opening-up, the enlightenment discourse of the intellectual elite was established again. With the attitude of the historical subject and the role of opening up the wisdom of the people, it solemnly sounded the horn of human liberation, and the angry criticism allowed the pent up soul to be vented. One after another, new humanistic thoughts were intertwined with fantasy and vision.
When the masses are naive and eager to embrace foreign culture and believe in “artistic freedom” and “cultural freedom”, western capitalist countries have long used cultural hegemony to invade and infiltrate our culture and art. Only capitalist realism claims the metaphysical concept of “science and art are pure, value free or non political”.
We oppose the excessive politicization of literature and art, but it does not mean that we should completely ignore the ideological role of literature and art. Excellent literature and art not only have an impact on a country, nation and society, but also, more importantly, have a profound and lasting impact on a culture from the perspective of foundation and popularity, which constitutes cultural soft power.
Up to now, a very important question we must think about is, since modernity, that is, since the Sinicization of Marxist literary theory, why does the knowledge production of Chinese thought and literary theory continue to have a tendency to obscure or interrupt the effective transmission and transformation of traditional ideological resources, and what is the reason for the loss of this main line of thought and value that determines the lifeline of the nation? This is an important topic that needs to be explored in depth for the Sinicization of Marxist literary theory in the new era.
The symbol of establishing a Chinese Marxist literary and artistic theory is still to create and establish a set of theoretical paradigms and discourse belonging to China on the basis of effectively absorbing and learning from the excellent heritage of ancient and modern literary theories at home and abroad. The most important thing is to have a high recognition of Chinese values and national cultural identity, so as to form our own theoretical originality and build a set of conceptual system belonging to Chinese discourse Terms and specifications.
The purpose of learning and reference is to draw on the strengths of others and enrich our own national culture. If you lose your creativity, blindly worship and copy the values of western capitalism, you will only follow suit and become a vassal of others. History and reality tell us that a country should be independent, not only politically and economically, but also ideologically and culturally. From theory to practice, from traceability to innovation, from academic system to talent training, from knowledge popularization to cultural dissemination, every link in this process requires us to practice repeatedly, and finally form our independent cultural system.
Resist cultural colonization, reaffirm national cultural identity, and eliminate the legacy of the colonial era; There is a long way to go to break the existing westernized literary and art disciplines in the industry, build a new literary and art system with Chinese characteristics, and establish and master cultural leadership. However, we still believe that with the continuous efforts of generations, it will eventually be achieved.
Reference books:
1. The road of attachment: communication, capitalism, consciousness and Canada, written by Dallas Smythe, translated by Wu Changchang and Zhang Ying
2. Yan’an Literature and art and the Sinicization of Marxist literature and art theory in the 20th century, written by Li Xijian
3. Marxist literary theory, written by lizhixiong