Zheng Yongnian: China should worry about cultural degradation most

Zheng Yongnian column

China's modernity starts from the cultural field, which makes sense.China's modernization is not endogenous, but is born through foreign factors.For a long time, people have argued about the problem of the sprouting of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some people believe that if there is no invasion of Western powers, China itself may develop modern capitalism.

However, China has not developed capitalism, and at least it has not developed capitalism earlier than the West.It is not difficult to understand modernity from the cultural field, because if the cultural concept is unchanged, it is impossible for any changes.

The essence of cultural changes is the emancipation of ideology, and it is the process of establishing a worldview in the nation, the country, and individuals. In modern times, the establishment of the world view is a long and painful process.The traditional Chinese concept is deeply ingrained. Only after repeated failures in the process of dealing with the West, a small number of elites began to realize that there are strongers besides China.But even such a basic fact, it is difficult to accept the rulers, let alone a public who has nothing to do with politics.

Lin Zexu presided over the compiled Sizhi, and talked about some basic facts in the West, but not only was not accepted, but became an important reason for being exiled to the frontiers.On the basis of the Sizhou Zhi, Wei Yuan was compiled into the chart of the sea country, but it did not spread in China. Instead, it became the treasure in Japan.

It is more painful to accept basic facts, and the introduction of Western technology is even more painful.In 1868, there was a telegram in the West, and some elites tried to introduce it, but the official was not accepted until 1880. This acceptance was not sincere and sincere, but the product of senior officials in the court.In fact, this is the case for steam engines, railways and other technologies.After the British Industrial Revolution, almost all countries imitated the United Kingdom and strived to learn something from the UK to catch up with Britain.It is difficult for people to find another country to resist the technological revolution like the late Qing Dynasty.

When the official ideological form of the Qing Dynasty (or the identity politics today) reached the fact that it could not face and accept the basic facts, the fate of its failure was inevitable.Only after being completely defeated by the West, it was time for life and death that people started to learn from the West, but at this time, the blood and efforts of several generations had experienced the blood and efforts of several generations.The May 4th New Culture Movement summarized Western culture as democracy and science, because these two major elements constitute the success of the West in modern times.

Posmoral Democracy also science first

The process of Western history is scientific and then democratic, or the Renaissance after the Renaissance, but the intellectual elites in China at that time put democracy before science.Today, this replacement is also very reasonable.Democracy is enlightenment and liberate people from ignorance; how can people accept science if people are still at a ignorance stage?

Today, although the road to democracy in China is still looking for, science has been accepted early.The ideological form held by the Communist Party of China is scientific socialism.To a large extent, scientific socialism has evolved into a belief, and even some people are regarded as extreme (especially during the Cultural Revolution).However, in such a scientific culture in China, this extreme is also implicitly implicitly rational.Once you relax your vigilance, the ignorance part of the popular culture will easily rise, and it will spread quickly.

This is the case today.Some aspects of Chinese society seem to return to the cultural atmosphere before modern times.

Not long ago, Tencent's WeChat based on relevant rules, permanently banned the public accounts of non -real information, incite, exaggerate, and misleading content, including eight series related accounts such as Taoist Palace.WeChat said that during the crown disease epidemic, the platform deleted about 9,000 articles suspected of exaggerating misleading series, 6915 articles on rumors, and 20,000 public account restrictions and titles.

According to Tencent, the public account of the Taoist Palace has published a number of rumors that integrate false information, incite public emotions, and misleading rumors, including the United States made corpses into hamburger and other rumors.The public account of the Daoxue Palace was registered on April 9, 2015. It is estimated that more than 1 million active fans are estimated.

There are also independent websites to the Taoist Palace.The website once published a number of web articles, which is extremely exaggerated.For example, the public account published an article called dying: In an article in the United States sinking, the United States said that the United States made corpses into frozen meat, making adult meat burgers and human hot dogs.Learning English can make people stupid. It is said that Chinese is the mother of global language. English is a low -level language and the fourth -generation inferior product of Chinese.

Many people naturally clapped their hands about the ban on the public accounts such as the Daoxue Palace.However, this may be just the tip of the iceberg. How many public accounts are similar to the Taoist Palace?How many such public accounts are born every day?How much is the more clever and more advanced media than the Taoist Palace.

By the 21st century, why is this happening?

This still has to return to the theme of democracy and science.Today, people enjoy the material conditions that make themselves rationally unprecedented.This is not the case, because the public has never accepted cultural enlightenment, and the appearance of material conditions has moved towards the opposite side.Although material conditions are rational products, people have once again become ignorant through the material conditions that appear.

This problem can be looked at the following perspective.

Elite culture of inferior culture

The first is the rise of the Internet and social media, leading to the phenomenon of elite culture elimination.Since ancient times, the ignorance factor has all countries. To build a rational society of everyone, it is purely utopian so far.As a community, the key to whether society is rational is whether these ignorance factor floats to the surface and dominate society.Prior to the generation of Internet and social media, the ignorance factor did not show himself, and it could not become the mainstream of society.Volkswagen media such as newspapers, radio and television are actually elite media, and the elites have spread their views to the public through these media.However, the Internet and social media have completely inverted this. The reality is that the public spread their views to the elite through the Internet and social media.

Since entering the Internet, especially in the era of social media, the cultural rejuvenation of people's hope is not seen, but they have witnessed the continuous and rapid corruption of the culture, and there is no bottom line.Over the years, things that have been regarded as inferior culture in the past have appeared on the cultural stage through the Internet and social media.If measured by readers or traffic, these inferior cultures have become a trend of mainstream culture.

The process of eliminating elite culture in inferior culture is also the process of emotional elimination.Over the years, the speed of eliminating elite culture in inferior culture is amazing.Today's communication channels are not comparable to tradition.The traditional reliance on pen and ink is now computers and social media.

Tradition is an elite system and is now an elite elimination system.Tang Shi Song Ci cannot be said to be a boutique of literati elites. Mr. Lu Xun before liberation cannot be said to be an elite.But it is difficult to appear such an elite now.Internet and social media can effectively kill these elites in sprouts.How many articles written by Mr. Lu Xun read?The people who read were very limited, because the literacy rate at that time was not high and the communication channels were limited. If the person who read his article was either his fans or his enemy, but whether it was a fan or an enemy, the education level was very high or civilized.

But now I can't get out of Lu Xun because I died because of the report.If you have a sensitive, you will be reported, deleted, and interviewed; if you don't listen, the entire network will be blocked.More importantly, the reporters are often those who have not learned a few words and have not read a few books. Although no one wants to offend them, they can report them as soon as they are unhappy.

Vulgar and die.Related to it, if you want to spread effectively, you must surrender to social media to cater to the taste of the public and go down.There is no way out, no way out.

Secondly, politically, it has gone through.Politically exist, and is universal and inevitable.Politically referOne element is not in a state of freedom to be completely casual, but a criterion and boundary of words and deeds.Since entering the Internet era, with the deepening of recognition of politics, the scope of politics has become more and more widely covered.

As far as the country is concerned, nationalism and patriotism are the most important parts of group recognition.Nationalism and patriotism are a cultural foundation of a nation and country.Therefore, more and more countries have more and more politically correct ideas around the nation and the country.

Because identifying politics is shaped through the relationship between me and others. Once you walk through, it is easy to cause the polarization of the moralization of your own.Influenced by narrow nationalism, many people open their mouths and their patriotism, and regard different opinions as not patriotic or even selling the country.At the same time, although people do not like the demons of other countries, there is no lack of great motivation to demonize other countries.

Some people are amazed that they have become so popular in such a short period of time full of nationalist imagination, false news, and analysis.For these media people, what and what can be published is no longer a problem, but a question that dare to dare.Anti -Zhi, Anti -Foreign, and Anti -humans, as long as they can generate traffic, everything is okay.All Western support is opposed; all Western opposition supports.

Beyond the boundary is non -rational

Whether it is nationalism or patriotism, once the border is surpassed, it will evolve into irrational.The original intention of nationalism and patriotism is to maximize national interests, and irrational nationalism and patriotism often lead to minimizing national interests.In the era of globalization, more and more countries are part of the international system, and national interests must be implemented in the international environment.

If you emphasize your own interests too much, it will affect the interests of other countries.Agree with politics to separate themselves and others, but at the actual interest level, itself and others are related.Therefore, today's identity politics has also tended to lead to conflict between countries.

Third, the rise of business nationalism.Economist Joseph Schumpeter once believed that nationalism and business society could not coexist.He believes that nationalism is the surplus of ancient national emotions and manifested as irrational; and business represents rationality and calculations, so nationalist emotions will withdraw from the historical stage with the rise of business society.Reality proves that he was wrong.Regardless of developed or developing countries, whether it is democracy or non -democratic, the rise of the business society not only fails to reduce nationalism, but has contributed to the rise of nationalism.

Unlike nationalism and patriotism, it is not national interests or national interests, but its own economic interests.In the process of promoting nationalism and patriotism, some companies have obtained huge economic benefits.This is not limited to the spread of irrational nationalism. The ignorance culture mentioned earlier is popular through the Internet and social media platforms.Once the mood and business are combined, it can easily lead to the flood of irrational culture.

In this overall circumstances, such a basic layout has appeared in Chinese culture: in the countryside, cultural vacuum, and various heresias, there are many cults;Doctrine or nationalism; while high -end elites gather in large cities, some choices are silent, some choose to be extreme, and more cultural people quickly decline, either to join the Taoist Palace, or cater to the taste of the public.Although people believe that China is close to the center of the world, people's world views are becoming more and more worldwide.

This is not a trend that people want.If the phenomenon of cultural degeneration continues, the decline of culture is inevitable.When the culture is declining, the country will lose the motivation to improve.

How to change and reverse the current situation?Progress comes from rationality and science.The ruling party must play the most important role in this process.The Communist Party of China has long established three concepts of views, that is, the Communist Party represents the most advanced social productivity, the most advanced culture and the interests of the most people.In other words, the Communist Party is still a missionary party, a political party to continue to transform society and achieve progress.

In the age of political identity, public opinion has become important.However, as a ruling party with a historical mission, not only cannot define and measure public opinion with traffic (how many readers), but also cannot simply succumb to such public opinion.A missionary party must still maintain the concept of backwardness and progress, barbaric and civilized.As the history has been shown in modern times, the modernity of culture can only be achieved through the opening of culture.How to shape a rational, progressive and civilized national culture under the conditions of globalization, openness, and business is undoubtedly a huge challenge to the ruling party.

The author is a professor at the East Asia Research Institute of Singapore's National University

The article only represents personal point of view