English Abstracts

Searching for the Cultural Significance of the Community of Human Destiny:Answer to the Questions of Shanghai Culture

Gao Jianqun

Gao Jianqun, known as the last Knight of romantic literature, is a writer with lofty feeling and idealism in Chinese literary world. His literary writing has its unique cultural vision and special cultural value and significance. He narrates the modern Chinese revolution in the conflict between the farming civilization and the nomadic civilization on the Loess Plateau, surveys the family history in the intersection of agricultural civilization and industrial civilization in the Guanzhong Plain, and puts the Chinese civilization in the context of the rise and fall of the ethnic history and the reconstruction of civilization in the context of the community of human destiny, which opens up a new realm of “l(fā)iterary Shanjun”, and a new cultural field for China's modern and contemporary literary creation.

The Voluntary Spirit in the View of Marx's Existentialism

Wang Gang

The voluntary spirit, a kind of practical spirit with vital characteristics as well as “another dimension” to achieve the transcendence and perfection of human nature, constitutes an important moral experience for individuals to participate in public life. From the perspective of Marx's Existentialism, we can theoretically clarify the practical mechanism of voluntary spirit and its basic process of practice and future direction of development to attach importance to the existence concern and life care of volunteers in practice, and to develop the function of “experience” in the process of cultivation of volunteerism, and to realize the “transformation of knowing and doing” from volunteer conscience to life care.

Comparative Study on Contemporary Aesthetic Models of Art

Wang Yanhui

The aesthetic models in the art processing experience are the foundation of the interactive theories of man and art. These models indicate new empirical focuses and hypothetic realms which are increasingly important for psychological theory and brain knowledge. This paper makes an introduction and comparison of several representative researches and the aesthetic models and theories of contemporary art sorted out by Pelowsiki and his companions, in which way the implication and the direction of future developments can be comprehensively compared and discussed, and the engagement of human brain mechanism in the visual art will be clarified in theory.

Computer Art as an Aesthetic Problem Domain

Zhu Tianhua

The application of computer technology in the field of art has given rise to the concept of computer art, but due to the connotations and forms in related artistic practices and works, it is difficult to define them precisely with discoursal or formal methodologies. Thematic definition guided by situational logic provides a feasible way to define it. Since the beginning of introducing computer technology into art practice, the concerns of creators and relevant commentators can be reduced to three themes: the relationship between art and technology, the problem of machine creation, and contemporary ontology of art. They are primitive and mutually supportive, constituting a logical space of questioning, i.e.,a problem domain, which provides a basis for theidentityof computer art. Among them, ontology of art is located at the logical starting point of questioning, and this problem domain is therefore an aesthetic domain. The anticipation that computer art presents and responds to this aesthetic problem domain suggests the plausibilityof its being anartistic category.

A Study on the Development of Contemporary Chinese Game Culture

Deng Jian

The history of Chinese game culture can be divided into four periods. In the 1980s, “Electronic Game” is named to indicate the historical memory of socialist electronic industry, while in the 1990s the collision between native thoughts and foreign game culture gives birth to the first generation of domestic games of which Chinese image is taken as the theme. Then in the 2000s, the MMORPG network game creates a “Game Utopia” of the post-revolutionary era. However, since the middle of 2000s, “Game Utopia” is gradually disenchanted by consumerism. In the 2010s, MOBA game, under the basic framework of game capitalism, contributes to the birth of “Game Dream Works”, signifying that the game culture steps into “Industrial Era”.

On Chen Hengzhe's Professional Female Writing from Transcultural Perspective

Wang Yunxia, Cao Ting

As the first modern Chinese female writer to study abroad, Chen Hengzhe expressed her cross-cultural thoughts on modern professional women with her diversified writing methods. The transformation of the protagonist from “she” to “Lois” means that she tries to reveal the dilemma of modern women's career and marriage in a broader cross-cultural context. The love tragedy in the middle ages, the perplexity of the protagonist in Rousseau's new Eloise and the writer's real situation also form a very tense dialogue. The English biography of a young Chinese girl interweaves and in filtrates the female destiny and the fable of home and country, and emphasizes that to accept the training of professional knowledge and the influence of multiculturalism is the effective way for modern women to achieve self-development. The translation ofMadame Curie's biographyconstructs the image of Madame Curie as an ideal professional woman. Li Qingzhao's “encounter” and “dialogue” with Madame Curie also reflect a cross-cultural imagination and thinking on female career issues.

On the Underlying Rules of Marriage in the 1920s:A Case Study of the Couple of Gu Jiegang and Yin Lvan

Song Shangshi

The various marital condition in the 1920s was a microscopic mirror image of the coexistence and conflicts of multiple values in Chinese society at the time. The marriage between Gu Jiegang and Yin Lvan provides an opportunity to observe how the new cultural ideas held by intellectuals are self-practiced and how they affect personal life. Gu Jiegang adopted “new women” enlightenment education for Yin Lvan, and cultivated her systematic modern concept withbook lists and the practice of new lifestyles. In this process, Gu Jiegang's teaching gradually became an oppression of knowledge. He actually forced Yin Lian to accept them according to the validity of the value of goodness, which is a paradox from positive freedom to dictatorship. The imbalance of the dual role of being an enlightener and husband leads to the inherent publicity of knowledge masking the intimacy between husband and wife. The above-mentioned facts are the underlying marriage rules of the “semi-new and half-old family” in the 1920s which gradually disappeared with the development of modern and personal history.

Myth Innovation and the Common Structure of Modern Social Emotion:An Analysis of the Causes of the Market Hit of Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child

Shao Yulian, Li Qun

The success ofNezha: Birth of the Demon Childlies in that it is not only the recreation of traditional Chinese mythology which embodies a profound cultural tradition with traditional folk color, but also reflects the times and the culture. The film vividly conveys the audience's desire and demand of ethical emotion, and sublimates and dredges the audience's emotion. The film is a perfect combination of modern ethics of pursuing individuality and self realization withtraditional ethics of breaking stereotypes and calling for family and friendship. The demon child in the film is not a devil in the eyes of the public, since it signifies a return to the traditional family ethics, a call for pure friendship, and a pursuit of selfrealization.

Rudolf G. Wagner's Shanghai Urban Culture Research in the Late Qing Dynasty

Zhao Ren

Rudolf G. Wagner names his modern urban cultural ecosystem “niche” which is an urban cultural research model applicable to a specific historical period, and which can also be interpreted as a culturally diverse and complex relationship between tradition and modernity. Wagner applies this model to the analysis of the overall cultural and ecological environment of Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty, in order to analyze the cultural characteristics of traditional and modernity of Shanghaiin that time. Wagner's description of cultural flows is quite diverse and dialectical.He believes that the integration of Western modern thought into China's political culture can only succeed under the condition of “relatively Chinese”, but at the same time there is a problem of one-sided emphasis on the advantages of modern Western culture.With this unique study of Shanghai culture, Professor Wagner was hired as a distinguished professor of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in August 1996.

The Implication of Political Aesthetic in the Divination Practice of Zhouyi

Fan Gaofeng, Xie Jinliang

The practice of divination inZhouyiembodies an important political aesthetic thought, which mainly permeates the concept of “witchcraft politics” in the divination practice ofZhouyi. When “witchcraft politics” is formed by the combination of divination practice ofZhouyiand politics, there is a kind of political imagination (ideal) to construct the order of perfect politics. This kind of political imagination (ideal) or the order of perfect politics is often endowed with the legitimacy and sanctity of destiny by the witchcraft belief in the concept of “witchcraft politics”,which makes the power owners at that time full of reverent yearning and awe. This kind of yearning, identification and awe for the imagination of perfect politics and the ideal political order just contains an aesthetic sensitivity.

From Pure Poetic Image to Literary Image: On the Image Theory of Benedetto Croce

Jiang Zhihui

The image in Benedetto Croce's aesthetics is the product of the spiritual synthesis, that is, the intuitive expression. It is no longer the“image” of the noumenon idea or the “image” of God in western traditional aesthetics, but a picture of pure spirit, which is called by Croce the pure poetic image. The formation of pure poetic image, focusing on the subject value in artistic creation, is a process of spiritual liberation through overcoming passivity, which also makes art independentfrom the fetters of philosophy and theology. Pure poetry image, however, easily makes aesthetic subject caught in the extremes and absolutes of human development leading to the destruction of the human nature. So Croce's literary images incorporates communication into the scope of literary creation, interrelating subject soul intuition and social culture, which achieves the connection of pure individual mind and civilization. Croce's image view still has important enlightenment to today's literary and artistic creation and criticism, that is, literary and artistic creation and criticism should not only be based on literature and art itself, but also be people-oriented, so as to realize the effective communication between aesthetic subject's mind and social culture.

The Evolution of Land Use Space Between Fangbang River and Fangbang Road in Modern Time

Liu Qingqing

Base on the concrete historical facts of “Filling the River and Building Roads” and section paving of Fangbang Road in modern Shanghai and on relevant newspaper articles, public records and historical maps, this paper studies the characteristics of the spatial layout of the river foundation, subgrade and house foundation in the section from Dongma Bridge to Yiqing Bridge before and after filling, in order to demonstrate that the river foundation in this section is not built into Fangbang Road subgrade, but used for building house foundation in the south of the road.Therefore, the spatial evolution of Fangbang River and Fangbang Road in modern times should be “Not all river foundations are subgrade”.

Learning from Both History and Reality: In Memory of My Teacher, Mr. Dai Yi

Zhang Ruiyan

Mr. Dai Yi has been engaged in the research of contemporary Chinese literature and the theory of Shanghai literary creation for a long time. He has written a series of monographs and papers on Shanghai Literature and culture, and made a comprehensive analysis, systematic investigation and discussion on novel writing since the new era in Shanghai.The Fifteen Years of Shanghai Culture, of which he is the chief writer,remains as a main resource for the study on the history of Shanghai's urban spirit and cultural development. During his lifetime, he always adheres to the tradition of realistic literature, advocating humanitarianism and the realistic spirit of literature and art, emphasizing the sense of morality,responsibility and mission of literary and artistic creation, calling for a rediscovery of the value and significance of Chinese traditional culture by learning from history, and highlighting the role of literature in enlightening and remolding national spirit.