My TV Drama Viewing: Zeng Qingrui's Self-Selected Collection

Author: Zeng Qingrui / Country:
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of North and South Broadcasting University, colleagues jointly celebrate the occasion by launching the first 24 volumes of the "North and South Scholars' Collection." I had the honor of being included among them. Once the selection was finalized, it was natural to have an introductory essay placed at the beginning of each volume. Therefore, I wrote the following several thousand words to provide some necessary explanations for this "Self-Selected Collection." I want to discuss my "views on television dramas" and "discourse on the discipline of television drama." This can illustrate the rational thinking I have engaged in over the past decade in this field, as well as the academic expression of this rational thinking. Now, the academic community has recognized that my relevant rational thinking and its academic expression belong to "originality." I believe that only "originality" can make me feel worthy of our nation with a profound cultural tradition, worthy of our vibrant and progressive era, and of course, worthy of the "North and South" education career I have dedicated nearly 40 years to, as well as this remarkable "Collection."
I remember a small incident five years ago. It was during the (postgraduate entrance examination) for the first batch of doctoral students at North and South Broadcasting University. A middle-aged candidate, with a peculiar expression, mentioned my name along with my senior colleague Gao Xin and my friend Zhang Fengzhu, saying, "You are all scholars of the older generation." To distinguish himself from our generation, this middle-aged scholar later used television dramas to study, bringing over a bunch of "deconstruction" and "post-deconstruction" theories and methods from Western scholars, presenting them in a shallow yet profound manner to showcase his "new-style theoretical" colors. At the time, I thought, being listed as one of the "outdated" scholars by this group of "newcomers" was likely due to the television drama concepts in the volume of my book "Television Drama Principles" published in 1997," as well as the sharp criticism of the current state of Chinese television dramas in my speech "Breaking Free from the Vicious Cycle Toward Brilliance" published in 1998, along with my passionate calls for change and solutions. That speech was published in various journals from Beijing to local areas and received positive feedback, though there were also those who shook their heads in disagreement. That same year, two friends from a magazine in the south, who were strangers to me, sincerely invited me to write an article. I took the opportunity to travel out of Beijing and published a long historical essay titled "Guarding the Spiritual Homeland of Television Drama" in a place that was not easily accessible in Beijing at the time. The essay challenged several well-known middle-aged scholars, critics, and media workers in Beijing regarding the "sneak attack" of postmodernist thought on Chinese television drama art and the "erosion" of Chinese television drama theory during the 1990s. As expected, soon after, another middle-aged scholar came knocking to "demand justice." In a long article published in a magazine known as a "core journal" in Beijing, this middle-aged scholar "named and criticized" me and my essay "Guarding the Spiritual Homeland of Television Drama" for holding a "cultural conservativeist critical stance that almost completely negated the results of television drama marketization, representing the concerns of a significant portion of intellectuals about the current state of popular television dramas and mass culture with an 'aggressive' 'anti-marketization' attitude."
After the "9·11" attacks, in the winter of 2001, seeing that international flights were relatively safe after the chaos, I returned to the United States early from my academic leave. On the first day back at work, my doctoral students informed me of this news and handed me a copy of the aforementioned long article. In my class on "Frontiers of Radio and Television Arts," I discussed this debate and explained my views. Subsequently, I published a long response titled "The Confusion and Loss of Artistic Enterprises, Cultural Industries, and Mass Culture" in the journal "Modern Communication," the (academic journal) of my institution. Those who know me well know that, in terms of my personality in both life and scholarship, being labeled "outdated" or "conservative" would not shake me or change me; instead, it would only make me more determined, more confident, and even more diligent in my academic pursuits, more committed to truth, more dedicated to academic originality, and more steadfast in upholding the dignity of scholarship. Over the years, I have steadfastly guarded and diligently cultivated, reaping the fruits of my labor, producing many new works for the world. Along the way, the voices of support and encouragement from society, the television drama industry, academia, colleagues, students, and the media have gradually grown stronger. For example, after the publication of "Guarding the Spiritual Homeland of Television Drama," a collection of my recent television drama theory and criticism, newspapers such as "The Literary News," "China Culture News," "China Art News," "China Education News," and "China Building Materials News? Literary Supplement" all made reports and published book reviews. "The Literary News" even published two long articles on the collection within seven months.
At this point, I must first "publish" a "statement." Below, I will copy some of the supportive and encouraging words. I do this not to boast. At my advanced age, I can say that the likes of Zeng Qingrui, Gao Xin, Zhang Fengzhu, and others of our generation truly take fame and fortune lightly. My life's motto of "eating well, sleeping soundly, and being carefree" is proof of this. Now, I want to record these words to highlight the victory of a theory and a spirit, to commemorate the brilliance of a character and a literary style, and to continue writing about how this generation of Chinese cultural figures, even in their twilight years, still pursue lofty ambitions and passions. And all of these victories, glories, and aspirations do not belong to me alone; they are absolutely a beautiful spiritual homeland shared by our entire generation.
Critics have said that "Guarding the Spiritual Homeland of Television Drama" gives readers the "greatest sense and inspiration," that "in the process of human civilization, as China moves toward modernization today, we should jointly guard" a "spirit of art as a treasure of the human spirit." This artistic spirit "is the pursuit of the transcendence, originality, and typicality of art, the recognition of truth, goodness, and beauty, rationality rather than irrationality, aesthetics rather than ugliness, creation rather than reproduction, and the elevation of reason rather than the satisfaction of desire."
Another critic has said that "Opening the thick volume of 'Guarding the Spiritual Homeland of Television Drama,' you will quickly discover" a "respectable spiritual radiance, feeling the shock of a nearly barren soul in the current context." That "respectable spiritual radiance" is "the steadfast stance of humanistic intellectuals it represents," and "independent, sharp, and social criticism" are the shining marks of this cultural positioning." Furthermore, when this book "faces the weak yet arrogant world of television drama criticism with its outstanding critical spirit, it is not hard to imagine that this is an encouraging event in the history of Chinese television drama."
A young scholar has said that this book "from methodological research to textual structural system research, to the analysis of value structural systems and the determination of critical criteria, has preliminarily presented a macro-construction of a television drama theory system to readers." A middle-aged scholar has said that this book "is a meaningful exploration of television culture, the foundation of the discipline system of television drama art, and a declaration of cultural dignity for Chinese media scholars."
What is even more moving is that Mr. Chen Liao, a respected and highly regarded researcher from the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, who is past his seventies, specially published an article titled "Pioneering Research in Television Drama Artology" in "The Literary News," praising this book as "a foundational work in building a Chinese characteristic discipline of television drama art." Mr. Zeng Qingrui aims to establish a discipline of television drama artology that neither blindly copies foreign television drama artology nor departs from the universal laws of world television drama artology, but rather has a Chinese characteristic discipline of television drama art. The article quotes my response to others' mockery that I am "left-wing," which reads: "Honestly, I don't like the value judgments of 'left' or 'right.' I only uphold science, including historical science, artistic science, and more, including the scientific epistemology and methodology of Marxism. I uphold the proper character and literary style of a humanistic social scientist." To this, Mr. Chen Liao said: "I admire such an artistic spirit!"
It is also worth mentioning that Gao Xin and Wu Qiuya's co-authored book "History and Theory of Chinese Television Drama in the 20th Century" points out that the "Television Drama Art Series" I designed and launched after 1993 marks the beginning of the study of "television drama art" being truly incorporated into the level of "scholarship" and "theory." It moves from sociological and literary research to the study of television drama art texts, demonstrating the theoretical nature of the research; from isolated studies of television drama art to the interpenetration of multiple disciplines, demonstrating the comprehensive nature of the research; from scattered and partial research to all-round and holistic research, demonstrating the systematic nature of the research; and from traditional topic research to the study of modern topics, demonstrating the cutting-edge nature of the research." This "new height" has allowed television drama, as an art, to possess an independent discipline and gain undeniable theoretical significance."
In addition, for the research and theoretical interpretation of television drama research methods and television drama criticism methods, as well as the "independent and unconventional critical spirit" demonstrated in my television drama criticism practice, scholars in journals such as "The Literary News" and "Television Research" have written articles to affirm and praise them. In the newly published "China Television" (Issue 3, 2004), Wang Weiping's article "The Scarcity and Abundance of Film and Television Criticism" mentions the "scholarly criticism" of today and also refers to Huang Huilin, myself, and Gao Xin as "film and television art critics and researchers who have achieved outstanding results and a good influence. They have not only contributed to the discipline construction of film and television art but also elevated the cultural and artistic standards of film and television art."
Well, some friends might ask, what exactly did you propose that sparked such diverse discussions? I believe that the insights I have shared over the past decade in television drama and the discipline of television drama, as collected in this "Self-Selected Collection," can be simply summarized as follows.
Regarding "views on television dramas," in the "General Theory" of "Television Drama Principles" and the "Essence Theory" of the volume, including the "Introduction" and "Postscript," as well as other writings, I have mentioned that television drama, in its original meaning, is a special objective existence of human social spiritual and cultural phenomena, a new aesthetic social ideology, and a variety of art. In terms of its species-specific and typified characteristics based on its original features, television drama is an art of acting on a television screen, an aesthetic art that uses acting on a television screen to achieve aesthetics. Its artistic language, or acting medium, is a system of electronic-technologically transformed audio-visual symbols composed of images and combinations of images. The genetic material of television drama art is its literary nature. Its aesthetic characteristics are its cultural connotations. Its original vitality comes from television consciousness. In writings such as "How to Study the Art Text of a Television Drama Work," I have also defined that the overall composition of a television drama work, as well as the existence state and movement process of all television drama phenomena, exist in a specific form with specific content and methods. This overall composition is the only true existence of television drama art. This state and process are the transformation of the "real world" into the "representational world," which then becomes the "fictional world," ultimately creating the "value world." This makes television drama possess the characteristics of fictionality, aesthetics, and fluidity. This "fictional world" is a relatively independent art text of television drama. Its composition includes an image content system and a language form system.
As written in writings such as "The Norm of Television Drama Value and the Creation of Its System," the creative activity of television drama art is essentially an activity of creating aesthetic value, i.e., a "value creation" activity. The aesthetic value of television drama art lies in the fact that the creators of television dramas, based on a unique perception or discovery of life, out of emotional or ideological needs, use artistic imagination to tell stories with images, and in the stories told with images, they create an aesthetic re-creation of the world, i.e., transform the real life world into a fictional artistic world, so that the artistic images or series of artistic images in this artistic world artfully manifest a certain spiritual orientation, which is used to guide and evaluate certain social practice and cognition, serving people and society. This "value creation" activity is also the process by which the social function of the work is realized. Its value system is a comprehensive value system of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Now, let me discuss my "discourse on the discipline of television drama." The article "Preliminary Discussion on the Theoretical System Construction of Television Drama Artology" in the "Self-Selected Collection" is an integration of several original articles and serves as a "program" for my discipline theory. I proposed a topic titled "Television Drama Artology Discipline Theoretical System." The definitions of the key terms are as follows: "Television Drama Artology" refers to establishing a relatively independent branch discipline of artology for television drama art and its related cultural industry; "discipline theory" refers to the high-level and hierarchical level of the "discipline."