Campus popular culture is becoming an important way for college students to express themselves. Bright pictures/vision china
Perspective of educational reform
editorial comment/note
I like online literature, and I am keen on chasing foreign film and television dramas. I say "Meng Meng Da" and write "Martian". This is the cultural life picture of many college students at present. Together with spoof culture, enthusiasm for textual research, fanaticism about idolize and fashion consumption, they constitute the popular culture of colleges and universities that is popular on campus. What is the fundamental reason for the popularity of popular culture in colleges and universities? From this, what trends of current pop culture phenomena can be seen? What makes such a culture go deep into the hearts of college students? How to guide students in popular culture? In recent years, Wang Ying, an associate professor at capital university of economics and business Marxist Institute, has been tracking popular culture in colleges and universities for a long time, and our reporter interviewed her in this regard.
1. Popular culture in colleges and universities is associated with fashion, but it is quickly "switched".
Reporter: What are the main manifestations of popular culture in colleges and universities?
Wang Ying:Popular culture in colleges and universities can be divided into network culture, foreign culture, language culture and behavior culture.
Network culture is mainly manifested in network literature, online games and online socialization. We know from the questionnaire survey that college students like online literature only less than classic works. College students are both online writers and the main source of online readers. For example, Zhang Weixuan (pen name Feng Qingyang), a post-90s college student of Hubei University of Technology, as the signing author of 17K novel network under Chinese Online, has gained a large number of fans and millions of income by virtue of his network fantasy novel "Dragon Blood God of War". The attraction of online games to college students comes from its realistic scene design and imitation and transcendence of real life. At the same time, the influence of online games will also spread to the real life of college students, such as "God and horse are all floating clouds" and "tragedy" and other buzzwords all come from the online game World of Warcraft. Social networking mainly takes social networking sites and social software as platforms, such as Zhihu, Guoke, Renren, Kaixin, QQ and WeChat.
Foreign cultures occupy college students’ spare time with foreign film and television dramas, pop songs and variety shows. This leads to college students’ pursuit of foreign idol stars, clothing styles, food culture and brand products, the most typical of which is "Korean culture". At the beginning of 2016, Descendants of the Sun was a hit, and the cosmetics used by Song Hye Kyo, the heroine in the play, became the main target of college students’ online purchasing. Song Joong Ki, the actor of the leading actor, became the first of the top ten popular stars on campus.
Language and culture are mainly manifested in popular buzzwords on campus. Popular words in colleges and universities reflect more about the living conditions and emotional changes of college students, such as "being drunk", "being speechless", "being rich is willful", "single dog" and "mainly depending on temperament". Moreover, the emergence of buzzwords is almost related to a popular event at that time, such as "the boat of friendship turns over when it is said", "the power of the wild", "blue thin, mushrooms" and "people who eat melons" in 2016.
Mock culture, blind textual research, fanaticism about idolize and extravagant consumption are all popular behavior cultures among college students. In campus activities, college students often imitate popular dances, remake classic photos, and ridicule mainstream culture to play their own funny creativity and spoof spirit. In addition, such as buying the latest clothes in the season, doing all kinds of fashionable hairstyles, participating in exciting outdoor sports, attending various classes and starting their own businesses are all indispensable fashion elements in contemporary college students’ lives.
Reporter: What are the characteristics of popular culture in colleges and universities?
Wang Ying:Popular culture in colleges and universities is often associated with fashion. Although it can be quickly accepted by the majority of students, it has the characteristics of being quickly "switched". They are just a "game" for college students to know themselves and express themselves. Just as they borrow online buzzwords for irony and banter, they don’t use it to resist society, but are trying to participate in and transform society by their own strength. Popular culture in colleges and universities does not have the popularity of popular culture. It is a "minority" culture of a specific group and a popular culture that only happens among young college students.
2. Internal and external factors make popular culture popular in university campus.
Reporter: What do you think is the external cause of popular culture in colleges and universities?
Wang Ying:Economic globalization and the development of China’s market economy after the reform and opening up are the breeding ground for popular culture in colleges and universities. China’s reform and opening up has fostered an open social environment and cultural mentality. Under the trend of globalization, foreign pop culture is competing for beauty in China. The foreign popular culture, which is mainly based on film and television plays, has quickly grasped the psychological needs of young college students for innovation, rebellion and individuality with its excellent production and commercial operation. It not only opened college students’ eyes, aroused their curiosity, but even affected their cultural attitudes and values.
At the same time, the consumer society’s change of college students’ consumption concept has become the internal driving force of the flourishing popular culture in colleges and universities. With the gradual prosperity of family life in our country, the consumption power of college students who are mostly only children has also increased year by year, and colleges and universities have become the "cakes" for businesses to compete for. Merchants who follow the trend of profit are extremely sensitive to the popular trends among college students. Every "foreign festival", the merchants will take action, do enough atmosphere rendering and consumption induction, take out the students’ pockets and bring the carnival of the merchants. An invasion of the Korean Wave triggered the popularity of various Korean costumes, Korean cosmetics and Korean food.
In addition, the powerful communication function of mass media and the emergence of new media have accelerated the process of popular culture being popular in colleges and universities. With the development of internet, college students can understand social trends, watch Hollywood blockbusters and grasp popular elements without leaving campus. You can buy all kinds of fashion items online without leaving the dormitory. Some cultural concepts and contents excluded by the mainstream media have also crossed cities, regions and countries through computers, mobile phones and other media, entered the lives of college students, and influenced their thoughts, behaviors and judgments.
Reporter: You talked about external causes, but what about internal causes? Why can college pop culture affect college students’ hearts?
Wang Ying:The popularity of popular culture is not because of its profound content, but mainly because of its immediacy, which embodies the current life value of college students and satisfies their feelings, desires, pursuits and impulses at this moment. The nearly perfect idol star on the screen can attract fans to scream; The ups and downs of love stories in Korean dramas can make Korean drama fans cry or laugh; The grand and well-made online games on the network make those game experts feel like they are there. These popular cultures, which take audio-visual as the main form, can not only satisfy the sensory enjoyment of college students, but also infect their feelings and emotional changes with their contents that are consistent with their real feelings and internal needs.
College students are in the transition stage from adolescence to adulthood. They are eager to be independent and to rely on their own strength to gain respect and understanding from others, so they pay special attention to the evaluation, attitude and acceptance of the group. Popular culture in colleges and universities can effectively meet the needs of college students’ group identity. Similar costumes, similar languages and similar lifestyles can make college students feel that they are a member of the group. In order to gain the recognition of the group, college students will take the initiative to understand the popular culture of colleges and universities and help themselves to integrate into the group in order to gain a sense of psychological security. Conformity intensifies the infection, suggestion and imitation among groups, and promotes the spread of popular culture in colleges and universities.
Physiologically, college students’ bodies have matured, which makes them feel that they are adults. They don’t like being treated as "children" any more, and hope to be understood and respected. Therefore, they hold a critical attitude towards the opinions of parents and teachers and tend to accept them selectively according to their own understanding. Pop culture just caters to the psychological needs of college students. They can express themselves freely, show their individuality, be free from restraint and control, and their self-esteem and sense of adulthood are fully satisfied.
In addition, college students are in a critical period — — Promote their own socialization. The main tasks in this process are: socialization of knowledge and skills, socialization of political ideas, socialization of ethics, socialization of professional consciousness and socialization of value orientation. The popular culture in colleges and universities is playing a role in promoting the socialization of college students. Due to the closed campus environment, the contact between students and society is mainly through computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. Therefore, through the Internet, popular culture in colleges and universities, with its strong penetration and coverage, has realized the "point-to-face" communication between college students and society, and has become an emotional expression outlet for them to understand, contact and participate in society. The ubiquity of the Internet also makes the life concept, values and beliefs conveyed by popular culture in colleges and universities penetrate into the hearts of college students, affecting everyone’s ideal pursuit and behavior choice.
3. Clever use of pop culture context, leading the mainstream culture value.
Reporter: What suggestions do you have for guiding popular culture in colleges and universities?
Wang Ying:Popular culture in colleges and universities not only greatly enriches and changes the spiritual and cultural life of college students, but also challenges the influence and educational function of mainstream culture among students. We should learn to skillfully use the context of popular culture to effectively realize the value guidance of mainstream culture in colleges and universities.
Today’s universities are moving towards ideological pluralism and cultural openness, and the independence, selectivity, variability and differences of college students’ ideological activities are also increasing. The group psychology of equal rights and the open information environment make the traditional authoritarian model and preaching indoctrination have no room. The construction of college students’ spiritual world is not from external compulsion and pressure, but from internal recognition and awakening. In order for the mainstream culture in colleges and universities to establish a correct ideological theory and enable students to form a recognition of mainstream values and a clear criterion for judging right and wrong from the bottom of their hearts, we must immediately understand the real ideological trends, psychological preferences and personality characteristics of college students, and earnestly pay attention to their internal demands and emotional needs, instead of simply, vaguely and rigidly overriding their life world.
At the same time, for today’s college students who often decide their information choice psychology by their own subjective feelings and direct experience of emotional likes and dislikes, the process of leading the mainstream value is not only the process of individual cognitive participation, but also the process of group emotional intervention, and they pay special attention to truth and respect. Therefore, the disseminators of mainstream culture in colleges and universities should adhere to the principle of equality, tolerance and openness, communicate and share ideas with students, listen to their voices and ideas more, give them more understanding, respect and guidance, reduce didactic and indoctrinating language in the education process, and use vivid online language and humorous expressions to bridge the "generation gap between teachers and students". By tuning into the same channel as the students’ discourse system, students can fully involve their own emotions and feel the same for the mainstream culture.
(Reporter Wang Qinghuan)
关于作者