In recent years, "breaking the wall" and "out of the circle" have been keywords in the cultural field. While the Internet has brought massive amounts of information, it has gradually formed circles around different points of interest, and “dimensional walls” will appear between circles and circles. This change brought about by new technology is also affecting our lives.
A few days ago, the Tencent Tengyun Conference was held in Beijing. Under the theme of "Borders of Flow", experts at the conference conducted in-depth cross-industry discussions on topics such as how technology will reconstruct new connections and technology will give rise to new expressions of digital culture.
Beiqing-Beijing Toutiao reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Dai Jinhua, professor of Chinese Department of Peking University and director of Peking University Film and Culture Research Center. In the world of movies, is there also a dimension wall that needs to be broken? How should we look at the behavior of movie review sites that give a star if they don’t agree? In the face of new technologies, does film and cultural research also need to break the walls? In Dai Jinhua’s view, “In the face of the new technological revolution, the value of the humanities can only be restarted if it is truly connected with reality.”
“In recent decades, fun has been linked to a certain class identity.”
Beiqing -Beijing Toutiao: The theme of this forum is "Borders of Flow". In your opinion, do movies also have borders or dimension walls? According to observations in recent years, "The Wandering Earth", "The Richest Man in Xihong City", Nolan "Dunkirk", and the audience of the Xiaoxitian Film Archive, there is a deep gap between the loyal fans of these films. On Douban, often because of disagreements with a movie, the audience will have fierce debates. What do you think of such a border?
Dai Jinhua: You talked about a lot of boundaries in your question. The audience of "The Richest Man in Xihong City", Nolan's audience, and Xiao Xitian's audience are basically the divisions of what we call the Quyuan community, which is what we called fun in the past. What is worth studying is that in recent decades, fun has been linked to a certain class identity, which is a sometimes very strong boundary.
Another boundary is the dimension you talk about, such as "Dunkirk". "Dunkirk" is very obviously a gamified movie, so of course there is the so-called dimensional problem, the so-called dimensional problem or the problem of the dimensional wall. This is particularly worthy of praise, because it broke the wall. Now, it has crossed the boundary. This is another kind of wall.
The third kind of boundary is something I especially want to introduce in the topic of "flow boundary". When we see that the Internet connects the entire world, it has realized the sharing of knowledge and ideas by humans from the hardware conditions, but we should also see that things are different in virtual space and in real space, as are differences and divisions in cyberspace. White-hot.
This is very different from real life. For example, in a class, if you hate a classmate, walk around him as much as possible, but he is still present. And if you block him in cyberspace, he doesn't exist. Seeing a WeChat Moments that made me very disgusted, I immediately decided not to see his Moments, because I really didn't want to encounter so many unpleasantness in my personal space like my mobile phone. What we have done allows us not to encounter others, to encounter aliens, and to see world differences and diverse spaces. This makes me very hope that there will be a boundary created by flow. This flow of
is not provided by hardware foundation and technology, but our concept. We should think about it, today, do we really have a mental space as open as knowledge space and travel space? I am willing to take a look at my opponent, what is he talking about? What did he say? What kind of views does he hold? How did he prove his opinion? Of course, I hope we can have a real conversation instead of turning into abusive or personal attack after three minutes, and then into a human search, and a three-dimensional life threatening you. I really hope that this boundary will be broken. A kind of liquidity began to appear.
"It is not the war of fun that often triggers the flame war, but the party who fights against differences."
Beiqing-Beijing headline: In the Internet world in recent years, I feel that the border of fun is also parallel to the growth of emotions. For example, for certain movies, because you like a certain movie, then we are not fellow travellers, blocking, debating, attacking, and even going to Douban to get a star.
Dai Jinhua: I think that interest and emotions only overlap in appearance. In fact, if we belong to different Quyuan communities, we will not meet at all. For example, some time ago, for the audience in the Film Archive, it was aAt the carnival, we can finally see Fellini's movie on the big screen. This excitement and excitement is only within the art movie audience, and other circles may not know this. Therefore, the problems that really occur between the differences in the Quyuan community will not happen to the kind of conflict and flame war you mentioned.
I think it is not fun wars that often trigger flame wars, but it is often a kind of social sentiment that extends to the party’s differences in the movies. We refuse to listen to different opinions. We have a positional and value judgment first, just to express our personal position. If you want to express moral indignation, you can enjoy your own moral height. When both sides are like this, discussion is not a wall but a battlefield.
"The focus of culture is a general trend"
Beiqing-Beijing Toutiao: In the face of this situation, some people will always say that art movies belong to art movies, and popular movies belong to popular movies.
Dai Jinhua: This is not a problem unique to movies. My judgment is that in the Internet age, the entire world has entered the age of focus, and focus is an inevitable problem facing the entire society. The film industry has shrunk, from the masses to the niche. I think the focus of culture is a general trend, but we must be wary that the focus of culture will become a social tear.
Beiqing-Beijing Toutiao: In your opinion, how does this border flow?
Dai Jinhua: This boundary must flow, although I don't know if it can be realized. I think this is related to the formation of social consensus, so I think the preservation of public space is very important. As we said just now, the online community is highly homogeneous. And our real space, such as movie theaters and performance venues, are some space fields that are truly open to the public, and they are all possibilities. Because only this kind of flowing and accidental space will allow us to encounter heterogeneous lives and people.
"Movies must be movies to attract short video and game audiences"
Beiqing-Beijing Headline: What do you think of the internal boundaries of the film and television industry today? Such as short videos and movies. In the face of young moviegoers of the net generation, should the film break the wall?
Dai Jinhua: There is an old stalker who said that movies have created unprecedented human beings in human history. Why are people who have been humbled in history? Because with the advancement of new technology, filmmakers must learn every minute. This is the most basic fact of the movie. But this fact does not mean that the film is pleased with a particular audience. I think that a movie must be a movie in order to attract short video and game audiences, because the movie provides a completely different experience and experience.
I always think we have a wrong idea. We want to make movies more like games, and gamification of movies can attract many audiences. I think this is wrong, because I watched some gamified online dramas. Compared to games, these gamified online dramas are not fun because they are too simple. As a movie, there is no way to escape the one-way transmission characteristics of the movie, so the so-called choice just turns a storyline into four possibilities, which is too limited. So, is it possible to make movies cover 1 million choices? Does not. Because the film is a finished, one-way transmission medium, I think this kind of attempt is a bit like the wide screen of the year, which is a misunderstanding.
Beiqing-Beijing Toutiao: For young audiences who are accustomed to short videos or gamified visuals, do they also put more demands on them when they enter the cinema?
Dai Jinhua: There is no requirement, and it is impossible to ask others. Because they grew up in front of the screen, it is entirely possible that they have already seen a lot of movies on this screen, so we also wrote a book "Movies for Children". I didn't hope it would become an education. The audience picked one or two from it and looked at it online. This is already my dream.
I don’t think you should use such a big word today. The Internet does have some drifting bottle encounters. We can pick up drifting bottles and encounter movies in various ways. If you are fascinated by you, you will be with the movie. Destined.
grew up in a scarce and turbulent era, it is a gift of history
Beiqing-Beijing headline: Do you envy the young audience now? There have been so many media around them since they were born.
Dai Jinhua: I am envious but not envious. Whenever I reach a specific state, I will be very envious. For example, the research topic I did back then, they want to do now, they have almost all the availablecan. From information to the scene, repeated viewing opportunities, and even finding high-definition images...all of this, I will be very, very envious.
But from another point of view, I am not envious at all. I think that people like us who grew up in a scarce and turbulent era, when we look back today, our past experiences are gifts of history. The scarcity at that time allows you to experience the material and the real pleasure of enjoying the material. The excess can only cause fatigue and numbness. At that time, we did not have such ample choices, and there was not much danger of falling into cultural consumption or cultural immersion. At that time, no one deliberately pursued the elite culture, but we were surrounded by the so-called elite culture. This kind of culture was not about the elite or the grassroots, but the spiritual wealth precipitated in history. So I think I am also very lucky, you have no other choice, because if there is a more convenient and happy way to provide pleasure, I might also go in that direction, but no. You enter such a spiritual world, you get pleasure, thoughts and growth in it.
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