A few days ago, Google map suddenly became popular. The reason is said to be that Google Maps discloses details of Russian military strategic facilities. In layman's terms, it is the satellite image of the Russian military base on Google Maps, which has higher accuracy and can be seen more clearly. This suddenly made domestic netizens heated discussions, and later even Google came out to refute the rumor:
"Nothing is wrong, let's break up!"
If you look closely, you will find that some screenshots used in the news were actually intercepted in " Google Earth ". Although " Google Map " and "Google Earth" are both products under Google, there are still big differences between the two. Google Map is mainly street maps, and mainly provides functions such as search, navigation, street view, and life services. Google Earth mainly uses satellite maps, supports three-dimensional terrain and three-dimensional buildings, supports sunshine simulation and other functions, and can view historical images.
Google Earth web version uses the latest WebAssembly technology.
For the sake of unification, this article mainly discusses Google Earth.
Although things are fake, one thing is true, that is, the software Google Earth has already had considerable influence all over the world. It is the leader in this field. A fake news can also cause heated discussions among so many people. Google Earth is a truly globalized software that covers more than 97% of the world's regions; in addition to satellite images and three-dimensional earth, Google Earth also provides the public with a series of functions such as photos, roads, weather, starry sky, moon, Mars , and provides full-platform client support across PC\MacOS\Linux\WEB\Android\IOS.
This software even made many countries feel that national security and public privacy were threatened, and were blocked by many countries, including our country; it was accused by India, South Korea, Australia and other countries for censoring high-resolution images.
However, what does this have to do with cultural output? They seem to be two things that are completely unmatched. Usually when we talk about the topic of cultural output, we discuss popular culture products such as movies, animation, music, novels, and games, and traditional culture and art such as Chinese studies and folk music . It also involves politics, law, philosophy, morality, values, thinking modes, behavioral habits, etc. ideology . That is, we either limit cultural output within the scope of cultural products, or discuss more advanced and most difficult ideological output. We rarely discuss the broader cultural output, especially the easiest and most basic material cultural output, such as mobile phones, software, clothing, cars, etc.
Cultural products can certainly be used for cultural output, but what can output culture does not necessarily have to be cultural products, it can be anything. This is about how to define culture and what exactly is culture? There are countless definitions of culture, and there is no unified standard. The 1986 edition of Cihai defines culture as "the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created in humanities, society and history time."
I simply understand culture as, culture is our way of life. Life here is broad, and study, work, socializing and entertainment are all part of life. For example, when we eat, we have food culture; when we drink, we have wine table culture; when we go online, we have online culture; when we exercise, we have sports culture; when we work, we have workplace culture; when we draw maps, we naturally have map culture. All walks of life also have their own culture, such as industry has industrial culture, agriculture has agricultural culture; programmers have programmers, and civil servants have civil servant culture. From a spatial perspective, there are Chinese culture and American culture. In terms of time, there are contemporary culture and historical culture. If combined again, there will be Chinese history and culture and Chinese contemporary culture.
simplely put, Chinese contemporary culture is how the Chinese people live today. Material culture is originally a part of culture, and spiritual culture also needs material culture as the basis and is expressed through material products.For example, a person's clothing can largely reflect his cultural attributes. From this definition, any product can be used for cultural communication.
Clothes are just ordinary things, but wearing different clothes can express different cultures.
However, many people are helpless, pessimistic and even angry about China's cultural output. Then let’s give an example of the United States’ export of culture to ours. Hollywood movies are typical American culture output , which should be recognized by everyone. So what are usually shot in Hollywood movies? In fact, the most common topic is what Americans do, such as home, work, combat, etc. From a time and space perspective, it also includes what Americans did in history, such as Pearl Harbor, and Americans’ imagination of future behavior, such as " Terminator ".
Movies are a cultural product, but cultural products actually describe the behaviors caused by people using various material products. For example, the Chinese filmed " Bright Sword ", and Li Yunlong asked the second battalion commander to pull out the Italian cannon. This Italian cannon was originally just an industrial product, but here it became a cultural symbol. In this kind of era drama, the shell gun, rickshaw, big felt hat, Zhongshan server , etc. have all become a significant cultural symbol. The Shili foreign markets on Shanghai are all of this kind. The cultural product of movies is composed of countless material products and people from that era.
"Italian cannon" has become a popular culture element.
In the past, I saw some treasure appraisal programs. Collectors have some collections, such as a bottle, a jar, and a cup, saying how good it is, what are the requirements? I thought at the time, isn’t this the daily necessities of the ancients? What's the difference between it and the phone in my hand? Just like many of us now use iPhones, then a hundred years later, should a movie master or a novelist ask his protagonist to take the iPhone in his works? If he had enough research on history, would he still have to give a line when the phone dropped:
"Ouch - my kidney!"
I think there will be collectors collecting various iPhone in the future, and then seriously introduce it. Look, this model is amazing, the camera rotated 45 degrees, which is very particular! This is very realistic, which is different from those who only know how to beautify the PS. From this point of view, the iPhone is a cultural output tool. A apple that was bitten away became a cultural symbol. Software like PhotoShop has also become a cultural output tool, because PS is also a cultural symbol that young people understand. The appearance design of
iPhone has become a global cultural symbol with high recognition.
So has Google Earth become a cultural symbol? In my opinion, yes. I have seen hikers use it to plan routes; geography teachers use it to teach; and have seen various self-media use it to animation. Even if it cannot be used normally, Google Maps still has many users in China. It has changed our lives and allowed countless people to better understand the world. People will feel the power and openness of the United States because we do not have it, and people's ideas will be affected.
When I use Google Earth to demonstrate some geographical information, I have to specifically hide its borders, because the borders on Google Earth do not meet our standards. A political proposition was spread by a software, and Google Maps not only achieved material and cultural output, but also completed ideological and conscious output. When Google Earth became a part of the lives of countless people around the world, the creator's proposition spread quietly. Google Earth gives his creators the right to speak, a kind of discourse power to the map.
Since culture is our way of life, then cultural output is to bring our way of life to others.For example, we Chinese use Huawei mobile phone , and Huawei mobile phones are getting better and better. Later, Americans use Huawei , and Europeans also use Huawei. So in this regard, we have successfully exported a material culture. In the future, you may be able to see them using Huawei phones in European and American film and television dramas. Of course, Huawei was suppressed and failed, and it lost most of the global market, and this scene would not happen. But DJI succeeded, and drones became a symbol and were used in various places including the Russian-Ukrainian War. If one day people look back and shoot movies of this war, maybe DJI will show up.
DJI EVO has gone abroad, but through the outer packaging, you can't tell that it is a product from China.
However, many people may disagree with the output of this industrial culture. Is this considered cultural output? This looks different from what we usually call cultural output!
Yes, this is indeed different. Although China's industrial manufacturing has spread all over the world and has actually affected the lives and work of people all over the world, our industrial products are often private label, and R&D and design are often not completed by us. Only when people look at the "Made in China" on the machine nameplate can they perceive China's existence. This is naturally incomparable to the influence of the iPhone with a very brand image, nor can it be compared with LV, which embroider the letters on the bag. Although China is an important part of iPhone manufacturing, what is perceived by the world is the power of the United States and the American lifestyle that influences us. For example, a mobile phone has the appearance design and UI interface, which are all reflected in the American aesthetic style. Therefore, our lifestyle becomes Americanized and our thoughts become Americanized.
Even if our brand finally comes out of the country or even in China, its brand logo is often not in Chinese. Unless one day, the DJI OSMO printed on the surface of the pocket gimbal camera is not printed on DJI OSMO, but the words DJI Lingye are directly printed, which makes foreign users feel that this is unpredictable and profound, our cultural output will be successful. However, before achieving such a distant goal, perhaps we must first be confident in printing the Chinese logo on the domestic version, because I took a closer look at some domestic electronic products I bought. Even if they were sold to China, they actually had no Chinese on the surface.
is also an industrial design. Can you perceive the Chinese cultural elements in it? I feel its iPhone style.
In this case, our brand cannot bring us cultural influence. Because we are catering to American culture, not Chinese culture.
Suppose one day, Lao Ganma becomes a popular food worldwide, and there are Tao Huabi avatars everywhere in the world, can you say that her East Asian face is not a representative symbol of Chinese culture? You have a foreign uncle who sells chicken legs, and I have an old mother who sells hot sauce, and they are each other. Suppose one day, the car of BYD is sold all over the world. Will the Americans think of " Chinatown " when they see the word "Tang" on the front of the car? Will you ask, what does this mean? When they found out that this was a great dynasty, would they put the character on their foreheads and suddenly they became full of confidence? At this time, BYD's car logo became a symbol of cultural communication. You have "Jeep", I have "Dang", each other.
An excellent national brand dares to showcase Chinese cultural elements. BYD's car logo will one day be faced by the Chinese people.
Of course, this is a beautiful imagination. Reality is often much crueler than ideal: no matter when Lao Ganma and BYD will become global brands, looking at the present, China, which claims to have a culture of 5,000 years, looks everywhere, at first glance, material and cultural symbols spread from Europe, America, Japan and South Korea.For example, when you walk on the street, it is called Roman Holiday, and it is the British city-state; just pass by a government office building with neat Roman columns, and turn to a fountain square with Venus; look up and see a high-rise community known as ArtDeco classicism; walk into the house and see a magnificent European decoration. The master also tells you seriously that looking at this chandelier and this sofa are all high-end products, which cost me a lot of money! Correspondingly, our traditional buildings were completely destroyed, so in order to let my son see how the Chinese lived in ancient times, I had to take the subway to the few remaining tourist attractions in the city, and then tell him, look, these red walls and green tiles, these green cypresses and green bamboos are so beautiful.
The nation is the world, and the world is therefore colorful, not the same. The reality of
is heartbreaking. Instead of talking about cultural output, it is more meaningful to talk about cultural protection. But we don't have to be too sad. Before the era of globalization, the cultural differences between major civilizations in the world were very large. Their clothing, architecture, food and other cultural elements often had a very distinct personality due to geographical barriers, so that you can tell where this came from at a glance. So when we see that our distinctive carved beam brackets are replaced by Roman stone pillars, there will naturally be a strong contrast, because we feel the sudden decline of a brilliant civilization.
After globalization, the obstacles in geographical space have greatly reduced, and the cultures of various countries have gradually converged. In fact, the traditional culture of each country is a little bit lonely, and in contrast, the culture of human beings as a whole is rising. Now it is difficult for you to figure out where a person is based on his food, clothing and consumption, and it is difficult to judge his ethnicity based on his clothing. Therefore, we usually don’t feel that we are being invaded by culture just by using an iPhone, because we are also participants in this culture, but we are not the dominant ones.
. In my opinion, the main reason why we use iPhone and drive a BNB is that they are really easy to use and make us live a better life. Although this may be controversial, imports are better than domestic products without considering the price. The engraving of an English logo does help improve the brand image, so merchants choose this way. And even if you can resist a single product, you can't resist all products. When you immerse yourself in a series of products, you can easily accept one of them. Just like me, I can resist bloody steak, but I can't resist the games circulated abroad because they are really doing well. And if Google Earth wants to spread culture, he wants to have the right to speak, first of all, it must be easy to use, right?
Midea 2017 removed the Chinese in the logo, making it more "global". But this can only be said that Chinese companies are catering to globalization, but not leading globalization
Based on this principle of living a good life with good things, I can easily understand the path of using material products to spread culture.
From ancient times to the present, crops used to maintain basic material needs are easy to spread and take root as long as they are suitable for planting and economically profitable. When I was a child, I was quite curious about the two completely opposite words " potato " and "potato". Why can one thing have two names that seem very different? But no matter what it is called, our agricultural culture has changed due to the introduction of American crops. There are potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts and other crops suitable for cultivation in the dry land on the hillside, and our dietary culture has also changed, such as spicy Sichuan people and our Sichuan cuisine, such as the beloved green pepper shredded potatoes, and the boiled corn on the cob that can be seen everywhere.
However, agricultural products are usually planted rather than manufactured, so it is difficult for you to add subjective consciousness to them. In an industrial society, it is necessary to spread culture through industrial products.
In ancient times, Chinese silk and porcelain spread to Europe through Silk Road .These handicrafts made Europeans live better, so he spread them and the good things from West Asia were also spread. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci came to China from Italy to China. This foreign thing was welcomed by many Chinese people in the Ming and Qing dynasties because timed is a basic life requirement and is something that everyone can feel its goodness.
Sustaining life is the first need, improving life and enriching life are the second priority. Matteo Ricci brought maps, books, pianos, portraits, etc. to improve material life and enrich spiritual life. Few people are interested in it, while ideological things such as philosophy and religion are directly boycotted by many people. Catholicism is what Matteo Ricci most hopes to spread, but it is the most difficult to spread. Even though Catholicism took hundreds of years and in the later invasion of imperialism, its spread in China had little effect. As for the cultural foundation of language, Matteo Ricci probably couldn't even think about it, so he chose to learn Chinese directly.
Matteo Ricci started "scientific missionary" because the Chinese were interested in maps. He hid Catholic information on the map, but did not mention Islam.
Let’s take a look at the late Qing Dynasty again. What the Chinese people first accepted was not the cultural products and ideologies of Britain and the United States. The first thing they accepted was the strong ship and cannon that attacked us, because it was really easy to use, and it hurts to be beaten. Later we selectively accepted different ideas and concepts in various aspects such as politics, law, science, education, art, and ethics. In Japan, which is regarded as a template for cultural output by many people, did we accept Japanese comics and other cultural products from the beginning? No, what we first accepted was actually Japanese goods.
So what is our Confucius Institute spreading abroad? It is said that it mainly teaches Chinese. But language dissemination is often the most difficult one. We have accepted so many European and American cultures and given up so many traditions, but have we given up our own language? Have the Japanese learned from Europe and the United States to give up their language? Did Peter the Great learn from Britain that he gave up his own language? Therefore, when your material products are not widely accepted by others, spread your own language. This is the reverse order. This is not to say that doing these things is useless, but that it is large input and low output. If you still want to spread the ideological thing like Chinese studies, it will be even more difficult, because we have been using language ourselves, but Chinese studies are no longer used as superstructure.
If you don’t use anything in your own country, you still hope to spread it to others. This is nothing different. You may object, do we Chinese people want to learn Chinese studies? Yes, I think the foundation of Chinese culture is difficult to change. Chinese culture is still far-reachingly influenced by tradition, but its foundation has been buried deep underground, and it is difficult to develop without revealing mountains and rivers. For example, if you have learned poetry and books, have you ever written ancient poetry? What would you feel if Hollywood movies were played every year instead of new episodes every year? You just feel that this thing is not working. Cultural output should still be dominated by contemporary popular culture.
Therefore, Chinese people should engage in cultural output, complete material and cultural output, and establish a true national industrial brand. You need to have good industrial products and excellent industrial brands from China at a glance, proving that you can live a good life and help others live a better life. If your life is several times better than others, they will definitely take the initiative to learn your spiritual culture.
In the past 30 years, most of the countries and regions that have lived a good life, such as Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. These places also export industrial products to the mainland. Hong Kong looks a little different here because Hong Kong is not known for its industry. But when Hong Kong movies were at its most glorious, they did produce movies like industrial assembly lines.
Home life is the prerequisite for cultural output. If you can’t live a good life, don’t expect any cultural output, and there is no need to do any cultural output. If you want to export your own historical culture, please first turn our historical culture into our contemporary culture.We are eating Chinese cuisine now, and major cuisines are also continuing to develop. Although Chinese restaurants are popular in different countries, they have indeed opened all over the world and spread Chinese food culture.
Green pepper shredded potatoes are the most common home-cooked dish. It represents a culture and also represents the global communication of culture.
If you don’t use it, your culture will become someone else’s culture, just like you may be beaten when you wander around in a kimono. What you don't want will naturally become a cultural symbol for others. It is as if socialism has become a cultural symbol of our country, not Russian. Because they don’t need it, then the socialist banner is us. As long as we can live a good life, then there is no need for us to do any revolutionary output. There will be a country that will take the initiative to learn. If we don’t live well, it will be useless to output.
In cultural output, what is more advanced than the output of a single cultural product is the systematic ideological output. For example, in ancient times, China exported its own rituals, music, culture and education to neighboring countries, and neighboring countries actually came to take the initiative to learn. China studied Europe comprehensively in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, and China later learned from the Soviet Union in all aspects. After the reform and opening up, we moved closer to the United States in all aspects. These are examples of the output or input of consciousness culture.
I saw a highly praised answer on Zhihu before talking about Japanese cultural output. The answerer said that collectivism has no cultural output, and the Soviet Union has no cultural output, so we also have no cultural output. Little did they know that the Soviet Union's cultural output was countless times stronger than the Japanese anime and the Korean Oppa.
Back then, the whole world was popular all over the world, and European and American countries were all terrified. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union's influence on Chinese culture went from top to bottom to every aspect. How could Japan's second-dimensional culture be compared with this? Even the foreign language we Chinese students learned at that time was once Russian. Even today, there are still many Soviet-style buildings in China that are visible to the naked eye. Even in pure cultural products, the Soviet Union still had high achievements. For example, the movie " War and Peace " is an insurmountable classic. Why can Soviet culture export be so powerful? Because the Soviets achieved great development during this period and had the ideal and path to realization of a truly beautiful society. Although there is always a huge gap between ideals and reality, at that time, this was enough for people from all over the world, including China, to accept it completely.
This shows that ideological output should only work if there is a huge gap between the two sides. Therefore, China today cannot export ideology to the United States, and it is difficult for it to export cultural products, but it can export industrial brands. Many friends focus on cultural output in the United States, pay attention to the box office of Chinese movies in the United States, the number of Chinese novels in the United States, and the evaluation of ", Three-Body " by Obama , this is the point of getting the wrong one.
cultural output is not output for the sake of output, it often has a certain subjective purpose. Just as Matteo Ricci's ultimate goal of spreading science is to preach. I think China's cultural output is to gain more understanding and support from countries in order to obtain a better international environment. Can we get support from the United States now? Obviously it's difficult. Obama's reading of "The Three-Body Problem" will not affect his efforts to tighten his restraint of China. Trump's granddaughter learned Chinese since childhood, probably just to deal with China better in the future. So the focus of China's current cultural output should not be on the United States, but outside the United States.
Finally, we return to the map. Through the above discussion, we can see that Google Earth is already a cultural symbol. In the future, scholars who study the history of map science and map culture will inevitably write this chapter. But there is no such thing as us here, because we have not provided such services to all mankind. To make the people live a better life, every industry needs to work hard. If the people have the need to pursue a better life, they should meet it. If they satisfy the Chinese, they will achieve cultural development, and if they meet people from other countries, they will achieve cultural dissemination.For the map field, it doesn’t matter if Google Earth can’t be used, but do we have any alternatives? Is our substitute only for the Chinese, or for the whole world? If we serve people all over the world, will our map service help our cultural publicity?
In March this year, Academician Chen Jun suggested that my country should include the research and development and supply of global geographic information public products into the national development plan.
According to its introduction, global geospa-tial public goods refer to geospa-tial data , information and knowledge products that can be consumed or enjoyed by most countries or individuals in the world. In the past, this field has been monopolized by European and American countries for a long time. Most developing countries, including China, lack the innovation and supply capacity of global geographic information public products, which seriously affects their voice and participation ability in international governance.
Google Earth has built-in an old map of Dawei Ramsay Map Center. It not only represents contemporary map culture, but also spreads historical map culture.
A big reason for the flood of domestic problem maps in the past few years is that there is a serious lack of domestic geographical information public products, while Europe and the United States have very rich resources in this regard. Whether it is NASA or commercial companies like Google, they are doing these things. They not only serve the United States, but also the world. Therefore, many news media practitioners or art designers in my country who do not engage in surveying and mapping often use these map products introduced from abroad without knowing it.
Google has served in more than 200 countries and regions around the world, supporting more than 100 languages, and countries that do not have the ability to build online map services must use Google Maps. Countries that do not have the ability to place satellites in the sky, companies and individuals that do not have the ability to purchase satellite images must use Google Earth, or go to the US government to download satellite data. If you look at the map, you will find that the world is not just China and foreign countries, but more than 200 countries and regions. In addition to China and the United States, all other countries in the world also need map services. They have no fundamental conflict of interest with us and can become our supporters.
map is not a pure production tool, it has always had strong cultural communication attributes. Google provides map services to the world, so the right to speak on maps is naturally Google. Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Here, Mapbox, etc. abroad all provide global map services from the beginning, so the global dissemination of map culture is naturally dominated by Europe and the United States. And when you open the map of our country, such as Gaode , Tencent , Tianma Map, etc., you will find that as long as you zoom in, there will be a blank abroad. Baidu is slightly better, but it cannot be said how useful it is.
To this day, we still do not have the excellent tools as Google Earth. Orvi maps and other maps are either unclear or use Google Earth data sources' client tools, let alone serve other countries and regions in the world. Maps are an important means for people to understand the world, but when I use electronic maps to tell my children about the world, I can’t find a better tool than Google Earth. Satellite maps are just one of many map tools, and there are many other types of maps that help the public understand the world. There are even some very excellent information products abroad that allow the public to understand the universe. These map tools can be used not only to recognize known worlds, but also to recognize unknown worlds. But we are almost zero.
Space Engine is a great tool for the public to explore the universe, and my son found the Big Magellanic Cloud before me.
During this Russian-Ukrainian war, a large number of maps about this incident were circulated on the Internet, most of which were transported from abroad. This time Google Earth's news is fake news, and people in other fields are responsible for criticism, but those who make maps should be responsible for reflection.As a part of the Chinese industry, if China's map industry does not have good public products to let the public understand the time and space we live in, it must drag the back of China's cultural heritage and development.
