Most of all, we do not have the self-confidence to assert our own aesthetic standards when it comes to our own artistic work.
We Chinese have a saying: "A flower blossoms outside the wall, and its fragrance wafts into the courtyard." That means, you'll have to leverage outside forces to build your name inside. That is good when a genius is overlooked at home and trumpeted overseas. If you reverse the equation, things no longer look good.
Cultural differences exist, even in this age of globalization. In the 1980s, a widely acclaimed Chinese movie, My Memory of Old Beijing aspired for an Oscar and failed to make the grade. Nobody in China lamented. The film had such a quintessential Chinese style that it was only natural that outsiders did not pick up the nuances. If we left the selection of the greatest Chinese fiction to Western experts, Dream of the Red Mansions would never fit the bill.
I'm not advertising a psychological balancing act by discounting the significance of Western accolades, an attitude many Chinese filmmakers have adopted in their frustration over their perceived neglect. What I'm saying is, we should know what is good Chinese art even when outsiders do not recognize it because we live in this country and live the aesthetic values espoused by these works.
One way to assert our cultural identity is to introduce to the outside world what is truly good and great in our literary and artistic canon, not what suits the current political winds. Familiarize opinion leaders such as media critics, academics, agents and impresarios with these works. Their attention has been drawn to those we tend to demonize. Beijing's 798 art community was almost demolished until it became a favorite destination for foreign visitors. And honestly, many of our official submissions to the Oscars are so mediocre that I wonder if those in charge of the selection process have any clue of what is universally considered high quality.
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