중국 두 차례의 美學熱과 그 영향(1949-2002)

Abstract

The Ultimate aim of this paper is to indicate the fundamental problems of the crisis that Chinese aesthetics is currently facing by using the critical appraisal method on the particular development process of the "Aesthetics Popularity(美學熱)", that arose two times between 1949 and 2002 for about half of a century in mainland China, and the current impacts of it over the aesthetic field. In China, there were three main channels from they had received a study of aesthetics: Japan, some western Europe countries and the former Soviet Union. These different sources enabled them to deal with a very advanced study of aesthetics with various perspectives. The uniqueness of the main object of this study, the first "Aesthetics Popularity" movement which happened between the 50’s and 60’s, and the second "Aesthetics Popularity" movement, which occurred in the 80’s, can be recognized from the three aspects: first, their emergence and the posterior spread as a social phenomenon. Second, their propagation in China was rapid unlike their propagation in other East Asia countries at that time. Third, they were exploited for political purposes. However it can’t be denied that the rapid spread of both popularity movements under a political control had some negative effects such as the loss of its academic purity that consequently caused severe impacts for instance the deviation from the academic field where aesthetics had originally been studied or the loss of its academic purpose. Even though the "Aesthetics Popularity" period has come to an end, still the study of aesthetics remains in the state of following or circling around the achievements of previous studies without developing novel theories that may be better than the "Aesthetics Popularity" developed theories in discussion. Hence, in this paper, a critical review on the progress of the "Aesthetic Popularity" process had been attempted, furthermore, a deep analysis and a partial statistical analysis had been performed in order to better understand the ensuing academic situation of the "Aesthetic Popularity". At the same time, this study suggests the necessity to re-evaluate the academic achievement which earlier Chinese aestheticians had built up before the "Aesthetic Popularity" periods. This is due to the fact that the early aestheticians held profound discussions on philosophically leading issues, on how to embrace this new knowledge and how to integrate it with their own knowledge system. Finally few methods that might be helpful to overcome those barriers that the current Chinese aesthetics is facing were presented.