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Information about the authors
Amina A. Agrba, PhD in culture studies, lecturer at PR department, Faculty of International Journalism, MGIMO-University (76, Vernadskogo Prosp., Moscow, 119454, Russia)
Lana A. Agrba, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Roman and German Languages, Abkhazian State University (1, Universitetskaya St., Sukhum, 384904, Abkhazia)
Статья поступила в редакцию / The article was submitted 17.10.2023
Одобрена после рецензирования / Approved after reviewing 01.02.2024 Принята к публикации / Accepted for publication 11.02.2024
Научная статья / Article
UDC 78.072
https://doi.org/10.34130/2233-1277-2024-1-43
Chinoiserie Trend in Chinese Pop Music and Its Role in Inter-Civilizational and Intra-Cultural Communication
Audra-Kristina I. Zabulionite1, 2, Jiang Tao3
1А. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University; 2St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, [email protected]; [email protected] 3А. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg, Russia, [email protected]
Abstract. The chinoiserie phenomenon, which combines European forms with elements of Chinese traditional culture, initially emerged in Europe as a result of inter-civilizational communication. At the end of the 20th century, the phenomenon of Chinese chinoiserie was formed in various cultural spheres, including pop music. The artistic, aesthetic and cultural value of the chinoiserie trend has sparked controversy among Chinese musicologists. The authors of the article define chinoiserie as stylization and discuss different communicative styling functions in the case of Western and Chinese chinoiserie.
Keywords: intercultural communication, stylization, traditional Chinese culture, contemporary Chinese music
For citation: Zabulionite A.-K. I., Jiang Tao. Chinoiserie Trend in Chinese Pop Music and Its Role in Inter-Civilizational and Intra-Cultural Communication.
© Zabulionite A.-K. I., Jiang Tao, 2024
Chelovek. Kul'tura. Obrazovanie = Human. Culture. Education. 2024; 1: 43-56. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34130/2233-1277-2024-1-43
направление «шинуазри» в китайской поп-музыке и его роль в межцивилизационной и внутрикультурной
коммуникации
Аудра Кристина Носифовна Забулионите1, 2, цзян тао3
Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А. И. Герцена;
2Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, Санкт-Петербург, Россия, [email protected]; [email protected] 3Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А. И. Герцена, Санкт-Петербург, Россия, [email protected]
Аннотация. Термин шинуазри, прежде всего в искусствоведческой литературе, появляется в XVII-XVIII веках, когда в Европе и России распространяется мода на все китайское. Феномен шинуазри в искусстве проявляется как использование мотивов и стилистических приемов традиционного китайского искусства. На протяжении долгого времени стилистическое направление «шинуазри» воспринимается исключительно как феномен, существующий в европейской и российской культуре. Однако в конце ХХ века формируется феномен китайского шинуазри, который охватывает самые разные области культуры. Он распространяется в музыке, в изобразительном и прикладном искусстве, в архитектуре, в кино и даже в одежде. В культуре Китая формирование феномена шинуазри связывают с установкой возродить классическую традицию. В статье обсуждается феномен шинуазри на примере китайской поп-музыки. Это направление было весьма противоречиво встречено в китайском музыковедении. Художественная, эстетическая и культурная ценность этого направления в поп-музыке вызвала острую полемику среди китайских музыковедов. В статье представлены разные точки зрения на шинуазри в поп-музыке. Критики направления «шинуазри» в китайской поп-музыке обвиняли его в постмодернистских установках, искажающих дух китайской традиционной культуры. Авторы статьи не согласны с обвинениями шинуазри в постмодернизме, они отстаивают и аргументируют точку зрения, что шинуазри и постмодернизм являются разными эстетическими направлениями. Обращаясь к междисциплинарному подходу, авторы статьи определяют шинуазри как стилизацию и обсуждают разные коммуникативные функции стилизации в культуре. Выявляются разный характер стилизации в случае постмодернизма и шинуазри, а также разные коммуникативные функции стилизации в случае западного и китайского шинуазри.
Ключевые слова: межкультурная коммуникация, стилизация, традиционная китайская культура, современная китайская музыка
Для цитирования: Забулионите А. К. И., Цзян Тао. Направление «ши-нуазри» в китайской поп-музыке и его роль в межцивилизационной и вну-трикультурной коммуникации // Человек. Культура. Образование. 2024. № 1. С. 43-56. https://doi.org/l0.34130/2233-1277-2024-1-43
1. Chinoiserie. Concept problem. In the last two decades, a bright new trend in Chinese pop music has been making itself known, which in Chinese musicological literature is denoted by a combination of hieroglyphs ФШM. The translation of this combination in hieroglyphs means "Chinese wind", and a search for this combination in bilingual online dictionaries offers the following translation into Russian: "chinoiserie", "Chi-neseness" (ФШМ zhongguofeng] [1].
As is known, the introduction of a term into scientific use is not completed by its translation from one language into another. To become a scientific concept, a term must have a certain and generally understood content. If we talk about the term "chinoiserie" (from the French "chinoiserie", translated as "Chineseness"] in Russian and European scientific terminology, then the history of this concept was associated with the penetration of forms of Chinese civilization and the emergence of fashion in Europe for everything Chinese, which became especially noticeable in the 17th century, and in the 18th century covered the entire continent from England to Russia, the center of which, of course, remained France.
The introduction of the term referring to the perception of elements of other civilizational worlds, in this case Chinese, in the European intellectual space, was quite natural. However, it is unusual to apply this term to the phenomena of Chinese civilization itself: Chinese "chinoiserie", Chinese "Chineseness". Nevertheless, the trend called ФШМ ("chinoiserie"] exists in China and is gaining huge popularity, not only in pop music, but also in architecture, cinema, clothing and other areas of culture.
There is no doubt about the correctness of the translation of the concept, because in Chinese scientific terminology the characters ФШ M are used both in relation to the new trend in pop music and other arts and cultural fields, and to the long-known phenomena of chinoiserie in Europe. An example is the monograph by Liu Haixiang "Chinoiserie on European Soil" [2], which explores the manifestation of the "Chinese style" in European painting, architecture, furniture, porcelain of the 17th — 18th centuries. Liu Haixiang notes that the French term "chinoiserie" can be translated into Chinese by such terms as tXM (han feng], ФШМ (zhongguo feng], ФШМ^ (zhongguo feng ge], or ФШ^ (zhongguo re] [2, p. 4]. It is noteworthy that out of the four possible translations of the term "chinoiserie" into Chinese, in the title of the book the scientist uses a combination of hieroglyphs "ФНМ: ШШХШШ 'ФШМ' " that means,
"Chinoiserie: 'Chinese style on European Soil'". That is, the same term is used for both European chinoiserie and Chinese chinoiserie. The given example is not an isolated case. It refers to the common usage of the term in the Chinese intellectual tradition.
In the situation of close scientific contacts that have been developing intensively in recent decades, it is hardly possible to ignore this terminological situation that has developed in the Chinese intellectual tradition. However, we must solve the issue of the emerging terminological disagreement in Russian and Western science when translating the Chinese term "Chinese chinoiserie", because it will not be possible to remain silent about this terminological problem and preserve the international status of science. What solution to this problem seems promising to us? In our search for a solution to this question, we shall proceed from the following reasoning:
1) Chinoiserie researchers have repeatedly noted that the image of China in European perception was changing: from mysterious and romanticized to refined but more realistic forms. This is due in no small part to the active cultural exchange: contacts with China are becoming more and more intense. Not only the image of China in European and Russian culture was changing. Since the end of the 19th century, chinoiserie has been the subject of research by historians, art historians, and cultural scientists. The researchers note that chinoiserie is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, and the definition of the concept of chinoiserie already in the European space becomes ambiguous: "On the one hand, it is an extremely fantasy direction in the history of European art, on the other hand — the result of a serious fascination with China and its culture" [3, p. 3].
Thus, it can be stated that in its semantic history the term "chinoiserie" in the Russian and Western intellectual traditions is gradually losing its certainty, its original meaning is gradually blurring, it becomes seman-tically difficult to fix. Even more uncertainty is given to the term by the situation with the understanding of chinoiserie in the Chinese intellectual tradition. But the acuteness of the problem only contributes to the search for its solution. In essence, we are faced with the need to define the content and structure of the concept of "chinoiserie".
2) As is known, the essence of a concept is revealed not on the basis of its externally fixed features, which are variable. The conceptual apparatus of science is developed by relying on philosophical knowledge, which reveals the essence of phenomena based on their origin in culture.
The procedure for defining a concept captures its most general characteristics (concept outline). If we talk about the origin of the chinoise-
rie phenomenon, it is formed as a result of intercultural communication and represents a synthesis of the forms of Western and Chinese medieval civilization (i.e. the use of elements of Chinese medieval culture in European culture]. The procedure of concept definition is followed by the procedure of division, which means a meaningful differentiation (substantive structuring] of the concept. In the case of chinoiserie, in inter-civilizational communication the hermeneutic spectrum of the image of China can fluctuate in the widest range: from a false (fantasy] stereotype to the depiction of the real image of China. But the core of the concept is a synthesis of elements of Chinese medieval civilization. And only then the artistic interpretation of these elements (stylization in the aesthetics of romanticism, rococo, baroque, realism, etc.], the peculiarities of chinoiserie in different types of art (in engraving or painting, music or costume, architecture, interior or garden art], regional peculiarities of chinoiserie in different European countries, and so on are traced.
Following the sequence in the division procedures, one can go further in structuring the content of the concept of chinoiserie (up to the manner of stylization in the works of this or that artist]. If we consistently adhere to such logic of definition and division of the concept, which was recommended by Aristotle, and which R. Descartes spoke about in his doctrine of method, then we will avoid terminological confusion even if we introduce the term "Chinese chinoiserie". This will be a regional specification of the chinoiserie phenomena that takes place in contemporary China.
3] This definition of the essence of the chinoiserie phenomenon as a synthesis of Western form with elements of Chinese medieval culture allows us to harmonize the ideas of the Russian and Western intellectual tradition with the terminology currently established in the Chinese intellectual tradition.
It is well known that since the beginning of the 20th century China has turned to the assimilation of the forms of Western civilization in all spheres of life, including all kinds of arts, and the search for a harmonious synthesis of Western and Chinese tradition initially accompanied the processes of reception of Western forms. However, since the 1980s, these processes of reception have been marked by a new important vector: a turn to traditional culture, which in recent decades has been shaped as the trend of chinoiserie (sinicization of Western forms by introducing elements of medieval Chinese culture]. Consequently, in the Chinese use of the term "chinoiserie", logic is clearly present. In both cases (European and Chinese chinoiserie], elements of medieval Chinese culture are introduced into the form of Western civilization, giving it a "Chinese style".
2. Study of the Chinoiserie trend in pop music in Chinese musi-cology. The rapidly gaining popularity of chinoiserie in Chinese pop music has already attracted the attention of many, attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of musicology, including the leading ones. However, it should be noted that Chinese researchers are not unanimous in their assessment of this musical phenomenon: they have not reached a consensus on both its artistic value and cultural significance.
The chinoiserie trend in Chinese pop music has been analyzed by musicologists in a variety of aspects: the history of Chinese pop music, aesthetics, linguistics, semiotics, and sociology of music. Discussions of cultural aspects are not uncommon. When it comes to a principled assessment of chinoiserie in Chinese pop music, musicologists have divergent positions: pro et contra.
You Jingbo and Li Gang discuss the emergence and development of chinoiserie in the context of Chinese pop music history, defining it as a "cultural form" that incorporates the harmonies of folk music and elements of national instrumental music. Researchers give a positive assessment and recognize the cultural significance of chinoiserie pop music, noting that it has become an important component of youth culture. And this makes us take a new look at the importance of pop music in culture as a whole [4, p. 316-318].
Tu Jinying offers an overview of the development of Chinese pop music and gives a positive assessment of chinoiserie. He draws attention to the uniqueness of Chinese pop music and its difference from the purely European and American R&B trend. Turning to traditional Chinese music and cultural images, the representatives of the chinoiserie trend in pop music — Zhou Jielun, Wang Lihong, David Tao, Lin Junjie — have opened up a completely new path on the Chinese music scene in the era of flooding "snotty pop" [5, p. 271].
Considering chinoiserie in pop music, Ding Mu believes that as a revolutionary and iconic singer in the pop music market, Zhou Jielun completely sinicizes the R&B music form. He combines hip-hop and R&B singing techniques with traditional Chinese music. The researcher gives an unambiguously positive assessment of the chinoiserie direction, defining this direction as "the leading type of Chinese pop music", which "infuses literary beauty and the beauty of artistic intent into music" [6, p. 207].
Putting forward three models of Chinese pop music development: "Li Jinhui's model", "Northwest Wind model" and "Chinoiserie model", Zheng Kai believes that the "Chinoiserie model" organically combines elements of Eastern and Western music. According to him, a large number of elements of traditional Chinese culture are integrated on the basis of Western pop music [7, p. 98].
Researchers Wu Bin and Han Chunyan highly praise Zhou Jielun's work, believing that the composer and singer gradually formed a "unique style of chinoiserie music". Most of the songs of the "chinoiserie style" of Zhou Jielun were written in collaboration with Fang Wenshan, whose lyrics have artistic and aesthetic characteristics of Chinese classical poetry, which corresponds to the requirement of Chinese aesthetics: 'to pay great attention to the artistic expression of the state of mind, to give meaning and elegance to inner feelings" [8, p. 48].
Zhang Jinhua also agrees with the positive evaluations of chinoiserie in pop music. He believes that based on the general trend of R&B music style, both Zhou Jielun and Wang Lihong have developed their own chinoiserie. At the same time, Zhang Jinhua praises the professional level of Zhou Jielun and Wang Lihong: "Both of them have headed the trend of the era with remarkable musical literacy" [9, p. 30].
In terms of the sociology of music and musical communication, the direction of chinoiserie in pop music is analyzed by Zheng Kai. He draws attention to its socio-cultural significance and gives this trend a positive assessment. The researcher is convinced that the main factors influencing the formation of chinoiserie are the continuous attempts to nationalize pop music, which is relevant in protecting and supporting national traditional culture. Taking into account the use of elements of traditional Chinese music and poetry in pop music, the direction of chinoiserie is divided into "recessive" and "dominant" [7, p. 109].
Wang Wei also draws attention to the socio-cultural aspects and cultural significance of chinoiserie pop music works. According to the researcher, "Chinoiserie pop music is favored by teenagers, which will allow them to get to know traditional Chinese culture in a discreet way, indirectly awaken their national consciousness and sense of national-cultural identity, and give them high cultural confidence in their country and nation. At the same time, the dissemination of a large number of 'chinoiserie-style' songs will also promote traditional Chinese culture to the world, and will help the world learn more about Chinese culture" [10, p. 396].
However, there are also a number of other researchers who make very critical assessments and judgments. For example, Chen Hewei believes that, while maintaining appreciation for chinoiserie music, one should not ignore the socio-cultural problems it contains, among which he notes three: 1] there are cultural misconceptions in chinoiserie itself and they lead to consequences in society; 2] the Chinoiserie singers' own level of culture is disturbing; 3] commercial interests ultimately lead to the coexistence of high-quality and low-quality chinoiserie music [11, pp. 170-171].
Researchers who critically assess the chinoiserie trend in pop music also cite another set of arguments: 1] in terms of aesthetic characteristics, chinoiserie pop music works are a modernization of China's own aesthetic tradition. They share the aesthetic characteristics of postmo-dernity. Researchers have expressed concern about how images and traditional Chinese aesthetics in general are being transformed in chinoiserie pop music works; 2] chinoiserie pop music works, they believe, are a collage of many traditional Chinese images, and there is a tendency in contemporary culture to deconstruct traditional Chinese culture.
Thus, for example, researcher Tian Jing draws attention to "the chinoiserie lyrics paradox by Fang Wenshan". He notes that chinoiserie is a complex intersection of classics, modernity and postmodernity. In pop music there is a deconstruction of classical images, they are interpreted as "deliberate jokes" and are entertaining in nature, while following the traditional way, i.e. adhering to the classical aesthetic theory, such interpretations are prohibited. [12, p. 157]. Critical judgments are also expressed by Cao Hua, paying attention to the transformation of classical images in chinoiserie pop songs: the tradition is being reworked in a postmodern spirit [13, p. 94]. Other researchers have expressed similar opinion in their works: Lian Xi, Ma Jun, Yang Jie, Li Xiaoqing, Xu Liang, Xiao Ting. A number of works are devoted to the analysis of the lyrics of the chinoiserie song direction in pop music.
The study by Lu Zhenglan [14] deals with the issue of "chinoiserie" pop songs in the aspect of gender codes. Huang Hanhua analyzes the se-miotic aspects of traditional cultural symbols and "chinoiserie" symbols [15], paying attention to the transformation of cultural codes.
The points of view we have presented indicate that a multidimensional problem field has emerged in Chinese musicological studies by now, in which a serious polemic is taking place about the direction of chinoiserie in Chinese pop music. The problems that are being discussed in Chinese musicology are well-founded, the positions of researchers are well-reasoned, and the questions raised do not presuppose simple answers.
3. The concept of style and stylization. Turning to the study of chinoiserie in Chinese pop music and entering the outlined problem field, we consider it necessary to clarify our notions of style and stylization. For in the Russian and Western intellectual space chinoiserie is defined as stylization, while in Chinese studies chinoiserie is most often defined as a style. Since in the case of chinoiserie, it is about the synthesis of different natural forms (Western and Chinese], it is right, in our view, to talk about stylization.
It seems to us that the general theory of style, based on the idea of the integrity of culture, developed in the research of E. N. Ustyugova [16], is promising regarding this issue in methodological terms. Comprehending the experience of the study of style in different humanities, the researcher emphasizes that the construction of a general theory of style should be based not on separate disciplines, but on the notion of culture as integrity. Thus, E.N. Ustyugova substantiates the interdisciplinary and philosophical-categorical status of the concept of style. "Style is such a way of organizing form, which arises and acts only as an expressive, meaning-bearing form and therefore operates within the boundaries of the world of human meanings, i.e. in culture" [16, p. 154]. Thus, culture as an integrity is the meaning-generating sphere of style, and style is the way of identification of the subject of culture. For human activity, including aesthetic, finds meaning in the integrity of culture, in its spiritual horizon. At the same time, the researcher emphasizes the understanding of style first of all "as an aesthetic phenomenon of culture' [16, p. 224].
E. N. Ustyugova notes that in art history and aesthetics of the second half of the 20th century, the understanding of style is shifting more and more into the sphere of the individual, but the researcher, defends the point of view of the "big" styles (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism]. Without smoothing out the methodological difficulties of the question of style diversity of culture (whether culture is monostylous or polystylous), the author takes, in our view, a more promising position — to understand the style, proceeding from the integrity of culture, which does not allow the very concept of style to be blurred to the point of uncertainty. Building a general theory of style, the researcher introduces a dichotomy of concepts — style and stylization — and gives a fundamental characteristic of the latter. E.N. Ustyugova emphasizes that stylization is not a belittling concept, but performs different, very important functions in culture. The researcher gives a detailed and developed typology of stylization, noting, in particular, its communicative function in culture [16, pp. 225-240].
4. Chinoiserie direction as inter-civilizational and intra-cultural communication in Chinese pop music. We believe, based on the general theory of style and taking into account the separation of the concepts of style and stylization, that chinoiserie in Chinese pop music is not an independent style, but a stylization that works differently in the space of Chinese cultural meanings compared to the space of meanings of European and Russian cultures.
As is well known, in the 20th century, Chinese civilization set itself the goal of renewing the traditional forms of Chinese culture by assimilating the forms of the West. Accordingly, in the case of chinoiserie in Chinese pop music, the regulative ideal is the harmonious combination of Western forms and traditional Chinese culture, a thesis repeatedly expressed in the works of leading Chinese music theorists, prominent composers and performers since the 1920s. Therefore, recalling the "prohibition of traditional aesthetics" as an argument against the reinterpretation of traditional images in pop music is hardly compatible with the goal of updating the forms of music. It is not enough to point out the presence of heterogeneous forms (traditional, modern and western] in the judgement about the postmodern character of the work. The question of the conjugation of heterogeneous forms, as well as the way in which classical images are interpreted, clearly requires careful analysis.
What path does a particular artist follow in trying to achieve this regulative ideal? Is a new integrity of the artistic form achieved in a particular work? Are we dealing with an organic integrity of the artistic image or with a collage that transforms traditional images? Analysis is required in each individual case.
As vivid examples of songs, we can cite the songs "Gust of the East Wind" (Fang Wenshan, Zhou Jielun] and "The New Drunken Concubine" (text and melody by Hu Li, performer Li Yugang). Both works make rich use of elements of traditional culture, both in the poetic part (lyrics] and in the musical part (identifiable melodies, harmonies, instruments, and reference to the singing techniques of traditional Chinese vocal art).
When creating the lyrics of the song "Gust of the East Wind", Zhou Jielun refers to one of the motifs of the qu-po tradition1, the image of the east wind. In creating the music of the song, he uses Chinese national harmonies, which were the basis not only for Chinese folk music but also for court music, as the basis for the arrangement. The instrumentation of the song combines modern musical instruments with traditional Chinese instruments such as the lute, erhu and zither. This accounts for the song's distinct national flavor. Like the classical tradition of qu-po, the pop song conveys a sense of inconsolable sadness of parting, of course, taking on features of modernity.
The lyrics of the song "The New Drunken Concubine" in its own way represents the plot of the famous Chinese classical poem "The Song of
1 Qu po is a genre of music popular during the Song Dynasty, involving playing musical instruments, singing, dancing and other forms. The structure of qu po has a certain standard, but its many forms allow you to coordinate them with the needs of the performance.
Eternal Sorrow" about the tragic love story of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, created by Bo Ju-yi, the poet of the Tang Dynasty. This famous plot was also embodied in the traditional Beijing opera, becoming one of the representative works of the Beijing opera of the Mei School — "The Drunken Concubine". The performer of the pop song "The New Drunken Concubine" — singer Li Yugang, in his performance style, combines modern vocal techniques with the traditional ones, crystallized in Beijing Opera, including the fan chuan technique1 of the traditional Chinese opera. The mood of the pop song also conveys romantic sadness.
The texts of both pop songs are based on forms, vocabulary, and symbols of traditional Chinese classical literature, which are related to modern texts and traditional aesthetics. In terms of musical language, these songs use the techniques of the traditional Chinese harmony system, and it significantly transforms the rhythms of R&B, rock and roll, and in some works of rap. In the aspect of arrangement and instrumentation, we see the combination of traditional Chinese national musical instruments with modern instruments. The use of Chinese folk harmonies and traditional musical instruments in chinoiserie pop music allows to reproduce in its own way both the embodiment of the "beauty of the golden mean" and the "linear thinking" inherent in traditional Chinese musical aesthetics. It is on this traditional basis that the specifics of modern popular music and the specifics of traditional Chinese music are most often combined to create a Chinese flavor and evoke in listeners a sense of Chinese national aesthetics.
Both songs convey not joking and entertaining moods, but deep feelings (sadness, parting, love]. One can hardly agree that they have any signs of postmodernism just on the grounds that traditional images are interpreted in a modern context. Of course, analyzing the transformation of classical images in the direction of chinoiserie in pop music is a problem of detailed research. However, these examples also allow us to question the fairness of generalizing criticism and a negative assessment of chinoiserie pop music as such. In any case, in the two works cited as examples, artistic integrity and aesthetic value of the image were achieved.
The forms of synthesis of heterogeneous elements in chinoiserie pop music require much more thorough research. However, even preliminary analysis allows us to assert that the communicative function of stylization in the formation of artistic form in Chinese chinoiserie works in two directions: as inter-civilizational communication (synchronic dimension]
1 The fang chuan technique used in Chinese opera is performing in someone else's role, i.e. playing the role of the opposite sex.
and as intra-cultural communication (diachronic dimension, referring to its own historical heritage, to the forms of music and poetry of traditional Chinese culture]. These preliminary conclusions regarding the ways of synthesizing heterogeneous forms are a question that requires further analysis, both musicological and culturological, which allows us to judge more thoroughly the mechanisms of transformation and renewal of tradition in the historical dynamics of culture, to better assess how tradition is activated in culture, how intra-cultural communication works, in which, no doubt, chinoiserie pop music takes part and activates the mental-historical memory of culture in its inherent manner.
A viable culture does not repeat tradition in its preserved form; tradition lives in dialog with the past. And the artist creates new art in the context of modernity and turns to tradition, revealing the connection of times in modern images. In this sense, the chinoiserie trend in pop music has the intention not to repeat, but to revitalize the forms of traditional culture in the context of modernity. The other question is how it turns out in the case of a particular work: do separate elements of both traditional culture (poetry and music] and elements of other civilizational origins merge into a coherent artistic image? Is a beautiful aesthetic phenomenon born, is the desired result achieved — a harmonious fusion of Western form and Chinese spirit? Does a particular work implement the regulatory ideal that Chinese cultural figures and art theorists have been calling for ever since the turn to adopt Western forms in order to renew Chinese civilization? These issues are within the competence of the music critic. And this person must have professional intuition, which makes it possible to recognize new aesthetically valuable meanings and develop new aesthetic criteria and norms, which are known to be fluid in the history of art.
5. Conclusion. The question of introducing into Russian musicology the range of problems discussed in Chinese musicology in connection with the chinoiserie trend in pop music involves defining and clarifying the concept of chinoiserie that has developed in Russian and Western intellectual space. If we talk about Western civilization, where the fashion for Chineseness, chinoiserie, has gone through several waves, it should be said that they often involved a rather superficial assimilation of the forms of another civilization: inter-civilizational communication proceeded as a dragging of elements/forms of other civilizations into the space of one's own culture in the form of exoticism and rather superficial aestheticism. But the fascination with China has had a far deeper impact on Western civilization than one can imagine. As the prominent Russian sinologist, historian of Chinese philosophy and culture E. A. Torchinov noted: "Now it is difficult for us to assess the trace that this fashion [chi-
noiserie] has left in our culture and even in our everyday life, because its presence is not limited to 'Chinese palaces' and 'Chinese drawing rooms' in the palace complexes of the 18th century. Our system of examinations in schools and universities is the result of conclusions made by educators from the Jesuits' descriptions of the Chinese Keju system, and even the crackers, Firecrackers and other New Year's pyrotechnics — also traces of the Jesuit-provoked fashion for China" [17, p. 13]. The phenomenon of chinoiserie in the cultures of the Western world still hides many interesting topics and questions. But that is another topic.
In a different and more complex way, the communicative function of stylization is realized in the Chinese phenomenon of chinoiserie. Styliza-tion as intra-cultural and inter-civilizational communication takes place in the creation of the artistic form of pop music. The mechanisms of renewal of traditions, which are carried out by the development of forms of alien civilization, affect the deeper layers of culture, and the processes of form formation in art are more complex. And yet, we are inclined to share the point of view of those researchers who believe that not postmodern deconstruction, but activation of one's own mentality is taking place in the direction of chinoiserie in pop music, which plays an important role in mobilizing the passionary energy of Chinese culture.
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Сведения об авторах
Забулионите Аудра Кристина Иосифовна, доктор философских наук, профессор Российского государственного педагогического университета им. А. И. Герцена (191186, Россия, Санкт-Петербург, Набережная реки Мойки, д. 48); доцент Санкт-Петербургского государственного университета (199034, Россия, Санкт-Петербург, Университетская набережная, 7-9)
Цзян Тао, аспирант Института музыки, театра и хореографии Российского государственного педагогического университета им. А. И. Герцена (191186, Россия, Санкт-Петербург, набережная реки Мойки, д. 48)
Information about authors
Audra-Kristina I. Zabulionite, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of the A. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University (48, Moika River embankment, St. Petersburg, 91186, Russia); Associate Professor at St. Petersburg State University (7-9, Universitetskaya embankment, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia)
Jiang Tao, Graduate student of Department of the Performing Arts, Institute of Music, Theatre and Choreography Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (48, Moika River embankment, St. Petersburg, 91186, Russia)
Статья поступила в редакцию / The article was submitted Одобрена после рецензирования / Approved after reviewing Принята к публикации / Accepted for publication
11.01.2024 05.02.2024 15.02.2024
