Research On Anomie Of The Worship Of Celebrity Idols And Approaches To Idolatry Reconstruction

Pop culture has exerted a substantial influence on people's daily life with the continuing development of economic globalization,societal informatization,and cultural diversification.Celebrity effect and celebrity worship are an important expressive form,carrier,and indispensable part of pop culture,with which the dissemination and popularization of pop culture are made possible.Human being is the carrier of culture,which in turn means culture has the function of shaping people.Celebrity worship,as a transitional behavior in the growth of adolescents,has led the majority of adolescents to taking celebrities as their idols since the reform and opening up in China.However,the consequent cultural debate and social problems caused by the anomie of the worship of celebrity idols have gradually become one of the topical issues among academic circles and social public in recent years.Negative events often occur in current society,such as infatuated fans' privacy violation,professional anti-fans' praise for their idols by spreading rumors about other idols,controlling comments,malicious reports,cyber violence,and over-indulgence in idols.Besides,the anomie of teenage fans has become hot news in online social media.Therefore,research into the phenomenon per se,anomie,and social effect of worship of celebrity idols among adolescents are very significant sociologically and culturologically.Currently,researches on idolatry has extended from mass culture to psychology,sociology,pedagogy and other disciplines and research areas in humanities.Moreover,the study of worship of celebrity idols has also undergone a transition from uni-theoretical analysis to multivariate analysis,which pays more attention to the internal rules and psychological activities of the group of celebrity worship and explores pop culture as well as the meaning of idolatry.Research in China focuses on investigating the phenomenon of adolescent idolatry per se,including the description of characteristics and reasons for idolatry,and lays emphasis on providing guiding strategies for adolescent idolatry and model education.In general,the existing research at home has been lacking in interpretation of the anomie of worship of celebrity idols in depth on the one hand,and lacking in specific analysis of the approaches to celebrity idolatry reconstruction on the other.First of all,this dissertation reviews the historical evolution of pop culture and idol worship,describes the development and variation of idolatry,especially star idolatry under the social changes,and consequently sums up the pop cultural background and the changing process of the times of youth idol worship.Chinese idolatry has gone through the transformation from singularity to pluralism,from elitism to popularization,from politics to culture,and accordingly Chinese idols have experienced the development of hero idols,star idols,grassroots idols and cultivate idols.Secondly,this dissertation empirically expounds,compares and explains the current situation and new features of the idolatry of adolescents in China based on questionnaires and interviews.At present,the idolatry of young people in our country shows a trend of overgeneralization and high involvement.The main objects of idolatry in the new trend are stars,and the two-dimensional idols manifest the features of modern times.In the activities of idolatry,it is normal practice to involve technology and consumption behaviors,and adolescents demonstrate initiative in self cognition.However,the negative functions of anomie of celebrity worship need to be analyzed further.The idolatry of adolescents shows new features,including consumption demands and fan economy,technological progress and promotion,the cultivation of young star idols,the McDonaldization of idol making,and the diversification of fan types and the organization of fans.As a type of pop culture,the positive function of star idolatry for the development of society and culture can not be ignored.In recent years,however,the anomie phenomenon and behavior of star idolatry caused by fans' excessive adoration have led to several irrational consequences and social problems.Thirdly,this dissertation analyzes the specific phenomena and behaviors of star idolatry by taking various anomie phenomena and behaviors of star idolatry in contemporary Chinese society into consideration,and presents its universality as a social problem and the significance of its reconstruction through the interviews in terms of symbolic heterization of text creation by fans,consumption and money worship,loss of ego,parochialism,immorality,and entertainment extremity.At the same time,it explores the reasons of idol anomie from the dimensions of culture and identity,individual and organization,system and technology.Furthermore,this dissertation makes a rational thinking on the anomie and deviant behaviors of young star idolatry based on subculture from the perspective of life attitude and value orientation under the popularity of network society as well as the influence and roles between the socialized subjects.The star idolatry represents the life attitudes toward adolescence under the network and embodies the value orientations of contemporary adolescents.The anomie of youth star idolatry is conducive neither to their growth,nor to the social stability.It reflects the contradiction between the socialized subjects and the youth on the one hand,and indicates the unity among the socialized subjects on the other.The various social problems arising in the subculture of adolescents idolatry are no longer solely personal problems or psychological activities,but also a kind of cultural practice,exhibiting the unique style of subculture as well as its opposition and integration with the main culture in the process of occurrence and development.Finally,this dissertation probes into the possibility for idolatry reconstruction in terms of value,standard,and behavior of worship of celebrity idols in the social system,and proposes to guide the concept and behavior of adolescents idolatry via the pool efforts by government,society and individuals.The anomie behaviors of star idolatry for adolescents can not be ignored,yet the attitude of mainstream culture should not simply be a state of negation and obstruction,but a moderate tension should be forged between the arbitrary development and the reasonable supervision through positive instruction and adjustment strategies,so as to provide directions in values and behaviors for the construction of the subculture of star idolatry and the youth anomie.To sum up,the worship of celebrity idols nowadays in pop culture in China has become a part of people's daily life.The adolescent fans along with their words and deeds have received considerable attention and triggered heated debate.The theoretical analysis and empirical studies on the worship of celebrity idols among adolescents so far have obtained many research findings,nevertheless,there is a lack of research on the characteristics and the issue of anomie of idolatry among modern adolescents in pop culture.Therefore,this dissertation aims to promote the development of research on worship of celebrity idols among adolescents in China and can assist adolescents in establishing right idolatry and values.