An Important Feature Of The War Popular Culture During The - The Tragic America

It was the age of Anti-Japanese War from 1930s to 1940s in China. At that time, the whole nationals resisted the invaders and fought for independence with unprecedented courage and determination. They were so brave, solemn and stirring that any difficulty could hardly defeat them. Some learned persons who were full of social conscience and responsibility devoted their life to the glorious cause of national war consciously, and created numerous works with obvious artistic style of tragically heroic beauty to inspire people to fight back. These artistic works not only appeared in elegant literature, but revealed their vivid and artistic characteristics in popular culture.The style of tragically heroic beauty has a long historical standing in our country. It inherited the traditional culture of Confucian and Taoist; even prehistoric man had this kind of spirit in their daily life. Our ancestors and sages all could not help thinking about death and immortality because of their hard or short life, and their notion profoundly affected nationals'cultural mind in social life and cultural experience. All of these helped our country to be a great nation with united spirit and Ethnic identity that building up slow and final becoming a strong will of our nation. The national spirit was displayed prominently when the country faced invaders and had to resist them. Therefore, the modern artistic works of popular culture which were with tragically heroic beauty were not merely related to the age, but the demand of people, which made the popular culture of that time more prosperous.However, it presents a sharp contrast to contemporary masscult that comes out a recreational trend, and then the popular mind of"Funny or Die"arises. Whereas there must be some reasons for this cultural notion, its diffusion makes against the positive development of our society, and it is also out of place for people's regular life. Because of this origin, now we just research the popular culture of 1930s and 1940s again by analyzing those works of the era that are perfect integration of artistry, commerciality and epochal. We hope these studies can be good for our present popular culture and make it more splendid than before.