The Studies Of Chinese Contemporary Cynicism

A common event that happened in the internet produced a popular vocabulary which was called as "everything is nothing". Considering on this simple event, we can see the inner thoughts of our common people, such as the loss of our faith, the shortage of life’s meaning, the skepticism of everything around us, the resentments of our real life and so on. This paper defines these behaviors as cynicism with the analysis of other scholar’s opinions, such as Zezek, Xu Ben, Wang Yuechuan, Wang Hui and so on. This paper mainly puts its emphasis on the studies of Chinese contemporary cynicism. Firstly, we will explain the connotations of the cynicism. And then we will analyze the characteristics and performance of Chinese contemporary cynicism. At last, we will explore the reasons and solutions of it. According to above logics, this paper mainly consists of these follow parts.The first chapter is Cynicism, and it mainly analyzes the connotations of the cynicism. It consists of three parts. Part one is the Brief Introduction of Classical Cynicism. It mainly deals with three problems. The first one is the different opinions about it. The second one is about its literature. And the last is its brief introduction which tells the reasons of its name, the main representative persons and its periods. In view of the change of classical cynicism, this paper introduces it from two periods, early period and later period. Part two is the Studies of Early Period. Combined with some authoritative scholar’s opinions, this part discusses its characteristics from five aspects. First, it puts emphasis on virtue, and believes that the virtue is knowledge. Second, it gets rid of the sensual pleasure, but behaves unconventionally. Third, it despises the political authority. Fourth, it believes that the definition is impossible. With a strong pragmatic color, it gradually develops into doubting all existing values. Fifth, it likes to satirize others, and develops out a humorous and smart satirical art. Part three is the Studies of Later Period. This section mainly wants to reflecting the true face of classical cynicism with a contrast to the early period from three aspects, and they are the way of life, political attitude and its ideological composition.The second chapter explores the characteristics of Chinese contemporary cynicism and its performance in network media. Before specifically addressing this chapter, it firstly describes a number of different opinions about modern cynicism and some my own thinking for nihilism. The chapter describes the characteristics and performances of Chinese contemporary cynicism from three aspects. Section one is the Flood of Nihilism. It mainly discusses how it is produced and its performances on the current network, such as decadence, cynicism and so on. Section two is the Madness of Personality and Pleasure. It mainly elaborates the popular but false personality, the general public’s chasing fame and fortune and the pursuit of sensory stimulation. Section three is the Carnival-style Rebellion and Cynicism. It mainly describes this part from three aspects, and they are the rebellions of classical authority, malicious adaptations and carnival-style cynicism. At the end of this part, we also explore the positive meanings of contemporary cynicism.The third chapter is the Causes of Chinese Contemporary Cynicism. And its train of thought is like this. We start our analysis from the characteristics and performance of current cynicism, and then analyze its deep meaning behind. On this basis, we sum up an overall correct paradigm, and thus expand our analysis of its causes. Section one is the Studies of Cynicism Phenomenon. It mainly starts from the three characteristics and its performance we have mentioned in last chapter, and then explores its possible implications behind. Finally, all these questions come down to the actual power level. This section mainly has used Michel Foucault’s knowledge power theory and Bakhtin’s carnival theory. Section two is Post-totalitarian Society. It mainly spreads its analysis from the perspective of post-totalitarian. This section applies American scholar Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan’s theory and Czech scholar Havel’s theory on post-totalitarian society. Section three is Consumerism. As a supplement of the traditional ideology, it has been widely carried out in the current Chinese society. This section begins its analysis of consumerism’s false consciousness from three aspects. First, consumerism has created a rich, equal, and liberal illusion. Second, it enables the mass to give up pursuing the noble goals and values,but makes them satisfied by the material life, and thus achieves the social stability control. Third, it is deceptive and has been highly controlled. No matter its details or our acceptant process, in fact, they are essentially controllable, which also are highly deceptive. This section mainly has used two kind of theories. One is Marcuse, Horkheimer and Adorno’s theory, which can be named as Frankfurt School’s theory. Another is Jean Baudrillard’s consumerism theory.