Transformation Of Intellectuals In The 1990s:A Context Of Market Economy

With the gradual deepening of the reform of the market economy system,the Chinese society in the 1990s was undergoing profound changes.Facing the impact of the market economy tide,the humanistic intellectuals in the 1990s also faced enormous challenges.This paper argues that under the impact of the market economy,intellectuals are mainly faced with three challenges and choices:marginalization,secularization,and specialization,from the perspectives of living conditions,value orientation,and specialization.Judging from the living conditions of intellectuals,"marginalization" became the common cognition of intellectuals in the 1990s.Among them,humanistic intellectuals are most sensitive to the perception of marginalization.The marginalization of humanistic intellectuals is mainly at two levels:from the perspective of disciplines and knowledge composition,it is manifested as the marginalization of "humanities" relative to "technology";from the perspective of cultural development,it manifests as the marginalization of elite culture relative to popular culture.Intellectuals,as watchmen of humanistic spirit and producers of elite culture,wander on the edge of the market.From the perspective of the value orientation of intellectuals,with the in-depth development of modernization,"secularization" has become an irreversible trend of development,and the value orientation of intellectuals has also been secularized.The secularization of intellectuals in the 1990s was manifested in two levels of secularization:one was secularization at the ideological level.In the face of the moral degeneration brought about by the market economy,intellectuals in the 1990s raised the "humanistic spirit" to compete with it.The discussion of humanistic spirit between 1993 and 1995 was the ideological response of intellectuals in the face of the tide of marketization;the second was the secularization of life.Intellectuals were faced with the dilemma of intellectual poverty and economic poverty in the market,so they began to "Go to the sea" to participate in the market economy.From the perspective of the academic value orientation of intellectuals,in the face of the dilemma of "marginalization" and "secularization",intellectuals in the 1990s finally chose"specialization" as their settle down.The specialization of intellectuals in the 1990s is mainly manifested in two aspects:one is to seek the internal driving force for professional development,typified by the "Chinese Study Fever" of this period,they tried to find the vitality necessary for modern academic development in traditional Chinese culture.The second is to build a good academic ecological environment,which is reflected in the discussion of academic standardization.