Our reporter Peng Xunwen
The classically beautiful Hanfu, the cultural creation of the Forbidden City with strong innovative features, watches that integrate the sense of technology and traditional cultural elements... In recent years, "national trend" explosions have emerged, involving music, art, architecture, furniture, clothing, food, All aspects of spiritual and material life such as daily cultural and creative life.
With the gradual recognition of domestic products by consumers, especially the younger generation, the social aesthetic fashion chasing the "national trend" is quietly emerging.
So, what exactly is a "national tide"?
What is it born and why?
How does the "national tide" trend lead to changes in social aesthetics?
Demonstration of patriotism and cultural belonging
"Do you say no clothes? Same robe with your son". Hanfu lovers like to call each other "tong robe". Viking, who works in the media, is one of the "tong robes". She also has another identity - the Hanfu Spring Festival Gala planner.
The Hanfu Spring Festival Gala is a large-scale online party in the Hanfu circle and has been held for 12 sessions.
In 2010, Hanfu was still an unfamiliar word to many people.
A group of Hanfu enthusiasts decided to use the form of a party to let Hanfu lovers from all over the world participate in it through communication and collision.
Every year at the end of the year, Hanfu associations in various places start online gatherings through Han dance, elegant music, opera and other forms.
Nowadays, more and more "comrades" are gathered. During the live broadcast of the party in 2022, it attracted 300,000 viewers.
In Viking's view, the Hanfu Spring Festival Gala is a platform for "compatriots" to fully participate in and spread Hanfu culture.
In order to prepare for the party, there were 40 to 50 staff members, and nearly 1,000 people participated in the submission. "There are teachers, drama researchers, college students, etc., because everyone likes Hanfu and uses their spare time to get together and prepare for a few months." .
"We hope to express the beauty of Hanfu in the form of popular culture, and the Spring Festival Gala of Hanfu is an opportunity." Viking said that clothing is an important symbol of social culture, and Hanfu culture reflects young people's attitude towards life that respects both tradition and modernity. aesthetic spirit.
The process of Han obedience becoming a niche trend and gradually being accepted by more people is a microcosm of the popularity of "national tide".
What is "National Tide"?
Most experts believe that "tide" refers to a fashion trend and aesthetic trend, and it is a fashion formed by people's love for something.
The current "national tide" mostly refers to a trend style formed by integrating the excellent traditional Chinese culture and modern lifestyle with fashion trends as the carrier.
The "national tide" fever is reflected in many aspects:
First, it is a consumer trend.
Many time-honored and new brands have gradually formed a fashion consumption trend that is unique, close to life and can resonate with the public through the innovative mining and re-creation of Chinese traditional culture.
According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in May this year, 90% of consumers are optimistic about the future development of domestic brands.
According to a consumer survey report released by the international consulting firm McKinsey, Chinese companies are striving to upgrade the quality, performance and value of their products, and nearly one-third of consumers will choose Chinese brands for high-end products.
Secondly, it promotes the formation of new aesthetic fashion.
Whether it is buying "domestic products", displaying "domestic products", using "domestic products", or wearing Hanfu, listening to folk music, watching movies and TV in ancient costumes, visiting red scenic spots, or "National Treasure" program, "Only Green" dance, Beijing Winter Olympics The countdown to the twenty-four solar terms at the opening ceremony of the conference and the scene of "Breaking Willows and Sending Love" at the closing ceremony detonated the social media topic list. These popular trends in the fields of consumption, cultural performances and other fields largely reflect the aesthetic style and culture of the Chinese people. Attitudes are changing: practitioners have gradually shifted from chasing overseas fashion trends and design concepts to favoring cultural symbols and design ideas that highlight Chinese traditional culture and aesthetic ideas, and are becoming more and more willing to try, be good at innovation, and dare to express; consumers It not only recognizes the brand image of Chinese culture and "national trend" consumer goods, but also strives to find a fit with the spirit of Chinese culture in terms of life attitude and aesthetic taste, reflecting a high cultural self-confidence.
Hu Yu, a professor at Tsinghua University, believes that "national tide" combines Chinese cultural symbols, Chinese aesthetic spirit, traditional skills, manufacturing and cultural industries, and its popularity is a manifestation of patriotic sentiment and cultural belonging.
Reflecting changes in social aesthetics
The time scale on the dial of the watch is in Xiaozhuan font, the 6 o’clock position is the pattern of the Qin army’s armor helmet, the red second hand is reminiscent of the Qin State’s weapon “crossbow machine”, and the design of the nameplate on the watch side is inspired by the tiger talisman... Through the e-commerce platform " After looking at the "AR try-on" function several times, Chen Xiao, a "post-90s" who worked in a company in Shanghai, took a fancy to the new "Qin Feng·Hu Fu" watch by the time-honored brand Seagull Company.
Chen Xiao said that the design of domestic watches is very "trendy" now, and he is more and more fond of products that are full of traditional Chinese culture and have excellent quality.
The oil-paper umbrella, which is split, boiled, dried, and drawn by the ancient method and combined with modern technology, is a group fan that has innovatively developed intangible cultural heritage techniques and is exported to overseas. After dozens of processes and hundreds of hours of repeated calcination and polishing, the 3D curved ceramic shell mobile phone Body... As young people favor "national tide", many time-honored and new brands have begun to look for design inspiration from the treasure house of Chinese excellent traditional culture.
So, why has the "national tide" ushered in an outbreak in recent years and gradually formed a trend?
"Our aesthetic methods and trends have been changing over the years." Jin Yuanpu, director of the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries at Renmin University of China, believes that this is first due to reform and opening up.
When the country first opened, people felt that everything from abroad was very fashionable.
With the development of the times and the continuous strengthening of cultural construction, many people have improved their ability to distinguish between China and the West through cultural education, understanding of reality, and comparison between China and the West, and their recognition of the excellent traditional Chinese culture has improved.
At the same time, the production methods of the industrial chain, modern technologies such as the combination of sound and light, and new communication methods such as live broadcasts and Internet celebrities have also contributed to the rise of the "national tide".
"When a directional aesthetic orientation is formed, people's aesthetic cultivation is also changing. Western aesthetics used to be a trend that many people follow, and now it is gradually becoming an object of mutual learning between civilizations. This is a very important change." Jin Yuanpu said .
The second is the change of social aesthetics to promote the renewal of design concepts.
Fashion is an important feature of the consumer era.
In recent years, some popular "national trend" designs often focus on going beyond the simple splicing of traditional symbolic elements, and go deep into the core of Chinese aesthetics and traditional culture. At different levels such as mood and conception, the function, visual image, and space structure of objects are creatively combined to express the changing social aesthetics and the new trend of the times.
Experts believe that with the development and progress of the times, people's life is prosperous, and they begin to pursue the richness of aesthetic expression, such as conveying spiritual interest and aesthetic attitude through "things".
In this sense, the design of "national tide" runs through the cultural spirit, aesthetic style and atmosphere of the times of today's Chinese people.
In addition, the younger generation, especially "Generation Z", show strong confidence and cultural confidence.
In terms of birth time, "Generation Z" refers to young people born between 1995 and 2009.
They have been exposed to the Internet since childhood and grew up in the context of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and China's economic boom. They not only have broad horizons and are more receptive to new things, but also have the confidence to look at the world and a firmer cultural self-confidence.
In terms of consumption mentality, they do not blindly follow foreign brands, but are willing to accept local brands and take pride in it, and are willing to share their aesthetic preferences through social media.
A recent report released by Xinhuanet pointed out that in the industry-wide "national tide" brand consumption, "gen Z" contributed 74% of the "national tide" consumption.
According to statistics from the Dewu APP, a trendy online shopping community platform, in 2020, the consumption enthusiasm of young users for "Guochao" products has increased by more than 10 times compared with the previous year.
Let the "national tide" be more deeply integrated into public life
"This beauty makeup is so cool, and the selfie effect is really like the characters in the Dunhuang murals." Beijing college student Chen Chen is a photographer. Recently, she experienced the "Tanabata Dunhuang" makeup on a selfie app. very satisfied.
On the occasion of the traditional Chinese festival "Qixi", Dunhuang Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd. and a platform company launched an oriental trendy makeup series - "Qixi Dunhuang".
It is inspired by the fresco "Wedding Yanyan Picture" in Cave 9 of the Mogao Grottoes.
The mural depicts the wedding custom of Dunhuang in the late Tang Dynasty. The whole mural is colorful, which highlights the warm atmosphere of the wedding in the painting.
As a technical instructor, Wang Yalin, a representative non-genetic inheritor of Dunhuang stone powder painting skills, introduced that the technicians extracted the color matching in the murals and combined the matte painting method with the texture of the murals to create the same color eye shadow makeup of the murals, injecting into the modern aesthetic trend profound cultural connotation.
"Supporting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional culture with modern technology is an important trend in the development of 'national tide'." Jin Yuanpu believes that the current artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, metaverse and other new technologies are fully involved in cultural content. Creation, production, dissemination, consumption and other links.
He suggested making good use of new technologies to create a "national tide" cultural new format and new model that integrates scene, immersion and experience, so that people can be highly invested and immersed in it; the design of "national tide" should be concrete. , life-oriented, story-oriented, design ideas and cultural connotations should be close to and integrated into people's daily life; through community building, launching diversified new products through new e-commerce platforms, etc., to understand the needs and propositions of the younger generation to improve product and service quality.
"In its essence, the national tide and national wind and heat are the reshaping and dissemination of traditional culture, which has brought important enlightenment to the development of traditional culture." Zhao Qingsi, a professor at the School of Marxism at East China University of Political Science and Law, believes that it is necessary to pay attention to culture. The contemporary, popular and international nature of the book, deeply excavate the Chinese aesthetic spirit and temperament, and show the spiritual connotation of Chinese excellent traditional culture through a variety of fashionable forms, showing the spiritual atmosphere of the culture of the new era.
Displaying Hanfu as a form of beauty is the concept that Viking strives to convey in the Hanfu Spring Festival Gala and self-made programs.
She believes that only by finding access points in modern life and integrating more deeply into public life, can Hanfu be better accepted by the times and make more and more "national trends" more popular and fashionable.