27th Liberation Book List | "China with Sound": Exploring Modern Chinese Writing from "Speeches" | Tools | Liberation Book List | "Sound"

In the long river of inheritance and evolution of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, whether as tools or symbols, the priority of words and images has always been higher than that of sound. There are certainly technical reasons for this: the difficulty of transmitting, preserving, replicating, and reproducing sound, but it is also related to the system and atmosphere. This situation did not change until the late Qing Dynasty. Chen Pingyuan's new book "The Sound of China: The Charm and Possibility of Speech" focuses on how and why "speech" quickly rose in the "unprecedented great changes of three thousand years", and deeply intervened and influenced the development of modern China, serving as evidence of the century old trend and world fortune.

The main text of "The Voice of China" consists of five chapters. "The Speech in Modern China" explains the origin, ideas, and pursuit of the entire research. "The Voice in the Late Qing Pictorial" connects the interaction between text, images, and sound in the early stages of modern media, demonstrating how sound is integrated into text and painting. "The Speech and Public Speaking in Modern China" and "The Politics and Aesthetics of Sound: Theory and Practice of Modern Chinese Speakers" are the two most impressive and weighty chapters in the book. The former presents the establishment, dissemination, and evolution of modern Chinese "speech views" and "speech techniques" by distinguishing 18 speech works from the late Qing Dynasty to the 1940s. The latter focuses on the speeches of politicians with the greatest response and longest aftershocks, not only verifying the "variation" skills of many famous speeches between sound and text, but also exploring the "poetic nature of speech" - a "fun of appealing to hearing" in writing, and not avoiding "speech" when participating in real politics. The danger of. These two chapters are solid in material and broad in theory, making them the backbone of the entire book. And "Wandering Between Spoken and Written Language - Work Reports, Special Speeches, and Ceremonial Speeches" directly brings the topic from before 1949 to the present, exploring the difficulties and potential of several different types of speeches. Throughout the book, knowledge from multiple disciplines supports each other, and information from multiple media is integrated to achieve "cross disciplinary" communication.

However, it is probably not appropriate to believe that the purpose of "China with Sound" is only focused on "sound". In his introduction "Listening to Speeches and Touching History," Chen Pingyuan repeatedly reminded that "speeches are not transparent, and there are people, texts, and systems behind the voice." "Carefully reading/listening to those 'great speeches' can sense the pulse and spiritual direction of the entire era.". This discussion is not intended to be high, but reveals the historical significance and cognitive value of "speech" in modern China.

Although "oral speech" has become a tradition in China, the popularity of "speech" synonymous with public speech on the land of China is a true "modern event". It originated from Japan and originated in the West. Although it also has local roots, its rapid rise in China was clearly attributed to the enlightenment and revolutionary cause of the late Qing Dynasty, and it was an important part of the entire "Western Learning Eastward" project.

On the historical scene, speeches have high expectations because they are complementary to the construction of modern citizens, modern political parties, modern society, and modern countries. Speech is first and foremost a training of technique, but more importantly, it is a symbol of the Tao. The decline of traditional China is also reflected in the lack of enthusiasm for speeches; The reason why speeches are not popular is because "when a hundred schools of thought are extinct, thinking is one; thinking is one, debate is not possible; debate is not possible, language is not advanced.". So, if we want to revitalize China, we must give speeches on revitalization. This is not only a proposition in cultural history, but also related to the development of modern Chinese political, social, and intellectual history. The pioneers of the late Qing Dynasty and the May Fourth Movement all followed suit and acted by example. None of us are unfamiliar with Mao Zedong's "The Chinese People Stand Up" - it was precisely a "great speech".

While revealing the power of the speech, Chen Pingyuan also reminds not to forget its dangers. Song Jiaoren, who is good at speeches, has never been defeated by flying bullets; Li Dazhao, who firmly believed that "all political disputes in civilized countries are on the podium," his voice was also strangled by the gallows. Wen Yiduo, who delivered his "Last Speech," was assassinated as soon as he stepped off the podium, marking a moment of silence in the history of speech. Chen Pingyuan discovered that the emergence of several "speeches" in modern China was due to the institutional transformation of the late Qing Dynasty, the political resistance of the May Fourth Movement, and the social mobilization of the Anti Japanese War. The frenzy of public speaking during the late Qing and May Fourth periods subsided with the Nationalist government's promotion of party oriented education, pursuit of uniformity in public opinion, and rejection of speeches with different political views. This situation was not broken until the Anti Japanese War. As Sun Qimeng once said, "The War of Resistance Against Japan brought about the liberation of speech, and the liberation of speech also played a significant role in the war.". Therefore, Chen Pingyuan came to the conclusion that "the charm and possibility of public speaking are important indicators of whether a society is active, whether politics are enlightened, and whether academia is prosperous in an era." As long as the sign of "Do not talk about national affairs" is still hanging on the wall or in the heart, and as long as the system and atmosphere of "extermination of a hundred schools of thought" and "uniform public opinion" still exist, "the liberation of speech" will be difficult to truly achieve. Without the liberation of speech, there would be no liberation of people. On the contrary, only countries and nations have hope, and speeches have hope.

"Speaking" is a right, as well as a cultivation, art, and writing. The speech has been involved in the transformation of modern literature and language. Not long ago, Huang Ziping, an old friend and scholar of Chen Pingyuan, was invited to give a speech at the graduation ceremony of the Chinese Department of Peking University. He warned those who are studying and are about to leave the campus to "study Chinese" should always "remain sensitive to the crisis of form" and "crisis of expression". It is the duty of literary researchers to be sensitive to both form and expression, and to make dangerous statements about the prosperous times. "The Sound of China" cannot be considered a "great book" in terms of length, but its questions, retrospective process, and prospect are "resounding".

"The Sound of China: The Charm and Possibility of Speech" by Chen Ping, originally written by the Commercial Press