Section One: Enlightenment of Aesthetic Education – The Thought of Replacing Religion with Aesthetic Education
The concept of “aesthetic education” was proposed in the context of saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival, which was the enlightenment of national thought. The core of the concept was the comprehensive transformation of all aspects of Chinese art, from literature to fine arts, from music to calligraphy, and from theater to photography, and what the predecessors carried out was not only an innovation of form, but also an exploration of the renewal of human spirit through the innovation of form. This renewal pointed to the concept of “the nation” from different angles. It was a new kind of beauty, also a new kind of education, and out of this new education came a new nation and a new country. Cai Yuanpei’s theory of “Replacing Religion with Aesthetic Education” was an important point of view in the early enlightenment of the idea of aesthetic education.
Section Two: Sorting Out China’s Heritage Culture– Rediscovering the Beauty of Tradition
In December 1919, Hu Shi published an article “The Significance of New Thoughts” in New Youth, Vol.7, No.1, and put forward a striking call: “to explore issues and problems, introduce new theories and methods from the West, to sort out China’s heritage culture, and regenerate a new civilization.” To sort out China’s heritage culture, that is to re-study, understand and review the academic work, thought and culture in history with new ideas and methods, to expand the scope of sinology research with a historical perspective, to deploy the materials of sinology research with systematic collation, and to assist in the collation and interpretation of sinology materials with comparative research. Under the idea of “sorting out China’s heritage culture”, many scholars have carried out a series of important explorations, including reviewing Chinese history, mythology and folk literature, calligraphy and seal-carving, and art history, so that traditional Chinese culture can be endowed with new and powerful vitality to adapt to the times.
Section Three: Socialization of Art – The Art of Mobilizing the Masses
In the process of exploring the path of aesthetic education, since the May Fourth Movement, the precursors took it as their basic orientation to pay attention to lower classes and the masses, and rediscovered the power of the people. Through their efforts, traditional literati art and folk art, once separated from each other in Chinese history, were integrated. By launching participatory art, they promoted the popularization and influence of the arts, and effectively contributed to the development of aesthetic education for the public.
Section Four: The Popularization of Aesthetic Education – The Art of Expressing the Times
The expression of social life and the eulogy of the times in artworks have been the practice of many artists since the 20th century, and are also an important part of the popularization of aesthetic education. Artistic creations that are closely related to reality show the new styles of different eras and are linked to the spirit of traditional Chinese aesthetics. It is in these excellent works of the times that the general public can appreciate them while being exposed to beauty and getting aesthetic improvement. These works have accompanied the growth of generations of people.
Section Five: Inheritance and Innovation – Developing Traditional Chinese Culture
“Change” is the keyword of 20th-century Chinese history, and developing Chinese traditional culture is an important direction for advocating Chinese aesthetic education. How to develop Chinese traditional culture amid change has always been a major issue for the Chinese art world to think about. How to deal with convention and innovation, and how to deal with the relationship between local traditional culture and foreign culture, which countless artists in the 20th century have continuously explored in the process of developing traditional culture, and they put forward their points of view.
Section Six: Going Out and Bringing In – Absorption of Foreign Civilizations
The development of Chinese aesthetic education in the 20th century was inseparable from the absorption, learning and dissemination of the world’s outstanding cultural heritage. In the 20th century, an upsurge of learning Western art was set off in China and effectively accelerated the learning of world culture through different ways of “going out” and “bringing in”. On the one hand, a great number of students went abroad to study, and they became the main force in drawing on foreign civilizations and promoting domestic development. After returning to China, most of them worked in the front line of education or creative work, introducing rich world culture to China, with far-reaching effects on the development of Chinese art and aesthetic education. On the other hand, some foreign experts were invited to visit China and carry out targeted teaching, which effectively pushed forward the development of domestic majors and trained a large number of artistic talents for China.
Section Seven: Beauty in Everyday Life – Aesthetic Education in Service of Social Life
In modern life, we are exposed to a variety of artistic elements on a daily basis. The effective dissemination of beauty into life is an important way to improve people’s aesthetic taste and artistic accomplishment. The Central Academy of Fine Arts is one of the earliest schools in China to set up a major in Pattern, and focusing on the spread of beauty in social life has become a consensus of teachers and students over the past hundred years. Through national image design, urban space creation, publication of teaching materials, drawing of comic strips, stamps, logos and other related projects, generations of artists have continued to carry out aesthetic education in social life, bringing beauty into every corner of society.
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