On the afternoon of February 22, Yang Renren, Assistant Professor of Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), visited School of Journalism and Communication of NKU, where he gave a keynote lecture titled Copycat Aesthetics and Popular Culture Communication to teachers and students. Yang Renren talked the audience through from three levels: the definition of copycatting, the ambiguity and hybridity of copycat aesthetics, as well as case studies on the interests and risks of copycat aesthetics.
In the lecture, Yang Renren mainly talked about the relevant researches on Da Fen Oil Painting Village in Shenzhen, and analyzed them from three perspectives: the Chinese government, Chinese left critics and Western media. Yang believed that Da Fen oil painters who had their small studios built on the basis of family and local support had flexibility and independence in their work, while the characteristics of handwork injected new energy into the copying of masterpieces. In response to the biased criticism and cultural relativism in Western media, Yang argued that there is a dialectical relationship between innovation and imitation, and pointed out that Da Fen's style of oil painting workshops was actually preceded by Western practice.
The case study on female laborers in copycat fashion and the new workshops in Shenzhen focuses on gender and class politics issues behind copycat aesthetics, and explores the pioneering of copycat art, the inherent contradictions of female designers in the history of copycatting, and how copycat manufacturing is linked to Created in China. Yang talked about “copycatting” in the national and global context, suggesting that copycatting is a value production system similar to localization that resists to the colonial system of knowledge through the ambiguity of ideology. At the same time, he emphasized that copycatting is not unique to China; instead, it is inseparable from global capitalism of the Western world.
Yang, based on the recent changes in the statement of North American scholars about copycatting in China and combined with relevant cases in literature, painting, e-commerce and other popular cultures, re-examined copycatting by comparing Chinese and Western developments, and reflected on and explained the challenges and risks brought by the copycat aesthetics.
The lecture has broadened the international horizon of students, enhancing their aesthetic literacy, and bringing about a dynamic exchange of thoughts. At the end of the lecture, attending teachers and students actively exchanged their views on copycat aesthetics in the fields of architecture and commodities with Yang Renren.
