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Unpredictable life and academic career
——On the study of Art Anthropology
Meng Fanxing, Ph.D., associate professor, doctoral supervisor of Art College of Southeast University, executive deputy director of Art Anthropology and sociology institute of Southeast University, Secretary General of China Art Anthropology society, director of Shaanxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Association, etc. The main research fields are art anthropology and cultural heritage, folk art and rural development. He presided over two projects of national social science foundation, published two monographs, i.e. the material presentation of the villagers' actions: the spatial and temporal structure, daily life and cultural heritage of a Guanzhong village, instruments: skills and daily life: a study of Miao culture in liuzhisuojia, Guizhou Province, published two papers, i.e. the basic issues and new direction of discipline development of art anthropology, the boundary and crossing of art ——More than 30 papers have been published, such as a discussion based on transitivity, three-dimensional structure and action practice: a new interpretation of Fei Xiaotong's "differential pattern" theory, and many of them have been reprinted by the people's Congress.
It is said that eating when eating and sleeping when sleeping are practice. I didn't expect to take the academic research that often makes people have bad food (low income) and sleep (get up and write when they have ideas at night) as a lifelong pursuit. The most difficult thing to ponder between heaven and earth is man; the most difficult thing in all things is art. It is beyond my imagination to take the study of Art Anthropology of both as the main research direction. A good life is not planned. My path to art anthropology is a series of unpredictable aggregation of people, things and things, which can be said to be a kind of fate.
1、 Ignorant: Art History
It's a custom in many places to predict children's aspirations and future. "What do you want to do when you grow up?" It's a common line in my childhood TV series. Whether it's focusing on the week or "what to do when you grow up", it's people's hope and blessing for the future of the next generation based on the judgment at that time. Although it has little to do with the parties, it shows that there is a cultural atmosphere around the parties that can provide their career choices and promote their pursuit. I haven't enjoyed the atmosphere or been under the pressure. In a small village where there is no big tradition, the family of eight generations of poor peasants is thinking about a better life day and night. It is unrealistic and dangerous to place too much expectation on children to jump out of the farm gate. When I was a child, I always couldn't finish the farm work every holiday. Especially in autumn, I was often locked by my parents to peel corn at home. The sound of playing with my friends outside the gate was heard all over the world, like ten thousand little hands pulling me out of the door. This may be the reason why I like school and have good academic performance. In school, I can play with my friends "legally", but only with good academic performance can I get admitted to a higher school and continue to play with my friends. Maybe this awareness pushed me to university, and I studied in Xi'an Academy of fine arts, one of the eight art academies, and majored in art history. I am the first undergraduate student in the Department of art history of Xi'an Academy of fine arts since its establishment, with experimental nature and endless singing. Maybe it's to fight with this tone. The head of the Department, Mr. Wang Ningyu, has put on a great position as soon as he comes up. The professional courses he designed are obvious. The first is the course of history theory: global general history, history of Chinese philosophy, history of western philosophy, philosophy of science, ancient Chinese literature, modern Chinese literature, ancient Chinese literature theory, western literature theory, tragedy aesthetics, history of Chinese art, history of Western art, history of Chinese and Western design, and theory of Chinese painting. The second is the research tools and methods: cultural anthropology, archaeology, field archaeology, ancient literature, ancient Chinese characters, cultural relics identification, ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy identification, drama appreciation, writing. The third is art practice courses: mapping, sketch, sketch, color, traditional Chinese painting (line drawing, heavy color, freehand brushwork), image and material analysis (painting), folk art creation, computer operation, graphic design, three-dimensional design, photography, etc. In addition, there are a large number of field sketch, investigation and artistic practice. As far as the cultivation of scholars is concerned, the undergraduate course is not specialized and deep, but wide. The above courses lay the basic vision needed by the research of art history. Among these courses, what impresses me most is that I have had a full four semesters of global general history course, which may be rare in China's professional art colleges. The textbook we use is the general history of the world written by Stavrianos, an American historian. This book well embodies the concept of global history of looking at the earth from the moon. Before the emergence of the concept of global history, scholars used the concept of world history. World history is often the loose combination of national or regional history, while global history is the history of relationship, communication and whole human evolution. This is quite different from the world history of looking at the evolution of civilization in different countries and regions in a relatively isolated way, which is more in line with the human historical cognition in the era of globalization. The historical materials used in the book are both official and folk, three-dimensional and full. Two years of study helped me to establish a better global concept and the concept of interactive development of civilizations in the world, which laid a better vision, ideology and methodology foundation for my later study of art anthropology. The study of the Department of west American history is a combination of theory and practice. Although it's a student in the theory department, our art practice course is not sloppy. In terms of painting, before drawing the human body (in non professional colleges, even for art practice students, this is also a luxury), we were arranged to go to the Fourth Military Medical University to observe and study human anatomy. As far as I know, the Department of art theory in most colleges and universities has no human body course, and it is impossible to provide the opportunity to learn human anatomy. The art practice course designed by the Department of history theory is by no means a stop from the school of painting and sculpture, but an organic combination of theoretical study, art technique practice and regional cultural resources investigation. For this reason, the Department provides a large number of opportunities to go out for sketching and cultural and artistic investigation. Each time, the department head leads the team and the backbone teachers participate in the guidance. This kind of training planted the seeds for my fieldwork. In 2002, Mr. Fang Lili, who was then the group leader of the two major national subjects (hereinafter referred to as "the Western subject"), namely "the basic database of human resources and environment in the northwest" and "the protection, development and utilization of human resources in the west", delivered a lecture at Xi'an Academy of fine arts. Mr. Wang Ningyu accepted the invitation of Mr. Fang, led the whole department to join the research group, and undertook the investigation and research work of the subproject "Guanzhong instrument technology investigation". Although I studied the course of cultural anthropology in the first semester, and got a higher score, I only studied it as a general peripheral course at that time. In addition to class, I didn't read relevant works consciously, nor did I carry out fieldwork and ethnography writing, and I didn't feel deeply. To study the theory of art history in the college is nothing more than watching paintings, drawing, reading and doing exercises. When I study the works of art history, one artist, one school, one dynasty and one dynasty read the past. The background of the times, the life of the artist, the relationship between teachers and successors, the techniques of expression, the styles and schools, the influence of the generations, etc., let me immerse myself in a spiritual world if there is nothing, if far away, as close as possible, and become a whole, free and beautiful. I think I can handle any art research with this method. However, when I really take the task to investigate folk art, I find that the method is not very clever. In the field, everything is uncertain. There are no definite historical materials and archives available, nor a set of ready-made statements. What's more, there is no such thing as art or art. Whether it's New Year pictures, paper cutting, embroidery, architecture, sculpture or weaving, it's interwoven with the local people's folk customs, beliefs, production and life depth. It's impossible to separate these things and study any art alone. This prompted me to consciously think about the differences between anthropology, art anthropology and traditional art history research. For example, in many works of art history of general history, there is a background chapter before describing the art of a dynasty, nothing more than a rough introduction of politics, economy, war, social thoughts, etc. This part can't be said to have nothing to do with its later art narration, but it always feels rigid and estranged. According to the basic idea of anthropology, art, as the creation of human beings, should be in the society. Our description of its occurrence and development should also be placed in the specific time and space and social life scene. Therefore, I think that the so-called background of the times in the general history of fine arts can hardly be called the background, at most it is a "background wall". For another example, it is not difficult to find that many authors are often stretched out in describing the artistry of paintings, and the adjectives used are always very limited and obscure. Is the author not good enough? I'm afraid it's not that simple. The reason why human groups can co-exist for a long time depends on the exchange of ideas and emotions. The main medium of communication is no more than language, writing and art. The reason why art can exist alone is that it can perform some functions that language and words can't replace, and the thoughts and feelings of these functions are often directly to the depth of human nature. From the point of view of evolution, these thoughts and emotions may have been formed in the early stage of human beings, and often can cause a broader resonance. We can see a picture and enjoy a piece of music. It's amazing. Since it's wonderful, how can it be expressed in words. From this point of view, the prospect of studying art from the inside of art is limited. These views prompted me to give up the method of traditional art history, and to study the art of a place from the outside of art, mainly from the perspective of culture and society. Graduation thesis "the family of steelyard making on the Bank of the Yellow River - Investigation of Hancheng traditional steelyard making technology and its living conditions", combined with the Western sub project, selected the traditional steelyard making technology and its ecology in Hancheng, Shaanxi Province as the research object, and described the site, materials, tools and specific technology of the technology in detail by observing the technological operation process and its life history interview of the craftsman Cheng, outlines the rise and fall of steelyard technology, as well as the life experience of craftsmen. The investigation and writing of graduation thesis have been guided by teacher Wang Ningyu. I have learned at least three points from him: first, rigorous scholarship, every word has its source, not carelessly; second, solid description, field research articles should make clear the facts; third, mutual verification of pictures and texts, people who write articles are accustomed to using words as king, thinking in words, even using pictures is auxiliary and subordinate. This is not a big problem in the theoretical works, but it is a big problem in the works of art ethnography. Art, especially visual art, can not be separated from the description and interpretation of images. A piece of utensil, a painting and a thousand words of ink may not be as intuitive and profound as a picture, which needs to improve the image to the same degree as the text, and make good use of image thinking and expression. Graduation thesis obtained in Xi'an