The theoretical basis of Europe's critique of the Hollywood film industry is the cultural industry theory of the Frankfurt School, and Xu Wangqiu's "Elitism and Populistism" theoretically refutes the Frankfurt School's critique of commercial films and Hollywood film models, and points out that their theory is incorrect. Since the Frankfurt School's theory of cultural industry is problematic, the criticism of Xu Wangqiu by the film and literary circles has lost its theoretical basis and is untenable.

If "Elitism and Populistism" is a critique of the theories of Zhu Dake and others, then Xu Wangqiu's second article, "Xu Wangqiu's Critique and Authoritative Personality", uses the authoritative personality theory of the Frankfurt School to analyze their thoughts and personalities.

Authoritative personality is a personality trait proposed by Adorno, a representative of the Frankfurt School, in 1950. Nowhere is this authoritarianism more pronounced than in the treatment of those who are inferior and superior to oneself. On the one hand, they boast of their strength to the weak, reject and reject them, and on the other hand, they grovel to the authorities and obey them absolutely. To put it simply, it is to grovel to the superiors and to be self-respecting to the subordinates.

This type of person is especially common in society, especially in companies and businesses, where they are a dog in front of their boss and a wolf in front of their subordinates. In fact, most of the Chinese literati are like this, only opposing corrupt officials, not the emperor, which is a manifestation of authoritative personality. The public elite of later generations praised the United States in all kinds of ways, and as long as you say that China is good, he will scold the five/1 hairy dog and the little pink, which is a typical authoritative personality. Of course, the same is true for saying that the government is not good, and scolding others for being cents.

The same is true of these people who criticize Xu Wangqiu now, they kept silent one by one during the movement and chose to submit. After the movement, they had a voice, but they did almost the same thing, leaving no room for other opinions. For those who are different from them, they are beaten to death with a stick, not only to criticize and stink, but also to step on 10,000 feet.

In fact, there is no contradiction between commercial films and art films, if you like art films, then you support art films; others like commercial films, others engage in commercial films, everyone plays their own games, obviously it's very good. And a healthy society must also be the common development of commercial films and art films, and neither can be done without either. But these people can't tolerate commercial films, as if they don't defeat commercial films, Chinese films will not be saved, which is too extreme.

After Xu Wangqiu's two articles were issued, the entire film industry and literary circles were dumbfounded. The theories of the Frankfurt School began to spread in China in the late 70s, mainly because the Academy of Social Sciences produced a few introductory articles, and large-scale translation had not yet begun, while the Birmingham School had relatively little influence, and there were no even introductory articles, and they had never even heard of them.

Film critics and experts in the film industry are a little better, after all, they are engaged in films, and the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School belong to the theories of philosophy and communication, and it is normal not to know.

Those who engage in literary theory are more embarrassed, they are studying this, and they take out the half-understood Frankfurt School theory to criticize Xu Wangqiu and the Hollywood film model, but I didn't expect that people not only understand the Frankfurt School, but also make a Birmingham School that they have never heard of. Others can criticize them with the theories of the Birmingham School, but they cannot criticize the Birmingham School with theories.

What made them feel speechless the most was that Xu Wangqiu put an authoritative personality on their heads, and after this hat was buckled on their heads, they were in a particularly embarrassing position. The more they criticize Xu Wangqiu, the more they prove that they are authoritarian, and the more they show that there is something wrong with their personality. But if you don't criticize Xu Wangqiu, won't Xu Wangqiu's treacherous plan succeed?

These elites and intellectuals who criticize Xu Wangqiu are particularly depressed, this is a bastard who is obviously from a film school, how can he understand so many literary and artistic theories, how can he understand so much philosophical knowledge? They complained to Nortel, you Nortel are simply not doing your job, you are a film school, you can't teach students to make movies well, what are you teaching them to do this?

These two articles by Xu Wangqiu were reported, reprinted and commented on by hundreds of newspapers and magazines across the country, and set off a nationwide upsurge of discussion about elite culture and popular culture. As the initiator, Xu Wangqiu received invitations from many universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University, etc., to give lectures on elite culture and popular culture.

Xu Wangqiu's every speech was unprecedentedly sought after by college students, and every speech was overcrowded, and even the aisles were crowded. The students shouted Xu Wangqiu's name and shouted, "We support you!"

To Xu Wangqiu's surprise, Marxist Studies, a monthly magazine under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also came to the door and asked him to write an analysis and evaluation of the Birmingham School. Xu Wangqiu was very excited when he heard it, but he didn't expect that he would have the opportunity to publish an article in the core journal of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. At the same time, he is also a little sad that the country has indeed been too closed in the past decade or so.

In the following month, Wu Zhiliu and his colleagues also published articles in newspapers and magazines, criticizing elitism and the current of thought that criticized Xu Wangqiu and the Hollywood film industry, and the weapon they used to criticize was the theory of the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School that Xu Wangqiu taught them.

Beginning in mid-October, when Zhu Dake set off a wave of criticism of Xu Wangqiu, Xu Wangqiu did not rush to fight back, but took the time to teach Wu Zhiliu and Wu Zhiliu the critical theories of the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School. It was impossible for Wu Zhiliu and them to master these theories in more than two months, and they could only master the skin.

Although Wu Zhiliu and his grasp are only scratching the surface, they are still more than enough to beat these people in the film and literary circles in theory, because they have mastered the theories of the Frankfurt School and are not even scratching the surface, and they have never even heard of the theories of the Birmingham School. It's like a strong man and a thin man going head-to-head, the strong man is empty-handed, and the thin man has a gun in his hand. Ninety-nine out of a hundred duels of this kind will be won by the one with the gun, and it is definitely a one-sided hanging.

As a result, a rare miracle appeared in the Chinese literary and artistic circles, where experts in the study of literary and artistic theories confronted several young people engaged in movies in newspapers and magazines, and as a result, the experts in literary and artistic theory were smashed all over the world by the young people engaged in films. This result made countless people smash their glasses, and they all felt too magical.

At the same time, as Xu Wangqiu's debate with the film and literary circles was in full swing, elite culture and popular culture, the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School became hot topics among young people. These words have become a symbol of fashion like toad glasses and bell bottoms, and if young people don't put these words on their lips, they will be considered uneducated and outdated.

In the classroom of the Chinese opera performance department, several boys discussed the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School with great interest.

The leader was a big courtyard disciple named Jiang Wen, and his cheeks were flushed with a heavy red layer because of excitement: "The idea of encoding and decoding is so awesome, it's like doing espionage work." The director is the one who codes, and the audience is the one who decodes. If the director is responsible for the coding, the audience will not be able to understand it, and if the director makes the coding design simpler, the audience can easily decode it. Xu Wangqiu is so awesome! Damn, I must cooperate with him in the future. ”

Several men nodded again and again, saying that if they didn't cooperate with Xu Wangqiu as an actor, they would definitely regret it for life. At this moment, Jiang Wen glanced at a girl in front of him and said with a smile: "Lu Liping, your brother Lu Xiaogang and Xu Wangqiu are classmates, and he has also played a role in Xu Wangqiu's movie, can you take us to meet Xu Wangqiu when the time comes!"

Lu Liping glanced at Jiang Wen: "I want to see myself and find a way, so don't bother me." ”

In the family courtyard of Beijing Film Studio, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige were sitting together, also talking about it.

Tian Zhuangzhuang successfully returned to the Beijing Film Studio after graduation, but Chen Kaige was not so lucky, because there was only one place in the Beijing Film Studio, he was assigned to the Children's Film Studio. Xu Wangqiu is recognized as a genius, and they recognize it if they are not as good as Xu Wangqiu, but Wu Zhiliu is nothing, they are just Xu Wangqiu's followers, but they are also popular because of the break of "Bloody Demon Capture".

Brother Chen Kai really couldn't swallow this breath: "What do you say about these experts, you can't argue that Xu Wangqiu is down, and he was smashed all over his head by Wu Zhiliu and them, what do you think is going on?"

Tian Zhuangzhuang sighed and said, "Don't worry about this, let's think about ourselves." We are directors, and after all, directors still have to rely on movies to speak. Thanks to Wangqiu, everyone now thinks that the 78 class of our directing department is a genius, and I have received invitations from two film studios to make a movie. ”

Brother Chen Kai nodded and said: "Director Guo Baochang of Guangxi Film Factory has a good relationship with our family, he introduced me to Director Wei Bida, and after the New Year, I will go to their factory to make movies." ”

This controversy brought an unexpected result, and the experts and professors who were smashed by Xu Wangqiu and others with literary and artistic theories felt that they had lost face, and they were all ruthless, desperately gnawing at foreign language materials, and desperately learning various foreign theories. Many experts and professors who used to live in the past have started academic research. In the process, they wrote a large number of articles and translated a large number of materials, which greatly improved the academic level of Chinese literary and artistic criticism.

Another unexpected result was that Nortel became famous because of this incident. Many people are amazed, Nortel is a film school, but they didn't expect it to be so strong in literary and artistic theory, and it has cultivated a group of students with such solid literary and artistic theories.

Countless young students regard Xu Wangqiu as a cultural idol and regard Beijing TV as their spiritual home, which directly leads to a sharp increase in the number of students who apply for Nortel in the next few years.

This matter also attracted the attention of the central leadership, who pointed out that since Nortel has outstanding attainments in Marxist theory, it should establish a Marxist research department!

Of course, these are all later words, at this time Xu Wangqiu and they have stopped the debate and boarded the plane to West Berlin with excitement, because the 33rd West Berlin Film Festival is about to open.

Xu Wangqiu's film "A Game of Chess That Never Ends" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the West Berlin Film Festival, while "Blood and Demon Slayer", co-directed by Wu Zhiliu and them, entered the Youth Forum unit with its unique audio-visual style.

Sitting in the cabin, Xu Wangqiu was so excited that his eyes flashed with a burning light. They are looking forward to the West Berlin Film Festival, and they believe that Chinese cinema and even world cinema will be rewritten because of this festival.

Last year, the number of moviegoers in China fell by one billion, and in just three years, the number of moviegoers in Chinese films has decreased by 3 billion, and the decline in movie-going talent is still accelerating. In foreign countries, movies have been hailed as a sunset industry, and some people have even shouted the slogan "movies are dead".

Xu Wangqiu and they are not willing to sit still, hoping to ignite the sunset and light up the dusk sky.