MCLC: are Chinese less creative

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Michael Keane <m.keane at qut.edu.au>
Subject: are Chinese less creative
***********************************************************

This is a piece I wrote comparing humour and creativity in the PRC: may be
of interest to some.

Michael

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Source: 
http://www.creativetransformations.asia/2013/06/are-chinese-people-less-cre
ative-than-people-in-the-free-world/

Are Chinese people less creative than people in the free world?
By Michael Keane

Recently I pondered an unfathomable question: were Chinese people as
creative as people in the free world? I offered a provocation about China,
freedom and creativity in a faculty seminar at Queensland University of
Technology. An element of controversy is a useful ploy to attract an
audience on a Friday afternoon. I saw an opportunity to talk about the
importance of institutional environments. While the discussion never got
to the crux of the issue, it did cause me to recast some ideas in the
light of comments from the audience.

In his book Creative Ecologies John Howkins outlines three principles of a
‘model creative ecology’: everyone is creative; creativity needs freedom;
and freedom needs markets. Many times in China over the past several years
John Howkins has spoken about the importance of these three principles. I
remember an occasion when a state media reporter sought counsel. The
journalist said: ‘Thank you for your inspiring speech, Mr Howkins; now
please can you tell us how China should increase its soft power?’

Of course, it’s difficult to define soft power without noting the effects
of political diplomacy; this is an area where China’s reputation is
untrusted. Many observers outside China just don’t buy the constructed
image portrayed by the Chinese media. Nevertheless, soft power is a
government endorsed slogan in China; it ‘fits’ nicely with Chinese
traditional culture and appeals to harmony, another key value in the
Chinese political lexicon.

To return to Howkins’ three principles, if everyone is creative China
potentially has more creativity.  However, if creativity needs freedom
then we strike a problem. Howkins says ‘[It] needs freedom from
constraints such as physical want, hunger, prejudice, censorship and
unhelpful education systems.’ He also says ‘free expression is a condition
of creativity’.

Creativity however does exist in conditions in which freedom is lacking. A
good example is the blues tradition that evolved from the spirituals, work
songs, and chants of Afro-American plantation workers in the southern
states of America in the late 19th and early 20th century. But the success
of the blues was ultimately conditional on markets. The music was
disseminated in oral forms by balladeers and travelling musicians and was
subsequently picked up by race music labels; later, blues was assimilated
into the mainstream through its relationship with rock n’ roll and jazz
performers.

The point is that creativity is a bit like water; it can be contained but
it remains a powerful force even in conditions of repression. Creativity
flourishes where there is openness; you don’t have to have the blues to
write a song; and you don’t have to suffer for your art to be creative.
Conviviality and playfulness are probably better creative aphrodisiacs
than pain.

Humour and creativity

What if we substituted a proxy for creativity? For instance, humour.
Following Howkins’ principles we might then be able to say: everyone has a
sense of humour and humour needs freedom. Of course, humour sells well.

A good place to observe humour is television. I have Chinese language
satellite channels at home in Brisbane, Australia and I like to observe
how Chinese TV is professionalising. One of the things I notice about
Chinese TV programming is the nature of spot advertising. Whereas in most
international television systems commercials are produced by agencies, in
the PRC they are often contracted to small companies associated with the
producers of programs.

I live in a country where TV commercials exploit humour. Many successful
commercials use absurd characters and embarrassing moments. A minority of
advertisements are factual endorsements. Humour like creativity, entails
bringing together ideas in a surprising way that attracts people’s
attention, often releasing endorphins which predispose consumers to
remember the name of the product.

The Chinese word for advertising is guanggao, literally to ‘widely tell’;
another synonym is xuanchuan, ‘to declare, pass on’. xuanchuan is also the
word for propaganda. In the PRC commercials ‘pass on’ information about
new products and their virtues; they ‘tell’ about the effectiveness of
products. Commercials show happy families and often recruit celebrities to
endorse benefits. In particular, by way of comparison with most
international TV markets, irreverent humour is far less evident in TV
advertising.

Other genres, formats, and channels

Similarly, humorous moments are few and far between in the slate of TV
serials that fill TV schedules. Drama reflects the importance of
relationships, a central theme in East Asian society. Serials are
predominantly melodramatic family affairs typified by shouting, crying and
recrimination. Another popular genre is history. One of the most resilient
themes is the retelling of Chinese resistance to Japanese imperialism; as
one might expect there is not much humour on show. On the other hand,
recreations of dynastic history allow satire and black humour; often this
is a reflection on contemporary issues.

While there are other outlets, formats are limited and censors keep a
close watch on edgy material. One popular format is the ‘skit’ (xiaopin:
literally ‘small taste’) in which ensemble casts of comedians and
cross-talk (xiangsheng) actors perform to a live audience. The content of
these performances invariably concerns peoples’ fraught relationships; for
instances misunderstandings with authorities, tangled relationships and
problems with regulations.

Puns abound as performers exploit the richness of language and China’s
traditional values. In some respects this is not unlike the blues: and
there is no doubt that it has cathartic effects. There is a need for
release. Situation comedy formats (sitcoms) are rare in Chinese TV
schedules although Zhao Benshan, a master of the skit format, has managed
to cleverly integrate comedy into family dramas, in the process nurturing
an ensemble of performers.

The other area where one finds humour is games and celebrity chat shows.
These are a dime-a-dozen; every TV channel has such offerings and
unsurprisingly there is considerable homogeneity in formats. Wanna-be
talent contests and skill challenges are a staple fare. Celebrity banter
and advice is punctuated by the insertion of squeaky noises, a background
‘boom-tish’, the equivalent of a laugh track.

Where does humour go in China’s media, other than into these specified
formats and genres? The answer is online. China’s internet is the site of
carnivalesque pleasures, to use a metaphor recycled by academic
researchers. Spoofs (egao) abound as do playful appropriations of
government slogans. Satire and parodies of authority, exploiting a heavy
dosage of puns, photo-shopping and word plays, are the currency of China’s
new creative communities, the online masses.

Imagining creative citizens

If imagination is constrained by channels of expression we have to ask: is
this something recent or are there more serious underlying issues? Chinese
people obviously have a well attuned sense of humour; if we care to
examine ancient texts like the Zhuangzi we find plenty of examples of wit
and humour. However, humour really comes to the fore in China as social
critique. A recent edited collection by Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner
Davis entitled Humour in Chinese Life and Letters argues that the modern
origins of Chinese humour date to the 1930s, when the term ‘humour’
(youmo) gained popular currency.

Everyone has a sense of humour and some people make a living from
developing their capabilities. But does the form that humour takes in
China have a relationship to innovation? The education system in China is
focused on rote learning, success in the high school examinations
(gaokao), and a productive life to reward one’s parents. Imagination does
not disappear; chances are it finds expression in informal channels, in
less formal ways. Humour goes online, social critique is its muse, and it
is often anonymous. The internet in China is home to a great deal of
innovation.

Imagine what might happen if humour and creativity were given full rein in
the PRC rather than being forced into prescribed formats, into online
enclaves. Imagine what the nation might achieve in the next decade if
government officials and educators were able to comprehend the real
meaning of a creative economy.

I’d like to make one final observation about education.  A study of
creative behaviour in Chinese school students has shown that divergent
thinking (critical imagination) is evident in early primary school years.
By the time the students get to high school the education system and the
schooling environment has effectively eradicated overt manifestations of
creativity. Critical thinking skills are not at the top of the list of
educational reforms in China.

Writing about the value of the humanities and the arts in democratic
societies Martha Nussbaum reminds us that innovation requires minds that
are flexible, open and creative. She writes that ‘cultivation of
imagination is closely linked to the Socratic capacity for criticism of
dead or inadequate traditions…’

When we make critical judgements in our day to day lives, our thinking is
beholden to the values of parents, peers and teachers, and the media we
consume. While the choices we make are increasingly influenced by social
networks, education systems do play an important role. Students from the
PRC who undertake masters or PhDs in liberal democracies often encounter
difficulties in formulating critical concepts, in going beyond description
of reality.

Conversely, it’s the institutional environments in liberal democracies,
over and beyond education, that encourage people to challenge conventions,
to ask difficult questions. The acceptance of confrontational humour in
mainstream media is a key source of creative inspiration. Censorship is
the enemy of creativity and imagination.