Biography Publishing And Social Change ——A Study On Biography Publishing Since 1949

Human beings are the subject of social life, and biography is the history of human being. Biography shows the history of individual, and at the same time, records a variety of specific cultural phenomena of the times. Biography is old, but also new. In the west, the first half of the 20th century witnessed the birth of the new biography, and since then biography has become an independent writing style. China’s biography originates from ancient historical tradition of Shiji. By the early 20th century, proposed by Liang Qichao, Hu Shi, and other scholars, new biography was innovated in terms of theory and practice. With the development of the times, biography was gradually out of the historical category and became independent from other literature forms. Since the second half of the 20th century, especially after the 1990s, this non-fiction style has ushered in its heyday. Biography has become a literary, cultural and publishing phenomenon with its own structure and particularity. From the authors to the readers, publishing plays an important role in the presentation of a biography, which has been shown in the forms of a book and distributed among readers. Without publishing, there is no biography. In the contemporary publishing, biography has been blooming, and become an important publishing cluster and category. Biography performs very well in the book market. Thriving biography calls for related theoretical research on publishing. Biography publishing also corresponds to the times and society.The study attempts to solve some key problems from the aspects of communication, publishing and society:What is the situation of biography publishing since 1949? What factors influence the biography publishing? What is the relationship between biography publishing and society and times? The study uses related bibliographic data, and various theories (the double benefit publishing theory, the theory of book history, and the theory of media space and the theory of social change, etc.). The research methods in this study include the bibliography study method, interdisciplinary research method, literature research method, quantitative and qualitative analysis method. Relevant investigation and observation are carried out.The study systematically summarizes the changes of biography publishing in number and its development in more than 60 years since 1949. It analyses the media space change for decades, time background, influencing factors and related policy regulations, etc. The purpose is to show the evolvement of publication development in our country since 1949 from the case of biography publications. In the meanwhile, the study mainly discusses and shows the close interactive relationship between biography publishing and era. That is, the biography depends on the times it appears at and in turn the biography reflects vividly the atmosphere and phenomena of the times.The study has shown that biography publishing has reflected the change of the times. In the seventeen years after the founding of PRC, the themes and characters of biography were "completely new figures" such as progressive figures and hero who emerged from ordinary workers, peasants and soldiers. It highlights that new people had appeared on the stage of history. It was a heroic narrative style which was dominated by the political situation under the trend of the "red" publication and "red" reading. During the period of Cultural Revolution, the themes and characters of biography were progressive examples from ordinary people who were remarkably hard-working, devoted and willing to make sacrifice. The biography emphasized that their noble characters were owing to the education of the spirits of Chairman Mao, which was a display of loyalty and a cult of personality. Later there was a trend of "historical figures". Most of the biographies of this period were about famous people in history such as First Emperor of Qin, reformers such as Li Si, Cao Cao, Wang Anshi, legalists and leaders of peasant revolts. The biography actually had implies for the present. Since the new period, biography publishing has begun its recovery and revitalization. The themes and characters of biography continuously broke the restricted political zone. There are biographies for generals and marshals, literary artists, humanistic intellectuals, science and technology workers, reformers, financial figures, stars, hosts and hostesses and even ordinary people. This reflects that the times has become more open and progressive and the society has changed from abnormal to normal, from close and conservative to open, inclusive, confident and progressive. It shows that the former political idols and productive idols have been replaced by consumptive idols, and that the core of our society has shifted from politics and class struggle to production and to consumption. The popularity of star’s biographies reflects the high level of self-awareness of the people as well as the emphasis of self-worth. The people have gradually got rid of traditional conservative mentality and humanity has been emancipated. The biographies of common people and individual history, which displays the change from celebrities to commoners, form elites to ordinary people, shows that a consensus had been reached that humans are the foremost and the mind should be paid due attention. These phenomena fully reflect the factures of the biography in different times, as well as the close interactive relationship between biography publishing and times and that between biography publishing and the society.The thesis expands the field of publishing research and biography research, enriches the relevant research results, and provides ideas and references for future research.