Cultural Inheritance And Maintenance Of Rules:A Study Of The "Chinese Festivals" Series Under Ritual Communication

In recent years,Henan Broadcasting System(HBS)has created a series of Chinese traditional festival evenings with good quality and reputation——“Chinese Festivals” series,which once became the focus of the majority of netizens and also attracted a lot of researchers to study.However,most of researches have explored the strategies of the series in content and form from the view of innovation,and analyzed the reference significance that the series provide for inheriting and spreading excellent traditional culture of our country.Only a few articles have studied the significance and value that the program has in maintaining the society in time.Based on the shortcoming of existing researches,this study uses text analysis method to discuss the significance and value of “Chinese Festivals” series for the social continuity in time by taking James Carey’s concept of communication ritual view as the main thinking framework,supplemented by Couldry’s concept of media ritual and other ritual communication theories.This article consists of six parts.The first part is introduction.The second part is the ritual communication and program overview.This part summarizes and discusses the main theories used in this study,the development of “Chinese Festivals” programs,and the correlation between the theories and programs.The third part discusses the symbol inheritance and value confirmation of the program content.A large number of cultural symbols presented by the programs and their innovative expression promote the inheritance and maintenance of cultural symbols.Relying on Chinese traditional festival culture,the program integrates the festival spirit,national spirit and contemporary values,reflecting the continuity of the cultural spirit of the Chinese nation.The social order presented by the program reflects the time continuity of the whole society in the pace of life,and conveys part of the code of conduct expected and encouraged by the society,thus emphasizing and confirming part of the framework on which the social order is based.The fourth part analyzes the media ritual behavior and its value orientation in the process of the program communication.This part points out that the media ritual behavior in the communication process follows,copies and strengthens the values and behavioral logic related to the media,and constructs the special importance of the media.The fifth part understands the“transmission view” impact of the program on the participants from the thinking framework of the “ritual view” of communication.On the one hand,visible cultural symbols awaken participants’ cultural imagination——social community and cultural memory,and then social individuals become carriers of cultural inheritance.On the other hand,the values and codes of conduct conveyed by the program,as well as the behavioral logic followed in the communication process,imperceptibly shape the individual world of the program participants.Individuals become the practitioners of social rules,thus passing them down from generation to generation.The sixth part is the conclusion.This paper mainly discusses the value and significance of “Chinese festivals” series programs in the continuation of the society in time from two aspects: cultural symbols,rules and order.Whether it is program content,program sharing or program’s influence on participants,the common culture of a society can be inherited,and the operation rules of a society can be consolidated and maintained,thus enhancing the possibility of their continuous existence in time.The innovation of this article is to jump out of the thinking direction of “space-control” dominated by the “transmission view” of communication,and to explore the significance and value of “Chinese festivals”series programs for the society in terms of “time-maintenance” from the perspective of the“ritual view” of communication.