Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 1, 2025

Digital Modernity: Discourse Paradigm of Chinese New Media Literary and Artistic Theory

(Abstract)

Shan Xiaoxi

Digital modernity is the defining characteristic of the discourse paradigm underpinning China’s new media literary and artistic theory. The expression of this new form of modernity, which emerged in the digital era, differs significantly from the “pseudo-sincere” stylistic tendencies observed in Western new media literature, which is often characterized by immaturity, superficial truth, and an obsession with solemnity. In contrast, China’s new media literature emphasizes serious themes, sincere narratives, a focus on reality, and the articulation of the Chinese experience. Unlike the humanism of the modernistic literary and artistic discourse paradigm and the neo-humanism of the constructive post-modernistic literary and artistic discourse paradigm, the discourse paradigm of Chinese new media literary and artistic theory strives to construct the values of digital humanism. In contrast to the grand narratives of the modernistic literary and artistic discourse paradigm and the small, marginal, and local narratives of the post-modernistic literary and artistic discourse paradigm, the Chinese new media literary and artistic discourse paradigm aims to construct a narrative mode of a digital “constellation.”