Zhang Xinke: Strengthening the Capacity for the Transformation and Communication of Social Science Knowledge to Contribute Scholarly Strength toward Advancing Chinese-path Modernization
The evolution and development of human civilization are inseparable from the knowledge transformations and conceptual leadership provided by the philosophy and social sciences. As an organic component of the development of philosophy and social sciences, the popularization of social sciences disseminates social scientific knowledge, advocates for scientific thinking, passes on civilization, and promotes the humanistic spirit through methods that the public can easily understand, accept, and participate in. It serves as an important form of popular education for uniting, shaping, and improving the people. It plays an irreplaceable role, particularly in inheriting fine traditional Chinese culture, promoting the national spirit, purifying social conduct [1], and advancing cultural self-confidence and self-strength.
In the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization, and in the face of the public’s increasingly diverse and high-quality demands for spiritual culture—as well as the new trends toward networked and digital social information dissemination—the popularization of social sciences can only truly fulfill its role of "enlightening the mind and nurturing the soul, strengthening the foundation and casting the spirit" [2] if it ensures the masses can understand, remember, internalize, and apply the knowledge. To achieve such well-grounded, vivid, and flavorful popularization, the key lies in enhancing the capacity for transforming and disseminating social science knowledge, truly achieving an organic integration of "popularizing" (the scope) and "reaching" (the depth).
Transforming the rational into the perceptual to enhance the explanatory power of popularization. Knowledge in the humanities and social sciences is closely related to the historical development of human society. Mapping abstract knowledge onto social practice helps people gain sufficient perceptual understanding from practical experience, allowing them to more authentically understand and feel the rational value of knowledge, thereby improving the level and quality of human cognition. The popularization of social sciences is not simple knowledge indoctrination; rather, it aims to guide the audience to reflect on the meaning and value behind the knowledge—this is the fundamental purpose and value of such work. For example, Silent Spring, the world's first popular science work focused on environmental protection, used the image of a beautiful small village transformed into a silent place without the song of birds, the hum of bees, or the dance of butterflies—where fish died and grass withered—to thoroughly demonstrate the impact of chemical pollution on the ecological environment. This sparked public concern over ecological issues and powerfully advanced the development of modern environmentalism.
Transforming the theoretical into the lived experience to enhance the affinity of popularization. Theory originates from practice. Knowledge in the humanities and social sciences represents a high degree of crystallization and summation of history and practice. Only by combining it with the contexts of daily life and making knowledge closer to people's practical experience can we avoid mechanical indoctrination and preaching, thereby establishing an emotional connection and resonance with the audience, making them feel its relevance and significance to themselves. Therefore, to do a good job in popularizing social sciences, we must transform the discourse system of popularization, learn to speak the language of the common people, and combine our work with the people and events around the public, using interesting and engaging popularization to attract them. The Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Popularization Project provides annual concentrated funding for a group of popularization activities that directly serve the living needs of the masses, such as student mental health, legal consultation and aid, and grassroots cultural performances. Some projects organize community volunteers to use public spaces like apartment stairwells and corridors for creative popularization work, promoting the culture of filial piety and local characteristics, thereby creating "popularization spaces" right at the people’s doorstep. These activities imbue humanities and social science knowledge with the "breath of life," making social science popularization a public cultural service that the masses can hear, see, and use nearby.
Transforming the meaningful into the interesting to enhance the attractiveness of popularization. Knowledge packaged with creativity and fun is easier to accept and remember. Maintaining a relaxed and lively atmosphere during the transmission of knowledge, while introducing interesting content or interactive elements, can both capture attention and make knowledge more vivid. For example, some historical readings are written in a witty language with high readability; within just a few years of their release, they reached cumulative sales of tens of millions of copies. In terms of the social coverage of historical knowledge popularization alone, the effect of such interesting and readable books exceeds that of professional historiographical works. To take another example, a certain professor, while teaching criminal law, created a fictional character. Through this character's "exhaustless list of crimes" [3] that were simultaneously absurd and laughable, the professor explained legal knowledge with immense vitality, winning great popularity among students and netizens. The related videos have achieved considerable view counts online.
Transforming the written into the oral to enhance the infectiousness of popularization. How to tell the story of Jiangsu's culture and history through its beautiful landscapes is a goal that Jiangsu's social science popularization work tirelessly pursues. Centering on the "creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture," the Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Philosophical and Social Science Circles organized a provincial competition for docents at social science popularization bases. The 30 contestants used 30 different storytelling methods, sticking closely to the theme and grounding themselves in practice, to tell local cultural stories in a compelling way, making social science knowledge more "grounded" and full of vitality. Social science popularization in Zhenjiang City has focused on the youth demographic by organizing "Little Social Science Lecturers" activities. Using children's language to tell social science and cultural stories, they have made popularization more accessible and lively, planting the seeds of knowledge dissemination in the hearts of the young.
Transforming the two-dimensional into the multi-dimensional to enhance the influence of popularization. Multi-dimensional modes of expression provide more sensory dimensions, allowing the audience to understand and experience information more deeply. In social science popularization, when faced with "flat" knowledge, we need to build multi-dimensional knowledge scenarios so that the audience can feel as if they are there, perceiving and understanding the internal connections and multi-layered relationships of knowledge more vividly, thus increasing the sense of immersion and wholeness in knowledge acquisition. Today, many museums and exhibition halls use Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies to make history and culture "come alive," allowing visitors to personally experience historical or realistic scenes, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the exhibited content. For example, the television program China in the Classics [4] stimulates a dialogue between modern people and historical figures, allowing the audience to communicate with "historical figures." This bridges the gap between ancient texts and modern people, achieving emotional sharing, common perception, and cultural integration across time and space.
Transforming the static into the dynamic to enhance the expressive power of popularization. Static forms of knowledge presentation have weaker disseminative power and are suited for passive transmission. For social science popularization, to enhance the competitive advantage of humanities and social science knowledge in the arena of social information dissemination, we must make full use of visual imagery and video technology. By transforming static knowledge into dynamic audio, video, and animation, we can vividly demonstrate the processes, changes, and effects of knowledge, thereby increasing its dynamic feel. We can use specific examples and cases to show the practical application and impact of knowledge, using storytelling and actual situations to facilitate the integration of knowledge into dynamic scenes. We can even transform knowledge into interactive scenarios where the audience can actively participate, making knowledge a personally experienced process. Taking the short video works on Bilibili (B-Zhan) as an example, in the past two years, the view count for "pan-knowledge" [5] short videos on the platform has exceeded 45% of total views, with the scale of creators growing by over 90% annually. More than 180 million people acquire knowledge through short videos every year. It is evident that dynamic knowledge dissemination will profoundly change learning models, as well as the forms and content of social science popularization.
Transforming the traditional into the digital to enhance the communicative power of popularization. Methods of information dissemination determine the forms of dissemination. Through digital channels, social science popularization can expand into a much broader space. Traditional forms of popularization—such as lectures, exhibitions, consultations, and books—suffer from insufficient initiative and coverage. In contrast, digital content is easier to browse, search, and interact with online; it is not restricted by time or space and can be pushed to a larger audience at a lower cost. More importantly, with the rapid development of Big Data and AI, it is possible to create precise "portraits" of the audience's knowledge structure, preferences, and primary platforms and times for obtaining information. This allows for the high-efficiency delivery of specific humanities and social science knowledge to specific target groups, further improving popularization efficiency. Simultaneously, by utilizing the advantages of digital dissemination, more scientific data analysis and feedback mechanisms can be obtained to further understand the interests and needs of the audience, optimizing the positioning and expression of knowledge content. Therefore, promoting the digitalization of content and the networking of channels—gradually realizing the integration of popularization resources and network platforms to form a new pattern of online and offline social science popularization—is a key point for the innovative transformation of current social science popularization work.
Transforming the valuable into the soul-stirring to enhance the leading power of popularization. Social science popularization is the common responsibility of the whole of society. To do this work well, one must possess "great sentiment" (da qinghuai). Despite limited funding and a shortage of professional personnel, the province’s social science popularization work has gathered talent through sentiment and consolidated resources through responsibility. Through the provincial-municipal joint meeting system, we plan and advance the province's popularization work and commend advanced units and individuals. In recent years, a group of well-known experts has devoted themselves to the creation of social science popularization works; many famous writers and presenters have actively participated in volunteer services; and entrepreneurs have donated to sponsor activities. Grassroots social science cultural service teams carry out performances in rural areas every year, creating a batch of popularization brands at the people's side. Social science popularization work has earned the recognition and praise of the grassroots masses.
(Zhang Xinke is the Party Branch Secretary and Executive Vice Chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Philosophical and Social Science Circles)