Pi Jun, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of China Youth Publishing House, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Deep Cultivation of Industry Promotes Technological Revolution" at the 2017 World Mobile Internet Conference and New Media Portal Conference. He pointed out that the real technological revolution is bound to occur after the industry is deeply cultivated. The following is the full text of the speech:
Any innovation is not an isolated leap, but has its profound historical logic and realistic scene; Similarly, any technological revolution is based on the demand chain of traditional industries, and more is to enhance the value of factors that people neglected in the past. Therefore, the real technological revolution is bound to occur after the deep cultivation of the industry, rather than appearing out of thin air.
First, the three strange phenomena of current innovation
1. The technology is improving and the quality is decreasing.
In many fields, we have encountered the phenomenon of quality degradation caused by technological progress. When we used chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce high-yield crops, the most innovative agricultural model now is natural free-range chickens and miscellaneous grains with a yield of several hundred kilograms per mu; When we wiped out those manual workshops and artisans with almost artistic standards with big industries, now we are calling for the spirit of artisans (there are a lot of manual workshops in Switzerland and Germany at present). I once visited the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany. The models in the 1920s and 1930s have far more aesthetic features than today’s models, and all of them are art treasures. Now, personal tailor and handcraft are all labeled as innovation. In fact, what innovation is there? The starting point of technological progress is often to improve efficiency and save costs, but it does not necessarily bring about quality improvement.
2. Marketing is expanding and creativity is shrinking.
Channel is king and platform is king, which is the most innovative "false proposition" in recent years. We can only say that channels and platforms are very important in a certain period and in a certain field. But if we must say that it is king, it completely violates common sense and basic dialectics. Marketing behavior does not necessarily bring innovation. Now people who advocate that channels are king and platforms are king just find ways to make money through channels and platforms. Once the business model of paying for content is broken, it is only a matter of minutes to knock over channels and platforms. We need to work hard on people. Any industry is people-oriented and creativity-oriented. Enterprises that are only willing to spend money on channels and platforms, but not on people and creativity, end up making wedding clothes for others.
3. Knowledge is in surplus and knowledge is in shortage.
We are in an era of information explosion, an era of rapid knowledge surplus. Some knowledge became obsolete as soon as it was invented, and a lot of knowledge became obsolete before it could be applied. Most people are even so pitiful that they can’t even touch the edge of the sea of knowledge in Wang Yang. Not to mention encyclopedic figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Newton, or people like Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan who know and do in one, if the proportion of total social knowledge is used to measure modern people, most people can be classified as illiterate with diplomas and Bai Ding with academic qualifications. Many people can’t go to bring peace and stability to the country in the world or start their own businesses in the world. I really don’t know what they have learned after spending so much precious time, money and energy. Intellectuals will be replaced by knowledgeable people.
Second, the cause of the problem
1. Many industries that have been deeply ploughed have been knocked over in the name of "tradition".
Many people often use the word "subversion" to explain innovation. In fact, this has nothing to do with innovation.
Taking the media industry as an example, it takes many years to cultivate a real media person, and it also takes many years to form an excellent media tradition, form a social public opinion environment with the spirit of the rule of law, and build a media system that matches the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. However, many people naively think that with technological progress like the Internet, everything can be subverted. In fact, we are destroying ourselves: many people and organizations prefer to spend a lot of time and energy, buy various new technologies to argue rumors, delete posts and withdraw manuscripts, but don’t want to spend energy to train real media people-closer to the truth, closer to the facts, closer to life, more clearly expressed, more reasonable and more dialectical. Most Internet media or self-styled new media organizations are becoming a carnival for people who eat melons, and the efficiency of obtaining information in the whole society has been rapidly reduced. It has become the norm to pick up some poor and valuable things from the massive junk information. Some so-called internet media are turning most people into scavengers in the information world. What algorithms and preferences are used to fool investors and those illiterate people with academic qualifications? Such technology has completely lost the soul of the media. The former ideal of news, media justice and the spirit of seeking truth and being pragmatic have disappeared in the internet media.
2. The law of production in the material world is opposite to that in the spiritual world.
The production of the material world is demand-oriented, which is the iron law in economics. However, now we find that this rule is gradually failing. Why? Because the law of production in the material world is opposite to that in the spiritual world. In the material world, people’s needs are clear. For example, I need a cup to drink water. You can see any kind of cup in the market. For example, if you want to buy an air conditioner, you can choose any favorite brand. But spiritual products are completely opposite, that is to say, before this cultural product is produced, no one can ask for it. For example, before the film "Wrestle, Dad" came out, no one would appeal that we should watch a movie called "Wrestle, Dad". Similarly, before the book Harry Potter came out, no one in the market would ask to read it. In this sense, any demand-oriented prediction and technology of spiritual products are deceptive.
More importantly, at present, the spiritual life of young people has completely surpassed the material life. In April this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council officially promulgated the Medium-and Long-Term Youth Development Plan 2016-2025, which made institutionalized arrangements for youth work for the first time. This plan will mainly target young people aged 14-35. Under the guidance of this planning spirit and the general situation of reading by the whole people, China Youth Publishing House, together with the big data company Chengdu Shulian Mingpin Company, researched and developed the China Youth Reading Index. We just released the second index two days ago. Our research has seen the crux of the problem: no matter the time, energy or money they put into spiritual life, they have greatly surpassed material life. In the past, it was said that the young people have the world, but now people have invented a word called "those who are 9000 years old have the world" (after 90 +00). However, many people have not studied the living conditions of "9000-year-olds" in spiritual life, so it is impossible to really get their hearts and explore the real market.
Third, what should we do?
Step 1 embrace tradition
This is an era when "tradition" determines "future". This year’s report "The Road to the Future of Artificial Intelligence in China" released by McKinsey & Company clearly pointed out: "Only when artificial intelligence technology is fully applied to traditional industries, not just to technology giants, its economic potential will be fully demonstrated. This requires overcoming many obstacles, including lack of strategic awareness of business leaders, lack of professional and technical knowledge and high implementation costs. "
Tradition has left three most precious things: attitude, quality and connotation. Why is the practice of "body and mind" very popular among urban white-collar workers now? In fact, they are all learning the attitude of the ancients-the attitude towards nature, the attitude towards society, others and themselves. No matter what kind of innovation we make, the ultimate goal is to improve quality and connotation. Without these three innovations, they are all hooligans. Especially in the field of spiritual products, we must embrace those institutions and people who have the best traditions and are deeply involved in the industry. As we all know, the most creative enterprise at present is not produced at the forefront of technology, but an ancient institution: the Palace Museum. There will be more and more such examples in the future.
Bubbles are generated at the technical end. What can be called traditional things, their starting point must be in line with human nature and Taoism. What we need is to master the traditional core with all our strength, and constantly empower him with new technologies and new models, instead of doing another set. Sima Qian wrote in the biography of Sima Yi in the historical records: The art of war is deep, although three generations of conquering failed to do its justice. In fact, there are many such precious treasures in our tradition, which have not been concealed for hundreds of generations. But only those who deeply cultivate tradition can get it.
2. Quality first
If the technology represented by the Internet has improved the efficiency of the whole society in the past 30 years, then the innovation represented by culture will improve the quality of the whole society in the next 30 years.
The United States, as a hardware, basically took shape in the 1950s. But other innovations never stopped.
Standardized things will be eliminated quickly, and personalized things will shine. This is determined by the nature of culture.
To be exact, culture has only one function: to ensure that the quality of civilization that has been created is not degraded. No matter what new technology, new model and new format we adopt, it is all for the continued development of the civilization that has already emerged. This requires us to clearly know what level of human civilization exploration has reached, what level of culture has reached, and any cause must start again at this level. Otherwise, we are in danger of reversing history. Therefore, using and embracing new technologies is not the patent of technology school, but should become the mission of traditional industries. Only those institutions that have been deeply involved for many years can do this. As I said earlier, many technical schools only see the formal distinction between paper reading and electronic reading, while China Youth Publishing House has seen the change of reading field, the change of socially necessary consumption time, the industry saturation, and the deep-seated change of aesthetic orientation and value trend. These are all things that laymen can’t touch at all.
In the future, all material things will be done by robots or artificial intelligence, while human beings will all turn to spiritual production, and the quality of culture will be determined by people rather than technology.
3. Determine the virtual with the real.
Now, our focus is not simply to "break away from reality" or "break away from reality", what we need to do is to "determine the emptiness with reality".
We pointed out in the latest China Youth Reading Index: Why is the "amplitude" so large between "in the name of people" and "young soul/fresh meat"? The film and television dramas such as "Choosing the Sky" are not technical failures, but logical errors. The fundamental reason is that the logic of youth reading in China has not been grasped, and the "real and imaginary" changes between the general trend from "key words" to "reading field" and the "small trend" of youth reading movement in China have not been properly judged.
In my opinion, the cultural industry in the future will move towards the definition of "emptiness" by "reality": reality is the collective situation of this era, the world and society, that is, "state and ecology", and emptiness is the "mentality and intention" determined by this attitude and ecology. The so-called "virtual reality" such as the second dimension, subculture and micro-community are all "virtual insights" of the "real world".
This is also the goal of the China Youth Reading Index:
In terms of culture, the first is to reconstruct the "expression framework system" that maps the youth in China; The second is to reshape the "cognitive framework system" that cuts across the youth in China; The third is to rebuild the "content framework system" to accommodate China youth.
From the market point of view, the first is to measure the "fundamentals" of China youth reading and the changing "hot trends". The second is to measure the "mother of civilization" and "fragments of information, knowledge and thought" read by China youth. The third is to measure the "socially necessary consumption time" and "saturation" of China youth reading.
In a word, who can let China youth spend the least time to find what he wants and needs to read most … This will become the axis of optimization, improvement, subversion and change of all the "guiding methods" and "business models" at present.
Of course, there is still a long way to go, and we have only taken the first step, but it is already the most crucial step.
We are willing to bring exponential growth to the whole industry, which is our responsibility.
