Walking into the office of Wang Yichuan, a distinguished professor at Beijing Language and Culture University and chairman of the Beijing Literary Critics Association, a flurry of books filled his face. One side of his desk was piled with works of art theory, and beside him were scattered materials related to film and television works such as "The World" and "Taiping Year", as if they were a microcosm of his academic daily life: he not only deeply cultivated his thinking on art theory, but also integrated it into the analysis of specific works. On May 17, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at a symposium on philosophy and social science work the need to "accelerate the construction of Chinese characteristic philosophy and social sciences". Over the past 10 years, guided by the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the art community has focused on practice and rooted itself in the local area, making every effort to promote the construction of an independent knowledge system for Chinese art studies. When it comes to the development of art studies in the past 10 years, Professor Wang Yichuan has a lively discussion. In the discourse, there is not only a feeling of breaking away from Western theoretical dependence and gradually consolidating local subjectivity in Chinese art studies, but also a full expectation for the future of art studies. Practical Application: The Era Concern and Mission of Art Studies Reporter: We saw the seminar materials for the TV drama "Taiping Year" on your desk. Its popularity has sparked the audience's enthusiasm for historical research. Do you feel this atmosphere? Today, with rich artistic practice and high public participation, art studies, as a discipline that studies the universal laws of human artistic activities, has been endowed with a unique mission in the new era? Wang Yichuan: Art studies have seized unprecedented opportunities in the new era. People have personally felt that art practice is unprecedentedly active nowadays, and art is deeply embedded in social life. This Spring Festival, when I went to the Jiangguan area of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum to watch the "Ten Thousand Years of Zhejiang" exhibition, I found that the "Wuyue Shenglan" exhibition area was highly popular among drama fans. There is also this book 'Silent Glory' Collection, which records the grand occasion of the TV drama 'Silent Glory' reaching over 1 billion viewers and triggering emotional and cultural resonance between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. These are all examples of the great potential of artistic practice and theory in this era. With art being endowed with the noble mission of aesthetic confirmation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the construction of art studies has also gained a new "contemporaneity", which is closely linked to the overall national strength and international competitiveness of the country. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the Philosophy and Social Sciences Work Symposium that "we must continuously promote the construction and innovation of disciplinary systems, academic systems, and discourse systems" and "we must do a good job in the construction of textbook systems". These ideas have pointed out the direction and planned the blueprint for the development of art studies. This can be understood from four aspects: firstly, to solidify the ontological foundation of the discipline system of art studies, allowing each discipline to find its own ontological position; The second is to expand the interdisciplinary perspective of the academic system of art studies, allowing art studies to gain rich academic nourishment through mutual reference in humanities and social sciences such as literature, history, philosophy, economics, and education; The third is to enhance the social authority of the discourse system of art studies, and promote the confirmation of its own discourse credibility in the broad perspective of the public, public media, and cultural platforms; The fourth is to enhance the teaching effectiveness of the art textbook system, by developing new textbooks and revising existing ones, so that the construction of the disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system can be timely transformed into the achievements of moral education and talent cultivation. At the same time, art has also undergone a paradigm shift in its development as a discipline with Chinese characteristics, showing several changes: firstly, the theoretical system has become autonomous, with the central issue shifting from in-depth exploration of ontology to the construction of an independent knowledge system. Systematically sorting out the original texts and contemporary discourse of Chinese aesthetics, establishing a theoretical coordinate system centered on "Chinese style", and achieving a transformation from "following learning" to "main learning". The second is to digitize the research paradigm, actively introduce technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, shift from single text reading to interdisciplinary integrated research methods supported by data visualization and knowledge graphs, and construct a new path for art history research that spans time and space. The third is the cross mediatization of disciplinary boundaries, breaking through existing disciplinary barriers and making the integration of cross media narrative and art technology a new trend, giving birth to emerging cutting-edge fields such as intelligent art and interactive design. The fourth is to criticize the rationalization of ecology, and art criticism returns from impetuosity to the theoretical basis, highlighting the perspective of general history, the combination of historical theory and value rationality, gradually constructing a multi-level and standardized evaluation system, and paying attention to the synchronous improvement of cultural soft power and public aesthetic literacy. Reporter: How should we understand the contemporary value of applying art theory research to practical situations? How can art better respond to the questions of China, the world, the people, and the times, and play its due role in serving the national cultural strategy? Wang Yichuan: This question is crucial. The practical application of art theory research lies in breaking free from the limitations of pure theoretical speculation, and actively responding to the needs and challenges of the development of real art activities with theoretical wisdom that has the efficacy of "transitivity", activating the aesthetic function of art in serving the country, society, and the people. Specifically, it is reflected in four levels: firstly, to leverage the guiding and aesthetic normative functions of artistic theory, provide value coordinates and theoretical basis for artistic creation, promote the adherence to the Chinese cultural stance, promote mainstream values, resist vulgarity, homogenization, and Western centric discourse, and enhance the spiritual height and aesthetic character of artistic works; Secondly, we will continue to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture, systematically explain the basic principles of the "Chinese aesthetic spirit" and traditional art paradigm, and provide theoretical support for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and the innovative development of traditional art; The third is to closely serve the national cultural strategy, build a system of Chinese characteristic art studies, enhance cultural confidence, and provide academic think tank support for the construction of cultural power, literary and artistic excellence projects, and public cultural service systems, enhancing the country's cultural soft power and international communication capabilities; The fourth is to respond promptly to the reality of the times, face new issues such as digital art, AI art, cultural tourism integration, and cultural industry upgrading, provide theoretical explanations, critical standards, and development paths, and promote the coordinated development of art, technology, society, and industry. Rooted in fertile soil: an exploration of art based on independent knowledge system construction. Reporter: We have noticed that the cover of the "Complete Works of Zong Baihua" on your desk is worn out. Mr. Zong Baihua has been thinking about how to establish a Chinese aesthetic discourse, and you are also paying attention to related issues. What substantial progress has the art community made in building an independent knowledge system for Chinese art studies in the past 10 years? Wang Yichuan: Mr. Zong Baihua's writings are often read and new, especially inspiring the construction of an independent knowledge system for Chinese art studies. In the past 10 years, the art community has broken the pattern of Western art theory leading and even enveloping, and taken solid steps in building an independent knowledge system for Chinese art studies. Over the past decade, the progress of Chinese art studies is evident to all. One is to achieve the institutional construction and self-regulation of the discipline of Chinese art studies, following the development laws of contemporary Chinese art and culture, rising from a first level discipline to an independent discipline category, and developing a rich and diverse professional system with a reasonable layout. The second is to increase the autonomy of the theoretical system, systematically explore the rich resources of "excellent traditional Chinese culture," "Chinese aesthetic spirit," and traditional art theory, as well as their relationship with contemporary art creation practice, and form a local art theory framework centered on traditional categories such as "imagery," "artistic conception," and "image. The third is to achieve a paradigm shift in art research, shifting from "interpreting from the West to the Middle" to "interpreting from the Middle and learning from both the East and the West", focusing on local issues such as Chinese art history, intangible cultural heritage, and digital art, and producing a series of landmark achievements related to contemporary inheritance of Chinese art studies and aesthetic spirit, new compilation of Chinese art history, and new theories on principles and methods of art history. The fourth is to promote the interdisciplinary integration of art studies, so that art studies can deeply intersect with philosophy, history, economics, etc., and develop new directions such as digital art, computational art, and cultural heritage protection, in response to the needs of new issues in the times. Reporter: The concept of "geo aesthetic code" you used when commenting on the TV drama "Shan Hai Qing" left a deep impression on us. This concept describes the sense of power we feel when watching the drama, which is an inherent spiritual resilience in a specific regional environment. It also allows us to truly appreciate the charm of local art theory. Some scholars refer to the past 10 years as the decade when Chinese philosophy and social sciences have achieved the awakening of subjectivity. How do you evaluate this judgment from the perspective of the development of art studies? Wang Yichuan: This judgment is very accurate and accurately captures the core transformation of Chinese art theory in the past decade. It is a historic leap driven by academic consciousness, cultural confidence, and national cultural strategy. A new batch of original academic concepts, iconic concepts, or representative propositions have emerged in related fields such as Chinese art theory, aesthetics, and art criticism. At that time, Wang Guowei introduced the concept of "realm" and related propositions such as "the realm with self" and "the realm without self" in his book "The Words of the Human World", which paved the way for the later concept of "artistic conception" to gain equal status with the core category of foreign "typical". When ordinary contemporary Chinese audiences mention the traditional essence of classical art, they always think of "artistic conception", and the first contribution comes from Wang Guowei's original work. In the past decade, a large number of art theory and aesthetic scholars have made significant contributions to the construction of original concepts in China. Zhang Fa's "beauty of ancient China", Zhu Liangzhi's "life beyond aesthetics", Peng Feng's "freehand brushwork aesthetics", and Li Jun's "visual art history" are all part of it. These original achievements have inspired and motivated art theory peers. I feel in the book 'The Public Appreciation of Art' that the development of art has reached a point where it must consciously pursue 'public appreciation' rather than 'exclusive appreciation' or 'self appreciation', and cannot be satisfied with just having 'credibility', but needs to further rise to the level of 'public appreciation'. When commenting on the TV drama "The World", years of accumulated literary criticism and thinking prompted me to summarize it with "psychorealism". I found that foreign realism, after coming to China, merged with the traditional wisdom of Chinese psychorealism, generating the paradigm of Chinese psychorealism and reflecting the strong vitality of realism and the traditional Chinese psychorealism. Faced with the long-term influence of Western aesthetic systems, I have come up with the idea of activating China's "Wenxin" tradition and proposing ideas such as "Wenxin Aesthetics" and "Wenxin Film Studies", hoping to establish a dialogue between China's "Wenxin" tradition and foreign aesthetic systems. My personal exploration is not yet mature enough, but I believe that with the collaborative efforts of colleagues in the national art community, Chinese art scholars are fully capable of making the necessary achievements on the original path of Chinese art studies. Carrying on the past and ushering in the future: The era of new popular literature and art studies. Response to reporters: Recently, new popular literature and art have been very popular. In your opinion, what are the main aspects of the "new" aspect of new popular literature and art? What challenges does the emergence of this new form of literature and art pose to the traditional theoretical framework of literature and art? Wang Yichuan: In the 5th "Beijing International Style" Short Video Competition, British person Tang Rui's recording of the survival traces of birds in Beijing through videos left a deep impression on me. This new popular literary and artistic work comes from the genuine emotions of ordinary people, allowing the audience to appreciate the earthy fragrance of the fusion of life and art. The new popular literature and art is an emerging academic topic, and I am still studying, so I can only talk about some superficial ideas. I believe that the new mass literature and art should be part of the generation process of people's subjectivity in the process of Chinese path to modernization, part of the practical process of promoting economic and social development by means of modern mass media to convey aesthetic experience, and one of the daily self entertainment and sharing means of self expression of the masses in the Internet era. Same as the modern past