Course:ASIA319/2020/"Outstanding" (赞)

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Introduction

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The Chinese term "赞" (Pinyin / pronunciation: zàn) falls into the category of the most frequently used Chinese characters. Originated from the ancient Chinese scripts, the word initially refers to "to help", "to welcome guests" and "to introduce" because of the graphical structure of "赞", according to some ancient dictionaries. Different than previous times, modern dictionaries and societies have given new meanings including but not limited to "outstanding", "to praise" and "to like" - a word that can be used as both verb and adjective.

Nowadays, with the prosperous and drastic growth of Internet and social media as well as a rapid modernization, "赞" has become one of the most popular words in online communities, the word is often used to specifically indicate the action of "liking" - "to press the like button" or "to leave a like", to be more exhaustive. "赞" is critical for Chinese culture in the field of social networking as almost all members that are part of the online social networking context has the experience of clicking the “like" button. The emergence of "赞" as not only one of the most popular and frequently used term in real-life scenarios, but also in online communities indicates an integration of past and present that goes beyond solely a literary sense, but in a sense of generation as well.

The Genesis of “赞” (Outstanding)

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"赞" was earliest seen in an ancient Chinese text known as seal script. Because of its graphical structure, the word initially means to "lead guests to the house owner", or simply "to welcome". The structure was later changed after the emergence of a new version of Chinese text - regular script or standard script of handwriting, the meaning was therefore altered as well. On top of "to welcome", "赞" now means "to help" and "to support". In modern China, according to the definition of Xinhua Dictionary (新华字典)[1], "赞" generally has three meanings when brought up individually: "to help", "to praise" and "eulogy".

Culture wise, "赞" firstly emerged in Chinses pop culture through the Internet, because of the introduction of function of "like" provided by some of the biggest technology companies in China on their predominant social media platform such as Sina Weibo and WeChat. With the function of "like", users are enabled to express their enjoyment, compliment and even appreciation by simply clicking the thumbs-up button. The "like" feature effectively meets the public's quickly growing needs for daily social interaction and fast-paced communication. As soon as it appeared on social networking sites, it was eagerly sought after by Chinese netizens, and became extremely popular among online communities. In the Internet era, everyone has started to have a desire to share their daily life and amazing events around them, express not only their ideas, but also their emotions, feelings and perspectives, and the "like" function has given the public a new way to express their opinions as well as interact with others[2].

Glossary

"赞" firstly appeared in ancient Chinese texts as a verb. According to the very first Chinese dictionary (说文解字)[3], its original meaning was "to accept gifts from the guests" and "to present the host with it". With the development of culture, more meanings were invented and added on top of the first definition. Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典)[4] defines “赞” as a highly practical verb with a variety of definitions. For instance, the word means "to introduce / guide / assist / praise / inform / understand / participate / select". Moreover, “赞” also contains meanings when used as a noun, such as "master of ceremonies" and "eulogy". In order to popularize Mandarin and the simplified Chinese characters after the new China was found, only partial meanings of “赞” were kept to keep it as clear and simple as possible: to help, to praise and surname.

Dictionary Definitions

赞 (zàn): to praise, to acclaim (verb); eulogy, compliment (noun); a surname.

Usage of “赞” (Outstanding) and Words Associated

Basic Usage of “赞” (Outstanding) in Daily Scenarios

  • 赞扬 (To praise, Pinyin: zàn yáng): Mostly used both as a verb and sometimes used as a noun, referring to the action of acclaiming or praising a certain person / object matter. Under some circumstances, the word could also be expressed as the behaviour of supporting and acknowledging.
    • E.g. Neither praise nor blame can affect him after what he has been through.
    • 他已经经历了很多,无论赞扬还是责怪都影响不了他。
  • 赞叹 (To sigh in admiration, Pinyin: zàn tàn): Mostly used as a verb, meaning the expression of an emotion / feeling of astonishment, admiration. Generally used to illustrate the highest possible compliment toward an object matter / sight / person, etc. In other words, the degree of emotion is higher and more extreme that expressed by the word “praise”.
    • E.g. Almost every tourist in Toronto would go visit the Niagra Falls in order to admire the greatness of nature.
    • 几乎每个来多伦多的游客都会来参观尼亚加拉瀑布并赞叹大自然的伟大。

Usage of 赞 (Outstanding) in Archaism / Idiom

  • 不赞一词 (To keep quiet, Pinyin: bù zàn yì cí): originated from the book known as Shih Chi (史记), written by an ancient Chinese scholar. The original sentence describes a different meaning, saying that a certain group of people haven’t been able to provide any advices on the adaptation of articles. Now the idiom is used as an adjective to describe the flawlessness / excellence of an object matter, as there’s already no room for improvements. In some cases, it’s also referred to the action of staying silent.
    • E.g. I will just stay silent and let him talk.
    • 我自己不赞一词,让他自言自语就行了。
  • 赞不绝口 (Non-stop compliment, Pinyin: zàn bù jué kǒu): originated from A Dream in Red Mansions (红楼梦), an adjective used to describe the feeling / action that’s full of praise / compliments. The degree of emotion is similar to 赞叹, both express an extremely positive feeling.
    • E.g. Almost every tourist in Toronto who has visited the Niagra Falls will express their compliment and admiration because it’s a spectacle not to be missed.
    • 几乎每个多伦多的游客都会对尼亚加拉瀑布赞不绝口,因为那是个不可错过的壮观景象。

Usage of 赞 (Outstanding) in Contemporary / Pop Culture

  • 点赞 (To agree with, to hit the “like” button Pinyin: diǎn zàn): invented by the Internet and netizens. The term originally refers to the function / feature provided by mainstream online communities (e.g. Facebook, Instagram), which enables netizens to express their agreement / appreciation to a specific post / thread / picture by pressing the button - often in the form of a sign, such as a heart / thumbs up. Since the Chinese president Xi Jinping had mentioned the word “点赞” multiple times throughout his new year speech in December 2014[5], it instantly became popular on the Internet and its usage rate increased dramatically in China. Now it’s commonly used as a verb, meaning the action of liking and agreeing with a person’s opinion, or simply supporting a certain perspective. In many cases the word also refers to an action taken by almost all netizens - pressing the “like” button under people’s social media posts. Some regard the behaviour of liking social media posts as a way to show support, love and compliment as well.
    • E.g. People saw the bright side of humanity from his behaviours, and they appreciated what he’s done.
    • 人们从他的行为里看到了人性光辉的一面,并且他们给他的行为点赞
    • E.g. His friends always like his posts on Instagram because of the quality of his posts.
    • 他的朋友们经常给他Instagram帖子点赞,因为他的帖子都很有水准。
  • 很赞 (To consider something as good and positive, very good, Pinyin: hěn zàn): invented by the Internet and netizens in China, sometimes people would use “赞” only and without any prefixes. Although the singular character “赞” generally serves as a verb that refers to an action / behaviour, Chinese netizens have been using it as an adjective when talking to each other online - to describe something  / someone as outstanding, positive and / or excellent. Its purpose is similar to what the previous term (点赞) possesses, both are used to express approval, agreement as well as compliments.
    • E.g. His heroic behaviour has gained the public’s approval and compliment.
    • 他见义勇为的行为让大家觉得很赞

Counterparts of "赞" (Outstanding) in Non-Chinese Languages

Although the meaning and syntax usage of the specific term - “赞”, has changed progressively in China with a considerable difference between the Internet and formal circumstances, it doesn’t mean that its meaning in other languages stays the same. Below are examples of “赞” in various languages, which show a shared meaning and syntax usage.

  • "赞" in English: To like, To praise

For instance, the English word “like” serves various meanings in difference scenarios. While it can be used as a verb to express someone’s preference and approval in daily conversations, on social media it usually refers specifically to the action of pressing the “like” button under either a Facebook post or an Instagram photo.

  • “赞” in Japanese: すごい  (Pronunciation: Sugoi) - excellent, outstanding; 賛成 / さんせい (Pronunciation: sansei) - to agree with, to support

In Japanese, the word shares a similar meaning and syntax usage with “赞”. On one hand, it’s usually regarded as a verb - meaning to praise or acclaim, whereas it serves no syntax meaning when used alone. On the other hand, it serves as an adjective in contemporary Japan as well - generally brought up when people are trying to show their acknowledgement or support. When used as an adjective, it can be used alone and can still have meanings. In other words, the word itself is able to represent a whole sentence, such as a response / answer, when it’s in the form of an adjective.

E.g. A: 明日はまずご飯を食べて、それからカラオケに行くってのはどう? B: 賛成!

A: For tomorrow’s plan, how about we go grab some food first, and then karaoke? B: Agreed! / Great suggestion!

  • "赞" in French: liker / likerz, mettre un like - to like, to leave a like on social media posts; génial: to describe as excellent

Similar to Chinese and English, the French version of “赞” also has a variegated meaning across different situations. For instance, in online communities such as YouTube, video creators in France would always mention the word / phrase “mettre un like” or “liker / likez”, meaning to leave a “like” for the video or to press the “like” icon. In scenarios such as having conversations with others, people would go with the word “génial” since the word represents meanings such as describing something as excellent and giving compliments.

E.g. Si vous aimez, mettre un like!

If you liked the video, please leave a like!

Comparisons

Even though “赞” has different meanings and usages across various scenarios, it nonetheless shares most of them with other languages. In China, “赞” has a contemporary meaning of “liking someone’s social media post” by pressing the like button and other languages express a similar idea. While these languages share a similar idea online in terms of the word “赞”, they’re at the same time used in a similar way in real-life scenarios such as formal / informal in-person conversations as well. To summarize, despite the huge differences between languages (Chinese, English, Japanese and French in this case), these languages appear to be able to keep the original meaning and developing new modern understandings, while sharing a similar idea and usage whether online or in reality.

Distortion of Dictionary Meanings

The definition of “赞” (Outstanding) was originally used to describe the action of praising and complimenting, with a relatively less common reference to the act of participation in a specific activity / event. Later, with the invention and rapid growth of the Internet, its initially purpose / definition in Chinese pop culture had gradually been altered - however not enormously. At the beginning, the idea of “赞” (Outstanding) was only changed by the netizens in China in order to refer to the behaviour of supporting, appreciating and acknowledging, due to the 2014-2015 new year speech given by the Chinese president Xi Jinping. The changing process didn’t stop there. As social media platforms grew prosperously, “赞” (Outstanding) was given another new purpose, which is to represent an action that’s frequently taken by nearly all Internet users - “liking” a post / picture / video posted on social media, and it still exists and is being used by millions until now. Such a phenomenon indicates not only a change, but also an integration of modern Internet language and original Chinese language.

Social, cultural, and political problems

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Outstanding (赞) could easily enable people to express their complexity of emotion and cognition towards others.[6] The 点赞 is no longer just used on the internet but more designed for us to show our personal emotion and self-stance.[7] 32个赞 is very popular for the combination of Li Yuchun and Yang Kun from the tv show 中国好声音. With the modern technology developed, internet culture had generally take place for face to face social life, 点赞 is a power tool to tell the author you had read the post and like it as well. 赞 culture is a fast food friend relationships that gently maintained contacts. It became the main stream of social culture in the contemporary China by substituting very less efforts into personal relationships.

Outstanding is originally created from the internet popular culture. The function of outstanding is giving a free like or admire to values that the users are agree with in some degree. Just by simply clicking the "like" button to the post, then you are completely join in the outstanding culture. In most time, the people would pay the outstanding(赞)back to you post if you first give the like to his social media[8] However, the social problems are later significantly exposed to the public. The popularity of user in the reality has positive relationship with the like that user received from the internet, such as WeChat which is the most common social media used in the contemporary China(PRC).  Giving your free outstanding to others and instantly get others outstanding back is like a culture trade. People are over consciously about who is giving the like to them in the internet. if someone did not give any like to him. this person must be excluded from his good friend relationship.

President Xi Jinping is the political leader who likes to use the outstanding culture since he became the emperor of PRC in 2013. It is his special technique as a dictator to express charisma in many cases. He used the key term "click outstanding(点赞)" to citizens of China in 2015's new year greeting. [5] It gains huge attention from the internet such as Weibo and WeChat, because the previous leaders barely give response to the people in the internet. And fellows give their intensive like back to them fabulous and brave leader, President Xi. He went extremely popular on the internet trend. Not like Mao Zedong who is the first king of PRC in 1949 by manipulating populism, fanaticism and fear of people to successfully dominate China, President Xi is based on the role of social media to do political propaganda. The strategic office are good at using social media and regularly post some catchy and popular compliments on the internet. The outstanding culture of the internet bring amount of words of praise to President Xi from the citizens. [9] Many poems and songs are made for president Xi, noble husband, friend of hardworking farmers, enemy of corrupted government officers. With the calling of fighting corruption and chasing Chinese dream(中国梦), social media and internet ultimately worshiped Xi Jinping. He is superman who can do anything, playing soccer, shooting auto-rifle, PHD degree from the top 1 university of China. Outstanding culture fit the political demands of building such national pride character. Chinese propaganda is servicing for promoting top leader without the leader's request. He should stop the tendency that remind the old generations of Mao Zedong political method. However, he did not do that but enjoy the consequence.

Studies related to the keyword

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The term “Outstanding” has been transformed into the new standard of social interaction since the rapid rise of social media platforms in contemporary China. The psychological analysis revolving around the act of reacting to a social media post with “outstanding” can be extremely complicated, given that “outstanding” can be interpreted as a multiplex of emotions and intentions[6]. The meaning behind the action could go from the need to refresh their online presence to the reverse psychology[6] of the word - “outstanding” could be a representation of irony, sarcasm, and anger, depending on the message of the post and its relationship with the user. The economic effectiveness of the activity is heavily utilized by marketing and merchandising[10] with the gathering of a certain number of “outstanding” likes in a post, which in turn indicates awareness of the event or product.

This gave rise to the dominating social networking culture occupying modern China, where “outstanding” can be a tool for improving relationships[11] and a symbol of wanting to maintain the relationship, despite the lack of actual social communication between the users.

Studies[6] on China’s social psychology have also found that “outstanding” is an efficient and functional method of expanding social networks through the bond of virtual recognition, implicitly contributing to the evolution of the potential of the “outstanding” reaction.

Conclusion

The term 赞(Outstanding) has become a polyseme that mainly represents the reaction of “like” or “praise” on social media platform combined with the meaning of “help” from before the rapid development of the internet as well as 赞(Outstanding) as a noun. It is vital to the Chinese social media and networking culture due to the reaction “outstanding” being the primary function of expressing any and all emotion towards the post or content. Although it satisfies the fast-paced needs of virtual communication and maintance of online relationships with its simple and universal expression, “outstanding” could represent various different meanings unrelated to the definition of the term. This gives rise to complex and unique social psychological analysis of the intentions behind the “outstanding” reaction, affecting behavior on social media as a whole.

In an economic perspective, “Outstanding” is a quantitative analysis of the responsiveness the audience has towards a product, leading to the focus in increasing the number of “outstanding” in a post as a marketing success or achievement. An interesting direction for future investigation could be how the influence of the “outstanding” reaction to a post has changed social media content and originality, since “outstanding” is valued to the majority of users as a recognition of their content from other users. The future study should focus on how the urge for conformity, or the need to post something that will gain a lot of “outstanding” reactions has created a dominant widely accepted culture and lessened the appearance of alternative cultures and standards.

References

  1. Institute of Linguistics, CASS (2012). XINHUAZIDIAN. The Commercial Press. p. 622. ISBN 978-7-100-06959-5.
  2. Shen, Guoju (2015). "小议新词"赞"".
  3. Xu, Shen (100). 说文解字.
  4. Chen, Yushu (1716). 康熙字典.
  5. 5.0 5.1 孔大为.习近平“点赞”人民 人民“点赞”习大大[J].人民公安,2015(01):12-13.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Li, Jing (2015). "微信点赞背后的情绪与文化表达". 001Lunwen.
  7. 邓晨菲.你是“点赞狂”吗?[J].中国研究生,2014(05):54-55.
  8. 庞道锋.你是点赞专业毕业的吧[J].齐鲁周刊,2018(22):4-5.
  9. 杰安迪, 储. (2015, March 08). "习大大"再次燃起中国人的领袖崇拜之情. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20150308/c08xi/
  10. Yu, Zhang (2017). "社交媒体中点赞行为的多维度研究". Media people.
  11. Wang, Junxiu (2019). "点赞之累折射"圈层社会"之累". Global View.


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