ABSTRACT
The “humanist spirit” was taken up as a topic in academic circles in the 1990s. This chapter shows how the trend of the 1990s in aesthetic culture can be explained by the emergence of a new humanist spirit in China. The reason it says “aesthetic culture” instead of “aesthetics” is due to unique conditions in the 1990s. Typically, “aesthetics” usually refers to activities of appreciating, discriminating, and creating beautiful art in a narrow sense. Art is thereby separated from such common “cultural” activities as politics, finance, and morality, and possesses a special logic and style of its own. In terms of its quality, aesthetic culture in the 1990s has shown an inclination moving from pure aesthetics to pan-aesthetics. The main task of communicative rhetoric is to discuss the issue of differences and estrangement between people through aesthetic culture (discourse).
