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Body Symbol and Popular Conceptual Identification for Star Brand

2021-03-03YANGDong-li

Journal of Literature and Art Studies 2021年11期

YANG Dong-li

Body symbol is generally regarded as the representation of public self-identity in philosophy. However, it is neither a pure symbol nor a pure body. This limits its thorough expression of the public self to a certain extent. The pan symbol mechanism of consumer society further dispels discord between symbol and natural body, so that body can clearly represent the self-identity of the public more. Star brand is a typical embodiment of body symbols in consumer society. Although the conceptual identification for constructing star brand belongs to commercial competition strategy, it is also the confirmation for public identity at the practical level.

Keywords: body symbol, star brand, public, self, distinguish

Introduction: Body Symbols and Public Identity

Frankfurt school and some western cultural theorists once took “the public” from a derogatory perspective as a large number of “one-dimensional people” (Marcuse, 1964, p. xii) in industrial society who give up independent thinking, identify with the status quo, obey it and have no personality. However, from a neutral point of view, the public is the ordinary people in society opposite to the elite. Due to the low social status and class, they can not enjoy the special protection of the social system, so they are always in a state of lack of security and sense of belonging psychologically, and have “pain, irritation, discomfort, separate feelings” (Byatt, 1997, p. 32). Such feeling arouses their desire for the intimate relationship between people, but the indifference, alienation and competition between people in modern society make it difficult to establish a real intimate relationship between people. This makes the public in modern society generally emphasize independent self-consciousness on the one hand, and constantly reflect the desire for intimacy on the other hand. In this way, the body, which is born with intimate relationship but can reflect personality through modification, has gradually become an important symbol for the public to represent themselves.

In fact, the connection between mass and body symbols has a long history. As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, Hegel found the close relationship between marginal people and self physical representation, but his explanation of this point was from a critical perspective. In Hegels view, self-consciousness can obtain social existence only by taking another living self-consciousness as the object: “self-consciousness can obtain its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness” (Hegel, 1996, p. 121). Male self is mainly presented as super perceptual rational consciousness. It needs to be obtained by negating the self of women, slaves, children and animals in a general sense, i.e., the instinctive, empirical and perceptual body: mans perspective of self cognition depends on” the exclusion of women, slaves, children, and animals” (Butler, 1993, p. 48). While, the self of women, slaves, children and animals presents perceptual consciousness. It needs to be obtained by acting on substances.

Hegel inherited western tradition from Plato to confirm himself by abandoning perceptual cognition and adhering to speculative rationality. He believes that the existence of women, slaves, children and animals represents the low material degradation, which is lower than the noble rationality of men. They can not enter the language system, constitute an integral part of culture, and should be denied. Comparing with men, women, slaves and children are the marginalized groups of society. Hegels identification of the representational relationship between self and body of marginal people can be regarded as the identification of the representational relationship between public self and body in a sense.

In the 20th century, understanding for self in western philosophy gradually got rid of the shackles of rationality, and the instinct, experience and sensibility despised by Hegel became a new way to define self. The publics recognition of self through body has also been generally recognized in philosophy, and constitutes a revolution in the field of self representation. The theoretical leader of this revolution is Michel Foucault. The masses are the active practitioners of this revolution in reality. When discussing the transformation of the operation mode of political power from ancient times to the present, Foucault found that the body directly destroyed by the operation of power in ancient times seemed to be a natural and fixed material form. In fact, it had divorced from the pure biological significance and carried rich cultural and political connotation. These cultural and political connotations are actually in-depth reflections on the complex relationship between self and others. Through the analysis of these cultural and political meanings, we can investigate the connotation and existence of self. The “political body” breaks away from the abstract reasoning barrier of reason, and opens up a new world of biological instinct, practical experience and psychological perception for self existence. At the same time, it also makes the body go beyond the existence of simple biological instinct, practical experience and psychological perception, and become the representation of self-identity in many complex social relations. In this sense, “if we want to understand what it means to be human, we need to understand how the body is constructed through symbols, codes, signs, signifying activity and discursive practices” (Blackman, 2008, p. 22), and the process in which the body is constructed through emblem, code, symbol, signifying activity and discourse practice is the process in which the body becomes a symbol.

However, body symbols still have problems in the process of self-expression. Body symbols liberate the body from the ignorance of having nothing, and endow the pure biological instinct, practical experience and psychological perception with social connotation and significance. However, its structural norms also inhibit the bodys thorough expression of self-identity to some extent. The structural norm of symbols is a variation of social discipline. Self identity is not inherent in the body, but under the pressure of social discipline to constantly standardize bodys writing, quotation and repetition. The bodys independent choice and initiative seem to be unable to play under this heavy pressure, but this does not mean that it does not want to play. Therefore, the behavior of the body is not always carried out in the way of social discipline, and sometimes produces anti-social significance that challenges the normal norms of society. In this regard, the strong natural nature of the body always makes it difficult to become a symbol in a strict sense, that is, “The body in the mirror does not represent a body that is, as it were, before the mirror” (Butler, 1993, p. 91)

The occasional conflict between natural body within the body symbol and the symbol rules is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the body symbol is not a pure symbol, and its naturalness will limit the thorough expression of self to a certain extent. The naturalness of the body will give the body symbols a strong sensory impact. This impact may be visual or auditory. It is easy to make the self be interpreted as pure natural, physiological and desire, and cover up the profound cultural and social significance of the self. In the 1990s, a group of Chinese female writers who advocated “body writing” emerged, such as Lin Bai, Chen Ran, Hai Nan and so on. The deep significance of their use of body symbols lies in cultivating the bud of womens self-consciousness and enlightening the modernity of culture in the transformation period of Chinese society from tradition to modernity. However, the audience pays more attention to the natural and physiological desires of women described in their writing, but can not understand the profound social and cultural significance behind them. Of course, this is related to the expanding materialization desire of ordinary people under the impact of the business tide at that time. However, the more important reason is that the natural characteristics of body symbols dominate the audience and rob ordinary readers attention to the deep social and cultural significance. To some extent, this limits these women writers thorough expression of womens self.

Second, the body symbol is not a pure body, and its symbolism will dispel the self represented to a certain extent. This is manifested as follows: first, the symbolization of the body sometimes leads to the facial makeup of the body. When the body is symbolized, it not only adjusts the structure to represent the symbolic meaning, but also deviates from the real sensory experience of the body subject to a certain extent, and becomes a “smoother, more perfect and more functional object” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 142). This object characterized by figurative rhetoric, fictional narration, visual meaning, auditory illusions is repeatedly displayed to symbolize health, happiness, beauty, pride and other meanings, so that each meaning accurately matches and corresponds to a relatively fixed body image, resulting in the facial makeup of the body. Stereotyped body is far from the real, natural and sensory body and its self-expression is greatly reduced.

Secondly, the symbolization of the body enhances the performance of the body, which leads to the instability of the self representation of the body symbols. The symbolization of the body requires the performance of the body. The publics self will be constantly generated and digested in the performance of the body, and can never obtain a completely determined connotation. Butler pointed out that repeated performances again and again make the body symbols produce and accumulate a series of meanings, but these meanings are unstable. Although the performance of the body will give the body some connotation to a certain extent, it will also eliminate this connotation due to the needs of reality. The symbolic meaning of the body and the self represented thereby“something like a fiction, perhaps a fantasy” (Butler, 1993, p. 5).

Thirdly, the symbolization of the body makes the body ethics very complex. Therefore, the body is difficult to obtain a full explanation and can not become a powerful basis for self confirmation. From ancient Greece to the enlightenment, although the body has been despised and considered to be subject to the rule and restriction of spirit, the ethical relationship between the body and others outside the body is clear. However, after entering the modern society, with the gradual tolerance of the theoretical evaluation of the body, the ethical relationship between the body and others outside the body has become blurred. Beauvoir pointed out that once the body is required to represent itself, there are two things called the body: the first is the imaginary body. The second is the real body imposed a lot of burden by physiological characteristics and social life. Neither the former nor the latter can fully represent themselves. The former is somewhat divorced from reality, while the latter makes the self masked by many burdens. It can be seen that once the body goes into the symbolic orbit, there are a variety of complex possibilities in the relationship between body and the others outside body. In these possibilities, it becomes very difficult to determine what the body is, and it will become more difficult to confirm the self.

Fourth, the symbolization of the body makes the significance of the body more prominent at the level of discipline. This is easy to cover the self to a certain extent, making the body a symbol of discipline rather than a symbol of self. The symbolization of the body means that the body needs to carry the social norms and cultural metaphors in the social context, and the body will legalize it through a ritual practice. “The body is inhabited through the material structure of social relations, through being practiced in a special way, through being trained, through accepting the meaning of social relations and through the embodiment of these meanings” (Parsons, 2009, p. 74). Therefore, the body must represent the significance of various levels and angles produced by people in the process of social practice, and these meanings inevitably cover the bodys indication to the body subject self to a certain extent. Of course, we cant absolutize this kind of shielding. When the various meanings of body representation compete for controling the function of body representation, the subject self of the body may also reveal symptoms.

In short, the conflict between natural body and the rules of body symbols causes the problems and difficulties of body symbols in representing themselves. In order to make the body properly represent self-identity, we should appropriately surpass the dialectics between natural body and body symbols, and the current consumer society provides us with this opportunity.

Star Brand: Dialectics Beyond Body and Symbol

The earliest meaning of consumption is “destroy, use up, waste and depletion”. In the pre- industrial society and industrial society, consumption is derogatory and needs to be controlled and dredged. However, in the late industrial society, with the continuous progress of productivity, product surplus has become a common phenomenon in social life. This makes consumption become the pillar of post-industrial social and economic development. As a result, peoples way of life has been completely changed. These changes are mainly reflected in: firstly, consumption constitutes the main content and even powerful source of human life. Consumer products are everywhere. People are surrounded by all kinds of consumer products all the time, and even their daily routine behavior permeates consumption: “New consumption types; artificial abandonment of goods; rapid changes in fashion and style; the comprehensive penetration of advertising, television and media into society in an unparalleled way so far; the old tension between cities and villages, central and local areas has been replaced by suburban and universal standardization; the huge super highway and the advent of driving culture - these characteristics seem to mark There is a fundamental break with the pre war society” (Jameson, 2000, p. 19) Secondly, the object of consumption has moved from things to symbols. In the consumer society, peoples first concern in shopping is no longer the expiration date, efficacy and performance of things, but its symbolic significance. Therefore, symbolic consumption has gradually become a symbol for all classes to divide their own levels, and as a principle to lead the direction of life. Behind it is the game of pursuing interests and coding social strata by rulers of capitalist society: “consumption is to domesticate them with some kind of coding and some unconscious discipline of competitive cooperation corresponding to this coding” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 90). Thirdly, the boundary between media information and real life is becoming increasingly blurred. The information displayed by the consumer society is the result of mass medias forced ordering of the internal information of the consumer society in a special way. The forcibly ordered information is packaged by advertising to continuously affect and stimulate the audience. Peoples consumption for the symbolic meaning of advertising for material products even replaces the consumption of material products itself, to some extent. While the material product gradually deviates from its original function and practicability, the boundary between media information and real life gradually becomes blurred: “The individual no longer reflects on himself, but immerses himself in gazing at an increasing number of objects / symbols, immersing himself in the social status signifier order, etc. there, he no longer reflects on himself, immerses himself in it and is cancelled” (Baudrillard, 2001,p. 226).

The life style of consumer society actually completely integrates daily life into symbolic rules, that is, pan-symbolic life style. “Consumption is a system that maintains symbolic order and organizational integrity: therefore, it is not only a kind of morality (an ideal value system), but also a communication system and an exchange structure” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 69). This pan-symbolic lifestyle, to the greatest extent,will make the real natural body turn into symbol. This means that the meaning of natural body representation tends to be mature and can no longer rely on the natural body, playing an independent social role. To some extent, all the discord between the natural body and body symbols is due to the lack of understanding the meaning of its representation without departing from the natural body. To the greatest extent, the natural body becomes a symbol, of course, not suggesting the disappearance of the bodys naturalness,but it is easy to make meaning rather than natural attribute becomes pointcut for understanding body. However, in any case, the body symbol can better realize its function as a symbol in the consumer society. In general, body symbols play five main roles in consumer society:

The first is the redeeming role of body symbols. Consumer society should create different ideologies from pre-industrial society and industrial society. This ideology needs to differ from praise of transcendental rationality in the pre-industrial society and the praise of instrumental rationality in the industrial society. Meanwhile, it also needs to maintain a relationship with the philosophical thought of postmodernism and highlight the core position of consumption in the society. Therefore, the consumer society naturally regards instinct, experience and perception as the core of ideology. The body can carry such an ideology. In the ideological confrontation between pre-industrial society and industrial society, the body has become the main way for humans liberating. Its complete appearance as a liberating symbol in advertising, fashion and mass culture fully shows that it has become a redeeming object, completely replacing soul which performs its psychological and ideological functions. “In the whole set of equipment consumed, there is an object that is more beautiful, more precious and more dazzling than everything else—it carries a heavier connotation than a car carrying all the connotation. This is the body” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 139).

The second is the capital role of body symbols. In order to obtain full psychological salvation, people will do their best to develop their body through examination, nursing, transformation and decoration, so as to make it a perfect symbol recognized by the consumer society. Being recognized by the consumer society means that it can become a commodity in a sense and realize the appreciation of economic value. Therefore, the development of the body not only makes people obtain psychological salvation, but also brings the body into the capital logic behind the consumer society and becomes “a kind of effective, competitive and economic investment”(Baudrillard, 2001, p. 143), that is, capital. In this way, the basis for the development of the body is not entirely the subjects pursuit of autonomy and freedom, but also, to a great extent, a standardized principle of entertainment and hedonism benefits, an instrumental constraint directly related to the social coding rules of consumption. Behind the myth of liberation that people very much want to achieve, there is undoubtedly a project that is more deeply alienated in terms of labor than the development of the body” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 143).

The third is the consumption role of body symbols. This is the most obvious role of body symbols in consumer society. Peoples examination, care, transformation and decoration of their bodies are not carried out independently, but need to rely on the development level and organizational mechanism of consumer social productivity. The technology of excavating and developing nature endows the body with a certain materialized nature, making it enter the benefit economic program (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 147), becoming a product that can be consumed, and meeting peoples psychology of seeking freedom and liberation. However, we can not deny the fact that body symbols can make the audience produce sensory pleasure and meet the audiences physiological desire at the same time. This also proves that the body symbol can not become a pure spiritual symbol, and its consumption significance is multidimensional. Although the meaning of body symbol representation can play an independent role independent of the natural body at the factual level, the public usually do not look at the freedom and liberation meaning of body symbol profoundly and rationally. They sometimes combine the psychology of seeking freedom and liberation with sensory pleasure and even the satisfaction of physiological desire. For example, the current popular “Nisu”, that is, the phenomenon of fans exaggerated romantic treatment of starsbodies, is a typical example.

The fourth is the media role of body symbols. Although the body symbol can not become a pure spiritual symbol, there is no doubt about its function for spreading meaning in the consumer society. At this point, the body can undoubtedly be regarded as a medium. McLuhan once interpreted the media as “the extension of the body”, but in the consumer society, it is also fully established to put forward that “the body is a medium”. The media significance of the body is mainly reflected in two aspects in consumer society: firstly, body in the consumer society is integrated with the media communication technology to make body become media actually in a sense. The media convergence triggered by new technology, especially digital technology, is not limited to the integration of media and media, as well as the integration of media and social life elements outside the media, but also the integration of technology and human body: “technology will be embedded in human body and become a part of the subject” (Su & Peng, 2019). This makes the new subject created by the integration of technology and human body become the ultimate medium. Secondly, although capital development and product consumption through body is an industrial cycle, it is also a communication cycle. Through the industrial operation form of capital development and product consumption, this cycle spreads the redeeming significance given to the body by the ideology of consumer society, and consolidates the “cultural leadership” of the rulers of consumer society at the audience level. “We should not be deceived by the material expression of the liberated body, it only expresses an outdated ideology about the soul that is incompatible with the development of the production system and can no longer ensure the unity of ideology, which is replaced by a more functional contemporary ideology, which mainly protects the individualistic value system and related social values Social structure” (Baudrillard, 2001, p. 149).

The fifth is the resistance role of body symbols. As we can see from the above, the redemption of body symbols, the functions of capital, consumption and media are deeply branded with the leading productive forces and production relations of consumer society. Many writers, artists, thinkers and other humanists in consumer society actually want to resist and get rid of the rule of productive forces and production relations in the consumer society. Therefore, they will deliberately show the naturalness of the body in extreme ways. This display is divided into two ways: one is to create extremely natural body images. Artaud, a popular French avant-garde playwright in the 1960s, tried to create a “cruel drama” rich in sensory impact and showing the reality of life, taking “violent physical images” (Artaud, 2013, p. 59) ,such as “a theatre of blood, of screams, of bodily extremity” (Byatt, 1997, p. 169) as an important form of drama expression. Similarly, some radical feminists, such as Monique Wittig, have tried the so-called “negative writing” that can release womens physical experience, sexual characteristics and desires. The second is to create extremely unnatural body images. The “Nisu”phenomenon for exaggerating body femininity of male artists and the body masculinity of female artists mentioned above is actually imposing a natural meaning on the body in an unnatural way. These two ways are actually forcing the body to undertake another redemption function and liberate the body from the multiple functions given to the body by the consumer society. On the surface, this is the de-symbolizing of the body. In fact, it is still performing the function of body symbols. But here, body symbols perform the function of resisting the mainstream values of consumer society and returning to peoples free liberation in the natural sense.

The disappearance of discord between the body and symbols and the effective realization of the function of body symbols not only indicate that the public began to obtain objective recognition and evaluation in the whole society, but also indicate that they won the opportunity to establish themselves at the realistic level. In consumer society, star brand is undoubtedly an important symbol of the consumer society, which can eliminate discord with the natural body to the greatest extent, focusing on the five functions of redemption, capital, consumption, media and resistance, and clearly representing the body symbol for the public itself. Although the cognition and identification of star brands belong to the basic strategy of commercial competition, its confirmation for the identity of public subject at the level of consumption practice is obvious. The publics subject confirmation through body symbols, the dissemination and diffusion of social mainstream ideology, the operation mechanism and law of social productivity have reached a consensus here, and collusion has been formed to a certain extent.

Body Symbol and Public Conceptual Identification for Constructing Star Brand

Brand identification and corporate image identification are isomorphic. CIS method is basically adopted in the design of corporate image recognition at home and abroad, that is, “systematically classify the business philosophy, code of conduct and visual recognition of enterprises, so as to highlight the overall image of enterprises among consumers” (Zhang & Bi, 2003). In fact, brand recognition is also organically composed of brand conceptual recognition, behavior recognition and visual recognition, in which brand concept recognition is the unique philosophy and core values of the brand. The visual recognition of star brand is the stars body presented by unique skin color, hair color, hair style, makeup, sound and clothing. Its behavior recognition is manifested in the stars unique posture, gesture and behavior. The conceptual recognition of star brand is the concept of visual recognition and behavior recognition representation of star brand. This idea is not an elite design beyond daily life, but a projection of the public selfs understanding and cognition.

When the star brand symbol represents the publics self, it still follows Roland Barthess principle for meaning system composition. Roland Barthes regards symbol as the connection between signifier and signified, which is a symbol system. In this symbolic system, the first level system is composed of signifier and signified, and constitutes the signifier of the second level system. The second level system takes the first level system as the signifier, which refers to the meaning of the whole second level symbol system. In this way, in the star brand symbol, its first signifier refers to a variety of body representations of the star, including body parts, expressions, gestures, skin color, hair color, hair style, makeup, voice, behavior, clothing, etc. Signified refers to the desire, practice and perception that can be associated through these body images, and the signified in its second signifier system is the self that can be established in many complex social relations deliberately demonstrated by the public. This self abandons the traditional rational self and is a perceptual self-consciousness related to biological instinct, practical experience and psychological perception. It is worth noting that this perceptual self-consciousness is embedded in reality and will intervene in reality to realize the publics self-expression.

However, the representation of star brand symbols for the public self is more complex and can not be generalized. In reality, it generally presents as the redemption, capital, consumption, media and resistance functions of body symbols in the consumer society, four situations. The first is that the star brand seems to construct the publics self-identity, but it actually dispels it. Some stars will actively associate their brands with consumers and seem to want to help consumers construct self identification. For example, stars give consumers their own clothes and signatures, and allow and encourage consumers to imitate their own expressions, gestures, skin color, hair color, makeup, voice, behavior, etc. Such situation is not uncommon in reality. On the surface, the public has strengthened their self-identity by endorsing star brands. In fact, the publics self-identity has become means of star marketing products. In this way, the star will easily turn the consumer into his living advertisement. This does not establish self-identity for consumers, but, on the contrary, dispel the real self-identity for consumers, making it a marketing tool with “pseudo-personality” and lack of real living personality. The most typical consumers of this kind are those who are crowned as loyal fans of a star. When he encounters this star brand, there is only one indentification left, that is, the stars fans.

The second situation is that star brand can only construct false self-identity for the public. Some stars will not actively associate their brands with consumers, but make their brand image constitute consumers unrealistic self. This unrealistic self is not the dispelled self that has become a pure marketing tool in the first case, but a self that the public hopes but can never become. Many consumers of star brands use the photos of stars as their wechat avatars and the names of stars as their wechat names. However, the real image, character and behavior style of these consumers may be far from the brand image, character and behavior style of stars.

The third situation is that the star brand can only construct the publics self-identity under specific conditions and within a specific scope. Without specific conditions and scope, its construction is meaningless. As mentioned earlier, the construction of public self-identity by star brands is concrete, not abstract. This specific construction is reflected in that they will prove that they belong to a group, strengthening their gender charm, indicating their social status, or providing themselves with a sense of value, security and extensibility through star brands. These constructions can help the public establish and strengthen self-consciousness and self-identity in a specific context. When mass individuals communicate with each other on specific social occasions, they will construct their own social symbols to indicate the group or stratum to which they belong. Establishing the relationship with a star brand is one of the important ways. For example, the youth group may be more associated with stars such as Zhao Liying, Lu Han and Yang Yang, while the middle-aged knowledge group may be more associated with artist stars such as Karajan and Yayoi Kusama. When mass individuals change from the old living environment to the new living environment, they will provide themselves with a sense of value and security by constructing self-expression symbols, so as to maintain their self cognition. They usually use their favorite star brands to construct this symbol of self-expression.For example, college freshmen who have just come to the school dormitory from home will post their favorite star posters near the bed to highlight their cultural characteristics and create their familiar atmosphere in an unfamiliar environment. When mass individuals express the ductility relationship between themselves and their surroundings, they will also use star brands associated with their surroundings. For example, dressing up as Chaplin to participate in Chaplin imitation show, or dressing up as Harry Potter to participate in the masquerade ball using theme of Harry Potter film. When people are dating opposite sex, some people will choose stars with similar image and personality to imitate, so as to strengthen their gender charm.

The fourth situation is that the public self-identity establishing by star brands will also be affected by public self-identity management. The public chooses some star brands out of the needs of reality, that is, it can help the real self establish its identity in a certain environment. However, sometimes, the public will deliberately choose some star brands that can represent their ideal and strategically make themselves more outstanding. This is a social skill to “manage” what others think of themselves. Star brands representation of ideal self is different from that of false self. False self is the self state that the public individual can not achieve in reality, while the ideal self is the self state that the public individual can achieve in reality. When the actual self-identity of public individuals has not been shaped in a certain environment, but they need to characterize their self-identity, they will achieve this by constructing ideal self symbols. They will use the star brand as a symbol of their ideal self many times. For example, girls who have talents and eager to become movie stars will post photos of their favorite female stars in their bedrooms.

Conclusion

The construction of public self-identity is usually easy to cause concern about individualism. Durkheim pointed out that individualism will crush the society as a whole, separate individuals from family, religion and society, and make people feel empty and lose their goals. It is more likely to cause this concern to construct the publics self-identity through star brand symbols. In fact, the construction of public self-identity and individualism can not be completely equal. As mentioned above, the publics understanding and construction of self-identity are more at level of social function. If we break away from the level of social function and only pursue abstract and unified self construction, it may lead to extreme individualism in psychology and behavior. However, if we implement the self construction into specific social practice and social life, we will find the rich value of this construction. It will help the public establish their self-identity in various social situations and realize their practical value. At the same time, it will also make specific interpretation and practice of the perceptual self opposite to the rational self. This is what Durkheim calls “social individualism or moral individualism” (Pan, 2009). Specific to the consumer society, although the star brand symbol represents the public self in a variety of situations, the star brand symbol will undoubtedly realize the functions of redemption, capital, consumption,media, resistance and so on. To some extent, these functions also reveal the value of public self-identity construction in the context of consumer society. On the contrary, these values are more in the sense of the public as a member of the consumer society than in the pure individual sense. It can be seen that the masses in the consumer society can deeply embed themselves into the operating mechanism of politics, economy and culture of the consumer society through the star brand symbols. In fact, they are no longer the public in the sense of“hooligans” in the era of Frankfurt school, but the responsible public with the potential to advance and retreat with the whole society. Therefore, there is no need to worry too much that the construction of mass self-identity will cause cultural populism or similar problems. However, it is worth noting that with the development of digital technology, there are many new situations in the construction of public self by star brand symbols, such as combining different stars into one person through digital technology, or combining their photos with their favorite stars, or transforming their favorite male and female stars to show the opposite gender temperament like“Nisu” behavior. What kind of public self are these star brand symbols transformed by digital technology? How will star brand symbols represent the self of the public under the impact of digital technology? Will changing representations stimulate new historical changes in the public self? At present, these questions can also be answered by reflecting on the relationship between politics, economy, science, technology and culture in consumer society. However, with the deeper and deeper involvement of digital technology in social life, when the digital society really comes, the answers to such questions may need a new reflection combined with the new trend.

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