Ten years is a short moment in history. As Gao Xuan, a French Chinese philosopher who went abroad in the early 1980s, said, there are many similarities between the cultural craze in China in the 1980s and the Renaissance after the German-French War. They also experienced a painful historical contusion, and then faced with the influx of British and American cultures, young people from all over the world showed exciting spiritual motivation, not only accepting cultural works with great enthusiasm, but also creating them with great enthusiasm.

"Was the 1980s the Renaissance in China?" The people interviewed by this newspaper gave their own answers to this question. Some enthusiastic singers, such as the six-year-old who played the Monkey King in The Journey to the West, thought, "The 1980s was the Renaissance. If you don't get quick success now, you can surpass the Renaissance at that time. " Rui Huang, a prudent critic and artist, said, "This statement is too pitiful. In fact, the literary achievements in the 1980s were not very high, but there were some shouts.

There are also neutral views such as Lin Zhaohua, which can represent the views of some people: "The real Renaissance should be the emergence of some people in various fields, so the 1980 s can be said to be the Renaissance that began with the development of the times."

Braudel, a famous French historian, put forward that the research on the development and significance of history should be based on three different periods, and the corresponding historical research should focus on "structure", "situation" and "event".

Obviously, the retrospective discussion on the ideological and cultural level is closely related to people's cognition and evaluation of the current ideological and cultural and social reality, while the objective cognition and accurate evaluation of China's history in the 1980s is not the task that can be solved by the current discussion.

Some people criticized the tendency of "beautification" when looking back on the 1980s. I think strictly speaking, the so-called "beautification" beyond historical research is probably just an expression of value ideals and ideological positions closely related to the present, and it is difficult to criticize it from a historical perspective.

For example, regarding the general mental state of intellectuals, cultural circles and university campuses in the 1980s, we really clearly felt the break of the times. The criticism that "today is not as good as before" has nothing to do with beautifying historical research, but a realistic criticism. For another example, regarding how to evaluate the achievements of academic construction in the 1980s, I think it is not just a matter of "beautification" that needs vigilance. However, the solid achievements made in many fields were covered up by the shortcomings of some fields that were relatively empty and shallow at that time. The view that the 1980s was romantic and academic emptiness can only be proved by a comprehensive study of contemporary academic history, otherwise it is academic empty talk.

It should be admitted that there may be some nostalgia in the current reflection and discussion on the 1980s, but it is undeniable that these discussions and even academic research are fundamentally critical and constructive work for the current reality. As a "July 7th" college student, I can understand what is "the glory and dream of this generation". I don't think it is a narcissistic aura or a Q-style self-comfort, but a persistent and critical spirit and temperament. When later generations look back on the 1980s, I believe they will still be proud of the spiritual pursuit of this generation.

The most symbolic event in this generation's memory is the purchase of books in the spring of 1978, the reissue of several foreign literary masterpieces, such as Hugo, Dickens and Tolstoy, and people queuing outside the bookstore all night. In the extreme spiritual hunger and thirst, even the long night's waiting has become a kind of happiness, and the conversation, anxiety and expectation while waiting in line have become unforgettable spiritual experiences.

From queuing for books as an important event in the spiritual course of a generation, we can see that the emergence of the 1980s has obvious characteristics of knowledge enlightenment. In the early 1980s, Mr. Qian Mu commented on the academic and cultural situation in mainland China: as long as there are books and scholars are not dead, the roots of cultural inheritance will not be broken. This statement hits the nail on the head. At the end of 1970s, the publishing and media circles in China began to republish and publish the academic works and thoughts of the older generation of scholars. In the words of Mr. Shen, the former editor-in-chief of Reading, the "dialogue" between man and knowledge is interlinked here. An important task in studying the academic development in 1980s is to first study how the tradition of intellectuals was revived and how the collective memory of knowledge inheritance in 1980s stimulated scholars' academic ambitions.