“The emotional community” and the direction of mass movements—The coexistence of oppositional developments in the social trend of 1920s Hunan

Abstract

In the 1920s, the development of social movements in Hunan showed that for every social trend, there was an “emotional community” with the ability of “cognitive response” as its ideological precursor. But this “emotional community” could hardly be expanded into a great popular movement. When powerful figures use the “emotional expression” of an “emotional community” to “control” the “emotions” of the general public, thus transforming the “emotions” of the people into exuberant extremes, the “emotional community” is unable to influence the direction of the movement. At the same time, powerful figures can use the “emotional community” of “emotional expression” to mobilize the general public at a certain time, forming a social tide. But since the powerful are ultimately unable to translate the “emotions” of the “community” into the emotions of millions of people, any manipulated social movement is unlikely to last. This is indeed the major social trend marked by the coexistence of two oppositional developments in 1920s Hunan.