The question asked by the scientific committee of the Sofia 12^th IASS Congress:

What is the main challenge for the contemporary semiotics?

Answers by Youzheng Li, 2014-9-2

1.    Commercialized utilitarian academic systems turn “success” rather than “truth” to be the genuine final aim of scholar’s practice.

2.      Nihilist ontological rhetoric is used to weaken the interdisciplinary human-scientific tendency of semiotics.

3.      In global academic context western scholarship is far from being familiar with non-western traditional thinking and contemporary non-western scholarship about their own traditional studies is far from being familiar with contemporary western human-scientific theories.

4.      Commercialized cultural and academic circumstances lead to a general vulgarization of content, direction, practicing style of semiotic activities with a result that the term “semiotics” could be frequently misused as a “pop-cultural brand” to search for increasing any kind of propaganda, advertising effect and factional influence through manipulating internet media in academic-educational marketing.

Dear Professor Youzheng Li,

Within the framework of our preparation for the final talk at the World Congress of Semiotics, may we kindly ask you to answer briefly the following question:

What is the main challenge for the contemporary semiotics?

Looking forward to your response and thanking you in advance,

Kalevi Kull

Ekaterina Velmezova