成功學是專門研究成功過程的學問，主要是通過自我管理來達到成功，自20世紀初開始風靡歐美，被引介到亞洲之後，在70、80年代也成為書市上長紅的商品。成功學的主要對象是商品行銷、企業管理等領域的從業人員，但若觀察成功學成為社會風潮的年代，則可以發現幾乎同步於經濟起飛的時間點，「個人成功學」與「國家成功學」的相似性不僅在於對「成功」的單一解釋，同時也應用了共通的修辭，在這樣的敘事中，程序性定義的「民主」取代了民主化運動中的其他實質追求，藉由質問敘事如何建造個體及集體價值觀，也試圖回應亞洲的民主何以未竟。

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在《魚尾獅是何時絕種的？——21世紀成功敘事學》的表演中，藝術家模仿了成功學講師的授課方式，將21世紀所需的成功學定位為「國家成功敘事學」，分為簡單的故事、激情的故事、有病的故事及民主的故事四個環環相扣的敘事法則，並以亞洲四小龍的案例來說明，而在講述中，所列舉的立論基礎並非來自文學，而是來自「理性、客觀」的神話學、經濟學、心理學及政治學。表演紀錄在剪輯之後，以另外創建的假帳號上傳至YouTube，並購買廣告，使其介入網路空間，成為乍看之下無異於其他成功學的演講紀錄，因此，講述表演的影像並非紀錄，就流通的層面來看更像是事件。

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導演：張紋瑄

編劇：張紋瑄

戲劇構作：賀湘儀

燈光統籌：鄒雅荃

燈光技術執行：王庭悅、陳立婷

燈光設備提供：黑米創意工作室

影片攝影及剪輯：萬事屋影像制作

攝影：蝙蝠星球攝影團隊 陳浡濬

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Successology is the study that specifically focuses on success and its attainment through accessible vital skills and processes such as self-management. It has been widely popular in America and Europe since the early 20th century. After being introduced to Asia, books about successology have also become sought-after products in the book market in the 1970s and 1980s. Although the main target audience of successology is those who works in marketing or business management, we can see that—coinciding with the sudden growth of its popularity and the economic boom—“personal successology” and “national successology” share similarities not only in the rigid definition of “success” but also in their rhetorics. Under the influence of such rhetorics, procedural “democracy” outweighs other substantive endeavors and pursuits during democratization. By questioning how personal and collective values are constructed, the work attempts to answer the salient question of why democracy in Asia hasn’t completely come to fruition yet.

 

During the performance, the artist delivers a lecture in a way reminiscent of a successology lecturer, and defines the successology needed in the 21st century as the “National Narrative to Succeed.” Four interlinked principles to narrate success are stressed: simple stories, affective stories, infectious stories, and democratic stories, with Four Asian Tigers as examples. Instead of drawing upon literature for the foundation of arguments, the lecture is based on “rational and objective” studies like mythological studies, economics, psychology, and political science. The video documentation of the performance is later edited and uploaded to YouTube with a fake account created for the project. Moreover, the artist buys ads to allow the work to interfere with the realm of the internet like any other video recording of a lecture on successology. In such a sense, the video documentation is more like an incident than a mere documentation in terms of its circulation in the media.

 

Director: CHANG Wen-Hsuan

Playwright: CHANG Wen-Hsuan

Dramaturgy: HO Hsiang-Yi

Lighting Coordinator: CHOU Ya-Chuan

Lighting Technician: Tina WANG, CHEN Li-Ting

Lighting Equipment Supplied by Blackrice Studio

Video Recording and Post-production: Onez Production

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