As the 21st century enters its third decade, we have witnessed the rapid progress of the technological revolution. Cutting-edge technologies not only turn dreams into reality but also bring reality into the virtual realm. The boundary between the real and the virtual is gradually blurring, and the ancient fable of “the interaction between the real and the virtual” is rejuvenated. Faced with the entanglement and interaction between reality and the virtual in the technological era, “facts” serve as a link connecting the two worlds. Based on the above reflections, the editorial department of Exploration and Free Views, in collaboration with the School of Literature of Heilongjiang University and other institutions, jointly hosted the academic seminar titled “Facts: From Realism to Virtual Reality”.   

Professor Jiang Shuzhuo pointed out that a large number of narrative forms blending virtual reality with the real have emerged in contemporary literary and artistic creation. In response to this new trend, literary theory research and literary criticism must respond and undergo appropriate transformations. Professor Jiang Chengyong noted that realism and modernism are not entirely opposed; rather, a spirit of “seeking truth” runs through both, with “the real” and “the virtual” constituting their dual aspects. Taking virtual reality games as an example, professor Zhou Zhiqiang argued that the key to virtual reality lies not in its realistic scenes and images, but in its maintenance mechanism of “reality as it is”, that is, it is a “simulation” that “imitates” reality, with its “reality” pointing towards a kind of “awareness of emptiness”. Professor Zhang Yanmei believed that under the transformation of digital technology, multimodal information interacts, redefining facts and truth by shaping human cognition and experience of reality. From the perspective of media literary and artistic history, professor Zeng Jun pointed out that the virtual is not an imitation of reality but has begun to realize itself, becoming a “second reality”. The relationship between the virtual and the real further manifests as multiple and complex, which can be specifically distilled into six stages. From a post-truth perspective, professor Lan Jiang argued that human cognition has always been shrouded by mediating forces. Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge the inevitability of mediation and maintain the courage of the subject to question truth in different semantic fields. Professor Han Wei believed that in the context of digital intelligence, the literary scene is undergoing multi-dimensional transformations from language and image to emotion and imagination. Facing virtual literature or a broader virtual scene, the virtual transformation of literary studies is also poised to take off.