Research On The Image Of China In Hollywood Films In The Twenty-first Century

From the legend of highly civilized world to the image of barbarian world, it has been a long history that the idea of China, which is originally conjured by the West, is always a ramification of the western thought. Towards this trend, film is conveniently brought into vision taken as a national ideology machine.As we all know, film is born valued as a metaphorical cultural propaganda. Since the early era of the silent film, Hollywood has solemnly taken on the image of the China. However, the US government has realized the significance of exploiting film politically at 1920 s, then the Hollywood films acted as governmental propaganda and the image representative of US. From that time, a new campaign in China had been set for the Hollywood films. Thus the image of China was demonically described from the sinister, servile characters to a poor to a backward nation, as well as the image of feudalism and autocracy before 21 st century. After entering the 21 st century, under the condition of globalization, Hollywood films rapidly change the image of China before 21 st century, via starting to integrate masses of Chinese elements, from Chinese film stars to directors, etc., to Chinese environment, then to Chinese culture. Not only valiant, kind characters, but also prosperous, advanced environments, or the image of a rich civilization, now the true image of China is being recovered by Hollywood in a normal, positive and progressive attitude.Via deep analysis of the differences, the shaping of the image of China, shallow and superficial before 21 st century while profound and thorough after 21 st century, it can be figure out that the alternation of shaping is determined by both differences of ideologies as well as the mindset of the self and the other. Therefore, when watching Hollywood films with Chinese elements, we would learn to pull out the film and further recognize the scene of China in the film, which is a true appearance of China or just a reflecting of US.Therefore, this thesis will sort and compare the characteristics of image of China before the 21 st century and after 21 st century, then make the facts and reasons that the alternation of image of China in Hollywood films plain. This attempt not only can throw light upon the strategy and aims of current US culture, but also can help us to know the world situation clearly, then reflect on the competitiveness of Chinese culture, and seek out an appropriate developing path for our cultural industry.