Ritual Reinvention:Reconstructing And Strengthening National Identity In Melodramatic Films In Bilibili

With the promotion of film genre and commercialization,the narrative perspective and presentation of melodramatic films in China have been transformed in recent years,and the long-formed stereotypes and resistance mentality of audiences have subsequently weakened,breaking the disadvantage of unilinearization of the communication matrix in terms of communication channels and expanding from the theatrical platform to the online video streaming platform.Since 2018,more than fifty melodramatic films and TV works have been launched on the Bilibili platform,which have caused a unique patriotic craze in this gathering place for young people with the qualities of natural carrying form,convenient interaction and low viewing cost,making it a new field for young people in the new era to express their patriotic feelings from the ground up.Whether the special environment of Bilibili has created a good atmosphere for the dissemination of melodramatic films and expanded the original dissemination effect,so as to form a "virtual cultural ritual" based on common cultural cognition,thus contributing to what Benedict Anderson called "imagined communities" and "cultural artifacts " in the minds of viewers.This is the key issue to be discussed in this study.Therefore,this paper borrows James Carey’s theory of "ritual view of communication" to investigate the reconstructing and strengthening effect of national identity in the viewers’ movie watching in the environment of Bilibili.The research idea is divided into two parts: 1.The first part use quantitative research to examine whether the audiences’ attitudes and evaluations have different tendencies in different media environments,try to searches for the general laws.2.In the second part,consider the real and specific emotions of audiences’ in the Bilibili viewing environment,discuss the relationship between the viewing characteristics of the Bilibili platform and audiences’ identification with melodramatic movies and national identity,clarify the process of generating patriotic emotions and value identity emotions in viewing,and present the mechanism of interaction between the two.The basic structural framework: Chapter 1: The introductory section includes the background of the study,significance of the study,historical literature review,research questions,research theory elaboration and research design;Chapter 2: The questionnaire data are used to analyze whether audiences have differentiated evaluations and attitudes toward melodramatic movies under different platforms.The study concludes that differentiated audience evaluations and attitudes do exist,and the preliminary conclusions are: 1.There is a correlation between audience’s emotional preference for melodramatic movies and whether they have ever watched melodramatic movies on B station.2.Positive audience sentiment and evaluation of melodramatic movies are positively correlated with the number/frequency of viewing on B station.3.Barrage and advertisement in Bilibili are two factors that influence audience’s evaluation of melodramatic movies and the generation of patriotic sentiment.Chapters 3to 6 focus on the process of viewers’ national identity construction from four important features: pop-up mechanism,platform order,derivative programs,and audience characteristics.Chapter 3: Barrage mechanism.Through the formation of a "common sense of viewing time" and a "sense of community," barrage construct a new national virtual ritual space and evoke the patriotic identity of viewers through the revelry of patriotic emotions under the ritual.The online movie-viewing order and the Bilibili unique quiz entry order,which can be joined or withdrawn at will,contradict the traditional universal and compulsory patriotic ritual,resulting in the destruction of the structural order of the traditional ritual.The behind-the-scenes documentary film of melodramatic movies is a unique section of Bilibili,and the disclosure of the behind-the-scenes story of the film enables the audience to enter the backstage of the ritual,strengthening and enriching the national spirituality inspired by the symbolic images in the film;Chapter 6: Audience Characteristics: The audience of Bilibili is young,highly educated and sticky,becoming the "audience with a sense of responsibility"."The audience of Bilibili has transformed from the " disciplined " to the" feeders ",they participate in the reproduction of patriotic discourse in melodramatic movies in the form of " quality movie reviews ",“ barrage science" and "secondary creation",forming a bottom-up production of national identity.