The Study Of Images Of China And America Constructed By The American Missionaries In The State Of Mass Media In The19th Century

Since the first American missionary Elijah Coleman Bridgman arrived in China in1830, American missionaries had carried out missionary activities for more than a century in China. Some missionaries came to realize that they must change the attitude of Chinese toward Christianity and gradually create favorable social and cultural environment to spread Christianity in order to achieve the evangelization of China. They were engaged in the activities of press and publishing, which helped to spread Christianity in China. Therefore a group of American Missionaries in the state of mass media was formed. So the images of China and America in the medium discourse sphere were gradually constructed by the missionaries in the mass communication. Based on the study of history and the perspectives of Communication, Semiology, and Imagology, the dissertation analyzes the communication context, communicator, content, audience reaction etc in a whole mass communication field, and conducts a comparative study of Chinese images and American images in the media discourse sphere made by American missionaries and its effects on the spread of Christianity in China.In addition to the preface and conclusion, the dissertation consists of six chapters.Chapter I analyzes the communication context, including the religious, social and cultural background of American missionaries as communicators, as well as the religious policy, social and cultural background, religious competition etc in China. Since American missionaries communicate the Christianity from America to China from1830, the clash between Chinese and Christian culture is unavoidable. It also enhances the culture communication between them. The social background of communicators determines the motivation and activities of the missionaries, and the context of receptors determines the channel, message and effects of communication, which consist of the context of communication. Chapter Ⅱ probes the group of American missionaries in the state of media, including the group of American missionaries and the scale of missionary activities, the motivations of using mass media, the group identity of the American missionaries in the state of mass media, the preconditions for the images construction by them, and the self-portraits of them. Combining with the above factors, the thought of missionaries, the images constructed by them and the symbolic significance of the images could be well showed.Chapter Ⅲ analyzes the following aspects of mass media, including the structure, content and scale of the media and the media discourse space formed by the missionaries in the mass communication. It is significant that American missionaries spread the Christianity with the tools of mass media, which makes the small group communication in the church be changed into the mass communication through the mass media, and makes the Christianity as a heterogeneous symbol system into the free market place of ideas in Chinese society. Therefore the content and result of communication are changed.Chapter Ⅴ and Chaper VI mainly study the content of mass communication, including the Chinese images and American images in the media discourse sphere constructed by the American missionaries, as well as the symbolic meaning of the images. American missionaries construct the negative Chinese images and affirmative American images as Christian model society through the aspects of mental image, religious image, moral image, social image, educational image, image of women, and political image. The dual images construction actually means that Chinese traditional symbol system cored on Confucianism could be collapsed by Christianity symbol system wrapped by the advantageous American images. Therefore, Chinese images and American images in the media discourse sphere formed by missionaries carry a set of images and semiotic order, which embodies the spiritual conquest of the Chinese society and the ambition of evangelizing China by Christianity.Chapter Ⅶ examines the Chinese reaction to the images and the Christian symbol system constructed by the American missionaries. Most of Chinese resist on the missionary with the form of rumor. However, there is a group of some intellectuals selectively accepting Christian symbol system with rational attitude, who accept the images of the culture, education, science and technology but abandon Christianity as the core sign according to their own values and needs.The conclusion sums up the factors that work on the mass communication by the American missionaries combining the research model of Chinese images and American images constructed and disseminated by the American missionaries in the19th century. Accordingly, it draws that missionaries could not reach their communication result. Parts of Christian symbol system are accepted by some intellectuals, but Christianity as the core sign appears outside the Chinese traditional culture symbol system as alien sign. However, the impacts of Christianity on the Chinese society maybe appear in the long historical process. We can benefit from the research on the factors work on the culture impacts and the audience activities when two kinds of alien symbol systems meet in specific communication context.