The Leap Of The Chinese Image In American Culture

After studying the imagologist Daniel - Henry ? Bajocian– a French scholar of "the image of the other", the following definitions can be made:"All images are derived from the self with the other, the native and exotic relationships among self-consciousness, even if this awareness is very weak. Therefore, the image is a literature or non-literature description of difference of the reality between two types of culture and specified relationship."Chinese culture and American culture are two completely different cultural types, between the two countries there is a very strong relationship between native and exotic consciousness. And many Western countries, in the historical and cultural factors, the image of Chinese culture in the United States has experienced a long and complicated process. China, a country with long history and civilization, its image in the West had experienced the ups and downs over a millennium. As a mirror to the western civilization, this image sometimes glittered, sometimes gloomed. Westerners always use their own imagination to create Chinese image, and do self-image recognition. For a long time, Chinese American culture for a very different image of the performance of the two extremes: extremely intelligent, diligent lasting, comply with filial piety, love peace and tolerance to exercise restraint, etc.; on the other side, it shows indifference and numbing to brutality, pain, death and human disasters. Since 1990s, with the closer relationships among the world economic and trade and rapid development of transportation and communication technology, the world has gained more opportunities to know each other. In this process, the Chinese image of the United States has undergone major changes. Disney and DreamWorks America, the two companies produced two animated films "Mulan" and "Kung Fu Panda" in 1998 and 2008 respectively, which reflect the changes of image of Chinese culture in United States over the past two decades.Based on the theory of imagology from the view of comparative culture, this paper does a research on the Chinese image in American culture through study two images from "Mulan" and "Kung Fu Panda" Through studying the structures, the scenarios and the application of Chinese elements in the both films, the paper tries to explore how the American filmmakers understand the Chinese culture, in order to know the changes of image in the American minds in a new time background.In the film "Mulan", we have seen a large number of "Made in China": From the idyllic cottages to ancient temple, from eating and living habits to daily dressing up, from patterns of the story to the customs and etiquettes, all have shown a typical oriental characteristics and Chinese impressions. The story is the same; the characters are still well-known figures, while the film presents a totally different picture: Mulan is no longer a traditional Oriental woman, but a woman with westerner's characteristics-- enthusiastic, passionate and open-minded. She has been totally changed by appearances, speech, behavior and internal emotion. Even though the film employs a number of traditional Chinese concepts, ideas, but as a whole, this work of Disney is bottled Wine of American in Chinese way. But Disney agrees to use Chinese cultural elements making films, to some extent, reflects that the domain American culture has changed attitude to Chinese culture. Further more, a wide range of audiences has then brought a good image of China to the U.S. and the Western world. Hence, "Mulan" plays an important role in the history of the Chinese image in the United States. The producer of "Kung Fu Panda" does not present Chinese culture superficially, but do a deep explore on this country with ancient oriental civilization in attitudes of honesty, modesty and much care. It illustrates the deep understanding of the life, death and oriental philosophy from the view of screenwriters and shows respect of Chinese culture. It is a leap in American culture. "Mulan" and "Kung Fu Panda" are the requirements and products of communication between Chinese culture and western culture, are a positive trend of cultural integration. Both Chinese and American audiences should respect and accept the other's culture, eliminate the culture conflicts, thus to create a world with multi-culture and integrated culture.