A Study Of Comparison In Chinese And American Basketball Film From The Perspective Of Semiotics

Basketball films bring basketball into the art, and because we love this sport,basketball films get more charm. In my research, my question is what is thesimilarities and differences between Chinese and American basketball films in theview of the symbolic significance in semiotics. The goal of this thesis is focused onbasketball as the sign and find what mainly create the differences of two countries, inorder to study for the related culture enlightenment to Chinese basketball films.Literature review, content analysis and comparative analysis are acquired in myresearch. There is only one study done specifically on Chinese and Americanbasketball films which has little penetration. Most studies from domestic scholarshave been done about aspects of culture differences between Chinese and Americansport films. However, large amount of analogous studies have slowed down thedevelopment of sport films research. Therefore, I try to provide cultural enlightenmentfor Chinese sport films, and offer scholars who are studying in Chinese sport films asemiology view.I collect American films through wikipedia basketball list and select the top10inboxoffice according to boxofficemojo website. Then, I collect10Chinese basketballfilms through website and literature before March1st,2013as well. Based on thesymbolic significance on basketball as the sign in20films and generalize thesimilarities and differences between Chinese and American basketball films aftercontent analysis. My results are as follows: In Chinese basketball films, basketballsymbolizes teamwork, a wasting-time entertainment, and group glory. While inAmerican basketball films, basketball symbolizes teamwork, a dream-come-truemethod, and a color men talented sport. Also, the similarity between Chinese andAmerican basketball films is teamwork, although tiny differences still exist. Chineseemphasize basic training and tactical, and prefer the way coach as the leader of theteam, and talented players as the centre, with other players offering assistance.Differently, American basketball films emphasize the combination of mental andphysical, and the harmony of the team. Moreover, the biggest difference comes outbasketball in Chinese films symbolize a wasting-time entertainment while inAmerican films symbolize a dream-come-true method. Another difference is thatbasketball in Chinese films symbolize group glory while in American films symbolizea battlefield between color men and white men.