The Construction Of China's Image In American Documentaries Since The New Century

Along with China's reform and opening process,the great achievements made by China astound western countries. China's international status has also greatly improved. On the eve of the Beijing Olympics,the Chinese government gives a series of right to interview. In the meantime,Chinese documentaries develop quickly. The USA,as a super media country,is regarded as a globally unique representation. The United States produced a number of mainstream televisions which are Chinese-themed documentaries and aim at advertising authenticity and objectivity. These documentaries record and reflect the all-round development of the modern China. The Chinese characters shaped by them are thought-provoking. "China's image" shows us a more treacherous and complex forms. Although the documentary reflects the partial reality of Chinese society to some extent,it also has some grossly exaggerated colors. American documentary has created a "otherness" of the alleged "China's image" through the model of the narrative means and lens language. There is a huge gap between the China known by the whole world and the real China. Faced with the different national ideology and the differences between social and cultural context, Chinese image has become a set of metaphor symbol system containing discourse mechanism. While acknowledging the existence of some prejudice against China's image in American documentary,we must also realize that the description of the China's image made by the foreign media can demonstrate the recognition by the international community for China's image. At the same time,it also plays the role of social scale and could become one of the reference object to optimize the Chinese government's foreign policy. Depth analysis of the construction of Chinese image in American documentary not only helps us examine the problems existing in the self-construction of China's image with more correct vision and right attitude but also provides us with some useful suggestions and strategies for shaping the national image from the perspective of public diplomacy and the mass media.