A Spatial Narrative Study On The Chinese Documentary Series A String Of Life

The Authrule Digital Media and Bilibili jointly launched a feature documentary A String of Life based on barbecue food in 2018.It consists of six episodes,each of which is around 30 minutes long,introducing regional barbecue food all over the country.The eye-catching food has triggered a discussion booming among viewers.Thus far,the documentary has a click-through rate of nearly 50 million on the Bilibili website,making it one of the most popular documentary series on the record.The documentary A String of Life exhibits distinctive food culture in different regions,and went deep into local streets of cities to present unique urban cultures.This article utilizes spatial narratology to explore the image construction and regional relationship to analyze the narrative process.It focuses on the analysis of the regional and subjective consciousness in the documentary,that is,the urban culture,via the three aspects: the composition of image text,function of spaces in narrative and expression of spaces.The barbecue-themed documentary builds the food culture on the local markets and urban streets,providing information for the analysis of regional and urban cultures.In this regard,the paper will further subdivide from the three main parts above to more specifics.The composition of the image text will be analyzed through the geospatial,social and narrative space to delve into the relationship between urban cultures and bottom groups,which be further used to interrogate the relation between modern consumerism and spatial production in cities.Then,it will explore how spaces function in narrative from the three aspects of character images,regional signifers and vital clues to interpret identity expression in the documentary.At the last part,this article will exploit the ecological purposes,regional symbols and humanistic implications to stress the subject matter.As the trending on food documentaries are gradually shifted from five-star restaurants to the street food within the country,the documentaries are more likely toemploy food cultures as a tool to perform different regional characteristics and civic consciousness.In general,street food reveals the regionality and a distinct class atmosphere,which is transmitted during the activities of consumers and spatial production.The food-related custom has also created a unique urban culture in China—— the barbecue culture,having a closed relation to the characters' activities,and they impulse an important function in the narrative.The barbecue food assists to build divisional regional cultures in urban areas,also the city cultures distinguishing from others,which completes its own thematic features.Therefore,this article applies the documentary series A String of Life as the studied case to discuss the regional and subjective consciousness in spatial areas,supplementing the gaps in the research.