A Study On The Image Narrative Of "Foreigners" In Urban Documentaries Under The Threshold Of External Communication

In the VUCA era,which is characterized by mobility,uncertainty,complexity and ambiguity,occupying the high ground of international discourse has become a clear goal for foreign communication.Urban documentaries are an important vehicle for China to enhance its cultural soft power and carry the mission of shaping the national image and telling the Chinese story.In recent years,the intervention of many "foreigners" in urban documentaries has empowered the cross-cultural communication of Chinese urban stories,advanced urban stories into Chinese stories,and brought international vision and multi-dimensional expression to urban documentaries.The narrative function of the "foreigner" image contributes to the multi-voice expression in the urban video,allowing the urban documentary to stop being confined to Chinese perception and self-appreciation,and to construct an objective,comprehensive and diversified image of the city under the care of the "other".This study focuses on the narrative motives,narrative characteristics,narrative strategies,narrative values and limitations of the participation of "foreigners" in urban documentaries,in order to provide theoretical support and practical reference for the creation of urban documentary images under the perspective of foreign communication.Urban documentaries have gone through three stages,from grand narrative(before 1990),civilian perspective(1990-2009)to personalized exploration(2010-present),forming three basic types of documentaries: historical change,geographical landscape and social reality.Focusing on the present,the narrative motivation of "foreigners" in urban documentaries is worthy of attention,and the context is used as the starting point to subdivide the emotional and cultural contexts,and the phenomena,causes and reflections arising from the process of "going abroad" of urban documentaries are examined based on the context.The purpose of this study is to find the motivation,logic and role of the "foreigner" image narrative in urban documentaries.First of all,the research on the characteristics of "foreigners" image narratives is presented in five aspects: image characteristics,spatial characteristics,discourse characteristics,thematic characteristics and value characteristics.This paper focuses on the group of "foreigners",which can be broadly divided into the image of "visitor","expatriate" and "Chinese",The three categories of "foreigners" in urban documentaries can be divided into "visitors","Chinese","permanent residents" and "participants".The spatial characteristics of embodiment,the discourse characteristics of "global localization," the thematic characteristics of "city-China" stories,and the value characteristics of "humanism" combine to form the urban documentary.The spatial characteristics of embodiment,the discourse characteristics of "global localization",the thematic characteristics of "city-China" stories and the values characteristics of "humanism" combine to form the distinctive representation of "foreigners" in urban documentaries.Secondly,the "foreigner" narrative strategy needs to create a multi-dimensional urban performance through dual perspectives,focus and expressions,and to empower the international expression of urban documentaries with the artistic techniques of "unconventional",stylized and poetic audiovisual language.The study will be able to empower the international expression of urban documentaries with the support of "unconventional",stylized and poetic audiovisual language.Finally,this study summarizes the values and limitations of the narrative of "foreigners" in the context of foreign communication.The value of "foreigner" image participation narrative is reflected in the "audience-oriented" consciousness orientation,crossing the cultural barrier,digging into the "selective" mentality of the audience,shaping the city image into a model that overseas audiences recognize,giving room for the development of "foreigner" image narrative,and developing the "foreigner" image narrative in urban documentaries and "foreigner" image narratives.The combination of urban documentary and "foreigner" image narrative seeks a narrative effect of 1+1>2.However,at the same time,some "foreigners" in urban documentaries have the problem of passive catering posture and fragmented single discourse,which makes their image narrative role greatly reduced,and the cognitive dissonance and discourse limitation are not conducive to the deepening of the theme of urban documentaries.The road to the international dissemination of "foreigner" image narratives in urban documentaries is still long and difficult.A systematic study on the participation of "foreigners" in urban documentary narratives aims to inject the "other" into Chinese urban images based on the international communication perspective,and to provide an international narrative paradigm for shaping urban images and telling Chinese urban stories.