The Region Of Southern Diet Documentary Research On Image Construction And Communication Strategy

Guangdong is at the forefront of China’s reform and opening up,with a vibrant economy,and it is also home to a wide range of cuisines.Cantonese cuisine is one of the four traditional Chinese cuisines,and has long been known as "Food in Guangzhou" and "Food in Guangdong",with numerous films and television productions focusing on Guangdong cuisine.Among them,Southern-style food documentaries are unique in China’s food documentary landscape for their strong Lingnan flavour,distinctive documentary techniques,meaningful narrative style and deep emotional expression.Guangdong is a famous overseas Chinese hometown,and in the context of building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,the Southern-style food documentary with its emotional core of nostalgia on the tongue has become an emotional bond of group identity,and the Southern-style food documentary has become an important means and media carrier for constructing the regional image of Guangdong.Based on the above background,this study selects documentaries reflecting the food of the Lingnan region(i.e.Southern-style food documentaries)as the research sample.Through a combination of textual and documentary analysis,the study explores how Southern-style food documentaries construct the regional image of Lingnan and how they are disseminated from the five basic concepts of media geography: space,time,landscape,place and scale.This paper argues that the Southern food documentary constructs the image of the region at three levels: landscape construction,emotional construction and cultural construction.In terms of landscape construction,the Southern-style food documentary uses Lingnan’s regional landscape and Lingnan’s food landscape as symbols,presenting the good ecological environment of Lingnan and the artisanal heart of Lingnan’s food producers.In terms of emotional construction,the documentary concentrates emotions behind the story of the search for food,showing the nostalgia of the community and the identification and attachment to the homeland.In terms of cultural construction,the documentary uses food as a clue to present the cultural connotations behind Lingnan food,reflecting the innovative spirit and family sentiment of Lingnan culture.In recent years,the development of Southern-style food documentaries has shown a trend of high professionalism and marketisation.A professional team,diversified content and various distribution channels are the strengths of Southern-style food documentaries.With the national policy of building a "documentary city" and encouraging the development of the documentary industry,producers of Southern-style food documentaries should seize the opportunity and make use of the advantages of their geographical location to "go global" by means of food documentaries."to tell the "Chinese story" and achieve good international communication.