| Sport has become a landmark cause for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,and the building of a modern sporting power cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of the people.As the main participants in sports,athletes not only demonstrate their high level of sportsmanship,but also spread the spirit and charm of sports,becoming sports icons in the hearts of the people.Sports film is a multimodal medium with sound,images and text,promoting sports culture and sports spirit in the form of images,carrying the sports image of a country and nation as well as shaping the distinctive characters of athletes.Exploring the portrayal of athletes in Chinese sports films in the new era reflects the current development of China’s film industry in the field of sports on the one hand,and showcases the achievements of China’s sports industry on the other.This study takes 45 new-age Chinese sports films produced,distributed and released in Chinese mainland since the beginning of the 18 th Party Congress as its research object,and were divided into three categories according to the sports classification method: competitive sports films,school sports films and mass sports films.Using the methods of documentation,textual analysis,case study and multimodal discourse analysis,the research analyses the professional image,social role image,personality trait image,social image and gender image of athletes in terms of audio-visual modality,image modality and textual modality.The research summarises what kind of athlete images are portrayed in the three categories of sports films,tries to point out the problems in the portrayal of athletes in the new era of Chinese sports films,and makes suggestions for optimisation.The results of the study found that audio-visual modalities such as sound modality,image modality and text modality work together to shape the image of athletes in he new era of Chinese sports films,and that different categories of sports films present different images of athletes,with professional image being the main image representation of athletes and other images playing a role under specific conditions and supporting the professional image of athletes.(1)In competitive sports films,the athlete carries the dream of being a personal and national champion and achieves the dream of the individual and the country through his or her unremitting efforts and teamwork.(2)In school sports films,athletes love sports,actively participate in school sports competitions,create possibilities out of the impossible through their own hard work,improve their sports skills and change their personal destiny,portraying the image of athletes as "strivers".(3)mass sports films in which athletes actively participate in sports and folk sports events present the sunny and uplifting sports spirit of the people,cultivate perseverance and courage,promote traditional Chinese sports culture,and portray the image of athletes as "participants".The new era of Chinese sports films is dominated by competitive athletes and young people,with ball games and combat sports receiving more attention and male athletes dominating.In addition,there are differences between the training scenes and competition scenes of athletes in different types of sports films,with fewer training scenes and more competition scenes.Problems in the portrayal of athletes in Chinese sports films in the new era:(1)the phenomenon of lightness in the portrayal of athletes;(2)the lack of typicality in the portrayal of athletes;(3)the imbalance between training and competition scenes;(4)the entertainment and stereotyping of female athletes.In view of the above problems,the following suggestions are put forward for optimization:(1)focus on the balanced image of athletes;(2)explore the stories of sports figures and shape the typical image of athletes;(3)return to the essence of sports and explore the core of sports spirit;(4)strengthen the gender concept and focus on the image of female athletes. |
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