Western Culture and Values Representation in Chinese Media

Critical Discourse Study of Western Culture and Values Representation in Chinese Media
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A Dissertation presented in part consideration for the degree of MA in Applied Linguistics
Abstract
While globalization has been hailed for facilitating the integration of regional cultures, the latter has been faulted for adversely impacting the traditional culture, values, life styles, and identities of other nations. A majority of Chinese youth have been indoctrinated by pervasive Western mass media products, cuisine, pop culture, and fast fashion. It is therefore reasonable why Eastern countries, particularly China, that are predominantly socialist and founded on Confucian values feel the need to protect their governments from they term as hostile Western influences. This dissertation aimed to investigate Western culture and values representation in Chinese media, with specific focus on Western ideologies relating to foreign policy, democracy, the LGBT movement, filmmaking, human rights, and capitalism. An alternative critical discourse analysis approach combining Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model, narrative analysis, and frame analysis was employed in the study of six news articles from China Daily. The study identified predominantly negative portrayals of Western foreign policy, democracy, LGBT diversity inclusion, protection of human rights, market structure, and filmmaking.
Table of Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………...…………………………..2
Chapter 1 – Introduction………………………………………………………………………...4
1 Background………………………………………………………………………….4
2 Research Objectives…………………………………………………………………5
3 Significance of the Study……………………………………...…………………….5
4 Layout of the Dissertation…………………………………………………………...6
Chapter 2 – Literature Review…………………………………………………………………...7
2.1 Regulation of Entertainment Industry……………………………………………….7
2.2 The Influence of Western Media Products on Chinese Youth..……………………..9
2.3 The Online Space…………………………………………………………………....11
2.4 Political and Historical Context of Media Regulation………………………………12
2.5 Chinese Nationalism………………………………………………………………...17
2.6 General Impressions…………………………………………………………………19
Chapter 3 – Research Methodology……………………………………………………………...21
3.1 Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach………………………………………………21
3.2 Narrative Analysis…………………………………………………………………..23
3.3 Frame Analysis……………………………………………………………………...25
3.4 An Integrated Approach to Discourse Analysis.....………………………………….27
Chapter 4 – Analysis……………………………………………………………………………..32
4.1 Textual Analysis…………………………………………………………………….32
4.1.1 Surface Characteristics……………………………………………………..32
4.1.2 Objects……………………………………………………………………..34
4.1.3 Actors………………………………………………………………………38
4.1.4. Language and Rhetoric……………………………………………………40
4.1.5. Discursive Processes………………………………………………………47
Chapter 5 – Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..51
References………………………………………………………………………………………..53
Chapter 1 – Introduction
1 Background
A majority of Chinese have grown up in the Internet age and gradually become accustomed to Westernized urban, popular, and celebrity cultures. This development has compelled the Chinese government to regulate the media from what it sees as the pervasive infiltration of Western influence into its society. In the four decades since China started modernizing and implementing structural changes to break its isolationism, Chinese youth have altogether embraced Western culture (Bandurski, 2021). It is not uncommon for Chinese millennials and generation Z to eat at any of the McDonalds or KFC establishments spread across the country. They follow live broadcasts of the NBA League as well as English Premier League matches and prefer watching Hollywood films to locally produced films. Several surveys among middle school students indicate that Western sports and entertainment personalities are more popular than local figures. Chinese youth are fond of Western fashion trends and products, terming them as more innovative and stylish (Kang, 1997).
Beijing’s growing concern about the spread of Western values among Chinese youth has been highlighted several times in President Jinping’s speeches to college graduates. For instance, in 2016, he instructed the nation’s tertiary institutions to observe the correct political orientation and foster Confucian values and Socialist ideologies. The Chinese leader frequently emphasized the need for universities to support the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership and direct the broad masses of instructors and learners to be staunch advocates of Marxist theories and traditional Chinese values. China’s leaders are frightened by the possibility of losing the ideological and political loyalty of the nation’s youth, particularly in school, which have been termed by the nation’s education minister as “the prime targets for the infiltration of hostile forces”. Pervasive government censorship of all Western ideologies and values contrary to traditional values or any media content that is deemed critical of the party has made it impossible for credibility or constructive debate to occur. Any effort by Western powers to intervene in China’s affairs must therefore be conducted with awareness of traditional cultural values while avoiding the trappings of colonialist legacies. The slow demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and Russia has been partly attributed to the permeation of Western culture and it is therefore understandable why Beijing is keen on protecting its cultural identity and political ideology (Li, 2021). According to government rhetoric, these hostile forces are Western values that are being infused through alluring pop culture, fast fashion, western cuisine, and liberal ideologies.
2 Research Objectives
The dissertation will conduct a critical discourse study of Western culture and value representations in Chinese media. This critical discourse analysis approach will combine Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model, narrative analysis, and frame analysis. The objectives of this study are:
1 To determine the extent to which Western culture and values are represented in Chinese media
2 To identify the ways in which Western cultural values are portrayed in Chinese media
3 To ascertain the most dominant features of Western cultural beliefs and values representations in traditional and digital media
3 Significance of the Study
Culture is often ignored in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning and treated as a useful diversion to language teaching. However, linguistic and learning theory indicates that culture is a central facet in EFL language classrooms. Understanding the culture that underpins target language is central to not only using language with grammatical accuracy but also using language in an appropriate manner depending on specific contexts (Sherlock, 2016). Understanding how Western culture and values are portrayed in Chinese media is crucial to identifying prevailing cultural biases and developing teaching strategies to counter the negative effects of the same among EFL learners. Media representations of the target culture have a significant influence on students’ attitudes and dispositions towards the language and its people.
This effect is heightened among EFL learners whose success in English is conditioned by their language mastery and ability to negotiate the new culture. Several studies indicate that it is impossible to isolate mastery of a new language from the acquisition of the culture it embodies (Magogwe, 2009). Consequently, the need to contain the influence of negative media portrayals of the target culture on students’ cultural biases is central to improving the language skills and cultural competence of EFL students. This study will help reveal any stereotypes or negative attitudes towards Western culture and values in Chinese media and so inform strategies at eliminating any polarized comparison of the native culture and target culture among EFL students.
4 Layout of the Dissertation
This dissertation is structured in the following manner: Chapter 1 provides background information underpinning the study, the research objectives, as well as significance of the study. Chapter 2 reviews current literature on Western culture and values portrayals in Chinese media including the historical, political, and social contexts of the issue. Chapter 3 includes the research methodology where an exhaustive description of the critical discourse analysis approach: the manner in which Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model, narrative analysis, and frame analysis will be employed to analyze media texts in real life settings. Chapter 4 will conduct the analysis of news articles covering Western culture and values. Chapter 5 will summarize the major findings from the research study.
Chapter 2 - Literature Review This chapter will cover the Chinese government’s efforts at regulating the entertainment industry, the influence of Western media products on Chinese youth, and the Internet as an online space in Chinese. The literature review will also discuss the political and historical context of media regulation in China, Chinese nationalism on online forums, before finishing with a brief summary of the general impressions. 2.1 Regulation of Entertainment Industry There has been increasing resistance by mass media policymakers in China to the infiltration of Western culture and values in Chinese society. To protect the impressionable minds of Chinese youth from alien Western influences, media regulators in China have banned the display of all media content that does not align with “traditional Chinese culture”. The Chinese government has also tightened its control on Western mass media products, accusing them of cultural pollution and moral decadence (Dale, 2020). President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need for a national cultural rejuvenation with stringent Communist Party oversight of education, business, culture, and religion. To this end, the government has started a crackdown on the entertainment industry by shunning vulgar shows and media celebrities (Li, 2021b). For instance, China has significantly reduced foreign entertainment content by limiting the number of Hollywood films released every year (Zhang, 2021). While restrictions on Asian entertainment products have been seen to ease, the Chinese government has maintained its stance on a majority of Western media productions. Hollywood films have been accused of promoting ideals contrary to Chinese traditional cultural values. For example, gay entertainment content has been removed from Chinese screens and all Western films with homosexual leitmotifs like Bohemian Rhapsody are heavily censored. China’s most popular social media platform WeChat has repeatedly blocked and removed all content by LGBTQ community members, including gender-related academic research associations. Various LGBTQ groups like Colorsworld, Purple, and Zhiheshe have been banned from all social media platforms for promoting LGBTQ issues or criticizing the government for persecuting China’s sexual minorities (Davis, 2021). Moreover, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has heightened regulation of arts and entertainment shows as well as related personnel by instituting an eight-point plan aimed at eliminating all content and figures who go against traditional Chinese cultural values and socialist ideologies. The eight-point plan does not only target radio, television, and internet platforms, but also everyone in the show business such as show hosts, artists, and fans (Rahman, 2021). For instance, Bohemian Rhapsody was banned for breaking the eight-point plan sections prohibiting homosexual themes that contravened traditional cultural marriage values. China’s broadcast regulator is moving toward restricting entertainers’ wages, checking fandom culture, and removing all artists with undesirable political stances or morals. The new regulations by NRTA suggest a departure from Western mass media products and influences towards a Chinese media influence that does not only promote Confucian values and Socialist ideologies but is also less capitalistic. One of the directives in the government’s efforts at cleaning up the entertainment industry includes outlawing “effeminate” men who fail to abide by the state’s notion of traditional masculinity as well as boy bands promoting western fast fashion (Frater, 2021). Broadcasters have also been urged to ignore personnel or celebrities with unseemly political stances or who against public order and morals. Artists who have broken laws and regulations are supposed to be shunned: high profile figures in China’s entertainment like Zhang Yimou, Tang Wei, Wang Quan’an, and Jaycee Chan have either been fined or handed bans for defying social conventions. Media platforms have been instructed by NRTA to be careful in their selection of shows, program actors, and guests by ensuring that all content and personnel have strong social credit and high artistic level (Rahman, 2021). Idol selection shows along with those featuring the children of celebrities have been banned. All television shows should stringently control voting and not encourage fans to buy membership in any way whatsoever. This directive is meant to rein a “chaotic” celebrity culture that is not only fueling negative western influences but has also resulted in rampant cyberbullying among rival fan factions. Broadcasters are also supposed to refrain from celebrity gossip and instead focus on promoting traditional culture. To curb the tendency among celebrities to showcase their wealth, media houses have been urged to avoid paying high salaries to entertainers (Davis et al., 2021). Media companies have also been discouraged against engaging in under-the-table contracts with entertainers or hiring celebrities who avoid paying taxes. The eight-point plan also requires media houses to provide professional and moral training to television hosts on how to promote correct political direction and positive cultural values (Frater, 2021). To ensure that these directives are followed even outside work hours, the NRTA has been given the mandate to monitor the social media activity of everyone working in the show business. 2.2 The Influence of Western Media Products on Chinese Youth The youthful partiality for Western trends is also evident in holiday celebrations. Except for some few traditional festivals like the Spring Festival, which is universally celebrated by the young and old, others like the Dragonboat Festival and the Lantern Festival are increasingly being overshadowed by novelty festivals such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Parents are becoming alarmed at the rapid rate in which their children are accepting Western ideologies about marriage, sexuality, and sex (Ke & Ying, 2009). More youth under the age of thirty are accepting of intimate relations before marriage and same sex marriages. This unrestricted acceptance of Western ideologies that are contrary to traditional Chinese values among the young generation has caused fear among the older generations, many believing it will lead to moral degeneracy. Fearing that the current generation of youth may come to view Western culture and values as part of their identity, China has set cultural policies that aim to limit the influence of Western lifestyles and ideologies on its young generation. While a youth-led insurrection is highly unlikely, studies investigating how popular culture from the West influences the attitudes of Chinese youngsters continue to indicate a majority of college students prefer Western facets of liberal democracy to the country’s one-party system. A significant proportion of Chinese millennials and generation Z find Hollywood imports far more entertaining than the tightly regulated listing in state televisions. The youth consider American TV more authentic, particularly in today’s golden age of avant-garde storytelling and intricate characters (Zhao, 1989). Chinese TV can sometimes feel uninspired with its clear-cut heroes and antiheroes as well as predictable plotlines. Unlike the current generation of youth who have to contend with the heightened regulation of arts and entertainment shows, those born in the 80s had access (both legal and illegal) to Hollywood film imports (Xue & Yu, 2017). The films provided the young generation of that period with a base to reflect on their own identities as opposed to state sanctioned sources that sought to promote political and ideological discourse that aligned with those of the ruling party. This exposure to Western media aroused neoliberal ideals of self-realization, spontaneity, and nonconformity. Western TV applauded otherwise unconventional characters, a feature that forced many young people to strongly resonate with the image of the nonconformist. Unlike state TV which promotes conformity and harmony in society, American TV always focuses on the individual and demonstrates a healthy distrust of authority (Osman et al., 2013). These Western ideologies are contrary to the socialist and collectivist values pushed in Chinese media: Western TV encourages individualism, something that is at direct odds with the unquestioning loyalty expected of Chinese citizens to the Communist Party rule. The widespread censorship of China’s entertainment industry is meant to clamp down on all foreign messages or influences that threaten collectivism and traditional cultural values. Popular Chinese websites that provided seemingly innocuous American TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory have in recent years been banned (Danxu, 2021). Even these externally inoffensive TV programs have the power to leave identity-altering impressions on the minds of the youth, forcing them to question the traditional values and ideologies encouraged by their government, parents, and schools. There is a big generation gap between China’s older generation and the current youth generation: the latter are more appreciative and conscious of the sub-textual messages contained in Western TV media. China’s youngsters are slowly appreciating Hollywood’s themes of non-conformity, self-realization, democracy, spontaneity, individualism, liberalism. There is a growing appeal in ambiguity and intricate personal attitudes among the youth as compared to conformity and unification, something the older generation is accustomed to (Jiang, 2019). While it is difficult to determine how deeply Western media has shaped the attitudes of China’s young generation towards authority, there are indications of a small but developing resistance to censorship, corruption, and government misdeeds (Wallis, 2011). For instance, after a road accident in 2012 involving a tanker loaded with methanol and a long-distance bus resulted in the deaths of 36 passengers, Yang Dacai, chief of the Shanxi provincial work safety administration, was exposed for abusing his office after cyber scrutiny of his inappropriate behavior at the crush site (Kaiman, 2013). Sina Weibo, a popular social media channel among youth, has also been used to expose flagrant abuses of power by politicians at the local level. 2.3 The Online Space The online space has also provided a modicum of expression for disgruntled youth who wish to expose government cover-ups. After the high-speed train collision in eastern Zhejiang in 2011, Chinese authorities faced public fury from Weibo community members who were angry at the railway ministry’s efforts at limiting coverage of the incident (Branigan, 2011). It is against this backdrop of youth resistance to government excesses, that president Jinping ascended to power. However, since President Jinping’s ascendancy to presidency, widespread censorship of social media platforms and mass media have resulted in fewer large-scale public protests and a heightened focus on China’s cultural security. The Chinese leader has focused on higher education as a key battleground in the cultural struggle, citing the many interactions teachers have with students as a key resource in containing Western culture as an unconventional security threat. China’s national security committee announced in 2014 that it will be focusing on cultural threats posed by Western nations. Gong Fangbin, a senior colonel leading the taskforce, has highlighted the need to set up an agency that has the capacity to deal with the ideological threat posed by the West. Gong, also a professor at the National Defense University, claimed that the West was instituting its values on the world through the Internet and media content products thereby making it difficult for China to protect its political and cultural interests (Ng, 2014). China has accused the West of using online communities to rally widespread anti-government protests across the globe. The ongoing crackdown on China’s entertainment industry, the banning of Western TV shows, and even the setting up of an agency specifically geared towards combating the pernicious influence of Western values have all happened since President Jinping’s assumed power (Jiang, 2019). Vigilance against Western influence is a key element of his policies: President Jinping wants Chinese cultural values and ideologies adopted as valid alternatives to Western norms and institutions. 2.4 Political and Historical Context of Media Regulation President Jinping has repeatedly asserted that the current cultural revitalization program ought not to be perceived as anti-West or anti-American but as a genuine attempt at cultivating and sustaining Chinese culture and values. China is still intent on remaining open to the West and America but it rejects its pervasive and perceived negative influences (Beech, 2016). The current ideology campaign is aimed at also reforming and cementing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) position as the sole authority on matters pertaining to the Internet, universities, traditional media, think tanks, culture and entertainment, and non-governmental organizations. In essence, the ideology campaign is a tool for President Jinping to consolidate his power at a time when China has risen to global power status (Gunia, 2019). It is also a strategy at renewing the country’s governance system, which is regarded by some citizens as old-fashioned. As China continues to become a global power, it is censoring individuals, the media and Internet, as well as institutions covering its issues in the same manner it censors local entities. This preference is an attestation of the country’s desire to have Chinese standards implemented as legitimate replacements of Western values (such as non-conformity, self-realization, democracy, spontaneity, individualism, and liberalism) and influence. The ongoing cultural revitalization program is not new and has long existed in China. For instance, the anti-spiritual pollution campaign that lasted from October 1983 to December 1983 bears the same hallmarks of curbing Western-inspired ideologies. The Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign was led by conservative members of the Chinese Community Party and focused on the same goals of ensuring the absolute leadership of the party, promoting the superiority of socialism over liberalism, over and above, eliminating all Western capitalistic influences (Barme, 2016). The period was also marked by the banning of all material that was deemed as contrary to traditional Chinese values. Coarse and vulgar dramas, music, books, songs, and films were denounced as misleading and detrimental to the thinking and morale of consumers. Academic institutions were ordered to remove all academic books containing Western ideology and decadent bourgeois especially in law, social sciences, and philosophy. Moreover, all university students were compelled to undergo political education on the foundations of socialism, patriotism, and Mao Zedong’s thought. Id...