Abstract
Documentaries and China’s National Image is published by Routledge in its China Perspectives series. The book, written by Chen Yi, a well-known Chinese scholar, discusses how Chinese documentaries try to improve the communication power of Chinese culture and disseminate national ideology. It approaches the topic using various methods including history, discourse production, production systems, cultural expression, aesthetic succession and international perspectives. This book can provide global researchers with a cutting-edge perspective on the national image in Chinese documentary production. Most of the documentaries mentioned in this book are produced by the state’s television agencies or by private media for these agencies. Very few documentaries are produced for cinemas in China because Chinese audiences are not used to buying tickets to see them.
The introduction provides a general discussion that emphasises the important function of Chinese documentaries in building China’s national image. Chen points out that national ideology, promoted by the government, generally controls the creation of Chinese documentaries. This type of national image that is shaped according to ideology is often oversimplified and becomes an ‘empty signifier’ (p. 6) that creates a stereotype of China for audiences at home and abroad. Chen suggests that Chinese documentaries should build the Chinese image in a dual mirror image (p. 7) of ‘self” (China) and ‘the other’ (the West) and present the characteristics of the times, such as political China at the founding of the country, economic China after the reform and opening up, and cultural China today.
In chapter 1, Chen discusses the national image constructed by documentaries in relation to four periods. From the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949-) to the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is the initial period, the feature of which is ‘“visualised political commentary”’ (Lenin) (p. 15). After China’s Cultural Revolution there is a renaissance period during which modern discourses, such as humanities and enlightenment, permeated into documentary creation. The 1990s is a transformation period, and showing the lives of ordinary people becomes a new paradigm. The 21st century is an era of globalisation in which China’s image becomes more diversified. The production mode of documentaries during this period reflects a coexistence of ‘non-marketisation’ and ‘quasi-marketisation’.
Chen follows these historical footprints in his analysis of the image of the nation-state in Chinese documentaries. In early Chinese documentaries, the discourse of the national image experienced a transition from ‘revolution’ to ‘modernisation’. After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese documentaries responded to the call for a grand narrative with realistic aesthetics and national fables. Since the 1990s, a folk discourse that highlights the value of ordinary individuals has risen to express the collective memories of the times together with the national theme discourse. From the perspective of political economy, Chen reminds readers that, although the creative subjects tend to be diversified, the controlling subject behind this creative output is still the ideological will of the state.
Chen turns to inspecting the Chinese documentary production system in chapter 3. After the reform and opening of China (1978–), the state shifted from direct control over mass media production resources to indirect control. Creators outside and within the system dissociated from the grand discourse of the state and produced works representing non-mainstream people. A new wave of Chinese documentaries was born. CCTV programmes slots such as Space for Life (1993–2010) opened a window to illustrate encounters with ordinary people at public events and social problems. Despite some difficulties, content that could not be broadcasted in the past could finally be broadcast on a national platform such as Documentary (1993–), which was produced by the Shanghai TV station. Today, production entities outside the system still need to cooperate with media within the system so that their works can be broadcast on platforms within the system.
How do Chinese documentaries express the mainstream values of society? ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Spring Festival’ carry the most cultural emotions and collective memories of Chinese people. Chen inspects documentaries on these two themes. He points out that the large-scale series of documentaries with the theme of nostalgia, such as Tracing Heritage (2015–present) and Great Migration (2014), express ‘culture root seeking’ in the process of globalisation and the ‘rural Utopia’ constructed by the national mainstream discourse. Chen also compares the ‘Spring Festival’ documentaries produced by BBC and CCTV. From a Western perspective, the BBC is more interested in evoking exotic wonders by visualising the spectacular migration, New Year’s food and folk skills. CCTV emphasises family ties and reunions, and the food and folk customs serve as symbols of cultural expression rather than visual interest. Chen suggests we should treat the cultural discourse dialectically in cross-cultural communication and fully consider inter-subjectivity among different ethnic groups.
In chapter 5, Chen explains the historical changes in documentary aesthetics in China. Chen observes that the aesthetic selection and change of documentaries in China result from an interaction between documentary creation and the national cultural system. The topic selection of mainstream documentaries is, to a large extent, a ‘proposition composition’ in line with national propaganda. Since the 1990s, optional action has become the norm but it still needs to remain in balance with the national proposition. In the 21st century, to cope with the decline in ratings, new documentary programmes with the characteristics of reality shows were born, such as The Story in E. R. (2014–2016) and Life Matters (2016), to address the challenges of ‘history, reality, and people’ in China’s complex, pluralistic society. Chapter 6 is a case study based on the international perspective, in which Chen discusses how the United States, Japan, and China use different strategies in documentaries to build national images.
At the end of the book, Chen raises a pertinent question: how will Chinese documentaries face the challenges of the era of media convergence? He points out that media convergence has brought new ideas and new opportunities. Chinese documentary creation should do a good job in top-level design and strengthen Internet-based thinking; creators in China and the West should learn from each other.
Documentaries and China’s National Image makes us realise that, although the communication strategies of the national image in Chinese documentaries have undergone various changes over time, the national agenda has always constrained the creation of documentaries within its own framework. The book is rich in case studies within a certain theoretical framework, and this is the first time the book has been translated into English, which opens a window for international readers to understand Chinese documentary creation.