This book presents a critical analysis of the images of China portrayed in British television documentaries between 1980 and 2000. The examination is contextualized within the profound transformations of the post-reform China and global political structures in the last two decades of the 20th century. Using an innovative analytical framework based on Vladimir Propp, the book focuses on how different images of China are constructed through an effective use of TV narrative strategies. In particular it details how various strands of (Western) modernity underpin major discourses about China. The book will be valuable to the understanding of how China was perceived in the West during one of the most dramatic moments in modern history.
Contents:China as an Image: History, Structure and PerspectivesTelevision Narrative as Discourse: Poetics of RepresentationLegitimate Controversy: China as a CivilisationA Struggle Without Heroes: Representing Republic of China, 1911–1949Consensus and Deviance: China as the Communist ‘Other ’, 1949–1989Road to Xanadu: A Case StudyBehind Representation: Discursive Strategies and Relations of PowerConclusionsReadership: Researchers and students who are interested to understand how China was perceived in the West during the 1980–2000 period.
