China Through Western Eyes. A Case Study of the BBC Television Documentary Roads to Xanadu

Author: Cao, Qing

Source: European Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007 , pp. 275-297(23)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Despite a growing body of literature on the study of the Western media's portrayal of China, little attention has been paid to the structures underlying the representation of China. This essay aims to address this issue through an in-depth analysis of a British television documentary series, Roads to Xanadu (1990). It focuses on dominant perspectives constructed in the series by analysing documentary narrative as a mode of realising discourse. The essay argues that underlying the representation is a technological view of society. Shifting between realpolitik industrialism and liberal democratic humanism, the series attempts to arrive at a unified and unifying version of 'progress' through a modernist discourse.

Keywords: MEDIA REPRESENTATION; WESTERN IMAGES OF CHINA

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156805807X256890

Publication date: 2007-12-01