Meaning construction in the documentary Feel of China : a visual grammar perspective

Abstract

In recent years, with the development of information technology, a growing number of documentaries on Chinese culture have been disseminated on domestic social media platforms. This study uses a social semiotic approach to analyse an online micro-video programme Feel of China produced by the central government media institution- China Internet Information Center on Weibo. The researcher draws on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s descriptive framework of visual grammar to explore the features of meaning construction in the documentary. A mixed method of quantitative data collection and qualitative data analysis is deployed by the researcher to study 12 videos with the assistance of an annotation tool ELAN (EUDICO Linguistic Annotator). The 12 videos are categorized into traditional cultural videos and modern cultural videos. Results of this study show that in terms of the representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning, there are different characteristics of the deployment of semiotic resources made by the producer between the traditional and modern cultural videos. In the traditional cultural videos, many traditional cultural symbols appear in the representation, reflecting the producer’s emphasis on and strong confidence in traditional Chinese culture. In the modern cultural videos, the representation constantly shows three keywords “development,” “improvement,” and “construction.” The producer’s interest in the semiotic choice is brought to discussion in the socio-political and socio-cultural context of contemporary China. The deployment of semiotic resources in the traditional cultural videos is related to performing the profound spiritual pursuit of the Chinese nation while the deployment of semiotic resources in the modern cultural videos concerns contemporary China’s value beliefs of realizing national prosperity and people’s well-being. This study also proves that Kress and Van Leeuwen’s framework of visual grammar is applicable for the quantitative analysis and descriptive interpretation of documentaries on Chinese culture.