"Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science" Article Recommendation: Cultural Documentaries: The Code to International Image-Building

"When a documentary moves you to tears with its portrayal of your hometown's paper-cutting art, yet leaves foreign audiences mystified by 'exotic Oriental symbols,' are we missing a golden opportunity for cultural dialogue?"

This piercing question exposes the deep-seated contradictions in how cultural documentaries navigate international communication. A case study by Zhou Yu's team at Tongji University, published in the Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, using CCTV-4's Around China as a prime example, unlocks the cipher to national image construction. 

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The Dual Identity of Cultural Documentaries: Domestic Heritage vs. Global Outreach

Analysis of 11 sampled episodes reveals that 45.5% focused on folk culture, yet English subtitles only appeared in late 2010—akin to polishing a family heirloom while forgetting to showcase the inscriptions that reveal its legacy. When Life at the Yellow River Deltawon three international awards, its success lay not in political narratives but in framing ecological issues as universal concerns.

Historical and modernization themes each claimed 18.2% of airtime, reflecting China's delicate balancing act between preserving tradition and embracing progress. Post-2016, the show shifted from static cultural displays to dynamic collisions of old and new—like centennial shops in Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter sharing the screen with livestreaming influencers, creating a mesmerizing temporal dissonance.

The Paradox of Local Voices in Global Contexts

While 73% of episodes featured elderly interviewees speaking in dialect—a choice that resonated domestically, evoking nostalgia—it erected a "dialect wall" for international viewers. A Shanxi farmer’s emotional account of the Fire Dragon Dancegarnered millions of views on Bilibili, yet the top comment on its international version read: "I don’t understand, but it’s beautiful." This aesthetic gap underscores failed cultural translation.

Comparative analysis revealed stark contrasts: Thai productions used local experts as cultural bridges, achieving 78% comprehension of silver craftsmanship among foreign audiences, while China’s cloisonnéwas reduced to "blue porcelain" in global perception—a casualty of the "observe-don’t-intervene" filmmaking ethos.

Rebooting Image-Building for the Digital Age

Amidst the digital tsunami reshaping traditional communication paradigms, cultural documentaries are undergoing an unprecedented identity reconstruction. Research data reveals a telling phenomenon: 68% of followers on the official Twitter account of Around Chinaare Mandarin learners, while genuine foreign culture enthusiasts account for merely 12%. This "failed breakout" transmission dilemma exposes how our proudly curated cultural output remains trapped within a Sinophone echo chamber.

Even more revealing is the generational cognitive shift uncovered by the research team's tracking of Gen Z audiences: 82% of young viewers exhibit stronger trust in amateur-produced unofficial documentaries. This intergenerational divergence is fundamentally restructuring the power dynamics of cultural transmission. When a Sichuan Zigong lantern artisan's vlog on intangible heritage innovation garnered 2 million likes per video, while professionally produced 60-minute traditional documentaries floundered on short-form platforms, it forces us to question: Are we attempting to solve information-age communication puzzles with industrial-era tools?

The study's proposed "Three-Dimensional Modeling Framework" charts an escape path: 1) Cultural Depth: achieved through deconstructing Tai Chimovements as philosophical metaphors. 2) Technological Expression: manifested in 3D reconstructions of Yuanmingyuan's looted zodiac heads. 3) Empathetic Storytelling: realized by documenting ethnic minority students returning home to revive traditions

Only the organic integration of these three dimensions can shatter the dimensional barriers of cultural communication.

Epilogue: Who Holds the Mirror to 'Real China'?

"The lens never lies, but the frame is always selective."As AI lets global audiences "step into" the Forbidden City’s restoration labs, documentary makers must decide: Do we curate exquisite cultural specimens, or design participatory portals?

The ultimate revelation? National image transcends borders not through grand narratives, but in local stories with global pulse points—where a Shaanxi grandma’s dough figurines speak the universal language of intergenerational love.

So we ask: When TikTok creators distill Peking opera into 15-second reels, what’s left for the auteurs clutching their three-act scripts? In the age of democratized storytelling, perhaps the true "documentary" is no longer what we film—but how we enable the world to co-author China’s story.

The study was published in Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

https://www.hillpublisher.com/ArticleDetails/5200

How to cite this paper

Zhou Yu, Chunxia Shao. (2025) Analysis of the Documentary in the Transmission of Cultural Heritage to Shape National Image from the Perspective of International Communication—Take CCTV-4 Around China Program as Case Study. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 9(8), 1473-1481.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.08.001