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The Contemporary Representation and Negotiation of China's “Stereotypical Image” ——A Critical Review of Zhou Wenping’s The Image of China in American Films and Its Impact

Journal of Literary Writing and Evaluation (Print ISSN 3078-8129; Online ISSN: 3104-5073)

JLWE, Vol.1, No.1,2025，pp. 141-148.

中国“定型化形象”的当下呈现与改写博弈
——评周文萍《美国电影里的中国形象及其影响研究》

吴家镔（Wu Jiabin）^{^[1]}，王珊（Wang Shan） ^{^[2]}

摘要：美国电影里的中国形象在周文萍的专著中被分为傅满洲、陈查理和“待拯救的世界”这三种关于中国的意识形态形象，然而时至今日，大多数影视作品里的中国形象仍然延续着将中国想象为神秘的东方力量，或者将中国作为“奇观化”的符号呈现，而有的则将中国形象改写为“现代性参与者”。中国“定型化形象”在当下的影片中依然被呈现为神秘古老的东方，此种延续不仅固化了中国对于自身形象的原有想象，还在美国电影中依旧作为了“待拯救的世界”。同时中国“定型化形象”也呈现出改写与博弈的局面，由《唐探1900》以华人拯救中国而呈现出对“西方拯救东方”的改写，又以《尚气与十戒传奇》中所呈现的对傅满洲形象的延续，从而体现出中国形象在塑造与传播上与西方所进行的权力博弈。从整体而言，中国即使在西方世界被改写为稍微正面积极的形象，比如将科技作为中国形象的建构因素，但绝大多数影片中中国/东方依然是美国/西方的“他者”和“客体”，以延续着关于中国的第三种“定型化形象”——“待拯救的世界”。本文将周文萍关于美国电影的中国形象的讨论作为基础，以延续对于此问题中关于中国形象的谈论。

关键词：美国电影；中国形象；“定型化形象”

Title: The Contemporary Representation and Negotiation of China's “Stereotypical Image”

——A Critical Review of Zhou Wenping’s The Image of China in American Films and Its Impact

Abstract: The image of China in American movies is divided into three ideological images about China in Zhou Wenping’s monograph: Fu Manchu, Chen Charlie, and “The World to Be Saved”. However, to this day, most film and television works still continue to imagine China as a mysterious Eastern power or present China as a symbol of “spectacle”, while others rewrite China's image as a “participant of modernity”. The “stereotyped image” of China is still presented in current films as a mysterious and ancient East, which not only solidifies China's original imagination of its own image, but also remains as a “world to be saved” in American films. At the same time, the “stereotyped image” of China also presents a situation of rewriting and game, with "The Tang Dynasty 1900" presenting a rewriting of “the West saving the East” through the Chinese saving China, and the continuation of the image of Fu Manchuria presented in “Shang Qi and the Legend of the Ten Commandments”, thus reflecting the power game between China’s image and the West in shaping and spreading. Overall, even though China has been rewritten as a slightly positive image in the Western world, such as using technology as a construction factor for China's image, the vast majority of films still depict China/East as the “other” and “object” of the United States/West, continuing the third “stereotyped image” of China - the “world to be saved”. This article will use Zhou Wenping’s discussion on the Chinese image in American films as a basis to continue the discussion on the Chinese image in this issue.

Keywords: American film；Image of China；”Stereotyped image”

[1] 吴家镔（Wu Jiabin），广州大学新闻与传播学院硕士研究生，研究方向：电影学。电邮：wu13192012454@163.com。

[2] 王珊（Wang Shan）（通信作者），广州大学新闻与传播学院硕士研究生，研究方向：电影学。电邮：15007355932@163.com。