Communication Studies Of Chinese Wushu Magazine

"The development of Wushu is the development of Wushu diffusion". When the thousands of years have been rolling on, Wushu ploughed through the thorn to get spread. Nowadays, the changing of time has put Wushu into unprecedented danger. As an important platform of heritage and diffusion of Wushu culture, magazines get more and more noticing. Many academicians and experts have been working on the development of Wushu to solve many inevitable problems. However, although there have been many achievements about the development of Wushu, no research has made systematic studies of Wushu magazines.In view of that situation, I study the only Wushu magazine of national level-Chinese Wushu, by the use of many research methods such as the method of documents, method of content analysis, method of expert interview, method of logic analysis, etc. I also study the development history of Chinese Wushu, the column setting in different phrases of development of Chinese Wushu,the continuous change of Chinese Wushu's content and the reasons and influence of that, the special editions such as "Topic of This Issue" and "Academy", the obstacles it faces and the strategy for the development of Chinese Wushu.In 1978, The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee turned the new leaf of history, and the whole country became alive and kicking. The party and state government paid great attachment to Wushu, and many people became enthusiastic about learning it. After the National Sports Commission's serious discussion, a national professional guiding magazine of high level was decided to launch. Thus at 25th October,1982, Chinese Wushu-our first national popular science periodical of Wushu emerged as requirement. So far, Chinese Wushu has gone through 27 years. From the aspect of continuous change of Chinese Wushu's content, we can divided its history into four phrases:1982-1996, popularized competitive Wushu on the basis of traditional Wushu; 1997-1999, competitive Wushu and social Wushu were both popular, and Taiji became leading; 2000-2004, the world of Taiji and Sanda; 2005-July,2009, "Academy Section" was launched, social Wushu got prosperous. In every phrase, the sections are in close conjunction with the theme of that phrase.This paper systemizes the gradual continuous changes of content of Chinese Wushu from two aspects. Foreign martial arts introduced in Chinese Wushu kept continuous change. On the whole, such change has four features:First, in view of the region, it's from the near to the far. In the first two phrases, the Asian martial arts are the leading (mainly including that of North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, etc.). In the last two phrases, it extended to that of the west and Brazil; Secondly, from the aspect of variety of martial arts, Chinese Wushu focused on popular martial arts of the world such as kickboxing, Karate, Thai Boxing, Aikido, Kendo and boxing, and also introduced some rare martial arts including that of Philippines, that of Indonesia and Malay, that of Burma-Bangda, that of India-Kalari Payat and Israel army fighting system's Krav Maga system; Thirdly, in terms of the space they occupied in magazine, in the first and the third phrase, the foreign martial arts occupied much space, while in the second and the forth phrase, domestic martial arts are focuses. Foreign martial arts even didn't appear in Chinese Wushu at all from 2008-2009; Fourthly, in view of introducing world popular martial arts, Chinese Wushu kept highlighting Thai Boxing and Kickboxing all the time.However, at different time it also has different focuses such as Karate, Kendo, Aikido and boxing.. And Karate even got serialized in many time periods.Wushu introduced in Chinese Wushu kept changing during the past 27 years. On the whole, such changing has three features:First, in terms of competitive Wushu, the focus switched from skills to evens. The focus was shifted from skills in the first phrase to events in the second phrase. In the third phrase, this magazine emphasized on skills of Sanda and reports of "King of Sanda". In the fourth phrase, National Games and Olympic Games became spotlight; Secondly, as far as the social Wushu is concerned, the method of spread is switched from disorder to emphasis on key points. In the first phrase, all kinds of boxing, weapon routines and Gongfa were introduced a lot, making a hundred flowers bloom. In the second phrase, the method of spread has gradually changed to focus on Taiji. The third phrase is the world of Taiji, paying little attention to other type of boxing. In the fourth phrase, the focus is Taiji; Thirdly, the relationship of competitive Wushu and social Wushu is that they were both popular but social Wushu was much more popular. In the first phrase, competitive Wushu was vigorously promoted on the basis of social Wushu. However, in the second phrase, social Wushu played the leading role. But they were neck and neck in the third phrase. The situation of the fourth phrase is the same to that of the second phrase.The causes and influences of continuous changes of Chinese Wushu can be concluded into four parts. Firstly, government's policies for Wushu development have a profound influence on the content of Chinese Wushu.Secondly, the reader's demands play the role of guidance. Thirdly, existence and development of demands forced it to continuously change the content. Fourthly, focusing events prompted Chinese Wushu to report as they were developing. The above four facts were brought into causal instead of dissociated. In one word, what prompts Chinese Wushu to continuously change is demand-demand of country, demand of Wushu, demand of readers and demand of the magazine itself. Then what is the influence of such continuous change? We can see it's just the meeting of those demands. Demand causes change, then change meets demand. All is because of demand.Chinese Wushu has many special sections. But "Topic of This Issue" and "Academy" that I chose for research have their own importance. They are much characteristic and they have richened the culture of the magazine making it much more influential. The conclusion of my research is:first, "Topic of This Issue" adopted the form of "editor's note" plus "Hundreds of opinions", which embodied the upgrade of idea of the magazine. Secondly, the launch of "Topic of This Issue" is helpful for the authority of Chinese Wushu. Thirdly, topics themselves were very valuable, and discussion made them more valuable. "Academy", as I analyzed, has two characteristics:treat humanistic study as inferior to experimental research; treat social Wushu research inferior to competitive Wushu research, the important reason of which is that the writers of "Academy" is postgraduate students of sport universities nationwide. And the important meanings of launching "Academy" are:first, it embodied that Chinese Wushu attached importance to spread of Wushu culture, promoted the spread of Wushu academy and was in favor of the development of Chinese Wushu. Secondly, "Academy" supplied a platform for Wushu communication, changed the Chinese Wushu's pure nature of popular science and represented the orientation of Chinese Wushu-not only popular science but also academic. Thirdly, "Academy" reflected the Chinese Wushu's idea of "Wushu in broad sense".Nowadays, Chinese Wushu faces hardships, which can be analyzed from outer factors and inner factors. Outer factors that limited development Chinese Wushu include the recession of Wushu, the emergence of new media, the change of audience's sport interest and demand. Inner factors include the similarity of columns, repetition of content, the inadequacy of the standardization, low quality of article source, misleading of "Academy" for academic study and the deficiency of distribution channel.From aspects of content construction and marketing communication, I make suggestions for the development of Chinese Wushu. The strategies of content construction are:spread of Wushu should hold "Wushu in broad sense" as the concept of development. Chinese Wushu should take the spread of Wushu culture as the primary task, take the path of carrying forward the combat and fitness while protect the traditional routine. "Topic of This Issue" should stick to "focus" and "immutability". "Academy" should take the humanistic study as the first task and attach much importance to the social Wushu research. The standardization and the quality of article source should be improved. Chinese Wushu should develop multi-version and beware of content repetition. And the content construction needs innovation. The suggestions for Chinese Wushu's marketing communication are:strengthening efforts to advertisement, building powerful brand, making market segmentation, clearing position and target marketing, extending distribution channel, improving issuance systems, perfecting the binding, complementing and harmonizing new media.