| "As an international language, English plays an active role in bridging the cultural exchanges; as the precious cultural heritage, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) bears the expectation of human health and longevity." [1] In recent years, the development of TCM makes its dissemination become increasingly important to Chinese. Regarding international communication, foreign media plays an equally important role in constructing the international image of TCM. Modernized and diversified as the means of communication are, Chinese do not think that TCM is recognized by the westerners in the same way as is expected. Westerners do harbor misunderstandings about TCM. Therefore, it is necessary to unveil the facts by exploring the international TCM reports so as to provide references for the TCM dissemination. This study aims to use discourse analysis to examine the international image of TCM so as to know better about the conditions and challenges that TCM is facing, e.g. the public attitude and the focus of western media reports.A total of 3382 English news reports concerning TCM over a period of 10 years (2005-2014) were retrieved from 10 major British newspapers, and were classified into 8 categories before a TCM Corpus-British Newspapers was created. With the help of corpus software AntConc 3.2.1, keyword lists in the year 2005 and the years 2013-14 were obtained for comparison. The results indicate that:1) Over the past ten years, there are limited TCM reports in British newspapers, averaging 33.8 articles per year per newspaper, which exhibited a markedly decreasing tendency though fluctuation was observed. TCM reports were found to cover 8 themes, i.e. policy and measures, business and commerce, medical treatment, science and technology, teaching and education, history and culture, daily life healthcare and others. Among them, a large number of 1603 articles (47%) were reports on medical treatment, followed by a number of 565 articles (17%) on business and commerce. In contrast, a low of 81 reports (2%) was found on teaching and education over the past decade.2) TCM reports consist of three themes, namely TCM, Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture. Whichever type of British newspapers is, acupuncture reports were the majority, taking up a proportion of 55.5%, greater than the sum of TCM and Chinese herbal medicine reports.3) The focus of British newspapers was observed to shift on varied topics.Acupuncture reports favored medical treatment and science while TCM and Chinese herbal medicine reports favored business and commerce.4) As far as the slant of reporting is concerned, most of TCM reports (85.8%) were positive and neutral, and those negative ones mainly questioned its effectiveness. Chinese herbal medicine reports were found with a mixture of tones, the focus being black market trade, animal drugs, safety and side effects. Acupuncture, with an increasing acceptance of both British government and the public, was rarely accompanied with negative publicity.5) In recent two years (2013-14), TCM reports concentrated on medical treatment and Prince Charles’opinions on animal drugs, as was indicated by a comparison of keyword lists between the year 2005 and the years 2013-14.TCM global communication enjoys attention from Chinese government in recent years. However, a decline of TCM news reports was found in 10 British Newspapers. It is also worth noting that business and commerce as well as treatment reports were highlighted as compared to cultural and educational reports. Therefore, it is important to improve and enhance the international dissemination of TCM, especially opening the international arena of TCM culture and education.
|
PDF Full Text Request