| Chinese traditional culture is a shared spiritual legacy for all Chinese people. With its richness and profoundness, it is highly valued for academic study and human inheritance. It is necessary to show the unique beauty of Chinese culture, to explore the rich culture reserve with modern technology, to protect culture legacy and to inherit and spread traditional culture if we want to strengthen our national culture soft power. As an intermediary for mass media, TV enjoys incomparable advantages in inheriting and spreading traditional culture because of its popularity and influence. However, TV programs have been over entertainment-oriented and ignored innovation and improvement of traditional culture for a very long time. Thus, traditional culture is marginalized and even heterized or vulgarized in TV programs.In the summer of 2013, Chinese Spelling Hero, a Chinese character spelling contest, stood out of the over entertainment-oriented TV programs and brought the audience a fresh traditional cultural feast. People’s impression and feeling toward Chinese characters were refreshed. The program gained high audience rating and were well received by society. The success of this program showed us the potential market for traditional culture programs. Moreover, the program set up an example for other cultural programs. Soon afterwards, there was an upsurge of similar TV programs on CCTV and many provincial TVs, such as Dictation Assembly of Chinese Characters, Chinese Idiom Congress on CCTV, Chinese Poetry on Hebei TV, Chinese Lantern Riddles on Yunnan TV, The Most Loving Chinese Characters on Heilongjiang TV, The Most Loving China on Guizhou TV, Chinese Culture on Jiangxi TV, and Chinese Stories On Zhejiang TV.Under such circumstances, studies on how to spread and inherit traditional culture through TV programs are increasing. By observing, interviewing and intensive reading, this thesis will study Chinese Spelling Hero, and analyze the modernized presentation of traditional cultural elements in the program, the effect of such presentation, and the experience and deficiency in presenting traditional cultural elements. By doing this, the author hopes to find out the universality in presenting traditional cultural elements through TV programs and provide references for the development of traditional culture TV programs.This thesis will first define relevant concepts, such as “traditional culture”, “traditional cultural elements”, and “TV communication signs”. These definitions are the basis of this study. Only with clear definitions to the study objects, can the author make targeted analysis. The author will also give a brief introduction to the program, including the basic elements of the program, the production team, procedures and rules of the contest, host, guests, contestants and subsequent programs.According to the classifications of traditional cultural elements and TV communication signs made by scholars, and through intensive reading of the text of the three seasons’ program, the author summarized five major traditional cultural elements. First, the core element – “Chinese characters”, includes the writing of characters, the display of characters, the usage of characters, the stories behind characters, and the forgetting of characters. The second element is “Mr. Characters”, they serve both as teachers and judges to analyze the connotation of traditional culture. The third element is “characters heroes”, including their traditional cultural talents and titles; they are the inheritors of traditional culture. The fourth element is “thirteen grids”, a game that demonstrates traditional wisdom. On one hand, “thirteen grids” is a game for contestants to go through passes, on the other hand, it is the logo of the program, and its origin can be traced in many traditional heritages, such as Luban lock, Sudoku and typography. The fifth element is “dictionary”, a sign of the normalization of traditional culture, including Mr. Characters’ dictionary, question bank’s dictionary, auditorium dictionary and contestants’ dictionary.Through intensive reading of the program text and according to observing record, the thesis explains the methods in presenting traditional cultural elements, and discusses the underlying meaning producing mechanism of the traditional cultural connotation and communication intentions. First, by alienating the writing of characters, the display of characters, the usage of characters, the stories behind characters, and the forgetting of characters, “Chinese characters” are alienated in expressing level, cultural level and psychological level. Second, in demonstrating the connotation of traditional culture, Mr. Characters serve as guide, judge, illustrator and teacher; in attracting audience, different Mr. Characters have different roles to play. Third, “character heroes” are labeled in the program according to their performance. Fourth, “thirteen grids” is an entertainment-oriented game, making the program both fair and suspenseful. The game is a combination of the beauty of classic and modern dance. Fifth, by displaying Mr. Characters’ dictionary, question bank’s dictionary, auditorium dictionary and contestants’ dictionary, the production team showed their respect to Chinese characters and pursuit of rigor.Based on the analysis, the thesis will also provide suggestion on improving the presentation of traditional cultural elements on TV. For example, in exploring the traditional cultural elements, the program doesn’t fully display the traditional cultural elements, their focus is too narrow, and there is a lack of interaction and cooperation among elements. The author will propose several other elements to add in the program. Moreover, the program is not good enough in spreading traditional cultural elements on TV, and in making use of photographic signs, autographic signs and guests’ value. The program could try live broadcasting to avoid hype suspicion. |
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