A Critical Discourse Analysis Of China’s Image In Western Travel Bloggers’ Eyes

With the development of information technology,travel blog has become a popular way for tourists and potential tourists.For tourists,blog offers a platform to share their travel stories and impressions on the destination countries after travelling.Meanwhile,potential tourists also read travel blogs as a part of their trip preparation,and might gain a brief impression of a certain place.Travel blog has become a vital way to spread image of places.Additionally,thanks to the rapid development of China’s economy and a series of tourism promotion activities,more and more foreigners have come to China to experience the unique culture with its rich history.They also write blogs to express their impressions on China.Accordingly,travel blog has its value for academic research,and is of great importance to study China’s image.However,this field is almost ignored by scholars because most of the previous studies of China’s image use traditional media,such as newspapers and magazines,as researching material.This thesis has examined the image of China from a relatively new platform—travel blog.This thesis mainly applied Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework as theoretical basis to conduct a critical discourse analysis on blog discourse,and evaluated the image of China through foreign travel blogs.The major findings of the present study were as follows: a)there are seven major themes in foreign blogs about China: Chinese People,Attractions in China,Chinese Culture and History,Weather and Environment in China,Economic development in China,Infrastructure in China and Chinese Food.b)An inconsistent image of China is presented in the foreign travel blogs.Although foreign bloggers speak highly of attractions in China,the speed of China’s development as well as Chinese culture and history.One the other hand,bloggershold a comparatively negative attitudes towards Chinese people and the consequences of China’s economic development.c)The impolite behaviors of Chinese people is depicted as Chinese culture regardless of individual differences.Moreover,the Chinese government is described as the rude party that ignores the interests of its people.Due to the different political basis and economic conditions among China and western countries as well as Orientalism ideologies prevailed in the western countries,a relatively distorted image of China is presented.