Research On The Communication Of Disney Mulan Image In The Perspective Of Encoding And Decoding In The United States

The story of Hua Mulan is widely spread in China,with various forms of artistic expression,and carries rich values of Chinese civilization.In cross-cultural communication,the story of Hua Mulan has emerged from Chinese folk tale forms and has been continuously translated and mutated,and has become an archetypal imagery and cross-media cultural symbol that can be transmitted across cultures.The American Disney Company released an animated version of the movie Mulan and a live-action version of the movie Mulan in 1998 and 2020,which have sparked widespread discussions around the world.With the help of Hall’s coding and decoding theory,this paper integrates literature analysis,text analysis and comparative analysis to comprehensively and deeply analyze the construction process of the American Disney Mulan image and the audience feedback after the movie’s release,and then refine effective strategies for the development and overseas export of Chinese traditional culture.From the process of coding,Disney completed its coding of promoting American values by using verbal,visual and auditory symbols;completed its coding in terms of commercial thinking by using character symbols,visual symbols,verbal symbols and auditory symbols;and finally completed the construction of the Disney princess image of Hua Mulan through visual and verbal symbols.From the result of decoding,Disney’s coding of the animated movie Mulan has achieved greater success,and the vast majority of the audience holds a full decoding position for the animated version of the movie Mulan,not only its image of Mulan has been recognized and loved by the public,but even other characters in the movie,such as Mushu dragons,are also deeply popular.The live-action version of Mulan,on the other hand,has not been well received by audiences in either the U.S.,where it was re-released,or China,where it originated,and the vast majority of audiences hold an anti-decoding stance toward it.The reasons for the emergence of antidecoding are complex and varied,among which the main reason is that the strong personality of the animated version of Mulan,which has been widely praised,has been changed to a gifted one in the live-action version,which has greatly weakened the empathy space between this image and the public.Some of the confrontation decodes appear to avoid the content of the movie itself,placing the confrontation point in the filming process of the movie or the personal remarks of the actors,or even deliberately rising to the political attack between countries,which is completely out of the coding scope of Disney’s Mulan image.The degree of development of Mulan in China is no less than that of Disney in the United States,but the communication effect is far inferior to it.The coding and decoding process of Disney’s Mulan image provides experience and lessons for the "going abroad" of China’s film and cultural products.In order to effectively "go abroad",the first thing is to improve China’s international discourse,the second thing is to improve the quality of translation for cultural outreach,and the last thing is to improve the attractiveness of China’s traditional culture by various methods,and to precisely communicate to different audiences.