Japanese Film And Television Viewing And Stereotypes Of The Japanese Held By Chinese University Students

Stereotypes play an important role in intercultural communication and exert a profound influence on intergroup attitudes.In an era when mass media rapidly develop around the world,foreign films and television programs,both online and offline,shape audiences’ stereotypes of their target cultural group.As neighboring countries,China and Japan have a long history of interactions both at the government level and folk level.With the rise of Japan’s economy after the Second World War,Japanese culture represented by animations and films has been exported to many different countries and regions in Asia.Japanese culture is particularly influential in China after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.However,domestic studies on stereotypes about Japanese people are relatively few,and even fewer studies focus on the relationship between Japanese film and television viewing and audiences’ stereotypes about Japanese people.To expand the literature,this thesis combines content analysis and quantitative analysis to explore the content of stereotypes of the Japanese held by Chinese university students and correlations between Japanese film and television viewing and Chinese university students’ endorsement of these stereotypes.The current research consists of two studies.Study 1,using content analysis,examined the words describing Japanese people listed by 242 Chinese university students.A total of 34 frequently selected trait descriptions were obtained based on the binomial distribution formula.Among these words,“polite”,“rigorous”,“patriarchal”,and “modest” are most frequently selected.Based on the 34 distinct descriptions,Study2,which is a quantitative study,asked 405 Chinese university students about their contacts with Japanese people,Japanese film and television viewing,and endorsement of common stereotypes about Japanese people in the form of a questionnaire.The results show that in the absence of direct and extended contact with Japanese people,frequency of watching Japanese films and television programs is positively correlated with Chinese university students’ endorsement of positive stereotypes about Japanese people.In addition,there are correlations between program genre,typicality and attraction of film and television characters,similarities between characters and audiences and Chinese university students’ endorsement of positive stereotypes about Japanese people.The current research,which is mainly based on the parasocial contact hypothesis in intergroup contact theory and supplemented by cultivation theory,explored the relationship between film and television program viewing and perception of the target group,and provided a theoretical basis for the making and efficient exporting of films and television programs.The research findings provide some enlightenment for intercultural communication between China and Japan and the spread of Chinese films and television programs abroad.