A Study on Chinese Images in Bian Cheng
Authors: Guo Xiaohui (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia and Neijiang Normal University China, China)
Ang Lay Hoon, Sabariah Hj Md Rashid, Ser Wue Hiong (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)
Speaker: Guo Xiaohui
Topic: Anthropological Linguistics
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2020 General Session
Abstract
As an important representative work in Chinese modern literature, Bian Cheng (Border Town, in English) by Sheng Congwen is abound with Chinese images which reflect the life of Chinese people who appear to live in Shangri-la.
This study presents a larger picture of images in Bian Cheng. To identify the images, the study adopted manifestations of culture at different levels of depth (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov 2010), and the Four D Model of the Country Image (Buhmann 2015). The former assisted in the detection of four types (symbols, heroes (people), rituals, values) of Chinese images, and the latter assisted in exposing textual landscape of Chinese images. The authors thus conduct a textual analysis and draw from previous work on these images.
Contingent on this classification, the study presents a panoramic view of Chinese images as a significant method to understand Chinese cultural and linguistic patterns. The study paves the way for future work such as the study of translation of Chinese images in Bian Cheng
Keywords: Bian Cheng, Chinese images, symbols, people, rituals, values, landscape