A corpus-driven comparison of Chinese and American media representations of the Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2
Wei He
Shenzhen Campus of Jinan University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/pmcs.v8i2.14534
Keywords: corpus-driven discourse analysis; media discourse; film news; Chinese animation; cross-cultural representation; Ne Zha 2
Abstract
This article adopts a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach to analyze the representations of the Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 in one Chinese English-language media outlet (China Daily) and two U.S. media outlets (Deadline and Variety) between January and July 2025. The results show that Chinese and U.S. media share a consensus at the cognitive level, as both construct the film's meaning through dimensions such as box office performance, attributes of the animation industry, Chinese cultural resources, and markers of cultural identity. However, Chinese media are more inclined to present the film's commercial success through continuous quantitative indicators and industrial narratives, constructing Ne Zha 2 as a symbol of the development of China's animation industry and cultural confidence. By contrast, U.S. media place greater emphasis on evaluative and comparative language, positioning the film within the frameworks of the global animation market and transnational circulation, and highlighting its market performance and industrial significance as a non-Hollywood production, thereby displaying different discursive construction orientations.
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