Contemporary views of China have naturally been shaped through the events over the past one-hundred and fifty years. China’s image within Western media has oscillated from semi-colonized nation to hated enemy to amicable sympathizer to heated adversary, and while its position has improved in recent years, it is no surprise that media hesitates to deviate from antiquated thoughts about China. Antiquated in the sense that Western media uses the most easily recognizable characteristics – i.e. communism, censorship, corruption – to give western readers a definition for “Chinese” identity. While discussing journalistic tendencies towards China, Punkaj Mishra states that many journalists are setting the writing standards far too low.
At their [journalists] most thoughtful, they might speculate about the timetable for the introduction of Western style “democracy” in China.
Not surprisingly, their writings reveal very little about how most Chinese live or see themselves and the world, but very much about how certain ideological assumptions and prejudices of the ‘West,’ so strengthened by its supposed victory in the Cold War, have overwhelmed many journalists in Britain and America.67
Clearly, events of the past still warp writers’ views on China. The articles that they publish into mainstream media continue to represent a view of China that comes from a lack of understanding about the country. Subsequently, viewers reading these articles are creating equally biased opinions because of the influence mainstream media has on them.
67 Pankaj Mishra. “Foreword.” Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land. Edited by Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California Press, 2012, p. xi.
The following portion of this research will, first, take BBC English edition’s China front-page stories and BBC Chinese edition’s front-front-page stories and compare the topics, headlines, and photographs chosen. The second set of research will follow the same format as the first, but will depict the escalating US-China conflict during the years between late-2018 and mid-2020 from both languages perspective and how misrepresentations of China and Chinese culture led to increased discrimination during the global COVID-19 crisis.
The following first group of photos show a general inclination of the BBC English homepage to prefer stories with negative representations toward China. The selection of these stories conforms to Theo Hermans’ concept of Normativity since it can be safely conjectured that the English edition and Chinese edition of the BBC are targeted toward different audiences.
Their range of stories will likewise differ for the expectations of each social group and if we take said range of possible stories journalist and translators have to translate into English, we will see, more likely than not, the choices made conform to a historically established image of China. This image plays further into Western national agendas of making China an enemy and ensuring a dominant Western sphere of influence and power. Also, in line with Hermans’ research, journalists selecting these stories for translation are also under pressure from their agency to ensure a steady stream of viewership. Traditional norms then fuel the need for stories which complement them. This vicious cycle continues over and over, purposefully engraining deeper a misrepresentation and misconstruction of China and Chinese culture for Western audiences to involuntary, and in some cases voluntarily, absorb.
Pre- and Early 2018 Media Depictions
The ways in which information is presented on the BBC homepages represents a deliberate act of translatory selection. When writing about news translation in her co-authored book Translation in Global News, Susan Bassnett states, “The assembly of a newspaper follows the same pattern as that identified by Tymoczko and Gentzler for translation: it is a deliberate and conscious act of selection, involving the structuring, assembling, and fabricating of information into a format that will satisfy the expectations of readers.”68 The discussion of the following four figures will examine their position within the BBC English and Chinese
homepages to give evidence to their overt positioning of China as an enemy. Each of the figures will also help to establish the media atmosphere concerning China prior to the US-China Trade War beginning mid-2018.
[Figure 9]69, [Figure 10]70, [Figure 11]71, and [figure 12]72 show both the Chinese and English versions of the BBC’s front pages on four different dates. The topics between the English and Chinese front-pages differ to suit the needs of the reading audience. The English versions have a pattern of selecting stories that represent the modern stereotypical view of China as purely economic, boasting in nature, and in opposition to the West. A selection of these topics use what Stuart Hall calls an intentional approach of representation.73 In the intentional
approach, the author uses his or her own language to reflect their own ideas on the world. In this
68 Esperanca Bielsa and Susan Bassnett. “Power, language, and translation.” Translation in Global News. Routledge:
New York, 2009, p. 13-14.
69 See [figure 9].
70 See [figure 10].
71 See [figure 11].
72 See [figure 12].
73 Stuart Hall. “Introduction.” Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. edited by Stuart Hall, Sage Publications, 1997, p. 25.
case, as the author works for a larger company, the BBC, the author is then, overtly, expressing the beliefs for the organization as a whole. This directly ties into Andre Lefevere’s two factors of a translation system: 1) the professionals and 2) the patronage. Of course, the responsibility of representing meaning does not solely lie with the professionals, but more importantly, with how the readers apply meaning to what they read. The patterns of topics throughout these four front-pages, then, impose a bias that readers covertly absorb – a bias that superficially represents the elements of China that the West fears and scorns the most. On the other hand, what is depicted in the Chinese versions of the text, while, at times, can be seen as anti-Western, portrays the
cultural aspects of China. An advantage the BBC Chinese version is that it moves away from the Western-centered view on China and allows for a China-centered view on topics directly related to it. Another benefit to the Chinese version is that it does not need to follow the same censorship restrictions as news coming directly from China.
[Figure 9]’s cover story is, “China show off large amphibious plane.” Under the cover
story is an article about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Almost two decades after the incident western news media still finds it necessary to remind viewers of the catastrophic event that shaped contemporary views on China. The publication date of this article is of importance as well – December 23rd. For all intents and purposes, an unremarkable day. If the article were published on June 4th -- the anniversary of Tiananmen -- it would serve as a reminder of the event, but here it serves solely as subjective representation. The story next to Tiananmen we can see the words “fear” and “Chinese” used within the same sentence, sending a clear message to readers. The Chinese front-page for the same date only displays the article about the amphibious plane in common, but even this article is titled much more objectively. The Chinese states, “鯤龍 首飛：中國國產兩栖飛機用途是什麽.“ Roughly translated, the titles states, “The Aquatic
Dragon’s First Flight: What are the uses for China’s amphibious aircraft.” This title attempts to bring into question the uses of such a large amphibious aircraft from an objective standpoint, as opposed to using presenting an insincere tone.
[figure 9] “BBC English and Chinese Versions: China Front Page.” BBC News World: Asia, China, 25 December, 2017, accessed 25 December, 2017, screenshot by Vadim Rubin,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia/china.
On the other hand, the cover story for the Chinese version describes elementary school students rallying against celebrating Western holidays. Titled, “聖誕到來：中國小學生卻在喊
‘拒絕洋節,’“ (Christmas is almost here: Elementary students are calling for a refusal of Western Holidays?) the sentiment is inherently anti-Western. The information being provided is from within Chinese elementary schools encouraging students to celebrate traditional Chinese holidays. The article has more to do with celebrating the religious aspects of Christmas, not allowed under the Communist party. This view comes from within China and allows readers to explore aspects of Chinese society not represented in the English version of the BBC. This article strives to present information from a China-centered perspective, as opposed to seeing it as an outsider as Paul Cohen states in his book Discovering History of China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past. As he states, one of the overarching characteristics of how
the West views China originates from a Western-dominated tradition.74 History has
predominantly been written by Western countries and, of course, a Western perspective. This history poses threats to cohesion between these two parts of the world because of the inherent bias through which the West understands China.
Associate Professor of Anthropology, F. Allan Hanson, coincides with Cohen’s Western-centric ideology. While Hanson’s perspective comes from the position of an anthropologist and not a sinologist like Cohen, his theories about evaluative relativism share many similarities with Cohen. Hanson lays bare five points for judging other cultures.
74 Paul Cohen. Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past. Columbia University Press, New York, 1984.
1. All evaluations or judgements that men make are made according to standards.
2. Such standards, and hence their derivative judgements, may vary in different cultures.
3. Therefore there exist no standards (of truth, beauty, goodness, humor, and so on) which are valid for all men at all times and all places.
4. Therefore we should refrain from judging the truth, beauty, goodness, humor, etc. of acts and artifacts in other cultures according to our standards.
5a. We should refrain entirely from judging what happens in other cultures.
5b. We should judge what happens in another culture according to the standards of that culture.75
We can see that the English homepage’s headline story, “China shows off large amphibious plane,” does exactly what Hanson strives for all cultures to avoid; however, the news we see pertaining to China inherently places judgements from the perspective of the West. Hanson also goes on to say that the only judgements which people should make should come from within that judged culture. Articles liked “聖誕到來：中國小學生卻在喊‘拒絕洋節,’“ (Christmas is almost here: Elementary students are calling for a refusal of Western Holidays?), if translated and appropriated within the English BBC website, would help to bring the Western populace one step closer toward a fundamental understanding of what it means to be Chinese.
The cover story in [Figure 10]’s English version is titled, “Trump accuses China of allowing N Korea oil.” Trump says China was caught “red-handed” (not sure if the pun is
75 F. Allan Hanson. “Judging Other Cultures.” Meaning in Culture. Routledge, New York, p. 28.
intended) breaking UN sanctions. If we consider Chomsky’s fifth filter of Mass Media, “The Common Enemy,” this headline combines, arguably, the two countries with which the United States is most at odds. This headline manages to combine three nations together in an accusatory standoff – “Leader of the Free World” vs. Communism. The article further stereotypes China as the culprit for any wrongdoings in Asia. Stuart Hall breaks down the roll of stereotyping and signifying practices into four categories: “(a) the construction of ‘otherness’ and exclusion; (b) stereotyping and power; (c) the role of fantasy; and (d) fetishism.”76 The accusation against China furthers Hall’s points (a) and (b). The article effectively creates an Us vs. Them mentality by signaling out China as the sole reason for N. Korea’s acquisition of oil and effectively
supporting another communist regime. Point (b) coincides with the idea that
translation may also involve more sinister forms of textual manipulation that they term falsification and refusal of information…a translator can add to a text or, perhaps a more frequent act, leave out parts of it.” “The strategy of omission, which is extremely
common, effectively prevents target readers from ever having full access to the source.77 As we will see in the Chinese version of this story, the information portrays a completely different picture of the North Korean oil issue.
76 Stuart Hall and Sean Nixon. “The Spectacle of ‘Other.’” Representation, ed. 2. Sage: L.A., 2013, p. 247.
77 Esperanca Bielsa and Susan Bassnett. “Power, language, and translation.” Translation in Global News. Routledge:
New York, 2009, p. 7-8.
[figure 10] “BBC English and Chinese Version: China Front Page.” BBC News World: Asia, China, 31 December, 2017, accessed 31 December, 2017, screenshot by Vadim Rubin,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia/china.
On the Chinese BBC homepage, the article pertaining to the smuggling of oil to North Korea appears below the main story. It similarly discusses the smuggling of oil into North Korea mentioned on the English homepage; however, the Chinese version article investigates in detail as to whether the ships smuggling oil are from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Russia. The article is titled, “朝鮮石油走私：中港台還是俄國的船隻之謎” (North Korean smuggling of
petroleum: the riddle of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Russia’s ships). The stark contrast
between the two stories is blatantly clear. While the English version makes a direct attack toward China, the Chinese article, about the same issue, takes a broader look at the issue of stolen
petroleum. The Chinese article immediately begs the question in the headline if any of the four mentioned countries supplied North Korea with oil. The stark omission of information between the Chinese and English version of the story reaffirms the idea of power within translation.
While the English version attempts to only serve the needs of the Western populace by pushing China further to the periphery, the Chinese news article provides an in-depth analysis of the possibilities of numerous countries involvement in the issue.
The cover story of [figure 10] reports on a topicdissimilar to its English counterpart. The article, titled “尼泊爾珠峰新禁令爲何被指 ‘歧視殘疾人’” (Why new restrictions at Nepal’s Mt. Everest are being called discriminatory toward those with handicaps), is a piece about the new restrictions about climbing Mt. Everest and their discrimination toward people with
handicaps. The article goes into detail about numerous people with disabilities around Asia who have climbed mountains with elevations over 5000 meters and their disapproving disappointment of the new regulations. It provides a perspective of Asia which most people rarely care to pay any mind and while the English version of the BBC does report on this story, it does not appear any on the homepage of the English page.
In the English version of [Figure 11] the cover story describes the long-disputed Senkaku islands that are politically fought over between China and Japan and is titled “China warship sails near disputed islands.” The quarrel between Japan and China particularly affects the West because of the alliance between western powers and Japan. If China were to intervene militarily to lands claimed by Japan, western powers may be required to act. We see again the fear of Western interests being invaded by an “enemy.”
[figure 11] “BBC English and Chinese Version: China Front Page.” BBC News World: Asia, China, 12 January, 2018, accessed 12 January, 2018, screenshot by Vadim Rubin, http://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia/china.
Ironically, the Chinese cover story discusses the possibility of increasing diplomatic visits between Taiwan and America. Taiwan carries a significant meaning for people within China since they view Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China. Accordingly, friendly relations with Taiwan may have larger repercussions for America than the island disputes with Japan, but the English version chooses to leave Taiwan out. This is most likely due to a large portion of the American population not knowing of Taiwan's existence, let alone America's diplomatic ties with Taiwan; however, understanding the history and politics of Taiwan plays a large part in understanding China and Chinese culture. Choosing to omit it from the English cover page furthers ignorance of understanding.
[Figure 12] features the cover story of the Sanchi oil tanker that crashed off the shore of
China, titled “Bodies found in tanker search off China.” Like figures 9 -11, [figure 12] also features a cover story where China is presented front and center. Each of the figures contain the word ‘China’ associated with being presumptuous or encroaching on political rights; however, this article now creates a link between China and corpses. The article itself discusses how Chinese workers are making “100% effort” to save all passengers aboard the ship. Even though the ship itself was sailing from Iran to South Korea, this did not stop the article from labeling the disaster as the “China tanker fire.”78
78 BBC. “China Tanker Fire: Bodies found as Sanchi burns, one week on.”
[figure 12] “BBC English and Chinese Version: China Front Page.” BBC News World: Asia, China, 14 January, 2018, accessed 14 January, 2018, screenshot by Vadim Rubin, http://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia/china.
Under the cover story, there is another article about human rights violation, this time with a Catholic priest being detained. Within a two-week span, two reports were written about
Chinese citizens detained. The repetition of similar stories about China creates an impression for
readers that these are the most important stories happening in China without giving any other alternatives. Repetition of the established negative representation of China only works further to solidify the national image the West has of China. Continued exposure to recurring stereotypes leads to a ‘regime of representation.’79 Within this regime, the target race and culture finds itself being repressed by another group of people, typically those who wish to do the target culture harm or place themselves into a higher position of power.
In contrast to the English cover story, the Chinese cover story, titled “淘寶網被列美國黑 名單 阿里巴巴指 貿易保護,” (Taobao gets placed on America’s black list, Alibaba receives American trade protection) is an article discussing America’s blacklisting of Taobao, one of the largest online markets in China, and Alibaba’s continued support in the American market. While Alibaba is a well-known brand across the world, with a stock price of USD$253.92 per share on the New York Stock Exchange (higher than even Microsoft – USD$203.97 per share)80, Taobao remains a mystery to many Americans. If English news sources could further examine China-based companies such as Taobao, it may give western readers more of an idea as to how to formulate China in their own vision.
The images represented above have set the stage for what will become the most turbulent years between East – West relations since the post-World War II Cold War. The reason I find it
The images represented above have set the stage for what will become the most turbulent years between East – West relations since the post-World War II Cold War. The reason I find it