Chapter 3: Legitimate Controversy: China as a Civilisation
Portions of Chapter 3 appeared as ‘Two Faces of Confucianism: Narrative Construction of Cross-cultural Imagery’, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 30, No. 2 (2004).
This chapter examines the broad features of representations of China as a civilisation in TV documentaries and discusses the assumptions and values constructed by charting their different portrayals. The analysis focuses on two topics, those of Confucianism and the Opium War. Confucianism represents a defining feature of Chinese civilisation and its portrayal reflects how China is perceived as a different cultural tradition. The Opium War, on the other hand, represents a critical moment of Sino-Western conflict; its reporting reveals perceptions of cultural identities of both China and the West. By selecting these conflicting representations as an analytical focus the chapter aims to demonstrate the complexities of images of China as a civilisation…
