China in the media, 11
The media repeatedly portrays China as a foreign exotic location. This exotic portrayal combined with the distillation of China into a few main trends - principally economic and political development - is indicative of a sort of modified Orientalism. Said's Orientalism indicates an Orient created by Occidental discourse which essentialized the mystic, sensual, foreign nature of the Orient.ยน This new-age media orientalism retains the sense of foreign. It also categorizes China as part of an Asian resurgence. This categorization alone acts to define Asia and China in oppositional relation to the West. In addition, the media essentializes China by focusing over-closely on stories of economic and political developments. China is first and foremost an economically developing nation which is both central to the global economy and in competition with Western powers. Secondly, China lacks key human rights which both deprive its citizens of universal human rights as defined by the West, and give it an organizational advantage in geo-economic affairs. Afterall, China is able to quell political dissent, focus on economic development and ignore calls for labour rights and sustainable development.
This new-age media Orientalism not only defines China in oppositional terms, it also leaves us with an impoverished discourse on China affairs. This in turn plays into greater media trends to both confirm and construct national identity and the national role within the international realm. Next we will turn briefly to these issues.
1 Edward Said, Orientalism: Wetsern Conceptions of the Orient, (New York: Penguin, 1978).