글로벌 미디어 콘텐츠의 중국 내 수용에 관한 연구 : 디즈니 실사영화 〈MuLan〉의 사례

초록

The live-action film "MuLan," produced by Walt Disney Pictures, a transnational media conglomerate, was not a huge success in the Chinese market. However, it gained more popularity in the West, winning multiple awards in several film festivals. Therefore, this study raises a question of why the live-action film "MuLan" that distributed in the global market get a sort of paradoxical reactions in the West and in its birthplace of stories, China. Based on such issues relating to global media and cultural phenomena, we analyzed this movie utilizing Chatman's 'narrative theory' in order to reveal the latent, as well as manifest meaning of the live-action film <MuLan>, and also analyzed the implications of the Chinese audience's acceptance patterns by conducting in-depth interviews. As a result of the narrative analysis and in-depth interviews, the live-action film <MuLan> seemed to appear to portray the Chinese culture more precisely, compared to Disney’s animation <Mulan> in the past. At the same time, it also shows that the film uses the Orientalist representation of Chinese culture in particular and Asian culture in general. Furthermore, the audiences tended to consider the elements of Chinese culture and tradition as ‘us,’ while excluding other elements as ‘others.’ Especially, by emphasizing a typical imagery of the traditional hero MuLan, they tended to express their loyalty to the country and also formed their own patriotic and nationalist sentiments. Hence, the issue of media representation of ‘us’ and ‘others’ may be critical in that it may lead to a oppressive nationalism in an era of globalization. Also, this issue calls for our attention and requires serious social dialogue surrounding the production and consumption of popular media contents.

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