Leiden University Student Repository

Vermeulen, Jill (2020)

Comparing images of the SARS and COVID-19 virus in People’s Republic China

Bachelor thesis | Chinastudies (BA)

The statement “a picture tells a thousand words” is pretty often used.I want to find out if there is real value in this statement. In this thesis I will discuss the representations of images of the SARS and COVID-19 virus in People’s Republic of China (PRC). Images help us learn, images grab attention and they are helping to explain tough concept. That is why I think it is interesting to take a look at the representations of images of SARS and COVID-19. In this context I speak about images that are directly related to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or are at least have been approved by it. In my research I will focus on two time periodes. 2002-2003, the time of the SARS virus outbreak and 2020, the year of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. I will analyze images from both time periodes to investigate if the images show similarities in representing the virus or have changed over time and I will try to analyze why this is the case.

SARS

COVID-19

propaganda

representation

media management

Author

Vermeulen, Jill

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Chinastudies

Supervisors

Schneider, Florian

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en