On September 2nd, 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced new regulations around banning ‘effeminate men’ from Chinese media. This was a new step in the crackdown on...Show moreOn September 2nd, 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced new regulations around banning ‘effeminate men’ from Chinese media. This was a new step in the crackdown on the Chinese entertainment industry. Two weeks later, on September 16th, the NRTA announced that danmei dramas, also known as dangai, would be boycotted from that moment on. Danmei is a genre mostly written by and for women, and it depicts a romantic relationship between men. Dangai is a drama or film adaptation of danmei novels. This thesis will be about the Chinese government’s recently changing views on gender roles due to the tightening of censorship policies on gender roles in Chinese historical dramas. The thesis will focus specifically on historical dramas since this is a genre with growing interest from a large audience all over the world that is now targeted by censorship.Show less
In this thesis, I have found that while China claims to remain neutral between Ukraine and Russia, China’s news media, "Xinhua News Agency" and "China Daily", seem to present a clear antagonist...Show moreIn this thesis, I have found that while China claims to remain neutral between Ukraine and Russia, China’s news media, "Xinhua News Agency" and "China Daily", seem to present a clear antagonist between the countries, namely the U.S. Through several discursive techniques, the two news organizations present the U.S. as a cunning actor that drags others into a ‘proxy war’.Show less
This research examines political narrative construction in Cross-Strait relations by analyzing Taiwanese and Chinese military videos on social media. Written amidst intensifying Cross-Strait...Show moreThis research examines political narrative construction in Cross-Strait relations by analyzing Taiwanese and Chinese military videos on social media. Written amidst intensifying Cross-Strait tensions, this thesis seeks to understand how such moving images can contribute to shaping narratives, specifically the interplay between military displays and their online representation. Through a comprehensive application of Multimodal Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotic Analysis, this study qualitatively deconstructs these videos, paying close attention to how language, power, and ideology intertwine within the scope of international relations. The findings suggest that these videos create distinct yet intertwined narratives of national strength and military readiness. While China’s narrative underscores the ‘Chinese Dream’ and ‘national reunification’, Taiwan’s narrative leans more towards its unique identity, self-determination and democratic values. Hence, this thesis highlights the fundamental role of social media in influencing diplomatic perceptions. It also provides new insights by analyzing Taiwan's strategic self-promotion, enhancing our comprehension of the island’s role in international relations. Lastly, this research reveals the rising influence of military diplomacy in the Cross-Strait context, paving the way for future research in this direction.Show less
This thesis compares the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Guided by various shot and sequence protocols and a relevant...Show moreThis thesis compares the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Guided by various shot and sequence protocols and a relevant literature study, this thesis shows that mass events like the Olympics are a way of legitimizing the Chinese Communist Party. Furthermore this thesis shows that the opening ceremony of 2022 was less nationalistic and more toned down than that of 2008 by focussing on and explaining some major topics like Covid-19, gender equality and political and cultural circumstances.Show less
For several decades, China has been an important trading partner for the Netherlands. However, growing concerns over the Chinese government’s human rights violations and the suspicion of Chinese...Show moreFor several decades, China has been an important trading partner for the Netherlands. However, growing concerns over the Chinese government’s human rights violations and the suspicion of Chinese espionage raises worries among Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Dutch House of Representatives (DHR). On top of that, as early as 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been added to the political agenda of the DHR. This major “discursive event” of COVID-19 can significantly change the discourse on China, impact Sino-Dutch relations, and the way China and the Chinese/Dutch-Chinese population is perceived in The Netherlands. In this study, I will answer the research question: “How is China framed in the plenary debates of the Dutch House of Representatives, and how have these China frames changed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic?”.Show less
In the People's Republic of China, the state takes a didactic approach towards the diffusion of media and forbids the depiction of homoerotic relationships on the big and small screen. Chinese web...Show moreIn the People's Republic of China, the state takes a didactic approach towards the diffusion of media and forbids the depiction of homoerotic relationships on the big and small screen. Chinese web series "The Untamed" (Chen Qing Ling 陈情令) however adapts a web novel containing an explicit homoerotic romance to public acclaim. This exploratory study examines how the directors of this series navigated government censorship and conveyed the homoerotic subtext between the two protagonists. In order to answer this, the thesis makes use of visual discourse analysis (divided into the layers of the image, the soundscape and the montage) on shot protocols as outlined as in Schneider (2012) while also building upon the theoretical frameworks of Van Leeuwen (1996; 2008), Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) and Iedema (2004). The analysis is contextualized by a literature review spanning the topics of the history of homosexuality in China, the importance of representation and television, homosexual representation in the Chinese media landscape to end with the topic of the state approach to media and censorship mechanisms of web series. The thesis concludes that the directors successfully depicted homoerotic subtext by using a wide range of audio-visual and narrative techniques while leaving enough space for deniability, which might bring about more adaptations of such materials and influence public opinion about homosexual individuals.Show less
Newspapers all around the world have been reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic very frequently. Every newspaper however, has constructed their own narrative on the crisis, as well as on how the...Show moreNewspapers all around the world have been reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic very frequently. Every newspaper however, has constructed their own narrative on the crisis, as well as on how the People's Republic of China dealt with it. This thesis will show how "The Guardian" and the "People's Daily" have each constructed their own distinct narratives on the COVID-19 epidemic in China.Show less
