Research Area A Framing Visions (A12)
Framing Visions of Self and Other: History, Television and the State in Contemporary China
Project Leader: Gotelind Müller-Saini
Historical television series, namely documentaries, have recently become a favourite format in Chinese state-directed media to present an officially sanctioned view of history. In contrast to the earlier self-centred preoccupation with Chinese history, the current upsurge of interest in foreign history is notable. Even when taking up Chinese history, this is now done with a view to China’s being part of world history, and one of the driving forces behind the designing of today’s historical presentations are cultural, economic and political asymmetries and their workings in the past and prospective future. Thus, the notions of Self and Other have undergone a substantial shift, and this project aimed at following up on these shifts by concentrating on three TV-documentary series to analyse the official framing of visions of Western, Soviet and Chinese history, the ends attached to this enterprise and its impact on shifting popular views of Self and Other in a medially transmitted global context.
The project's scope consisted in a sabbatical semester (6 months).