Constructing the image of Europe in post-reform China: Chinese media reportage of Europe since 1978

The landmark ‘reform and opening-up’ policy launched in 1978 by the Chinese government preluded the country’s transformation into an economic superpower and opened a new chapter in the history of its intricate relations with external actors. The inpouring of information from the West, previously blocked by the decade-long Cultural Revolution (1966-76), offered the Chinese public new and sometimes conflicting perspectives to see the world, including Europe. Both official and popular discourses on Europe have undergone continuous changes in China since the reform, adapting to the evolving domestic circumstances and China’s view of its position in the global arena. Such discursive changes are manifested in media reportage of Europe in the post-reform era, during which Chinese news media, albeit remaining under tight state control, have gone through drastic institutional, technological and ideological evolutions. In a time when political and academic debates over Sino-European relations and their respective global repositioning are heating up, this study intends to provide a historical analysis of the image of Europe in China’s post-reform media discourse and the media practice through which such an image is constructed.

The analysis will be based on a variety of primary sources including media reportage samples, archival documents, internal communications, and interviews with journalists and other media stakeholders. The sources will be retrieved from four prominent Chinese media, among which two are state-run and conservative, the other two marketised and liberal. The envisaged results of this project will contribute to the historical scholarship on contemporary Sino-European relations and the external perceptions of Europe, while offering practical insights to European stakeholders who deal with Chinese media. The researcher works on this project as PhD fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO).