Abstract
Representations of Chinese orphans by U.S. print media and online adoption agencies were explored. Grounded on theoretical foundations of media representation (Grossberg, 1984; Miller, 1988; Severin & Tankard, 1997) and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997), findings revealed U.S. media constructed Chinese orphans as exotic, commodifiable, feminine, and inassimilable victims of their cultural and national origin. The inherent inferiority of "Chineseness" was legitimized through either the explicit representation of their prior suffering experiences as a China-born baby of a dysfunctional family or the romanticization of their journey to American families as a process of becoming civilized. Accordingly, the image of adopting white families was positively asserted as wealthy and educated philanthropists from the developed West. Ultimately, this study interrogated the macro-economic and political systems that support media representation of Chinese orphans in American society. Crucial implications were offered to re-shape current theoretical frameworks of media representation of "the other" as a dialectical process of articulation.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
44
Issue
2
First Page
119
Last Page
141
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Zhu, Zheng
(2012)
"Media Representation in "Shifting Contexts:" Saving the "Abandoned Child of Orient","
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 44:
No.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol44/iss2/3
Copyright
©2012 Iowa Communication Association
