China’s ‘CivilOlympic’ Performances and (Re)gained Global Visibility

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_5514
dc.title	China’s ‘CivilOlympic’ Performances and (Re)gained Global Visibility. Fantasising about a New Brand China through Olympic Public Service Announcements
dc.contributor.author	Puppin Giovanna
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2021/1/chinas-civilolympic-performances-and-regained-glob/
dc.description.abstract	This article investigates how China fantasised about itself and the Beijing 2008 Olympics through the award-winning TV public service announcements (PSAs) of the Beijing Opera Series, with a focus on visibility. By drawing on theories of the spectacle, I perform a semiotic analysis of the most recurrent signs, organising them according to the main themes that emerge. The theatre stage – which represents the Olympic stage – is closely linked to China’s dream of owning the Games and its desire for global visibility. The performance includes the theatrical performance of the Beijing Opera and the performance of civilisation, which semiotically over-determines the Games. The protagonists include famous actors and roles of Beijing Opera (i.e. Dan, who is an anthropomorphic metaphor for China), as well as ordinary people, who are extraordinary for their high degree of civilisation. The spectators, especially through the intradiegetic presence of a Western male Other, validate the country’s performative success and confirm its achieved global visibility.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 57 \| June 2021
dc.issued	2021-06-30
dc.dateAccepted	2021-06-11
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-02-04
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-3042
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/01/018
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Beijing 2008
dc.subject	Beijing 2008
dc.subject	Brand China
dc.subject	Brand China
dc.subject	China’s national image
dc.subject	China’s national image
dc.subject	Civilisation
dc.subject	Civilisation
dc.subject	Global visibility
dc.subject	Global visibility
dc.subject	Olympic spectacle
dc.subject	Olympic spectacle
dc.subject	Public service advertising
dc.subject	Public service advertising

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Fantasising about a New Brand China through Olympic Public Service Announcements

Giovanna Puppin Università di Genova, Italia

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abstract

This article investigates how China fantasised about itself and the Beijing 2008 Olympics through the award-winning TV public service announcements (PSAs) of the Beijing Opera Series, with a focus on visibility. By drawing on theories of the spectacle, I perform a semiotic analysis of the most recurrent signs, organising them according to the main themes that emerge. The theatre stage – which represents the Olympic stage – is closely linked to China’s dream of owning the Games and its desire for global visibility. The performance includes the theatrical performance of the Beijing Opera and the performance of civilisation, which semiotically over-determines the Games. The protagonists include famous actors and roles of Beijing Opera (i.e. Dan, who is an anthropomorphic metaphor for China), as well as ordinary people, who are extraordinary for their high degree of civilisation. The spectators, especially through the intradiegetic presence of a Western male Other, validate the country’s performative success and confirm its achieved global visibility.

Published

June 30, 2021

Accepted

June 11, 2021

Submitted

Feb. 4, 2021

Language

Keywords: Olympic spectacle • Civilisation • Brand China • Public service advertising • China’s national image • Global visibility • Beijing 2008

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/01/018

Copyright: © 2021 Giovanna Puppin. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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