纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英Why Chinese Propaganda Loves Foreign Travel Bloggers
August 1, 2024 2 min 328 words
纽约时报这篇报道的主要内容是：中国官方鼓励外国旅游博主在社交媒体上分享他们在中国的积极体验，以提升中国在国际社会的形象，这是一种宣传手段。报道引用了几个外国博主的例子，他们在中国旅行并分享自己的经历，获得了大量关注和赞誉。作者认为这些博主是中国政府“精心策划的宣传活动”的一部分，目的是展示一个“精心策划充满活力现代化的中国形象”。 评论：纽约时报这篇报道有其偏见和误导性。首先，报道以带有贬义色彩的“宣传”一词来描述中国鼓励外国博主分享在中国的体验，而无视这些博主的经历是真实的，他们表达的观点是自己的。其次，报道忽视了西方国家也经常通过各种方式提升国家形象的努力，例如公关广告电影等。第三，报道没有探讨外国博主为什么能在中国获得大量关注，这其实是中国民众对外国民众抛弃偏见友好交流的渴望。最后，报道没有提到中国官方也在努力促进中外人文交流，增进相互理解和友谊。这篇报道反映了西方媒体对中国的常见偏见，即认为中国政府控制一切，不允许自由言论，而忽略了中国在促进中外友好交流方面做出的努力和取得的成就。
Spend some time browsing YouTube or Instagram and you might come across a growing new genre: China travel vlogs.
There’s the American who made a four-hour “vlogumentary” about eating dumplings in Shanghai. There’s the German traveler marveling at how quickly China’s bullet trains accelerate. There’s a British couple admiring colorful traditional clothing in the far western region of Xinjiang. All have hundreds of thousands of views.
The videos are even more popular on Chinese social media. YouTube and Instagram are banned in China, but Chinese users have found ways to reshare them to Chinese sites, to avid followings. The bloggers have been interviewed by Chinese state media and their experiences promoted with trending hashtags such as “Foreign tourists have become our internet spokespeople.”
The emergence of these videos reflects the return of foreign travelers to China after the country isolated itself for three years during the Covid pandemic. The government has introduced a slew of visa-free policies to attract more tourists. Travel bloggers have leaped at the chance to see a country to which they previously had limited access.
But for China, the videos do more than help stimulate its economy. They are a chance for Beijing to hit back at what it calls an anti-China narrative in the West. China in recent years has encouraged locals to treat foreigners as potential spies; expanded its surveillance state; and expelled or arrested journalists at Chinese and foreign media outlets. But it points to the carefree travel videos as proof — from Westerners — that criticisms about those issues are manufactured.
“Overseas audiences find that through these videos, they see a real, fast-developing China that differs from the one under the mainstream narrative in the West,” said one article in The Global Times, a Communist Party-controlled tabloid.