Representations of China on YouTube: A Visual Semiotic Analysis of Organic Placemaking Videos

Abstract: Understanding how China is represented on international social media, such as YouTube, is potentially important for the success of China as a tourist destination. However, a study of how China is represented on YouTube by independent users has not been done. Given the unique circumstances of how Chinese people are banned from using YouTube, it is a site of destination placemaking and discourse that is largely dominated by international visitors and residents. This disparity in power to represent the destination organically is potentially problematic, and thus a social semiotic analysis is done in the following study to illuminate some of the dominant modes, metafunctions, and ideologies of placemaking found in such placemaking practices. Identifying these conventions of representation allowed for eight visual modes to be identified as being characteristic of this placemaking genre performed by expats. Of the 23 videos that each had over 10,000 views that were returned from the YouTube search query of “How is China”, the vast majority were made by expats. Analyzing the semantics and syntax of the videos lead to an interpretation of the ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions of their placemaking performances. This analysis of these multimodal documents should allow for greater insight into how China is represented and co-constructed on YouTube.