Examining China from the Perspective of the “other” -- Take the Videos of the Foreign Blogger "I am Jerry Kowal" on Bilibili as an Example

Abstract

In the current environment of actively advocating the telling of Chinese stories in China, with the rise of short video platforms of "we media", many foreign bloggers take this opportunity to share Chinese stories, show their eyes of China from the perspective of the "other", and arouse the attention and discussion of the majority of netizens through the comparison of cultural differences, becoming ambassadors of cross-cultural communication. This study selected "I am Jerry Kowal", a well-known foreign blogger on bilibili, a very representative short video platform in China, as the research object, and took 60 of the most representative videos from 2019 to 2022 as research samples. Coverter and Python tools were used to extract, convert, make statistics and analyze video text. Case study, content analysis, word frequency statistics and comparative analysis were adopted to analyze these texts, and in-depth discussion was conducted mainly from the aspects of theme and narrative strategy. Through the analysis and discussion of these texts, it is found that the blogger's short video themes are rich and diverse, which is closely related to Yunnan Coffee, and his emotional tendency is objective. He is good at highlighting cultural differences through the comparison between China and the United States, likes to experience various professions, is good at using data and facts, is good at making effective video summary, and has created his own unique memory points and innovation points. These can provide some inspiration for us to tell Chinese stories to a certain extent.