Zhang Chunbo, New Media and Old Order: China's Image on YouTube, World Affairs Press, February 2014

As globalization progresses, cross-cultural communication has been given unprecedented attention. Diverse communication channels are now used as channels for national soft power, from relatively traditional means like film to new social media online.

YouTube, the most popular video-sharing website, is a leading example of cross-cultural communication.

It could be regarded as a virtual melting pot where all kinds of cultures are mixed. This affects the national image of the cultures involved.

Responding to the demand to improve China's national image, Chinese scholars are starting to focus on this website. New Media and Old Order: China's Image on YouTube, written by Zhang Chunbo, a lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University, gives a systematic and enlightening analysis of this field.

This is not a text aimed at a general readership or the people who just want to have a smattering of knowledge. It is an academic book in the field of communication studies for readers who want to dig into the issue.

The backbone theory of the book is Jamaican-born British theorist Stuart Hall's ideas of cultural representation, and from the perspective of cultural circle, the author selects sample videos from YouTube, which are all related to China, and offers an elaborative analysis of their characteristics.

This book can be roughly divided into two parts. The first part is an exploration of how YouTube, a new media company, is managed and how its organization and technological platform will influence external cultures, such as Chinese culture.

Then the focus of the book shifts to the sample videos, which are studied in-depth, such as the video producers and information source.

Besides Hall's cultural representation, the author combines political theories in the analysis, and creates multiple paradigms for the different Chinese images.

Among the paradigms, the author tries to explore the interactions between China's image and mainstream US voices on China.

The book also offers constructive strategies to deal with the impact caused by negative publicity.

The book argues that YouTube, though a free video-sharing platform in which everyone can join, is becoming a frontline where the confrontation of ideologies is getting intense. Shaping China's image is actually turning into a contest between China and the Western powers.

To some extent, YouTube is becoming a battlefield where both China and the Western countries are competing for a bigger voice.

This is of great political significance because YouTube and any other new media are gradually playing the role of a weather vane in the global political situation.

There is no doubt that so far China does not have the upper hand in this competition. But the country has become fully aware that building a good image in the international community is critical.

Given the still emerging new media, China should take this opportunity to reshape its image.