Chinanews, Shanghai, Dec. 5 – China may no longer regard "dragon" as its image symbol. Shanghai has started up a new research aiming to rebuild China's national image brand and display it to the world. The project is headed by professor Wu Youfu, Party secretary of Shanghai International Studies University and vice-chairman of Shanghai Public Relations Association.
Since the ancient time, it has been generally recognized by both Chinese and foreigners that dragon represents the image of China, Shanghai Morning Post reported. And Chinese normally feel proud for being "dragon's offspring".
Dragon, however, is considered as a tyrannous and aggressive buster in the West. Therefore it is easy to create an untrue image of China in the minds of those knowing little about the history and culture of the nation.
As the localization of the views of "dragon" tends to result in misunderstanding or intentional distortion, Professor Wu suggests that China's national images can vary depending on space and time. Both Chinese historical factors and up-to-date features should be taken into consideration, as well as different cultural traits and religious backgrounds of various ethnic groups and regions.
According to Wu, to rebuild the image symbol of China, it is essential to publicize, investigate, and interpret many Chinese historical genre paintings with the feature of realism, such as "Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Prosperity" and "Riverside Scene on the Qingming Festival", so as to find out the contents of Chinese culture and Chinese people's inherent concepts in pursuing the good and auspicious.
When the research project is completed, the new image symbol of China may be adopted by related departments of the nation.