Multimodal Discursive Interaction Approach to Regional Image Construction — Taking Anhui Image Promotion Video as an Example

Multimodal Discursive Interaction Approach to Regional Image Construction — Taking Anhui Image Promotion Video as an Example

Xiao Ling, Siwen Tang

School of Foreign Languages, Huainan Normal University, China  

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.9020183

Received: 01 February 2025; Accepted: 06 February 2025; Published: 10 March 2025

ABSTRACT

There are not many studies exploring the construction of Anhui’s image from a linguistic point of view, basically focusing on how to use linguistic modality to construct Anhui’s image, not to mention the studies related to the construction of multimodal discourse. Based on the macro-analytic framework of “three-dimensional-bidirectional”, which is the research path of discursive interaction, this study explores the multimodal discourse construction of Anhui’s regional image from the macro level of the three dimensions of diachrony, verticality and horizontality, using three Anhui image promotion videos as the corpus. It is found that in the construction of the regional image of Anhui over time, the green ecological discourse and the new development discourse are the main line, and at the same time interspersed with economic discourse and other diversified discourses, which show the beautiful image of “Splendid Anhui welcoming the world”, and are committed to the realization of the construction and dissemination of the multimodal discourse of the diversified Anhui region. It also provides a path for reflection and reference for the future production of promotion videos.

Keywords: multimodal Discourse Analysis, discursive interaction, discourse construction, regional image, promotion video

INTRODUCTION

Research Background

In recent years, the study of China’s regional image has attracted wide attention. Regional image refers to a region’s presentation that can cause people’s thought or emotional activity of a specific state or posture, which is the overall impression and comprehensive evaluation of the region by the public. It is also an important part of national image. The study of regional image first began with Lynch’s discussion of the concept of urban image and its constituent elements, and later scholars began to pay attention to the identification of “world cities” in the context of globalization, as well as the “shaping project” of cities, i.e., exploring the shaping and management of regional image from the perspectives of urban planning, marketing, management, regional economics, aesthetics, and communication among others. From the linguistic dimension, regional image construction not only explores how discourse characterizes the social reality of a region, but also pays attention to the outside world’s perception and evaluation of the construction of the region’s image. A good regional image discourse will largely determine the future overall development and sustainable development of the region, especially economic development and talent gain or loss, and a good regional image can bring a lot of economic and social benefits. For this reason, “regions at home and abroad not only make careful use of a specific (particularly influential) discourse, but also carefully select specific discursive construction strategies that they consider effective in constructing their image.” (He Shaoxian &You Zeshun, 2016: 108). Thus, the importance of discourse to regional image construction can be seen. In addition, in recent years, the research on regional image has not only stayed in a single linguistic level, but also begun to focus on the research from the perspective of multimodal discourse construction. Given this, this study will be based on the macro-analytical framework of “three-dimensional-bidirectional” as the path of discursive interaction(Tian Hailong, 2021a: 19), combined with the multimodal discourse characterization, and using three official image promotion videos of Anhui in different periods as the corpus, we will explore the multimodal construction of Anhui’s regional image over time, and also expand the inheritance and expansion of the construction of the regional image of Anhui.

Research objectives and research significance

As China continues to deepen Reform and Opening-Up and improve its overall national strength, strengthening the country’s soft power is crucial to international competition. Regional image, as a kind of intangible assets and strategic resources, plays an important role in regional “soft power”. In recent years, China’s regional image research has attracted much attention. As a key component of national image, the construction and dissemination of city image and even provincial image has gradually become a research focus. However, the existing researches mainly rely on the communication theory to analyze, and pay insufficient attention to the function of discourse in the construction of regional image. Some researchers have studied the linguistic and cognitive aspects of national or regional image promotion videos from the perspective of multimodal metaphor. In fact, discourse plays an important role in the construction and dissemination of regional image. Only by fully understanding “myself” in multimodal discursive interaction can we more accurately grasp the positioning of China’s regional self-development and find the focus of image self-shaping. Of course, with the development of new media, the discourse construction of regional image is no longer limited to a single language level. Information dissemination channels and interpersonal communication methods have changed dramatically, and multimodal representations have led to more diversified and in-depth discourse dissemination. Therefore, people begin to pay attention to the multimodal discourse construction of regional image. With the continuous development of technological networks, the way of constructing the image of the region has changed, and the all-around multimodal display provides new ways of constructing the meaning of the discourse, such as the path of constructing meaning triggered by the modes of vision and hearing. At present, the research on multimodal discourse construction of regional images is not enough, mainly based on visual grammar theory and multimodal metaphor theory. At present, as far as in-depth research is concerned, the current multimodal research on regional image is still limited to the level of static understanding and interpretation and has not yet paid attention to the evolution of regional image construction, that is, the research on the construction chain of regional image system. In terms of theoretical framework, the current multimodal construction of regional image mainly focuses on the visual grammar of systemic functional linguistics and the metaphorical transformation theory of cognitive linguistics, which mainly explores the discourse meaning and cognitive process of regional image construction through exploring the linguistic and nonlinguistic modes, and the research line needs to be further expanded.

Accordingly, this study will combine the characteristics of the region (Anhui), take the theoretical perspective and corpus selection as the entry point, and deeply explore the multimodal construction of the regional image of Anhui. For the multimodal construction of regional image, the discursive interaction in the study provides an important perspective, expanding the dialectical relationship between linguistic and social factors to the scope of the interaction of discourse modes with different modal representations, which not only reveals a new path for recognizing the characteristics and meanings of multimodal texts, but also provides theoretical support for explaining the characteristics of the discursive interaction and the mechanism of it as an internal driving force of social development. Subsequent studies could delve deeper into the micro level of multimodal discursive interaction.

As far as the significance of the research is concerned, this study will explore the research direction based on the new critical discourse analysis method—multimodal discursive interaction, study the multimodal discourse construction of the image of Anhui region, and devote to realizing the multimodal discourse construction and dissemination of the image of Anhui region in a diversified, optimized and dynamic way, so as to provide a new perspective for enhancing the cultural soft power of the region and promoting the development of the whole region. The breakthrough of this study lies in the construction of the image of Anhui by combining language, image and sound, breaking the language barrier, presenting a diversified image of modern Anhui, reducing the stereotypes of Anhui, and enhancing its symbolic significance. This “reproducing context” discourse not only interacts with today’s Anhui society, but also expands the discourse of image building and communication of the region with the support of the new era of converged media, enhances the communication status of the image of “Splendid Anhui welcoming the world”, and opens up new cognitive frameworks and psychological acceptance for the target audience.

Research content and Theoretical framework

Based on Tian Hailong’s “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis model (2021a: 19), this study analyzes its corpus, and takes multimodal discursive interaction analysis as the focus of the study to analyze the process of multimodal discursive interaction of Anhui’s image. The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of discursive interaction of Anhui’s regional image from a multimodal perspective, which can help readers to better understand the process of constructing Anhui’s regional image, and at the same time, to a certain extent, it can also lead to reflections on the shortcomings of Anhui’s publicity, and contribute to the production of more sophisticated promotion videos in the future in a modest way. The research contents include:

The first part is the introduction, in this part mainly introduces the purpose and significance of this research, as well as the research methods adopted in the research. Then it introduces the research materials used in this paper, including the overview of corpus and the analysis and introduction of the theoretical basis of core concepts: the multimodal discursive interaction analysis framework based on the “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis model lays the theoretical foundation and research path for the research of this topic.

The second part is to analyze and sort out the academic research in related fields, to find out the limitations and shortcomings of the current research in related fields, to discover the perspectives that this paper can start from, and to specify what this paper does and how it does it. The third part is the specific research content. The fourth part is the conclusions drawn from the study.

The corpus of this study consists of the promotion video “An Open China: Splendid Anhui welcoming the world”, which was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to promote Anhui globally, the promotion video for the image of Anhui’s culture and tourism—”Beautiful Anhui welcoming the world”, and the promotion video for the theme of the extraordinary achievements of Anhui—”Beautiful Anhui moving forward” (hereinafter referred to as “Splendid Anhui”, “Welcoming the world”, and “Moving forward”, respectively, in the order mentioned above). “Splendid Anhui” is an image promotion video of Anhui officially launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MFA) at the Global Promotion of Anhui in April 2017, which mainly introduces the beautiful scenery, famous mountains and rivers, history and culture, economic development and scientific and technological innovations of Anhui, and demonstrates the long history and cultural traditions of Anhui and the breathtaking natural scenery, and at the same time, builds up a new image of the scientific and technological innovations, and economic development of Anhui. “Welcoming the world” is a 2020 tourism image promotion video launched by Anhui Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, using eight words to succinctly summarize the characteristics of some of the cities in Anhui to create a city image business card for the purpose of publicity. The promotion video “Moving forward”, released by China’s Anhui Online website, showcases the extraordinary achievements of Anhui over the past decade against the backdrop of an exhibition on the theme of “Advancing into a New Era”. The movie tells the story of Anhui’s efforts to build a better Anhui by adhering to the development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, development and sharing. These three promotion videos coincidentally use multimodal discourse symbols such as sound, picture and image, highlighting the uniqueness of Anhui’s regional image, using high-end filming techniques, with picture and sound, bringing the viewers an audio-visual feast, demonstrating Anhui’s traditional culture and modern development, historical heritage and scientific and technological innovation of the region’s charms at the same time. Meanwhile, they also write a new chapter in the modernization of the construction of a strong economy and an excellent environment.

Simply put, the multimodal discursive interaction analysis framework is a combination of multimodal discourse analysis and discursive interaction analysis. In the field of critical discourse studies, “discourse” represents a social practice in which there is a dialectical relationship between the forms of language use (e.g., texts and corpora) and the social factors associated with language use (e.g., power relations, ideology, agency, identity) (Tian Hailong, 2021b: 13). Based on this, the concept of “discursive interaction” refers to the interactions and influences that social agents in different spheres of activity in a network of social practices have with each other through the use of language (e.g., the use of language in the context of a social practice) (Tian Hailong, 2021b: 13). The research path of discursive interaction analysis, on the other hand, is embodied in the “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis model. That is, discursive interaction is a complex process in social networks. Firstly, discursive interaction is not a static, flat, well-defined discourse-to-discourse connection, but a three-dimensional interactive process. Because society is hierarchical, and there is a hierarchical relationship between social subjects, which leads to a hierarchical relationship between discourses, the discursive interactions in this case belong to the “vertical discursive interaction”. When the discourses of social subjects interact, they are on an equal footing, and the discursive interaction is a “horizontal discursive interaction”. When the discourse of a certain time period in the past interacts with the discourse of the present, it is called the “diachronic discursive interaction”. In addition, on the three-dimensional perspective, the discursive interaction in any dimension is not one-way, but two-way. For example, in vertical discursive interactions, there are “top-down” discursive interactions in which higher classes issue directives to lower classes to enforce norms, as well as “bottom-up” discursive interactions in which lower classes challenge and resist higher classes. In horizontal discursive interactions, there are discursive interactions in which the discourse in the field of scientific activity permeates the field of business activity, and there are also discursive interactions in which the activities in the business field permeate the field of scientific activity. In diachronic discursive interactions, there are discursive interactions in which the discourse of the “past” influences the discourse of the “present”, and there are also discursive interactions in which the discourse of the “present” influences the discourse of the “past”. To sum up, the research path of discursive interaction is three-dimensional and bidirectional (Figure 1). In addition, discourse analysis is basically based on a single text, and in a specific social network, there are a variety of non-linguistic modes (such as images, music, colors, etc.). In multimodal discourse analysis, it is no longer limited to the analysis of a single text, but combines language use with other non-linguistic modes (such as images, music, colors, etc.) to form a more comprehensive analysis framework. To summarize, the multimodal discursive interaction analysis framework is based on the “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis framework, expanding the use of language, adding non-verbal modalities, and integrating them with language and other related meaning resources, so as to make the interpretation of discourse meanings more comprehensive and more accurate.

This study will use a multimodal discursive interaction analysis framework to analyze three Anhui image promotion videos. It is basically divided into two steps. Firstly, we will combine the subtitles, images, and soundtracks of the three promotion videos to identify their main discourses and subcategories of construction. This is the foundation on which all subsequent analysis will be based. Secondly, from the three dimensions of diachronic, vertical and horizontal, combined with multimodal representation, the research analyzes how to construct Anhui regional image. For example, analyzing from the perspective of diachronic analysis, what kind of discourses are used in each of the three videos to reflect the evolution of the historical development of Anhui’s regional image (identifying the discourses appearing in each video that can reflect the time of history and analyzing the connection between them), and also reflecting the bidirectional discursive interactions that the discourses of the past have an impact on the discourses of the present; From the vertical dimension, the three promotion videos show whether there is discourse at a higher level (discourse at different social levels), whether the discourse has influence on the discourse at a lower level and what kind of influence it has. Meanwhile, whether the discourse at a lower level has resistance and challenge to the discourse at a higher level is a two-way discursive interaction; From the horizontal dimension analysis, whether the three promotion videos are in the field of equal society (discourse at the same social level), whether different discourse subcategories in the field of equal society form a hybrid discourse subcategory across fields (that is, whether the discourse in the promotion videos at the same level interact to form a hybrid discourse). At the same time, whether there is a two-way discursive interaction of interpenetration and mutual influence.

Fig. 1 “Three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis model

Source from: Tian Hailong. “Critical Discourse Studies: A New Approach to Discursive Interaction” (2021-03-05). https://link.cnki.net/doi/10.16263/j.cnki.23-1071/h.2021.02.002

Research method and research path

Literature research method: Focusing on the research topic of this paper, we look for relevant information through multiple channels and methods, sort out the concepts and practices of discursive interaction analysis paths and multimodal discourse analysis paths at home and abroad, and make use of the “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis framework to make clear its deficiencies (the use of the language of such a framework analysis is relatively homogeneous), so that we can try to analyze the promotion videos in-depth from the multimodal discourse characterization mode. The method mainly provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the multimodal discursive interaction construction path of regional image promotion videos, which serves as a logical starting point for analyzing the discursive interaction construction of promotion videos and lays a foundation for further research.

Comparative survey method: According to the three Anhui regional image promotion videos, find out their common discourse and different discourses, and conduct comparative analysis of the discourses from the three dimensions of diachronic, vertical, and horizontal, in order to find out their connections, commonalities, and characteristics, as well as to analyze whether there is any interaction between their discourses such as two-way interaction. Understanding the commonalities and differences provides readers with new perspectives for interpreting Anhui’s regional image promotion videos, enabling a better understanding of Anhui’s image, and also providing certain ideas for the subsequent production of more sophisticated promotion videos.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Regional image construction studies

Previous regional image discourse studies have mostly discussed the image of a single city and regarded the image as a pre-determined socio-material existence (the attributes of the city itself), and have seldom dealt with the image of the region, which is broader than the city, let alone regarded the image of the region as a dynamic image that is constructed in the process of interacting with the discourse and changing continuously (Yuan Zhoumin, 2018: 54).That is to say, they have neglected the interaction between the discourse construction of the city’s image and the development of the society. With the transformation from structuralism to constructivism, especially under the influence of deconstruction and postmodernism, regional images and even national images are regarded as dynamic discourse representations constructed and constantly changing in the process of discursive interaction. The content, form, process and power relations of discourse can determine the direction, strategy, opportunity and even success of urban development, because discourse and development are organically linked and inseparable (Shi Xu, 2008: 33). As Xin bin (2016: 10) states, “Language and its use are both socially determined and socially constructed”. Related ideas such as Foucault’s “Discourse constructs social reality.” (van Dijk, 1993: 107); “Discourse and society are mutually constructed, and there is a dialectical interaction between them.” (Fairclough, 1992: 64), which also provide a theoretical basis for scholars to dig deeply into the interactive relationship between regional image and social change at the micro level, and inspires many scholars to explore the research on discourse and regional image construction.

Multimodal discourse analysis

In the 1990s, cross-modal discourse analysis emerged in the West, absorbing the idea of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) about “language as a social signifier and the potentiality of meaning,” and arguing that non-verbal symbols are also a source of meaning (Zhu Yongsheng, 2007: 85). Barthes explores the communication and collaboration between images and language (Roland Barthes, 1977: 77). Kress and van Leeuwen applied the idea of functional grammar to image analysis and constructed three levels of visual grammar, corresponding to Halliday’s three meta-functions respectively (2006: 5). Royce investigated the interaction of images and language in public advertising and the synergy of different modes (2007: 31). Later, the scope of research has gradually expanded to include teaching materials, sound, movement and gesture, multimodal teaching, etc.

Domestic academics have not paid much attention to the research on Anhui image, mainly exploring the construction of Anhui image and related strategies from the perspectives of media reports, network communication, integrated communication of cultural and industrial resources, and visual applications (Gao Lina, 2020: 41). For example, Zhang Xiangping (2012: 33) explores the image building of Anhui from the perspective of media strategy, discussing the theoretical basis, bottlenecks, and effective media initiatives of the media in shaping the regional image; Combined with the unique communication law of network media, Wang Hui puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions for shaping the network image of “beautiful Anhui”. In addition, there are few studies on the image construction of Anhui from the perspective of linguistics. For example, Zuo Yanna takes the tourism column of the English version of the Anhui People’s Government website and the text of the website of the Anhui Provincial Tourism Bureau as the corpus, takes systemic functional linguistics as the theoretical framework, adopts the method of critical discourse analysis, and takes the high-frequency words, index lines, and clusters of words as the research paths to explore the international image of Anhui tourism in the discourse of the new media (2018: 87).

The studies mentioned above on Anhui image from the perspective of linguistics are mainly concerned with how to use linguistic modes to construct Anhui image, and there are few studies on the multimodal discourse construction of regional image. Based on the above, this study will explore the multimodal construction process of Anhui regional image from the perspective of multimodal discourse construction in combination with the corpus of three promotion videos. First of all, from the perspective of research, this study will learn from Tian Hailong’s “three-dimensional-bidirectional” macro analysis framework, and from the diachronic, vertical and horizontal three dimensions to analyze three Anhui image promotion videos in-depth (2021a: 19). Secondly, in terms of corpus selection, this study is not limited to a single promotion video corpus, but combines three promotion videos of different periods as corpus to dig into the relationship between the three fragments and how they construct Anhui image to better understand the process of Anhui regional image construction.

MULTIMODAL CONSTRUCTION PATH: DISCURSIVE INTERACTION

Summarizing the three promotion videos respectively, it can be found that the promotion video of “Splendid Anhui” mainly contains the following words: Natural scenery discourse: Display Anhui’s natural beauty, such as magnificent mountains, famous rivers, beautiful lakes, etc., highlighting Anhui’s unique natural scenery and ecological environment. Historical and cultural discourse: Emphasize the long historical and cultural tradition of Anhui, show the rich historical relics, traditional architecture and cultural landscapes, such as Mount Huang, Huizhou architecture, ancient villages in southern Anhui, etc., and highlight the long cultural heritage of Anhui. Economic development discourse: Showcase Anhui’s achievements and progress in economic development and highlight Anhui’s status as one of the important economic regions in the country, showcase modern cities, industrial parks, etc., and reflect the vitality and development potential of Anhui’s economy. Discourse on humanities and customs: Showing the rich and colorful folk culture and local characteristics of Anhui, such as folk-art performances, traditional festivals and celebrations, etc., vividly displaying the living customs and cultural traditions of the people of Anhui. Ecological environment discourse: highlighting Anhui’s achievements and efforts in ecological environment protection, showcasing ecological gardens, green agriculture, etc., emphasizing Anhui’s concern for and protection of the ecological environment. Together, they present an image of Anhui as a region with rich culture, beautiful natural landscapes and a vibrant economy. “Moving forward” focuses on the development and changes of Anhui Province, including the following words: Discourse on economic development: to show the development achievements of Anhui Province in the economic field, which may include the development of industry, agriculture, science and technology. Natural scenery discourse: Anhui Province’s magnificent mountains and rivers, unique geographical features and rich natural resources. Cultural inheritance discourse: to show the long history and culture of Anhui Province, including traditional arts, folk customs and other contents, as well as the protection and inheritance of cultural traditions. Future outlook discourse: looking forward to the future development direction and goals of Anhui Province, inspiring people to work together and strive for a better tomorrow. These contents are accompanied by beautiful images and inspiring music, creating a positive and hopeful atmosphere. The key discourses of “Welcoming the world” include the following: Natural Scenery Discourse: Showcasing the unique natural scenery of Anhui, including famous scenic spots such as Mount Huang and Hongcun, as well as the mountains and rivers of Anhui. Humanities and History Discourse: Introduces the long history and culture of Anhui, including ancient relics, historical buildings, traditional festivals, etc., and demonstrates the deep cultural heritage of Anhui. Territorial Tourism Discourse: Emphasizes that Anhui is a territorial tourism destination worth exploring by tourists, and promotes tourism resources and special attractions in various parts of Anhui.

The research path of “discursive interaction” is embodied in the “three-dimensional-bidirectional” analysis model on a macro level, which shows the overall picture of discursive interaction (Tian Hailong, 2021a: 19). Through a comprehensive analysis of the three promotion videos, it can be found that new development discourse, cultural discourse, green ecological discourse and economic discourse run through them and become the main topics of Anhui regional image construction. From the visual dimension, the scenes of modern buildings, green ecological environment and vibrant people frequently appear in the picture show the image of Anhui’s rapid rise under the guidance of the new development concept; At the same time, through the display of rich historical and cultural heritage, folk customs and local characteristics, Anhui presents the profound cultural deposits and diversified cultural charm. In terms of language dimension, the narration of the promotion video mostly uses passionate tones and positive words, emphasizing the development potential and vitality of Anhui in the new era, and highlighting its achievements and prospects in green ecological construction, cultural inheritance and economic development. Through the comprehensive analysis of pictures, images and language, we can clearly see the construction and publicity of Anhui regional image in discursive interaction, providing readers with a multi-dimensional understanding path, so that they can more comprehensively understand and perceive the image and characteristics of Anhui.

Multimodal Diachronic Discursive Interaction

Overall diachronic development of discourse: From the perspective of diachronic discursive interaction, these three promotion videos skillfully combined the expression techniques of multimodal integration such as text, music and pictures, and presented the historical development process of Anhui region through the ages. Together, these elements form a three-dimensional and vivid picture showing the colorful historical evolution of Anhui. In terms of text narration, the promotion video reveals the important role of Anhui in different historical periods by telling historical stories, cultural inheritance and development achievements, highlighting its profound historical and cultural accumulation. The choice of music not only creates atmosphere, but also adds emotional depth, introducing the audience to different historical situations and feeling the glory and vicissitudes of Anhui’s past. The presentation of the picture is a three-dimensional display of the historical development of Anhui region. The ancient Hui-style architecture, the scenery of Hongcun, the scenes on both sides of the Huai River, and the prosperity of the modern city are shown through the lens, allowing the audience to visually experience the evolution of Anhui from ancient times to the present day. For example, “Splendid Anhui” reflects the dynamic representation of Anhui’s historical discourse, from the existence of the ancestors of the ancient Huangshan generation going out to do business to the representation mode of modern urban residents living in peace and contentment, and from the representation mode of the collision between the cultural heritage of ancient villages in southern Anhui and the construction achievements of modern Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center in “Moving forward”. In addition, “Moving forward” focuses on the extraordinary development of Anhui’s regional economy, science and technology innovation since the 18th CPC National Congress, and under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the change in Anhui’s energy, position, innovation and atmosphere has never been seen before, which also reflects the dynamic representation of historical discourse. The way all three are constructed suggests that this is a historical interaction that constructs the past and influences the future in social practice. Table 1 shows the specific distribution of discourse subcategories of diachronic interactive multimodal construction model.

Table 1 Construction Model Of Historical Interactive Discourse

Diachronic Development of Cultural Discourse: From the diachronic development of Anhui region’s cultural discourse, we can find that “Splendid Anhui” and “Moving forward” both reflect the collision contrast between the splendid ancient civilization and the vigorous vitality of modern life in Anhui region. For example, from the language level, “As early as the 16^th century, the ancestors living in the Huangshan area began to go out for business.” “Tofu was invented by a vassal in Anhui more than 2,000 years ago.” To “home appliances and automobile exports for many years ranked first in China”, “Anhui is leading in science and technology today, and Hefei has become a comprehensive national science center after Shanghai” and so on; On the image level, there are Hui-style architecture with the spirit of mountain scenery and the essence of customs and culture, as well as high-rise buildings with the development of modern science and technology and the rapid development of economy. In addition, “Moving forward” focuses on publicizing the extraordinary development of Anhui in the past decade, based on the national “the Belt and Road Initiative”, playing the role of an important node of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and an important hinterland of the national strategy for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and becoming an important support for the high-quality development of the central region in the new era. “Splendid Anhui” is a promotion video of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Anhui. It not only shows Anhui’s strong cultural heritage and solid foundation for economic development, but also profoundly demonstrates the diachronic development process of Anhui from the visual and linguistic levels, fully embodies the influence of “past discourse” on the construction of “present discourse”. It is a diachronic discursive interaction. It is beneficial to expand Anhui’s good regional image construction and communication channels. In “Welcoming the world”, the humanistic history of Anhui is vividly displayed through carefully selected historical images and textual descriptions. This presentation emphasizes the combination of visual and textual information in order to enhance the effect of information delivery and the viewer’s sensibility. The historical images of different periods not only show the rich historical and cultural heritage of Anhui, but also allow the audience to visualize the characteristics and changes of each historical period through these specific visual elements. In addition, the selection and presentation of historical images reflects the influence of “past discourse” on “present discourse”. The display of historical culture is not only a review of the past, but also a tool for shaping realistic discourse, which helps modern audiences understand and evaluate the current cultural identity and social values. By showing these images, the movie conveys the message that Anhui’s present is based on a deep historical and cultural foundation, and that these historical discourses have a profound impact on current social development and cultural self-awareness. This kind of display not only deepens people’s understanding of Anhui’s history and culture, but also inspires a sense of pride in local history and culture, and promotes cultural inheritance and development.

Fig. 2 “Splendid Anhui” (left) “Moving forward” (right)

Source/from:/https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ox411S77R/(2017.04.14);/https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1At4y1u7Gn/(2022.10.22)

The diachronic development of cultural heritage discourse: From the diachronic development of the cultural heritage discourse in Anhui region, it can be found that the two promotion videos “Splendid Anhui” and “Welcoming the world” introduced Huizhou culture, Wan river culture and Huai river culture respectively according to the geographical order (as shown in Figure 3), forming a clear context to construct the regional cultural image of Anhui. “Historical and cultural heritage is a symbolic representation with distinctive personality and wide influence, and cultural heritage rich in regional color is a symbol of the soft power of regional image” (Zhao Yunxue, 2015: 77). For example, “Splendid Anhui” and “Welcoming the world”, introduce the background of Anhui’s famous mountains and rivers, while also highlight the unique scenery of Mountain Huang and the multicultural elements such as the world-famous Anhui merchants and the Huai River Valley culture, which is the cradle of Taoist thinking. At the same time, these two videos adopt more ambitious and concise vocabulary at the language level, in order to better convey their themes and messages, and make it easier for the audience to understand and accept the contents shown in the videos, such as “The Cradle of Chinese Four Treasure of Study: Poetic Xuancheng,” “The Hometown of Sages, Pharmaceutical Capital Bozhou,” and so on, which successfully realize the precise dissemination of the characteristics of the region by means of concise and poetic language. The use of these words is not only linguistically concise and clear, but also has a certain literary context, which can arouse the audience’s empathy and interest, and enhance the communication effect of the regional image. At the same time, this kind of precise communication also helps to enhance the popularity and image of the region, attracting more people to pay attention to and visit the region. Focusing on the potential of modern innovation in Anhui, “Moving forward” demonstrates the two-way influence of “discourses of the past” and “discourses of the present”. By showcasing Anhui’s contemporary innovative achievements and development prospects, the video not only shows the reality of the present, but also links this reality to past historical developments, presenting a path of continuity and development. In this process, the “past discourse” influences the direction and concept of current development through reflection and summarization of history, while the “present discourse” continues to shape and influence the understanding and evaluation of the past. This two-way influence is reflected in the video’s emphasis on modern topics such as innovation and technological development, but also through the presentation of Anhui’s history and culture, which links this modernization and development with traditional culture, expressing a sense of respect for the past and confidence in the future. This two-way influence is presented in such a way that the audience, while enjoying the movie, thinks more deeply about the history and direction of development in the Anhui region, providing historical support and cultural underpinnings for the current development. All in all, these three promotion videos show viewers the long-lasting cultural heritage of Anhui Province against the backdrop of its rich natural resources of good mountains and rivers, through a multimodal display of text, sound and images. They highlight the multi-cultural nature of the Anhui region, not only showcasing the long history of traditional culture, but also presenting the achievements of modernization and the vision of future development. This multidimensional display not only attracts the audience’s attention, but also conveys expectations and confidence in the bright future of Anhui.

Fig. 3 “Splendid Anhui”(top left and below) “Welcoming the world”(top right)

Source/from:/https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ox411S77R/(2017.04.14);/https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1wT4y1V7s8/ (2020.04.19)

Multimodal Vertical Discursive Interaction

Overall Vertical Discursive Interaction Construction: From the perspective of vertical discursive interaction, green ecology and new development are the themes of Anhui’s regional image construction. Anhui not only attaches importance to the promotion of its beautiful landscape resources, but also actively implements the new development concept to accelerate the pace of the construction of beautiful Anhui. Based on the quantitative statistics of keywords in “Splendid Anhui”, it is found that the words about green ecology and new development account for 66% of the total key words. The total length of the images involving green ecology and new development is more than 4 minutes, accounting for half of the video length. In “Moving forward”, 64.3% of the keywords are related to the construction of the new development discourse, and the cumulative duration of the images is more than one minute, accounting for 42% of the total length of the video. In “Welcoming the world”, in terms of constructing the discourse of green ecology, keywords accounted for 80.8% of the total, and the cumulative duration of the images was more than half a minute, accounting for 80% of the total length of the video. Details are given in table 2.

Table 2 Distribution Of Green Ecology And New Development Discourse

Concrete Vertical Discursive Interaction Construction: The “Splendid Anhui” is a promotion video produced as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) campaign to promote Anhui globally in 2017. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a higher level and from a higher standpoint, connects different discourses in a multimodal format to build an image of a beautiful Anhui with a green ecology and a new development concept. The “Moving forward” and “Welcoming the world” are promotion videos produced by Anhui Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism from the perspective of spreading the word about Anhui, accepting the guidance of high-level departments on the regional image of Anhui, and then combining the characteristics of the region’s multiculturalism. Among them, the new development discourse in “Splendid Anhui” has a certain guiding significance to the construction of Anhui regional image in the two promotion videos. In this sense, this level is a vertical discursive interaction. In addition, in May 2017, the Office of the Chinese Leading Group issued “Jointly Building the Belt and Road: Concept, Practice and China’s Contribution”, which aroused positive response and support across the country. This kind of “the Belt and Road” discourse from a higher level not only has a wide influence in the country, but also affects the discourse choice in various regions. For example, in “Splendid Anhui”, it is mentioned that Anhui has actively integrated into the national strategy of “the Belt and Road”, accelerated extensive exchanges and in-depth cooperation with other countries around the world, and endeavored to build a new inland opening up high ground. In “Moving forward”, it is also pointed out that Anhui today has been deeply integrated into the “the Belt and Road”, showing the development trend of vigor and strong momentum. This “top-down” vertical discursive interaction not only reflects the role of national policies in guiding local development, but also highlights the positive response and efforts of regions in the national strategy. In September 2020, The State Council approved the overall plan for the Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone, including the establishment of Hefei and other pilot free trade zones. This decision reflects the vertical discursive interaction emphasized in the “Moving forward” and shows the country’s active exploration and forward spirit in economic reform and opening up. Moreover, the discourses of innovation and green development mentioned in “Splendid Anhui” and “Moving forward” echo the new development concept put forward by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18^th CPC Central Committee. This echo not only reflects the adherence to policy ideas, but also shows the influence of high-level discourse on low-level discourse. In these two works, by emphasizing innovation and green development, the importance of the CPC’s new development concept is conveyed to the audience, prompting people to pay more attention to environmental protection and scientific and technological innovation in practice, thus promoting the economic and social development of Anhui province to be more sustainable and prosperous. As mentioned in “Moving forward” that “Today’s Anhui is deeply integrated into ‘the Belt and Road’.”. Influenced by Anhui’s active integration into “the Belt and Road” mentioned in the “Splendid Anhui”, which plays a leading role, it is not only a “top-down” vertical discursive interaction, but also reflects the diachronic interaction between “past discourse” and “present discourse”.

Fig.4 “Moving forward” (left), “Splendid Anhui” (middle), “Welcoming the world” (right)

Source/from:https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ox411S77R/(2022.10.22);.https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1At4y1u7Gn/(2017.04.14); https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1wT4y1V7s8/(2020.04.19)

Multimodal Horizontal Discursive Interaction

A Discourse Subclass Of Multimodal Discourse Construction: “When the activity fields of social subjects are in a relatively equal relationship with each other, then the interaction between the discourses of social subjects is ‘horizontal discursive interaction’.” (Tian Hailong, 2021a: 19). Based on this, this part will only discuss the horizontal discursive interaction between the two promotion videos “Moving forward” and “Welcoming the world”, which belong to the same level. Table 3 shows the subcategories of multimodal discourse construction for two promotion videos.

Table 3 Multimodal Discourse Construction Subcategories

Note: √ represents the subcategory of discourse construction that occurs.

Horizontal Discursive Interaction Of Discourse Subcategories: In terms of horizontal discursive interaction, both “Moving forward” and “Welcoming the world” take the new development discourse as the main line, interspersed with different discourse subcategories such as economic discourse, innovation discourse, historical and cultural discourse, etc., respectively, and through the multimodal forms of representations such as images, soundtracks, and texts, multimodal horizontal discursive interactions across the domains of the different discourse subcategories are formally realized. Specifically, “Moving forward” focuses on the development history of Anhui Province and its development strategy in the new era, showing the economic take-off and modernization achievements through economic discourse; innovation discourse highlights Anhui’s efforts and achievements in scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading; and historical and cultural discourse shows Anhui’s long historical and cultural traditions as well as its rich humanistic resources. In contrast, “Welcoming the world” focuses more on the image building and regional characteristics of Anhui Province. It also demonstrates the vitality and development potential of Anhui’s economy through economic discourse, innovation discourse highlights Anhui’s efforts and achievements in scientific and technological innovation and industrial development, and historical and cultural discourse emphasizes Anhui’s profound historical and cultural heritage and local characteristics. Through this multimodal horizontal discursive interaction, these two promotion videos formally enriched the means of content expression, enabling viewers to have a more comprehensive understanding of Anhui’s development achievements and regional characteristics in the new era. For example, “Moving forward” focuses on development as a whole, proposing a variety of hybrid discourse subcategories such as history and culture, green ecology, innovation and economy, and constructing an image of Anhui as a region with a bright ancient civilization and a vibrant modern civilization through multimodal representations at both the linguistic and non-linguistic levels. This discursive construction resonates to a certain extent with the discursive construction of “Welcoming the world”, which is a multimodal horizontal discursive interaction between the two subjects, namely, the image of Anhui as a region with a collection of famous mountains, beautiful rivers, rich humanities, and striving for development. This kind of horizontal discursive interaction does show a colorful image of Anhui in “Moving forward” and “Welcoming the world”. Through a variety of hybrid discourse subcategories, these two works not only demonstrate the brilliance of Anhui’s ancient civilization, but also present the vitality and development of modern civilization. This resonance is deepened through multimodal forms of representation at both the verbal and non-verbal levels, presenting the audience with a colorful image of Anhui that embodies development, innovation, and the mingling and transmission of history and culture. In addition, the green ecological discourse and the economic discourse are intertwined, reflecting the close and inseparable relationship between them. For example, the video describes green as the most attractive color in Anhui, highlighting the efforts and achievements of Anhui in ecological environmental protection. At the same time, it emphasizes that Anhui is striving to write a new chapter in the construction of a strong economy and an excellent environment, demonstrating the close relationship between economic development and environmental protection in the process of Anhui’s development. This interpenetrating expression not only shows Anhui’s firm determination in green development, but also highlights the concept of harmonious development of green and economy.

CONCLUSIONS

This study, starting with the research on the multimodal discursive interaction path, discusses the multimodal discursive interaction construction path of Anhui regional image from diachronic, vertical and horizontal dimensions based on the corpus of three Anhui image promotion videos. On the whole, in the diachronic construction process of Anhui regional image, the green ecological discourse of good mountains and rivers and the discourse of vibrant development prospects are the main line. At the same time, various promotion videos are also interspersed with historical and cultural discourse, economic discourse and other diverse discourses, breaking through the restrictions of a single language text. The use of non-linguistic level (picture, music, etc.) multimodal representation forms to jointly build the regional image of “Splendid Anhui welcoming the world”, make its image more comprehensive and colorful, and also help to discover more Anhui image symbols to keep up with The Times in the future. In addition, judging from the corpus of the three Anhui promotion videos alone, the image construction of the region of Anhui has not well captured and amplified its advantages, nor has it completely clarified the connection between its tourism promotion points (the promotion videos have a sense of division), resulting in the promotional features not being prominent, and the content not being attractive enough to the audience. But as President Xi Jinping said, Anhui is a good place. Ancient civilization is brilliant here, and modern life is full of vitality. I hope Anhui will be seen by more people in the future.

It is found that discursive interaction provides an important perspective for the multimodal construction of regional images, expands the dialectical relationship between linguistic factors and social factors to the category of discourse mode interaction represented by multiple modes, and not only provides a new interpretation direction for multimodal discourse features and meanings. It also provides theoretical support for explaining the characteristics of discursive interaction and its mechanism as the internal driving force of social development. It provides a reference for further research from the micro-level of multimodal discursive interaction. In addition, in terms of the important carrier of regional image construction (promotion videos), in the process of exploring the multimodal discursive interaction path of regional image, it can also reflect on its own shortcomings, and to a certain extent, make up for the shortcomings of future well-made promotion videos.

Note:- This study was supported by the Philosophy and Social Science Fund of Universities in Anhui Province (2023AH010052) and the Science Fund of Huainan Normal University (2023XJZD011).

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