Narration and Negotiation between the Ego and the Other: An Exploration of Chinese and Western Documentary Narratives on Chinese Frontiers

Based on the analysis of Chinese frontier documentaries in the past 30 years, it is found that Chinese and Western documentaries jointly construct the discourse and image symbols of China's frontier through the representation of "the ego" and "the other" based on their own narrative intentions, and thus develop distinct narrative characteristics and aesthetic forms of the frontier. Chinese documentaries adopt the internal perspective and prose narrative structure, while western documentaries mainly adopt the external perspective and dramatic structure. In Chinese and Western documentaries, The Chinese frontier is respectively depicted as the overall image space and the reality space of the other. And the new Chinese frontier narrative urgently needs to improve the effectiveness of international communication, finds the wisdom and the way of negotiation of the other when it is re-examined from the anthropological perspective. Documentary is an important carrier to tell Chinese stories, Chinese documentary should construct its own discourse system, and show the pluralistic, real and vivid images of the frontier in the dialogue with "the other".