Abstract
Thirty years have passed since China began to reform and open its door to the Western world. In this span striking changes influenced by the global economy have occurred. In 2001 the Chinese Central Government expressed an affirmative attitude toward a new social group referred to as the “middle class” by many. Various images of the “middle class” have appeared in Chinese media. Many of these images are under the influence of foreign media texts, such as movies, TV dramas, advertisements, and books, etc. This article focuses on this phenomenon and analyzes why Chinese media tends to use foreign texts and how Chinese media chooses certain foreign images to construct the Chinese “middle class”. This report aims to clarify how the media has constructed images of the Chinese “middle class” in the global age. At the same time, this article will explore the transnational character of Chinese “middle class” media images.
