Exploring the Visual Narrative Strategies of Chinese Cultural Image in Silk-Themed Reports by Japanese and Korean Media through Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Existing studies have not provided sufficient comparative and critical analysis of how Japanese and South Korean media construct Chinese cultural images through visual narratives. This study develops a multimodal discourse analysis framework to formally decode the visual grammar of Japanese and South Korean silk-themed reports, incorporating the symbolic semantics of traditional textile patterns and fabric textures to examine intermodal dynamics such as synergy and tension. By constructing strategy types that connect silk craftsmanship and garment aesthetics with historical memory and cultural identity, the study reveals the ideological basis of multimodal features in East Asian cultural expression. Experimental analysis shows significant differences between Japanese and South Korean media in the use of “aesthetic othering” and “competitive juxtaposition” as cultural-image construction strategies. In Japanese media, aesthetic othering accounts for 51.7% of strategies, while in South Korean media it accounts for 37.5%. Canonical correlation analysis further indicates that Japan’s aesthetic othering strategy is closely related to tensions between historical memory and visual characteristics, whereas South Korea’s competitive juxtaposition strategy is more closely associated with economic competition. The findings show how the two countries negotiate cultural images through differentiated visual strategies.