跨文化语境下的受众研究:中国观众对美剧解读的诠释学分析

Cross-Cultural Audience Reception: Hermeneutic Analysis of Chinese Audience’s Exposure to American Television Series

受众面对媒介的积极能动性已经得到了学界的认可。受众如何积极主动地解读媒介内容、其解读出来的内容与媒介所传递的原有内容有何不同成为值得研究的问题。本文从诠释学的角度,以中国观众的美剧观看体验为例,对上述问题进行了探讨。通过滚雪球的方法,笔者对20位自称'美剧迷'的中国观众进行了半开放式访谈。研究发现,受访的美剧迷对美剧的解读与他们各自在中国特定的文化和社会环境中所形成的视域(horizon)密不可分。本文还发现,受访的美剧迷的视域与美剧视域的相遇是一种批判式对话。如果遭遇一些完全与中国传统文化不相容的价值观(比如对长辈直呼其名),中国观众会自发地对美剧的视域进行批判式的接受,即对美剧传递的这些价值观表示理解,但拒绝将其纳入自己原有的视域当中。总而言之,美剧之于美剧迷不仅仅是一个娱乐媒介或英语学习工具,更是他们反思、审视、修正和坚守自己原有文化与传统,即原有视域的一种介质。

The active audience research focus has been widely recognized in many studies. But there are such questions which are still not fully explored as how audiences actively interpret the media content, what they absorb from the media, and how these interpreted contents are different from the original messages delivered by the media? From the perspective of hermeneutics, this paper explores Chinese audience’s TV viewing experience in response to the questions raised above. The snowball sampling is used to recruit twenty Chinese audience who self-claim as fans of American television series and the semistructured interviews are employed. This paper reveals that these interviewees’ interpretation of American television series is deeply rooted in their horizons which are fostered in specific cultural and social milieusin China. This paper also finds out that Chinese audience’s viewing of American television series was conducted in a critical way. If they encounter some values which are not compatible with Chinese values(for example calling the elders by their name),they will conduct the critical dialogue with American television series, which is showing their understanding of the American way but refuse to incorporate it into their own behavior. In general, American television series are more than a tool for entertainment and English learning;they are more like a medium by which Chinese audiences reflect on, re-examine, revise and maintain their original culture and traditions. To put differently, American television series are a medium for these audience’s original horizon.