Russia's Media Image in Chinese Internet Memes

Abstract

The topic of the article is relevant due to the fact that, being fragments of Internet culture, Internet memes are created by users, combining their own ideas, behavior and performance in the Web 2.0 environment. The aim of the article is to identify Internet memes on Chinese information resources, depicting the image of Russia and its leader with the help of figurative and at the same time economical means, to determine the functions these memes perform, as well as the impact potential of memes. The objectives of the study include identifying the range of themes and issues for memes, their semantic content, tone, and means of expression. Тhe objectives also include the correlation of scientific approaches with the analysis of the phenomenon and the practical implementation of political memes, as well as showing the transformation of the media image of the country in different periods: from the USSR to the Russian Federation with the help of comparative analysis. The objectives also include identifying potential threats to the national identity of Russians. The examples were collected using the hashtags "Russia", "USSR" and "Putin" in the social network Sina Weibo and in the application Wechat, and also in the browser Baidu. The novelty of research is in the fact that the authors are not limited to the psycholinguistic tools of the study of Internet memes, but focus on the study of the structure of the created political images of Russia and on the functions they perform. The authors are interested in the creators of minimized texts, as well as in the ways memes spread. More than 100 memes became the basis for the study. Conclusions: a trend in the establishment of friendly relations between China and Russia has been identified. Memes depict generally positive experience of Russia and Vladimir Putin.