Translation as Image Crafting: Strategic Multimodal Highlighting in the Representation of Hangzhou’s Image

Abstract

This article investigates how bilingual city promotional videos function as soft power instruments through strategic multimodal highlighting. Focusing on Hangzhou as a case study, it adopts a multimodal critical discourse analysis framework that integrates Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2021) visual grammar, van Leeuwen’s (1999) auditory semiotics, and Krifka’s (2008) information focus notion. The study examines how visual, verbal, and auditory elements are selectively deployed in the Chinese and English videos to construct ideologically nuanced city images. It highlights translation not merely as linguistic transfer, but as ideological mediation shaped by audience orientation and geopolitical intent. By contextualising these multimodal strategies within China’s state-led communication system, the article demonstrates how city branding becomes embedded in broader soft power practices. This research contributes to the interdisciplinary field of translation and communication studies by offering a theoretically grounded account of how multilingual promotional materials convey political intent through semiotic choices tailored to domestic and international audiences.