The Chinese Narrative of Eco-Civilization Construction from the Perspective of New Media

In today’s interweaving of globalization and digitalization, the landscape of information dissemination has undergone fundamental changes, bringing new opportunities and challenges for telling the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction from the perspective of new media. When the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” [1]1 “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” is a well-known slogan of Xi Jinping’s ecological thought, emphasizing the economic value of environmental protection. has become a consensus across society, how to make the grand narrative of eco-civilization construction effectively reach people’s hearts becomes a key proposition. In the increasingly fragmented, visual, and interactive field of new media, only by grasping the laws of new media communication, innovating narrative methods, and strengthening emotional connections can the grand concept of eco-civilization be transformed into a three-dimensional narrative scene that is perceptible, participatory, and resonant, thereby telling China’s environmental story well, disseminating environmental knowledge, mobilizing public participation, and amplifying China’s voice in the global public opinion arena.

在全球化与数字化交织的今天，信息传播的格局已经发生根本性变革，为新媒体视域下讲述生态文明建设的“中国故事”带来了全新机遇与挑战。当“绿水青山就是金山银山”的理念成为全社会共识，如何使生态文明建设的宏大叙事有效触达人心，成为关键命题。在日益碎片化、视觉化与互动化的新媒体场域中，唯有把握新媒体传播规律、创新叙事方式、强化情感联结，才能将宏大的生态文明理念转化为可感知、可参与、可共鸣的立体化叙事场景，从而在全球舆论场中讲好中国环境故事、传播环境知识、动员公众参与、扩大中国声音。

Diversification of Narrative Subjects

叙事主体的多元化

Eco-civilization communication often falls into the trap of policy advocacy by a single subject, which is not only limited by time, space, and forms of dissemination but also pushes the public into the position of passive recipients due to the rigor of its discourse system, failing to achieve ideal communication effects. New media, however, possesses characteristics such as immediacy, interactivity, and extensiveness, breaking the traditional communication form of a single narrative subject, deconstructing the grand national narrative into countless tangible, perceptible individual life experiences. This makes the public no longer passive receivers of information but participants in information dissemination through comments, reposts, likes, and other means, greatly enhancing the effectiveness of information dissemination. For example, after nine years, the “Ant Forest” [2]2 Ant Forest is a gamified green initiative on the Alipay platform where users earn “green energy” points through low-carbon activities to support real tree planting in arid regions. ecological public welfare project has funded the planting of 619 million trees across the country, with over 90% planted in the core areas of the three major landmark battles of the “Three-North” Shelterbelt Program [3]3 The “Three-North” Shelterbelt Program is a large-scale afforestation project launched in 1978 to combat desertification in northwest, north, and northeast China.. When new media platforms shift the protagonist of the story from abstract policy texts to individuals who have personally participated in or benefited from ecological changes, the reconstruction of information dissemination rights makes the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction more compelling.

生态文明传播常陷于单一主体的政策宣导，不仅受到时间、空间和传播形式限制，其话语体系的严谨性也将公众推到被动接受的客体位置，无法达到理想的传播效果。而新媒体具有即时性、互动性、广泛性等特点，打破了传统单一叙述主题的传播形态，将宏大的国家叙事拆解为无数个可触摸、可感知的个体生活经验，使得公众不再是被动的信息接收者，而是可以通过评论、转发、点赞等方式成为信息传播的参与者，极大地提高了信息传播的效果。例如，历经9年，“蚂蚁森林”生态公益项目已在全国各地捐资种下6.19亿棵树，其中九成以上种在“三北”工程三大标志性战役的核心地区。当新媒体平台让讲述故事的主角从抽象的政策文本转变为亲身参与或受益于生态变迁的个体时，信息传播权利的重构让生态文明建设的“中国故事”更具感染力。

At the same time, active environmental experts and key opinion leaders in self-media play an important role as “knowledge translators” in eco-civilization construction. Academic terms such as “carbon neutrality,” “carbon sinks,” “biodiversity conservation,” and “ecological restoration projects” are interpreted by KOLs, transforming abstruse scientific knowledge into accessible, everyday metaphors, allowing ecological protection awareness to subtly change public behavior. When environmental projects appear before the public in a “personified” form, sharing anecdotes from surveys, anxieties over overcoming technical difficulties, and the emotion of species returning in the first person, audiences unconsciously understand and identify with the policy intentions and national will behind these ecological and environmental protection stories.

与此同时，自媒体中活跃的环保专家、行业关键意见领袖在生态文明建设中扮演着“知识翻译官”的重要角色。“碳中和”“碳汇”“生物多样性保护”“生态修复工程”等学术名词经过KOL的解读，将艰涩的科学知识转化为通俗易懂的生活化比喻，让生态保护意识潜移默化改变大众的行为。当环保项目以“人格化”的形态出现在公众眼前，以“我”的形态分享勘测中的趣闻、攻克技术难关的焦虑、物种回归的感动，观众也会在无形中理解和认同这些生态环保故事背后的政策意图和国家意志。

Integration of Narrative Forms

叙事形态的融合化

New media technologies provide diversified and intelligent channels for telling the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction. More people are sharing and exchanging information through platforms such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, as well as TikTok and YouTube, and the mode of information dissemination has undergone profound changes. If telling the story of eco-civilization construction relies solely on traditional media, it is difficult to penetrate people’s increasingly fragmented attention. Through forms such as short videos, live streaming, and interactive topics, the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction reaches more audiences in a lighter, more intuitive way. Among these, micro-documentaries and short videos, with their characteristics of “strong visuals, fast pace, and deep focus,” have become the main force for showcasing ecological changes and the power of life.

新媒体技术为讲述生态文明建设的“中国故事”提供了多样化、智能化的渠道。更多的人开始通过微博、小红书、抖音以及TikTok、YouTube等平台分享、交流信息，信息的传播方式已然发生深刻变革。讲述生态文明建设故事若仅依赖传统媒介，很难穿透人们日益碎片化的注意力，而通过短视频、直播、互动话题等形式，生态文明建设的“中国故事”则以更轻盈、更直观的方式触达更多受众。其中，微纪录片和短视频以其“强视觉、快节奏、深聚焦”的特性，成为展现生态变迁与生命力量的主力。

On May 22, 2023, China Media Group broadcast the natural documentary “China’s Qinling Mountains: The Memory of a Golden Monkey,” a key international cooperation project for the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. During its dissemination, the documentary applied an “integrated innovation product matrix,” carrying out integrated communication through the fusion of large and small screens and high-quality content with rich forms, and further stimulated audience discussion enthusiasm through interactive short video content. Within just one day of the documentary’s broadcast, the reading volume of related discussion topics across the entire network surged by 320 million, the total video playback volume reached 14.489 million, and it appeared on the hot lists of platforms such as Weibo and Douyin a total of 13 times, allowing more people to understand the fascinating wild life of golden monkeys, both conveying the beauty of nature to the public and greatly enhancing the public’s depth of awareness of ecological protection.

2023年5月22日，中央广播电视总台播出了“一带一路”十周年国际合作重点项目自然纪录片《中国秦岭：一只金丝猴的记忆》。该片在传播过程中应用了“融合创新产品矩阵”，以大小屏融合、形态丰富的优质内容开展融合传播，并且通过互动性的短视频内容进一步激发观众的讨论热情。该纪录片播出仅一天，全网相关讨论话题阅读量跃升3.2亿次，视频播放总量达1448.9万，累计13次登上微博、抖音等平台热榜，让更多的人了解了金丝猴妙趣横生的野性生活，既向公众传递了自然之美，又极大地提升了公众对生态保护的认知深度。

Minqin County in Gansu Province is located in the northeast of the Hexi Corridor, surrounded by desert on three sides. The local ecology is fragile, making it a frontline for China’s desertification control and sand prevention. Zhong Lin, who returned to his hometown after graduation to engage in desertification control, uses his video account to document the saxaul trees planted in the western Tengger Desert. In his videos, he not only popularizes desertification control techniques but also conveys the emotional resonance that “planting trees in the desert is a romantic long-termism,” mobilizing over 10,000 volunteers to join the desertification control effort. In 2023, Zhong Lin, through collaboration with the team of the variety show “Farming,” led the program team to plant 180,000 saxaul trees in the Minqin Desert, leveraging celebrity effect to launch the topic “Please come to Minqin to plant trees,” sparking a huge online trend.

甘肃民勤县位于河西走廊东北部，三面被沙漠包围，当地生态脆弱，是中国治沙防沙的前沿阵地。毕业返乡投入家乡治沙的仲麟用视频账号记录着在腾格里沙漠西部种植的梭梭树，他在视频中不仅科普治沙技术，还传递着“沙漠种树是浪漫的长期主义”的情感共鸣，带动超1万名志愿者加入治沙行动。2023年，仲麟通过与综艺《种地吧》“十个勤天”团队合作，带领节目组在民勤沙漠种下18万棵梭梭树，借助明星效应发起“请到民勤种棵树”话题，掀起了巨大的网络热潮。

This diversity of new media communication subjects creates a strong narrative tension, transforming the public from “audience” of the story into “characters” and even “co-authors” of the story, achieving a shift in ecological and environmental protection concepts from external advocacy to individual habits, converging into a powerful social trend.

这种新媒体传播主体的多样性构成强烈的叙事张力，让公众从故事的“观众”变为故事的“角色”乃至“合著者”，实现生态环保理念从外在倡导到个体习惯的转变，汇聚成一股强大的社会潮流。

Participation in the Narrative Process

叙事过程的参与化

Eco-civilization construction is a cause for all humanity, requiring the participation of billions of people, and storytelling is an effective means of communication. From the perspective of new media, the narrative is an open, generative process, much like the writing of a story may have its ups and downs of “introduction, development, twist, and conclusion,” ultimately relying on the co-creation of users. Therefore, this shift from “one-way” to “interactive” means that the role of story dissemination has changed from the traditional “teller” to a “participant” in the story. The strong interactivity of social media can help information spread in a viral manner. When every user can initiate topics such as “My green travel methods,” breaking down the grand environmental goal into countless specific, executable daily actions, eco-civilization construction is no longer an occasional policy trumpet call but a daily dialogue deeply integrated into people’s lives.

生态文明建设是全人类的事业，需要亿万人的参与，而讲故事是有效的传播方式。在新媒体视域下，叙事是一个开放的、正在生成的过程，如同故事的撰写可能拥有“起承转合”的跌宕，最终依赖于用户的共同创造。因此，这种从“单向”到“互动”的转变，意味着故事传播的角色已经从传统的“讲述者”变为故事的“参与者”。社交媒体的强互动性可以帮助信息以裂变式传播，当每一个用户都能发起诸如“我的绿色出行方式”等话题，将宏大的环保目标分解为无数个具体的、可执行的日常行动，生态文明建设就不再是偶尔响起的政策号角，而是深度融入人们生活的日常对话。

The rapid development of information technology has made self-media live streaming an indispensable function. Live streaming technology turns “stories” into “events” happening in real time, endowing the eco-civilization narrative with an irreplaceable “sense of immediacy.” The immediacy of new media makes users deeply aware that they are not only listeners of the eco-civilization story but also participants in this story, making the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction truly a magnificent epic co-authored by billions of people.

信息技术的飞速发展让自媒体直播具备不可或缺的功能，直播技术将“故事”变为正在发生的“事件”，赋予了生态文明叙事无可替代的“实时感”。新媒体的即时性让用户深刻地意识到，自己不仅是生态文明故事的倾听者，更是这个故事的参与者，使得生态文明建设的“中国故事”真正成为一部由亿万人共同执笔书写的壮丽史诗。

Environmental protection is a cause for all humanity, requiring the participation of billions of people and extensive dissemination and interaction. Eco-civilization communication from the perspective of new media is no longer limited to the one-way output of traditional media but is an overall contest involving technology, content, emotion, and strategy. When the value support of grand narratives and the transmission of warmth in micro-emotions go hand in hand, the “Chinese story” of eco-civilization construction can transcend cognitive boundaries, transforming the “teller” of the story into a “guide” of the narrative ecology, turning China’s achievements in ecological restoration, green development, and species protection into stories with warmth and participation, ultimately converging into a colorful picture painted by billions of people. In the future, with the iteration of information dissemination, those rich “Chinese stories” of eco-civilization construction will be presented to the world more vividly, allowing Chinese stories to truly go global and become a positive force for promoting mutual learning among civilizations and advancing the common development of humanity.

环境保护是全人类的事业，需要亿万人的参与和广泛的传播互动。新媒体视域下的生态文明传播已不再局限于传统媒体的单向输出，而是一场关于技术、内容、情感与策略的整体博弈。当宏大叙事的价值支撑和微观情感的温度传递并行，生态文明建设的“中国故事”便能超越认知边界，让故事的“讲述者”成为叙事生态的“引导者”，将中国在生态修复、绿色发展、物种保护等方面的成就转化为一个个有温度、可参与的故事，最终汇聚成一幅由亿万人共绘的多彩画卷。未来，随着信息传播的迭代，那些丰富的生态文明建设“中国故事”将会更加生动地展现在世界面前，让中国故事真正走向世界，成为推动文明互鉴、促进人类共同发展的积极力量。

(The author is a doctoral student at the School of Marxism, Nanchang University)

（作者系南昌大学马克思主义学院博士研究生）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧