Evolution and trends of Chinese visual anthropology research over the past 35 years from the perspective of international communication (1988–2023)

With the deepening of globalization, Chinese culture is faced with many challenges, such as cultural differences, divergent interpretations of imagery and limited communication channels. As an emerging research field of deep integration and cross-development with imaging media, visual anthropology presents Chinese culture to international audiences in a more intuitive way through visual means, and promotes cross-cultural understanding and communication. Visual anthropology has gradually become an important tool to promote the international communication of Chinese culture. Based on this, this paper selects the CNKI journal database, covering the period from 1988 to 2023, as the data source for literature related to Chinese visual anthropology. With the help of CiteSpace visualization knowledge map tools, the main research institutions, core authors, research keywords, cited literature and major journals information is systematically analyzed. Through a review of the research context of visual anthropology in China, this paper identifies four key development stages in this field, aiming to explore new strategies and directions for the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture through in-depth analysis of this field.