Abstract

Hero is the dream of human beings from the very beginning. No matter in China or America, people all worship heroes. Heroism is an important part of culture, which reflected in films and television series. In this thesis, Chinese and American films and television series present their characteristics about the topic of hero.
First of all, the definitions of heroes and heroism are introduced. Next, the thesis analyzes the images of heroes in Chinese and American films and television series. Hollywood movies and Chinese military television series are the representatives of heroic play. The images of heroes include two types, traditional hero and new hero. Different heroes are on behalf of different heroism, so through comparative study, people can know heroism changes with time goes by, which means culture changes all the time. The reasons of cultural change are the core of the whole thesis. Finally, the thesis draws a conclusion of the comparative study of heroes in Chinese and American plays.

Key Words:  heroism  comparison  cultural change 

摘 要

英雄一直是人类追求的梦想。不管在美国还是中国，人们都崇拜英雄。英雄主义是文化重要的一部分。人们可以看到在影视作品中现的雄主义。本文研究中美影视中英雄主题作品的特点。首先，本文讨论英雄和英雄主义的定义。其次，这篇论文研究了中美影视中英雄的形象。美国好莱坞电影和中国军旅电视剧是英雄主题作品的代表。英雄形象包括两种类型，传统英雄和新型英雄。在讨论中国新型英雄时，以电视剧《亮剑》为例对中国英雄主义新趋势进行了探讨。而对美国的新英雄形象，系列电影《超人》则展示了美国英雄主义的变化。不同的英雄形象代表不同的英雄主义。通过对比研究，得出英雄主义随着时间而改变，从而说明文化随着时间变迁。所以，本文重点研究文化变迁的原因。

关键词：英雄主义 对比 文化变迁

1Introduction
As important forms of mass media, movie and television series are not only  an approach of art presentation, but also reflect the society and the spirit of people (Wu Qiong, 2011). It can be said that watching movies and television series is a way for people to entertain and gain information. In daily life, people get touch with various themes of movies and television series. It is pointed out that among all topics talked about in these movies and television series, heroism is a permanent and popular theme for both the audience and the producer. Although people all know hero, different people have different interpretations of hero at the same age. What’s more, the definition of hero changes with time goes by.