Current Research Status and Development Trends of Chinese Film Aesthetics (2000–2025) —Visual Analysis Based on CiteSpace

Abstract

This paper systematically reviews the current research status, knowledge structure, and development trends in the field of Chinese film aesthetics from 2000 to 2025, reveals key research topics, evolutionary pathways, and future directions in this field, and provides a reference for theoretical innovation in Chinese film aesthetics and the development of film culture in China. Utilizing the CiteSpace and CNKI visualization analysis tools, this study takes 394 core literature articles related to Chinese film aesthetics indexed in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database from 2000 to 2025 as its research object, constructs a knowledge graph, and conducts bibliometric analysis from multiple dimensions, including the number of publications, disciplinary distribution, core authors, research institutions, highly cited papers, frequently used keywords, and key research topics. The analysis leads to the following three conclusions: (1) From 2000 to 2025, research on Chinese film aesthetics has exhibited a sustained growth trend, which can be divided into three developmental stages: initial exploration, rapid growth, and deepening and expansion; the number of publications shows strong synchronization with national film industry policies, the process of film industrialization, and advancements in digital technology; (2) Research efforts are primarily concentrated at universities and research institutions such as Peking University, Beijing Film Academy, and Shanghai University, forming a core research community represented by scholars like Chen Xuguang and Rao Shuguang; however, the collaboration network among authors and institutions remains relatively fragmented, indicating significant room for improvement in cross-institutional collaborative research; (3) Research hotspots have evolved from traditional topics such as "Chinese cinema," "film aesthetics," "nationalization," and "realism" toward directions including "industrial aesthetics," "communal aesthetics," "digital cinema," "film industry," and "cultural digitization," reflecting a shift in Chinese film aesthetics research from traditional theoretical interpretation toward industrial practice, integration with digital technologies, and interdisciplinary development.