Ecoporn with Chinese Characteristics: Troubling Ecological Civilisation in CCTV’s Chinese White Dolphin

Ecological civilisation is a concept emphasised by the Chinese Communist Party to assert its vision and proclaimed achievement of balancing ecological conservation with socioeconomic development, but it often proves to be little more than a utopian ideal. This article examines how ecological civilisation is constructed, imagined, and conveyed in the Chinese state-produced nature documentary Chinese White Dolphin while at the same time exploring how the film illuminates the fallacy of the ideal. Through critical textual analysis and by expanding on Bart Welling’s concept of ‘ecoporn’, the study demonstrates how the film idealises and romanticises the increasingly precarious living conditions of the dolphin in service of anthropocentric consumption pleasure and nationalist interests, thereby exposing the objectification of and costs borne by the dolphin. The article argues that the representation anaesthetises audiences to the species’ vulnerabilities, discouraging genuine concern and eventually actions for the cetacean’s well-being while fostering admiration for the Chinese state.