新中国成立以来，女性的媒介形象一直与国家命运密切相关。从建国初期的社会变革，到文化大革命的十年动荡，从改革开放到逐渐步入全球化的浪潮，这些社会变迁也无不体现于女性的媒介形象及其变迁，如《人民画报》的封面女性人物。《人民画报》创刊于1950年7月，是承担外宣职能的综合性摄影画报，有“国家画报”之誉。60年不曾中断出版，完整、忠实地记录下了新中国的图像历史。本文从《人民画报》（1950-2010）封面人物入手，旨在研究新中国女性媒介形象的变化及其趋势和规律，并探讨变化背后的社会历史原因。女性为主体的封面共263张，分为1950-1966、1967-1978、1979-1992、1993-2010四个时期。从形象要素上分为7个维度：年龄、相貌、化妆程度、服装、所在地域、活动场所、职业；从拍摄手法上3个维度：角度、景别、人数。用内容分析法把263张封面编码、统计，解读各个时期的人物形象特征和不同时期的变化。再对工人农民、少数民族、文艺工作者、运动员等贯穿《人民画报》封面的特定群体作深入考察，探寻同一群体的时代变化。最后，在每一时期选取一位普通人和一位文艺工作者，结合封面图像符号和文献资料进行案例分析。研究发现，首先，女性一直是封面上最重要的主题。以改革开放为界，之前“女人和男人一样”，一样的工作和打扮，被视为男女平等象征，以致出现性别概念模糊的“铁姑娘”形象；之后“女性重新成为女人”，女性以消费者的形象出现，多为娱乐、生活状态，工人农民等劳动者的形象逐渐消失。其次，因为审美观、政治事件等因素，女性作为审美对象的比例和表现在各个时期差异较大。再次，女性与国家事件关系紧密，新中国几乎所有的集体记忆，如知识青年上山下乡、样板戏等，都可以从封面女性中找到代表人物。最后，女性多以社会身份或职业身份出现，私人生活缺席。2000年之后，女性为主体的封面逐渐减少，形象也趋于多元，再也没有出现过统一的“国家面孔”。群体形象的模糊似乎有着这样的隐喻：统一的价值观正在逐渐瓦解，“国家画报”已经没有意愿、没有能力塑造一个“国家榜样”。这种状态将持续多久，由什么价值观来统一，目前尚未可知。
The media image of women is always closely bound up with the development of the People’s Republic of China since 1949. Almost all the social changes, such as Culture Revolution, Reform and Opening-up, can be expressed by cover women on China Pictorial. Founded in 1950 and designed as a media for presenting China to the world, China Pictorial has lasted more than 60 years as a recorder of China. The object of this research is 263 female-dominant covers, which is classified into four parts based upon time: 1950-1966, 1967-1978, 1979-1992, and 1993-2010. Each cover woman is analyzed in seven dimensions with cover content: age, appearance, makeup, clothing, city or country, location and occupation, and in three dimensions with photography: visual angle, scene and number of figures. Content analysis is mainly adopted to study the characters of cover women in the same period and the differences among 60 years. Then in the visual of semiotics, combined with literature, the paper will make an in-depth study on the historical changes of some specific group (worker and farmer, minority, artist, athlete) and two typical figures in each period. It finds that women’s social status is the most important theme of covers. There are two stages divided by the Reform and Opening-up: the first stage, women who work and dress up as men are perceived as the expression of sexual equality; the second stage, women are always related with entertainment, life and consumer society insead of work and study. The number and standard of “beauty” have quite a difference between periods because of the change of social aethestics and some political events. Almost all the important events can be expressed by cover women, such as educated city youth to work in the countryside and model drama in Culture Revolution, etc. However, they have a close relation with the public, leading to an absence from private or family life. The number of cover women has diminished and their media images have become diverse since 2000. The unified national identity is disappearing which indicates that the unified value has been disorganized gradually. Even a national pictorial had no intention or ability to create a national model any more. How long will such status last? What value will reunify the national model? It depends on time.
