Value Orientation and Dimension Expansion of City Image Communication: A Case Study of Chengdu

The image of a city embodies its fundamental values and unique characteristics, representing the essence of its urban culture and spirit. It is considered to be one of the most valuable intangible assets of a city and serves as a crucial driving force for its ongoing development. Taking Chengdu as an example, this paper conducted a comprehensive analysis of Chengdu’s city image communication strategy through various dimensions, such as the city’s value orientation and modes of communication. First, it was necessary to explore the image resources of Chengdu, and based on this, the urban value orientation of “Man-Chengdu,” an extensive strategy used by Chengdu to better communicate its culture, was proposed to facilitate image communication. Second, it was necessary to expand the dimensions of Chengdu’s city image communication. This was achieved by building a resource pool of city image elements, leveraging major media events to promote communication and enhancing the correlation between content and channel platforms. Moreover, efforts were also made to develop people-oriented narrative strategies and give full play to the advantages of new technologies to form an integrated communication mode. Finally, it was crucial to bridge the official and folk communication systems to enable multiple subjects to share Chengdu’s stories from diverse perspectives, thus improving the breadth and validity of Chengdu’s image communication.