Research on the Consumption of Cultural Symbols in the Digital Media Era: Take the Movie Ne Zha 2 as an Example

In the digital media era, symbolic consumption is essentially a form of cultural consumption. Cultural symbols continuously evolve with the trends of the times, taking on various forms. Among these, the method of reconstructing traditional cultural symbols by integrating them with modern values has effectively achieved innovative transformations of cultural symbols. Ne Zha 2 exemplifies this approach by subverting traditional characterizations and creatively developing a successful cultural symbol, thereby gaining widespread popularity among consumers. This paper adopts the encoding/decoding theory from cultural studies, combined with case analysis, to explore how Ne Zha 2 achieves the innovative construction of cultural symbols. The study finds that the film enhances audience identification with traditional culture by reshaping mythological figures and constructing youth-oriented narratives, while also expanding the market influence of cultural symbols.