近年来，在国际社交媒体上发布的大量中国美食视频获得一定关注，为国家文化传播提供了观察窗口。前人研究虽定性说明一国的美食能够成为该国文化传播的载体，但并无数据支持，也鲜见实证研究如何利用美食进行国家文化传播。如何选取视觉和听觉符号，通过独具特色的符号表征打造鲜明的文化特质，也是政府和个人面临的挑战。论文应用食物旅程叙事理论，建构食物旅程叙事策略分析框架。以YouTube平台上3434个中国美食视频的3382995条评论为研究对象，采用大数据分析技术与方法，验证食物旅程叙事承载国家文化传播的可行性，发现引发受众对食物本身、食物烹饪相关人物和食物来源背景国关注的食物旅程叙事策略及其组合。论文不仅基于食物旅程叙事的路径深化了国家文化传播，而且将食物旅程叙事理论拓展到非商业应用领域。通过精准设计食物旅程叙事的策略组合，展现美食视频中的视觉和听觉符号，用文化符号提升国际受众对视频中的食物、民众和国家文化的关注。研究结论既可以满足国家“文化传播”的诉求，又能实实在在解决当前美食视频制作中，凭借经验主义“摸石头过河”的营销传播的痛点。

Recent years have seen the appearance of many Chinese food videos on international social media platforms, providing an opportunity for observing practices of national cultural communication. Previous studies have qualitatively demonstrated that food can be used to promote a country’s culture. However, no data have been provided to support this assertion, and very few empirical studies have been undertaken on the topic. It is also challenging for governments and individuals to select visual and auditory symbols and to create unique cultural traits through their symbolic representations. Our paper applies consumer journey theory to construct a framework for analyzing food journey narrative strategies. A total of 3,434 Chinese food videos with a total of 3,382,995 comments on the YouTube platform are used as the research object. Big data analysis techniques and methods are applied to test the feasibility of food journey narratives that carry national cultural communication. We propose a food journey narrative strategy designed to draw attention to the food itself, the people involved in food preparation, and the food’s country of origin. In addition to studying national cultural communication from the perspective of food journey narratives, this paper extends food journey narrative theory to the noncommercial field. By carefully combining visual and auditory symbols in food videos, cultural symbols successfully attract international audiences’ attention to the food, people, and national cultures depicted. The findings of this study can help a country in cultural communication. Producers of food videos will need less groping to find the right way to market and communicate.