Inner Mongolia, as the autonomous region spanning the widest range of latitudes in China, features a diverse range of natural landscapes that vary progressively with latitude. These include dense forests, expansive grasslands, and vast desert areas.

In the second episode of the documentary, a shooting technique that moves from east to west is employed, mirroring the actual geomorphic distribution and showcasing the natural landscapes of Inner Mongolia. In this context, the green forests, grasslands, tawny deserts, and blue sky are contrasted in tone. The camera continuously displays three images, constantly contrasting the dark green primeval forests, the green waves of the tender grasslands, and the large color blocks of the yellow desert wonders, all showing a colorful image of Inner Mongolia. The modality is used to assess the authenticity and credibility of the image, including high modality, medium modality, and low modality ( Li, 2003 ). The color of the image in high modality is natural and has high saturation. The color saturation of the image in medium modality is insufficient. The color of the image in low modality is black and white ( Van Ieeuwen, 2005 ). Figures 2-4 are presented in very bright colors to showcase the natural scenery of Inner Mongolia. They reflect high modality within the interactive meaning of visual grammar. This approach creates an impression of vibrancy and vitality for the audience.

At this time, the subtitle states, “The biggest feature here is that it has a great forest, a great grassland, and a great desert.” The interactive function in the Systemic Functional Grammar involves the role of both the speaker and the listener. It emphasizes the “great forest”, “great grassland”, and “great desert” of Inner Mongolia. By repeatedly highlighting these three “great” features through absolute expressions and emotional cues, it praises the natural scenery of Inner Mongolia, directs the audience’s attention to the region’s natural characteristics, and encourages them to accept the emotional implications. This helps construct a beautiful image of Inner Mongolia’s natural environment. From the perspective of the content level in Zhang Delu’s framework, different modalities exhibit distinct relationships at the formal level. Since both modalities are indispensable for the construction of overall meaning, they form a complementary relationship. The two modalities form an auxiliary reinforcement relationship in a complementary relationship. With the visual modality as primary, employing vibrant colors to showcase Inner Mongolia’s pristine natural landscapes, and the textual modality as secondary to supplement the imagery, they synergistically present the region’s unadorned beauty. This intermodal collaboration constructs the ecological image of Inner Mongolia as a primordial guardian of wilderness.

During the thousand-year-long process of production, the Mongolian people have developed a set of their own survival philosophy. When the grassland style is displayed ( Figure 3 ), the white flock of sheep is placed at the center of the picture, which creates strong salience against the green grassland background. Salience indicates that the components in an image attract the viewer’s attention to varying degrees, which can be achieved through placement in the foreground or background, relative size, contrast of tone values, and differences in sharpness ( Yuan & Nai, 2022 ). With a high degree of salience, an element easily attracts the viewer’s attention; conversely, with a low degree of salience, it is difficult to draw attention. Placing the sheep in a prominent central position emphasizes the important role of animals in the ecology of Inner Mongolia, and also illustrates the original ecological nomadic culture, deepening the audience’s impression of the Inner Mongolia grasslands. In addition, Figure 3 shows us the traditional nomadic grazing in Inner Mongolia throughout history. The mobility of the herds not only prevented excessive grazing but also utilized animal manure and trampling for natural fertilization, achieving the regeneration of the grassland. This is an ecological wisdom of the people of Inner Mongolia.

The narrative representation of the action process primarily involves three elements: the Actor, the Goal, and the Vector. The Actor is typically the main participant initiating the Vector, which constitutes the specific action performed by the Actor or the Actor itself. The participant towards whom the Vector is ultimately directed is the Goal. The galloping horses constitute an action process ( Figure 5 ). Here, the horse serves as the Actor, the upward lift of its hooves functions as the Vector, and with no specific Goal identified, this constitutes an intransitive action process. In the scene, the horse bears no saddle, running unbridled across undulating waves of grass. This vividly captures the natural rhythms unique to the grasslands and the untamed beauty free from human discipline. From an ideational function perspective, the subtitle “horses are intimate pals, family members, and battle companions” elevates the horse from mere livestock to a core member within the grassland ecological network. The agility and loyalty of horses are demonstrated through three subordinate clauses. During the migration of herdsmen, horses can accurately locate water sources and pastures, ensuring the dynamic balance between nomadic production and grassland recuperation. Horses are not only production tools but also an important part of the nomadic ecological cycle. At this moment, the wild horse without reins and the text in the subtitle form a complete meaning, representing a complementary relationship at a formal level. Here, they form an expansion relationship within the reinforcing relationship. Expansion refers to one mode providing additional information to supplement and expand the content conveyed by another mode. The subtitles have expanded the meaning of “horse”, and the free-roaming horses not only demonstrate the importance that the people of Inner Mongolia attach to animals, but also showcase their nomadic wisdom.

The people of Inner Mongolia hold nature in awe and believe that “true progress is to learn to be humble in the face of nature.” Such awe is expressed through specific attitudes conveyed in an interactive meaning. These attitudes can be constructed from the shooting perspective used in images or pictures ( Guo & Zhang, 2024 ). The shooting perspectives can be divided into horizontal, top-down, and bottom-up views. Different angles can highlight the viewer’s varying attitudes toward the elements within the image and reflect the power dynamics between them. The documentary shows herdsman Jirgatul splashing the first delicious bite onto the ground when preparing meat for one of Inner Mongolia’s classic dishes ( Figure 6 ). At this moment, the camera adopts a bottom-up perspective, reversing the conventional power dynamic (humans usually look down at the land), allowing the land to occupy two-thirds of the frame. This bottom-up perspective expresses ultimate reverence for nature and establishes nature as the dominant force. At this time, the linguistic mode “praying” complements the picture, forming two modes that constitute a coordinated relationship without reinforcement in complementary relationship. In the coordinated relationship, different modes work together to completely express the full meaning, and each mode is indispensable. The text supplements the rituals in the above picture and jointly constructs Inner Mongolia’s natural ethics of awe and reverence for nature. In addition, at 3 minutes and 47 seconds in the first episode, Jirgatul said, worrying that too many livestock would turn the grassland back into the sandy land again. In systemic functional grammar, the cohesion of textual function involves the logical connection of information in the text, which ensures the coherence and consistency of the text. This sentence establishes a causal relationship by showing that “too many livestock” is the cause of “pasture degradation.” This causal relationship emphasizes the impact of human grazing on the natural environment, highlights the direct effect of human activities on the natural environment, and underscores the land ethics of nomads by strictly adhering to the ecological principle of not exceeding the carrying capacity of pastures.

In the first episode of the documentary (04:20-04:56), the vast grassland in the background extends to the horizon, forming a vector pointing into the distance, with the distant horizon as its target. This visual structure constitutes the action process of narrative representation. The boundless grassland and the posture of pastoralists sitting quietly on it together form a narrative scene, reflecting the deep connection between the people of Inner Mongolia and the land. It also suggests the relationship between the intergenerational inheritance of Mongolian culture and harmonious coexistence with nature. At this point, the background music is the classic grassland track “Hulunbuir Grassland”, played on the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle). The andante tempo at approximately 80 BPM artfully mirrors the natural rhythms of nomadic life. The instrument’s distinctive timbre, characterized by resonant overtones produced from horsehair strings, acoustically embodies the Mongolian worldview of ecological harmony. Simultaneously, the melody’s ascending fourth intervals sonically amplify the expansive visual vectors of the grassland landscape. Here, an expansion relation within reinforcement in complementary relationship from formal level is formed between the audio and visual modes. In this case, the visual mode has always been at the core of the foreground, assuming the main ideographic function; the auditory mode expands upon the emotion and atmosphere of the visual imagery, rendering the beauty of the grassland’s natural scenery—its vast green expanse, the tranquil and crystal-clear lake, the warm-toned sunset afterglow, and the melodious sound of the fiddle—all of which depict the harmony between humanity and nature.

The framing in compositional meaning refers to the actual cropping frame or spatial dividing lines within an image ( Li, 2003 ). Elements in the image indicate their connection or separation through the most prominent framing lines, color contrasts, etc. In Episode 5 at 01:13 of the documentary, the silhouettes of two Bokh wrestlers overlap against a sunset sky, with deliberate blank space between them. Their intertwined limbs form a tightly framed composition, vividly showcasing the sport of Bokh while projecting the Mongolian cultural ethos of resilience, martial spirit, and integrity. The subsequent subtitle—“Many wrestling moves were developed from the movements of the lion, eagle, and deer”—provides contextual background for Bökh techniques, establishing a non-reinforcing coordinational relation in complementary relationship between modalities. The coordination of textual modality and visual modality constitutes the significance of the Bökh. From a textual metafunction perspective, the clause-initial Theme “Many wrestling moves” immediately anchors the informational focus. The Rheme unfolds through a triad of parallelism (“lion, eagle, and deer”), generating a juxtaposed sequence of steppe creatures. This parallel structure not only creates rhythmic cohesion but also elevates the animals to “masters of technique”. Through the Theme-Rheme progression, the ethical principle of “learning from nature” is seamlessly woven into the discourse. Through the imitation of animals, the grassland people transformed their observations of living creatures into respect for them, embodying the unique ethnic aesthetics of Inner Mongolia.

In practicing the concept of green ecology, the documentary is realized through the attitude in the interactive meaning. In Figure 7 & Figure 8 , the lens uses a bottom-up perspective to closely capture Jirgatul’s hand, expressing admiration for him. Then the perspective shifts to a top-down view, placing the viewer in a high position and offering an omniscient perspective. This allows the audience to grasp the overarching mission of desert governance at a macro level—an arduous task. The vast desert landscape appears immense but seems to diminish in scale when viewed from above, while the power of an individual’s palm appears small from a downward angle yet grows stronger when seen from an upward perspective. Figure 7 presents Jirgatul’s inner monologue, (sand) if not, it likes an evil enemy. From the perspective of the ideational function, participants include “the people of Inner Mongolia” and “the natural environment” (sand). As actors, the people of Inner Mongolia have actively taken measures to control the sand. Sand is used as an object that affects the ecological environment. The “dialogue” here not only refers to linguistic exchanges but also covers the protection and governance actions of the people of Inner Mongolia toward the natural environment. “Enemy”—this sentence personifies the sand in the natural environment, emphasizing the fragility of the ecological environment and the importance of environmental protection. This kind of environmental setting highlights the efforts and achievements of the people of Inner Mongolia in ecological conservation. The textual and visual modalities together create an integrated meaning, establishing an expansive reinforcement relation in complementarity relation. The text expands the meaning of sand. The contrast in perspectives and the multimodal expansion of text and visuals jointly illustrate the diligent and hardworking people of Inner Mongolia, reflecting Inner Mongolia’s determination to practice the concept of green ecology and promote the construction of ecological civilization.

Figure 9 first provides the background of tree planting in the desert. The narration text “Nearly 5 million hectares of farmland and 10 million hectares of grazing land have been preserved by the forest network project. Desertification of around 17 million hectares of land and soil erosion of nearly 13 million hectares of land have been curbed”. The transitivity system refers to a semantic framework through which language represents experiential reality, configuring participants and circumstantial elements via six process types (material, mental, relational, etc.). Within this system, the Material Process denotes actions or events involving energy transfer, where the core participant Actor initiates the action, and the Affected Participant encompasses both the Goal (entity acted upon) and the Range (domain defining the action’s scope). Crucially, the Range functions as a non-agentive entity, specifically designating the sphere of impact rather than an object undergoing change. The transitivity system within the ideational function, the passive material processes “have been preserved” and “have been curbed” background human agency by positioning the forest network project as the implicit Actor, thereby highlighting governance outcomes rather than anthropogenic intervention and imbuing ecological conservation with an epistemological necessity. The four sets of spatially quantified data (“5 million hectares of farmland, 10 million hectares of grazing land, 17 million hectares of desertified land, and 13 million hectares of eroded land”) function as Range circumstantial elements, concretizing governance scale through geographical metrics. The passive voice strategy syntactically places the land in the position of Affected Participant, grammatically encoding the land as a living entity requiring stewardship—a construction resonating with deep ecological ethics. Collectively, these linguistic mechanisms delineate Inner Mongolia’s commitment to the ecological principle that “Green development is the defining feature of high-quality development”. The desert in the background gradually turns green, and the visual and linguistic modes form a combinational relation of non-reinforcement in complementarity relation. Combination refers to different modes cooperating with each other to construct a complete meaning. It shows the effectiveness of Inner Mongolia in practicing the concept of green ecology and adhering to the control of desertification. In future development, Inner Mongolia will also adhere to the organic unity of people’s wealth and ecological beauty, and solve historical environmental problems.

The improvement of the ecological environment has also enhanced the living standards of the people in Inner Mongolia. In the second episode, from 04:26 to 04:49, voice and visual modes form a combinatorial relation within a non-reinforced relation in complementarity relation. In the picture, Jirgatul and his relatives and friends are gathered together. The sequence begins with slow, melancholic piano chords (≈60 BPM) in a minor key, their sustained resonance mirroring the initial challenges of desertification control. As the scene transitions to show improved living conditions, the musical arrangement shifts to brighter major-key arpeggios (≈120 BPM) with higher-register piano tones, acoustically symbolizing renewal. The evolving timbre of the piano audibly traces that through desert management, farmers and herdsmen have developed a harmonious relationship with the ecosystem, transitioning from weighted lower octaves to sparkling upper registers. Higher-grade crops can now be grown, and the production of beef and mutton has also increased. Together, these two modes convey to the audience both the hardships of sand control and the joy of success, illustrating how hard work has improved the living conditions of the people of Inner Mongolia. By transforming deserts into fertile lands, the region has become a living testament to the idea that protecting nature is investing in the future. The documentary’s multimodal storytelling—through its visual models and auditory models, positioning Inner Mongolia as a beacon of sustainable development where lucid waters and lush mountains truly translate into shared prosperity.

This section examines how the documentary constructs Inner Mongolia’s ecological identity through multimodal strategies. The film employs high-modality visuals and dynamic vectors to showcase pristine landscapes, while linguistic analysis reveals how material processes and relational clauses encode ecological values. Through bottom-up perspectives and ritual depictions, it establishes nature’s sacred status. The documentary effectively combines audiovisual elements-like horsehead fiddle music enhancing grassland scenes-with quantified governance achievements to demonstrate ecological progress. These multimodal techniques work synergistically to present Inner Mongolia as a model of ecological civilization, where cultural traditions, environmental protection and sustainable development coexist harmoniously. It should be noted that the theoretical framework of Visual Grammar relies heavily on structural parallels between visual and linguistic representations, a limitation that may introduce analytical subjectivity during interpretation ( Pan & Li, 2017 ).