Different Discursive Constructions of Chinese Political Congresses in China Daily and The New York Times: A Corpus-based Discourse Study. Issue 5 (2nd November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Du, Lijuan
• Is Part Of: Critical arts. Volume 35:Issue 5/6(2021)
• Page Start: 224
• Page End: 242
• Publication Date: 2021-11-02
• Subjects: Discursive constructions -- a corpus-based critical discourse analysis -- the National Congress of the Communist Party of China -- China Daily -- The New York Times -- news reports; Mass media -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Mass media and the arts -- South Africa -- Periodicals; 302.230968
• DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2022.2055593
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0256-0046

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper adopts a corpus-based critical discourse study of the representations of the National Congresses of the Communist Party of China (NCCPC) in China Daily ( CD ) and The New York Times ( NYT ) in the past two decades. It is found that the shared keywords in the CD corpus and NYT corpus tend to suggest different discursive constructions of the same event in different social-political contexts. The different representations of the NCCPC can be revealed in the three types of discourse-historical discursive strategies (referential or nomination strategies, predicational strategies, and perspectivation strategies). CD prefers to construct the NCCPC as important political events and brand China's political system, China's contribution to world stability and prosperity in reporting the events. By contrast, NYT tends to construct them as events of power transfer and point towards criticisms of China's political system.