Identity, nationalism and orientalism: media representation of football player Wu Lei in China and Spain

Abstract

Football has developed to different degrees in Europe and Asia. Wu Lei, who played for Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol, was the only Chinese footballer in the top five European football leagues from 2019 to 2022. Applying critical discourse analysis, this study examines how Chinese and Spanish news reports have constructed Wu Lei’s identity and represented the political and economic forces that supported Wu Lei in becoming the only Chinese player in La Liga in Spain. The research reveals the same subject was constructed by nationalism in China and Orientalism in Spain. Chinese nationalism is reproduced through the semi-colonial memory of an underdeveloped China and articulated in tandem with neoliberalism. Facing aggressive investments from Chinese private capital, Spanish media reproduced Orientalism by constructing the image of China as an economic hegemon and site of political otherness.