Othering in Chinese official media narratives\xa0during diplomatic standoffs with the US and Japan

Lutgard Lams

doi:10.1057/s41599-017-0034-z

Abstract

Based on two critical discourse analyses of Chinese media narratives on international incidents between China and the foreign ‘Other’ with an interval of nine years, this paper demonstrates continuity and consistency in Chinese official media discourse over the last decade when it concerns sensitive matters, such as sovereignty. The two case studies offered are: the 2001 diplomatic standoff with the US following the spy plane collision; and the 2010 conflict with Japan over the Chinese fishing boat collision with the Japanese coastal guard in the disputed waters of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islets. Using theoretical insights and methodological tools from Language Pragmatics, Critical Discourse Theory and Analysis, and Positioning Theory, these studies find identical official Chinese media practices of Othering and self-glorification. The article presents concrete examples of categorizing processes that position the actors as antagonists within a victim/aggressor framework, discursive ideological mechanisms of reification, legitimation, dramatization and generalization, and linguistic power games through the employment of assertive speech acts.

Highlights

At times of destabilizing events in a community’s history when the nation is perceived to be threatened by external and/or internal forces, attempts are usually made at reinforcing sensations of shared values and cultural/national identities. Examples of such critical moments for China are internal schisms interrogating the sense of the unified Self, but especially conflicts with a foreign outsider, such as the incidents of the 2001 diplomatic standoff with the US following the spy plane collision near Hainan Island and the 2010 conflict with Japan concerning the Chinese fishing boat collision with the Japanese coastal guards in the disputed waters of the Diaoyutai/ Senkaku Islets
Using insights from linguistic pragmatics, Critical Discourse Analysis/Theory, and narrative/ positioning theory, these two case studies, which analyze media accounts with an interval of 10 years, examined linguistic tools of alienation and empowerment in the Chinese official press narratives
For the 2010 case study, ideological positioning was traced in the articles from the Chinese-language Renmin Ribao and its English-language equivalent, the People’s Daily

Summary

Introduction

At times of destabilizing events in a community’s history when the nation is perceived to be threatened by external and/or internal forces, attempts are usually made at reinforcing sensations of shared values and cultural/national identities. The present article traces discursive patterns of positioning the Self and the Other in Chinese official media narratives about the 2001 and 2010 incidents, since they both involve issues of sovereignty and disputes about responsibility. After a look at how the Self and the Other are positioned through categorization processes (4.1), illustrations are presented of other modes of ideological operation, like legitimation and reification (4.2) Parallels found in both studies about media representations of events that occurred with a nine-year time difference point at continuity in the discursive practice of Othering when it concerns international incidents involving China’s sovereignty and safety of its citizens. This might be deemed necessary to convince its foreign readership

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion