Speaker’s Corner or Virtual Panopticon: Discursive Construction of Chinese Identities Online

Abstract

Rapid socioeconomic changes undoubtedly have been taking place in China in the last 20 years. During this process, though still claiming absolute political power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had to give way to new social—and political—actors.As a result, the capacity of the CCP to enforce social and political compliance decreased. Without any competitor in China for decades, communist ideology now has also lost much of its former attractiveness. Furthermore, the CCP lost much of its former integrative capacity and has to face the necessity to strive for the loyalty of the Chinese citizens. By creating a self-image as the leading force in the struggle for national unity and strength, the CCP discovered the construct “national identity” as a new power tool for achieving social and political integration under the leadership of the CCP. Consequently, the term “identity” has continuously gained importance, at both social and personal level, and political power now is directly linked to the ability to control relevant discourses.KeywordsChinese Communist PartyChinese CitizenCommunication ForumEvasive StrategyDiscursive ConstructionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.