Cover not available
Part of
Discourse, Politics and Media in Contemporary China
Edited by Qing Cao, Hailong Tian and Paul Chilton
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 54] 2014
► pp. 25–46

Chapter 1. Disembodied words

The ritualistic quality of political discourse in the era of Jiang Zemin

| University of Sussex

This chapter addresses the topic of the political use of formalized language, through the analysis of crucial political documents selected from the numerous speeches that former Chinese Communist Party’s Secretary and President of the People’s Republic of China Jiang Zemin delivered on the Party’s policy towards the intellectuals in the period 1990–1999. The analysis of the specific forms of power embodied in the properties and functions of language practices and discursive formations illuminates various possibilities for normalization and inculcation of formalized language in the understudied decade of the 1990s, when the mantra ‘Without stability, nothing can be achieved’ became a tautology. The internal constitution of the selected texts is examined with an eye to the dialogic interaction with the production and reception of Mao Zedong’s and Deng Xiaoping’s political discourses on intellectuals. The analysis of language practices and discursive formations in a comparative perspective sheds light on the respective socio-political and historical contexts. It also reveals the extreme involution-devolution of formalized language in the Jiang Zemin era, when ‘preserving stability’ was reaffirmed as a crucial concern of the Party leadership with the ultimate aim to preserve its monopoly of power. Keywords: Jiang Zemin; intellectuals; formalized language; zhengming ; discursive formations; speech; reality

Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 23 April 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.54.02mar
References
APTER, David E. and SAICH, Tony
(1994)  Revolutionary Discourse in Mao’s Republic , Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 99.Google Scholar
BAUDRILLARD, Jean
(1983)  Simulations , New York: Semiotext(e), p.32.Google Scholar
BROOKES, Andrew
(2002)  Destination Disaster , Ian Allan, pp. 101–110.
DAVIES, Gloria
(2009)  Worrying about China:The Language of Chinese Critical Inquiry , Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
DE CERTEAU, Michel
(1997)  The Capture of Speech and Other Political Writings , Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 87.Google Scholar
DENG Xiaoping
(13 October 1979), Zai Zhongguo wenxueyishu gongzuozhe disici daibiaodahuishang de zhuci (Greeting words to the Fourth Congress of Chinese literary and art workers). In: DENG Xiaoping (1983)  Deng Xiaoping Wenxuan Dierjuan 1975–1982, (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, Vol. II, pp. 207–214.Google Scholar
(24 May 1977) ‘Respect Knowledge, Respect Talented People’. In: DENG Xiaoping (1983)  Deng Xiaoping Wenxuan Dierjuan 1975–1982, (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, Vol. II, p. 54.Google Scholar
(18 March 1978) ‘Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the National Conference on Science’. In: DENG Xiaoping (1983)  Deng Xiaoping Wenxuan Dierjuan 1975–1982, (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, Vol. II, p. 105.Google Scholar
FAN Zhongyan
(1045) Yueyanglouji (Remarks of Yueyang Tower), URL: [URL], Accessed 20 May 2006.
FEWSMITH, Joseph
(2003) ‘Studying the Three Represents’, In China Leadership Monitor , No. 8, Fall 2003, available at: [URL]
FOUCAULT, Michel
(1979), L’archéologie du savoir , Paris: Gallimard, p. 153.Google Scholar
GANG Lin and HU Xiaobo
(eds.) (2003)  China after Jiang , Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
JIANG Zemin
(4 April 1990) ‘Fendouzhede zuji’ (The Footprints of the Fighters), Speech delivered on April 4 at the Forum where the intellectuals reported to the Communist league members, Remin Ribao 5 April 1990 In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 313.Google Scholar
(3 May 1990) ‘Aiguozhuyi he woguo zhishifenzide shiming’ (Patriotism and the Mission of Our (Nation’s) Intellectuals), Remin Ribao 4 May 1990 In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 315.Google Scholar
(August 1991), ‘Zai Sichuan kaocha qijiande jianghua’ (Speech delivered during a period of investigation in the Sichuan province), Remin Ribao 9 August 1991 In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 326.Google Scholar
(26 May 1995) ‘Zai quanguo kexuejishu dahuishangde jianghua’ (Speech at the National Conference on Science and Technology), Renmin Ribao 5 June 1995 In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 329.Google Scholar
(July 1995), Speech delivered during the meeting with the representatives of the Second Annual Symposium of Young Academics for the Chinese Scientific Cooperation, RMRB 27 July 1995 In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 332.Google Scholar
(12 September 1997), ‘Zai zhongguo gongchandang diwuci quanguo daibiaodahuishangde baogao’ (Report of the XV National Conference of the representatives of the CCP ‘To Raise High the Great Flag of Deng Xiaoping Theory, Completely Pushing Forward into the Twenty-first Century the Cause of Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’, ‘Collection of Documents of the Fifteenth Congress of the CCP’. In: JIANG Zemin (1999)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe, p. 323.Google Scholar
(1999a)  Jiang Zemin lun shehuizhuyi jingsheng wenming jianshe (Jiang Zemin on the construction of spiritual civilization), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian Chubanshe.Google Scholar
(1999b)  Xuexi Jiang Zemin Tongzhi zai huanying wo zhunan gongzuorenyuan dahuishangde jianghua (Studying Comrade Jiang Zemin’s speech at the welcoming our personnel working in Yugoslavia), Beijing: Renmin Ribao Chubanshe, pp. 1–4.Google Scholar
LAM, Willy Wo-Lap
(1999)  The Era of Jiang Zemin , Singapore: Prentice HallGoogle Scholar
LINDSEY, Daryl
et al. ‘War of words’, Salon.com, April 12 2001, accessed March 21 2010.
LINK, Perry
(1999) ‘Baituo jiquanzhuyide yuyan’ (Break Away from the Centralized Language). In: Banyang Suiji , Taibei, Sanmin Chubanshe 1999, pp. 17–28.Google Scholar
JI Fengyuan
(2004)  Linguistic Engineering: Language and Politics in Mao’s China , Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
LACAN, Jacques
(2001), Ecrits, London, Routledge.Google Scholar
LI Yongxian and WANG Ronggui
(eds.) (2002)  Fan Zhongyan quanji , Chengdu: Sichuan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
LIFTON, Robert J
(1989)  Thought reform and the psychology of totalism: A study of brainwashing in China , Chapel Hill: UNC Press, p. 429.Google Scholar
LEGGE, James
(1960)  The Chinese Classics, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, Reprinted [1893-95]), vol. 1 1861, available also on line at: [URL], accessed 07/07/2010.
MARINELLI, Maurizio
(1994) ‘Intellettuali Cinesi tra Passato e Futuro’ (Chinese Intellectuals between the Past and the Future), Mondo Cinese, 86, May-August 1994, pp. 67–88.Google Scholar
(2009) ‘Names and Reality in Mao Zedong’s Political Discourse on Intellectuals’, Transtext(e)s Transcultures [on-line], 5:2009, document 5, [URL]
MAO Zedong
(1942) ‘Speeches at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art’ ( Zai Yan’an wenyi zuotanhuishangde jianghua ) 2 and 23 May 1942 In: Mao Zedong (1991)  Mao Zedong Xuanji Disanjuan (Selected Work of Mao Zedong), vol. III, Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, pp. 847–879.Google Scholar
MAKEHAM, John
(1994)  Name and Actuality in Early Chinese Thought , Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
ORWELL, George
‘Politics And The English Language’, Horizon , April 1946, v. 13, no. 76, pp. 252–265 SEYMOUR, James D (1980)  The Fifth Modernization: China’s Human Rights Movement 1978-1979, New York: Human Rights Publishing Group.Google Scholar
PÊCHEUX, Michel
(1981), ‘Ouverture du colloque’ and ‘L’énoncé: enchâssement, articulation et dé-liaison’. In CONEIN, Bernard, COURTINE Jean-Jacques, GADET Françoise, MARANDIN Jean-Marie, PÊCHEUX Michel (Eds.), Matérialités discursives , Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille, pp. 15–18, pp. 143–148.Google Scholar
SCHOENHALS, Michael
(1992)  Doing Things with Words in Chinese Politics: Five Studies , Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
WANG Chaohua
(2003)  One China, Many Paths , London: Verso.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Lams, Lutgard
2018. Examining Strategic Narratives in Chinese Official Discourse under Xi Jinping. Journal of Chinese Political Science 23:3 ► pp. 387 ff. DOI logo
Lams, Lutgard & Wei-lun Lu
2018. Puppets, Compatriots, and Souls in Heaven: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Chiang Kai-shek's Early Wartime Rhetoric. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 47:2 ► pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
Li, Zhou & Raymie McKerrow
2019. China’s open letter: a rhetorical analysis of identity creation. Critical Discourse Studies 16:2 ► pp. 162 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.