Chapter 10. Discourses of female leaders in postcolonial Hong Kong
Wei Feng | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The present study examines divergent political discourse systems in postcolonial Hong Kong (cf. Flowerdew 1997), as distinguished by the political claims of two female leaders regarding universal suffrage: Carrie LAM Cheng Yuet-ngor and Emily LAU Wai-hing. Data for analysis are derived from their public speeches addressed in the legislative council of Hong Kong from 2010–2013. The discourse of the chief secretary for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Carrie Lam, lacks a feminine register and represents the Confucianist discourse system, emphasizing consensus-seeking with the central government of China and people of Hong Kong. In contrast, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party, Emily Lau, with traces of a female register represents the Utilitarian discourse system, stressing the soonest possible timeline of universal suffrage as per “international standards.”
References
Atkeson, L.R
2003 “
Not All Cues Are Created Equal: The Conditional Impact of Female Candidates on Political Engagement.”
Journal of Politics 65(4): 1040-1061.
Basu, A., Naraja Gopal Jayal, Martha Nussbaum, and Yasmin Tambiah
2003 Essays on Gender and Governance. India: Human Development Resource Center, United Nations Development Programme.
Biber, D
1988 Variation Across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Biber, D
1995 Dimensions of Register Variation: A Cross-linguistic Comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chancer, L.S. and B.X. Watkins
eds. 2006 Gender, Race and Class: An Overview. Oxford: Blackwell publishing.
Fairclough, N
1989 Language and Power. New York: Longman.
Fairclough, N
1995 Media Discourse. New York: Longman.
Flowerdew, J
1997 “
Competing Public Discourses in Transitional Hong Kong.”
Journal of Pragmatics 28(4): 533-553.
Flowerdew, J
2004 “
Identity Politics and Hong Kong’s Return to Chinese Sovereignty: Analysing the Discourse of Hong Kong’s First Chief Executive.”
Journal of Pragmatics 36(9): 1551-1578.
Flowerdew, J., D.C.S. Li, and S. Tran
2002 “
Discriminatory News Discourse: Some Hong Kong Data.”
Discourse & Society 13(3): 319-345.
Flowerdew, J. and S. Leong
2010 “
Presumed Knowledge in the Discursive Construction of Socio-political and Cultural Identity.”
Journal of Pragmatics 42(8): 2240-2252.
Kuo, S
2008 “
A Woman Warrior or a Forgotten Concubine? Verbal Construction of a Feminist Politician in Taiwan.” In
Discourses of Cultural China in the Globalizing Age, edited by
Doreen D. Wu. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Lakoff, R
1973 “
Language and Women’s Place.”
Language in Society 2(1): 45-80.
Lakoff, R
1975 Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper & Row.
Lakoff, R
1990 Talking Power: The Politics of Language. New York: Basic Books.
Lee, E.W.Y
2003 Gender and Change in Hong Kong: Globalization, Postcolonialism, and Chinese Patriarchy. Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press.
Poon, K
2008 The Political Future of Hong Kong: Democracy Within Communist China. London & New York: Routledge.
Scollon, R. and S.W. Scollon
1995/2001 Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Malden: Blackwell.
Shaw, S
2000 “
Language, Gender and Floor Apportionment in Political Debates.”
Discourse and Society 11(3): 401-418.
Sreberny, A. and L. van Zoonen
eds. 1999 Gender, Politics and Communication. New York: Hampton Press.
UNICEF
2006 “
Equality in Politics and Government” and “Reaping the Double Dividend of Gender Equality.” In
The State of the World Children, 51–87. New York: The United Nations Children’s Fund.
Wu, Doreen D. and Agatha M.K. Chung
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Peck, Jamie, Chris Meulbroek & Dimitar Anguelov
2024.
Hong Kong’s new normal: Remaking authorized discourses of “special administration,” 2017–2022.
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 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.