Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics: Online-First Articles

Reporting the others’ speech, uncovering China’s world dream

The case of the Chinese Dream in The New York Times

ORCID logo | Hunan University
It has been over ten years since the Chinese Dream was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2012. This study investigates the representations of the Chinese Dream in The New York Times (hereafter NYT) from the perspective of speech reporting. The analysis shows that four types of sources are favored: the political elites from the Chinese government, ordinary Chinese citizens, western scholars, and Chinese news agencies. Government officials’ speech is quoted to expose the global ambition of the Chinese-Dream-associated policies or practices, while stories from the ordinary Chinese provide contradictory evidence. Scholars’ speech is to warn audiences of the Chinese government’s global aspirations masked by the Chinese Dream. The reports and practices of Chinese news agencies are labeled propaganda to strangle potential discursive competition. In effect, all converge to strengthen and validate China’s world dream representation.
Keywords: Chinese Dream , representation, speech reporting, source, utterance, The New York Times
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1 Chinese Dream in international contexts
    • 2.2Speech reporting as a news-making discursive resource
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Material
    • 3.2The annotation
    • 3.3A synergy of quantitative frequency analysis and qualitative discourse studies
  • 4.The multivocality of the sources
  • 5.The uniformity of the speech
    • 5.1Spotlighting the global significance
    • 5.2Unveiling the political rhetoric
    • 5.3Whistleblowing the potential risks
    • 5.4Making propaganda efforts
  • 6.Uncovering China’s World Dream
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Disclosure statement
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 7 January 2025
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24019.mei
References (57)
References
Altheide, David L. 1984. “Media Hegemony: A Failure of Perspective.” Public Opinion Quarterly 48(2): 476–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aswad, Ghazal N. 2019. “Biased Neutrality: the Symbolic Construction of the Syrian Refugee in the New York Times.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 36(4): 357–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barkin, Steve, and Martin Levy. 1983. “All the News That’s Fit to Correct: Corrections in the Times and the Post.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 60 (2): 218–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, and Jef Verschueren. 2014. “A Pragmatics of the Cultural Other.” In The Discourse Studies Reader: Main currents in theory and analysis, edited by Johannes Angermuller, Dominique Maingueneau, and Ruth Wodak, John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Bunnag, Orawee, et al. 2024. “Reanimating Experts and Authorities: Functions of Speech Reporting in COVID-19 News.” Discourse & Communication. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burton, Graeme. 2010. Media and Society: Critical Perspectives. 2. ed. Open University Press.Google Scholar
Calsamiglia, Helena, and Carmen Lopez Ferrero. 2003. “Role and Position of Scientific Voices: reported speech in the media.” Discourse Studies 5(2): 147–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caldas-Coulthard, Rosa Carmen. 1994. “On Reporting Reporting: the representation of speech in factual and factional narratives.” In Advances in Written Text Analysis, edited by M. Coulthard. Routledge.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace. 1982. “Integration and Involvement in Speaking, Writing and Oral Literature.” In Spoken and Written Language: Exploring orality and literacy, edited by D. Tannen. Ablex.Google Scholar
Chen, Guohua, and Cheng Lixia. 2015. “Is Zhongguo meng ‘China dream’ or ‘Chinese dream’? A study of China and Chinese used as nominal modifiers.” Foreign Language Teaching and Research 47(6): 909–922.Google Scholar
Chen, Xieyuan. 2017. “Chinese Terminology: Chinese Dream.” CGTN. [URL]
Chen, Yanbin, and Yimin Yao. 2012. “The Causes, Challenges and Countermeasures of China’s Economic Slowdown”. Journal of Renmin University of China (5): 57–62.Google Scholar
China Daily. 2014. “Background: Connotations of Chinese Dream.” [URL]
Coulmas, Florian. 1986. Direct and Indirect Speech. De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deacon, David. 2007. “Yesterday’s Papers and Today’s Technology: Digital Newspaper Archives and ‘Push Button’ Content Analysis”. European Journal of Communication 22(1): 5–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fowler, Roger. 1991. Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. Routledge.Google Scholar
Gee, James Paul. 2014. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. 4th ed. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geis, Michael L. 1987. The Language of Politics. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greenwald, Anthony, Debbie E. McGhee, and Jordan L. K. Schwartz. 1998. “Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The implicit association test.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(6): 1464–1480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hartig, Falk. 2018. “Political Slogans as Instruments of International Government Communication — the case of China.” The Journal of International Communication 24(1): 115–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Howe, Kenneth. 2002. Closing Methodological Divides: Toward democratic educational research. Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Johnson, Ian. 2017. “Xi Jinping and China’s New Era of Glory; News Analysis.” The New York Times, October 13. LexisNexis Academic.Google Scholar
Kitis, Eliza, and E. Dimitris Kitis. 2022. “Metapragmatic Awareness in EFL: Reporting Speech-Acts.” International Journal of Language Studies 16(3): 1–32.Google Scholar
Kerr, David. 2015. China’s Many Dreams: Comparative Perspectives on China’s Search for National Rejuvenation. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liss, Alexander. 2003. “Images of China in the American Print Media: A survey from 2000 to 2002.” Journal of Contemporary China 121: 299–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Fengliang, Yu Ze, and Yan Yin. 2016. “Construction of China’s New Economic Momentum of Economic Growth Under the Slowdown of Global Technological Progress”. Economic Theory and Business Management 121: 6–20.Google Scholar
Lu, Xing, and Herbert W. Simons. 2006. “Transitional Rhetoric of Chinese Communist Party Leaders in the Post-Mao Reform Period: Dilemmas and Strategies.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 92 (3): 262–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McQuail, Denis. 2013. Journalism and Society. SAGE Publications, Inc. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Susan Carroll. 1997. “The Dynamics of the Framing Process: From Reagan’s gender gap to Clinton’s soccer moms.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, Norfolk, Virginia.
Pan, Chengxin. 2004. “The ‘China Threat’ in American Self-Imagination: The Discursive Construction of Other as Power Politics.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 29(3): 305–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paulus, Trena M., and Jessica Nina Lester. 2016. “ATLAS.ti for Conversation and Discourse Analysis Studies.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 19(4): 405–428. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prados-Bo, Andreu, and Gonzalo Casino. 2023. “How Have Quality Newspapers Covered the Microbiome? A Content Analysis of The New York Times, The Times, and El País.” Journalism (London, England) 24(8): 1752–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Qiushi. 2013. “Bring Together the Power of China to Implement the Great Dream.” June 1. [URL]
Raj, Sony. 2020. “New York Times.” In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, edited by D. L. Merski. SAGE Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Richardson, John E. 2007. Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rodney, Jones, Sylvia Jaworska, and Erhan Aslan. 2021. Language and Media: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge.Google Scholar
Segundo, Ruano San P. 2016. “A Corpus-stylistic Approach to Dickens’ Use of Speech Verbs: Beyond mere reporting.” Language and Literature 25(2): 113–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saka, Paul. 2017. The Semantics and Pragmatics of Quotation. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 151. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shi, Guang. 2020. “Speech Reporting in Chinese Criminal Judgments.” Chinese Semiotic Studies 16(2): 277–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shi-xu. 2015. “Cultural Discourse Studies”. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, edited by K. Tracy, C. Ilie and T. Sandel. Wiley. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 2007. Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tuchman, Gaye. 1978. Making New: a study in the construction of reality. The Free Press.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1991. Racism and the press: Critical studies in racism and migration. Routledge.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Volosinov, Valentin N. 1973. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (transl. L. Matejka & I. R. Titunik). Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Volosinov, Valentin N. 1978. Reported speech. In Readings in Russian poetics, edited by L. Matejka, K. Pomorska. Michigan Slavic Contributions.Google Scholar
Wade, Lisa. 2012. “The Function of Balance in US News Coverage of Uncontested Issues: The case of female genital cutting.” Journalism 13(7): 869–885. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Jiayu. 2017. “Representing Chinese Nationalism/Patriotism through President Xi Jinping’s ‘Chinese Dream’ Discourse.” Journal of Language and Politics 16(6): 830–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2019. “Stereotyping in Representing the ‘Chinese Dream’ in News Reports by CNN and BBC.” Semiotica 2261: 29–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wei, Lu. 2020. Imagining China: China’s Images in the World of New Media. Da You Book Company.Google Scholar
White, Louise. 1994. “Policy analysis as discourse.” Journal of Policy Analysis & Management 13 (3): 506–525. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xi, Jinping. 2012. “Achieving Rejuvenation Is the Dream of the Chinese People.” Qiushi, November 29. [URL]
Xin, Bin. 2018. “A Comparative Study of Reported Speech about Chinese and American Official Speech on South China Sea Arbitration in People’s Daily and the New York Times”. Foreign Language Education 39(5): 17–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Yi Edward, and Xinsheng Liu. 2012. “The ‘China Threat’ through the Lens of US Print Media: 1992–2006.” Journal of Contemporary China 21(76): 695–711. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Junchen. 2023. “How to Build a ‘Dream’ in Political Speech? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of the Chinese Dream Speech.” Critical arts 37(3): 95–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Junchen, and Yating Yu. 2024. “Heterogeneous Discursive Representations of the Chinese Dream in International Media: a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis.” Media Asia 51(1): 121–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhong, Lingzi, and Juyan Zhang. 2016. “Political Myth as Strategic Communication: Analysis of Chinese Dream’s Rhetoric and English News Media’s Interpretation.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 10(1): 51–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar