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Part of
Contemporary Chinese Discourse and Social Practice in China
Edited by Linda Tsung and Wei Wang
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 4] 2015
► pp. 125–142

Co-construction of migrant workers’ identities on a TV talk show in China

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This study examines how identities of migrant workers (i.e. nongmingong) have been constructed and represented on a TV talk show program in China, called “China’s Nongmingong”, launched by Guizhou Satellite TV (GZSTV) in China in 2007. Drawing on narrative theories concerning interactions between narrative and identity, and a dramaturgical model of social interaction analysis, this study explores how the nongmingong’s personal life experiences are transformed into public discourse. It is proposed that there are three stages in this process of transformation, namely ‘off stage’, ‘back stage’, and ‘front stage’, through which the media prepares the participatory nongmingong for the live TV program. The study finds that the program, in order to fulfil a specific social purpose, adopts various discursive practices to represent nongmingong’s identities as normal or even supernormal in contrast to the public discourse which depicts them as abnormal.

Published online: 9 October 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.4.08wan
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