Institutional language as power in contemporary China
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Yi Li
Abstract
Against the backdrop of an increasingly divided society and the government’s determined pledge to build social cohesion in China, this chapter examines how social institutions, through their discursive practices, participate in the construction of the still evolving social relations in contemporary China, using data collected from interactions between citizens and officials at two governmental agencies. It finds that discourse is an important way of reflecting and realizing the institutional power possessed by institutional officials and that institutional power is exercised and reinforced through a variety of discursive practices ranging from fixed procedures of questioning to speech acts of interrupting and blaming. Based on these findings, this chapter argues that for government agencies to act as a force of social cohesion in contemporary China as they have always claimed, their linguistic forms of interaction with society, as well as the ideologies and practices associated with it, all need to be dramatically transformed.
Abstract
Against the backdrop of an increasingly divided society and the government’s determined pledge to build social cohesion in China, this chapter examines how social institutions, through their discursive practices, participate in the construction of the still evolving social relations in contemporary China, using data collected from interactions between citizens and officials at two governmental agencies. It finds that discourse is an important way of reflecting and realizing the institutional power possessed by institutional officials and that institutional power is exercised and reinforced through a variety of discursive practices ranging from fixed procedures of questioning to speech acts of interrupting and blaming. Based on these findings, this chapter argues that for government agencies to act as a force of social cohesion in contemporary China as they have always claimed, their linguistic forms of interaction with society, as well as the ideologies and practices associated with it, all need to be dramatically transformed.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Reflections on discourse and critique in China and the West 1
- The discursive construction of the social stratification order in reforming China 19
- Institutional language as power in contemporary China 39
- A cultural political economy of transnational knowledge brands 57
- Discursive production of teaching quality assessment report 85
- Discursive construction of Chinese foreign policy 105
- The re-imagined West in Chinese television 127
-
Book review
- Tian, Hailong. Discourse Studies: Categories, Perspectives and Methodologies 145
- Index 149
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Reflections on discourse and critique in China and the West 1
- The discursive construction of the social stratification order in reforming China 19
- Institutional language as power in contemporary China 39
- A cultural political economy of transnational knowledge brands 57
- Discursive production of teaching quality assessment report 85
- Discursive construction of Chinese foreign policy 105
- The re-imagined West in Chinese television 127
-
Book review
- Tian, Hailong. Discourse Studies: Categories, Perspectives and Methodologies 145
- Index 149
