News Media Representation of China’s Three-child Policy in China Daily: A Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis

Can Wang, Mohammad Fadzeli Jaafar, Anis Nadiah Che Abdul Rahman

Abstract


Since 2021, China has implemented the three-child policy to address the demographic problems arising from an ageing population and a low birthrate. The representation of the policy in newspapers holds an important position in its communication and interpretation. However, critical discourse analysis of the newspaper coverage on this policy remains scarce, especially when approached through a corpus-assisted methodology. Therefore, this study conducts a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of the representation of China’s three-child policy. Four hundred twenty-one news articles were collected from China Daily, and keyword analysis and concordance analysis were conducted to identify the topics of the news articles and the argumentation strategies adopted. The findings reveal three main topics within the news articles, namely social and economic matters, national/regional entity and social identity, along with a variety of topoi used to legitimise the stated claims. This study provides insights into how the three-child policy is represented in China’s English-language newspaper.

 

Keywords: three-child policy; corpus-assisted approach; critical discourse analysis; topics; topoi


Full Text:

PDF

References


Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. Continuum.

Baker, P. (2010). Corpus methods in linguistics. In L. Litosseliti (Ed.), Research methods in linguistics (pp. 167-192). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., & McEnery, T. (2013). Sketching Muslims: A corpus driven analysis of representations around the word ‘Muslim’ in the British press 1998–2009. Applied linguistics, 34(3), 255-278.

Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzyzanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse and Society, 19(3), 273–306.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508088962

Bayley, P., & Bevitori, C. (2009). ‘Just war’, or just ‘war’: Arguments for doing the ‘right thing’. In J. Morley & P. Bayley (Eds.), Corpus-assisted discourse studies on the Iraq Conflict (pp. 90-123). Routledge.

Chan, T. F., & Yu, Y. (2023). Building a global community of health for all: A positive discourse analysis of COVID-19 discourse. Discourse & Communication, 17(4), 522-537.

Che Abdul Rahman, A. N., Abdullah, I. H., Zainudin, I. S., Tiun, S., & Jaludin, A. (2021). Domain-specific Stop Words in Malaysian Parliamentary Debates 1959 - 2018. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 21(2), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2021-2102-01

Chen, F., & Wang, G. (2020). A war or merely friction? Examining news reports on the current Sino-US trade dispute in The New York Times and China Daily. Critical Discourse Studies, 19(1), 1-18.

Chen, S. (2022). The positive effect of women’s education on fertility in low-fertility China. European Journal of Population, 38, 125–161.

Culpeper, J. (2009). Keyness: words, parts-of-speech and semantic categories in the character-talk of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14(1), 29-59.

Dai, Z. H., & Jiang, W. W. (2018). A qualitative content analysis of the two-child policy on Chinese news media. China Media Research, 14(3), 73-81.

Du, L. (2021). Different discursive constructions of Chinese political congresses in China Daily and The New York Times: A corpus-based discourse study. Critical Arts, 35(5-6), 224-242.

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.

Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. A. Van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as Social Interaction (pp. 258-284). Sage.

Fu, X., & Wang, G. (2022). Confrontation, competition, or cooperation? The China–US relations represented in China Daily’s coverage of climate change (2010–2019). Critical Arts, 36(1-2), 95-109.

Gabrielatos, C. (2018). Keyness analysis: Nature, metrics and techniques. In C. Taylor, & A. Marchi (Eds.), corpus approaches to discourse: A critical review (pp. 225-258). Routledge.

Gan, M. X., & Bao, Y. X. (2024). The grand journey, remarkable achievements, and valuable experiences of economic development over the 75 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Observation and Reflection, 10, 52-66.

Hunt, D., & Harvey, K. (2015). Health communication and corpus linguistics: Using corpus tools to analyse eating disorder discourse online. In P. Baker & T. McEnery (Eds), Corpora and discourse studies: Integrating discourse and corpora (pp. 134–154). Palgrave.

Jäger, S., & Maier, F. (2009). Theoretical and methodological aspects of Foucauldian critical discourse analysis and dispositive analysis. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (pp. 34-61). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Jiang, Q., & Liu, Y. (2016). Low fertility and concurrent birth control policy in China. The History of the Family, 21(4), 551–577.

Kim, K. H. (2014). Examining US news media discourses about North Korea: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 25, 221–244.

Liu, Z. Y., & Kesumawati, A. B. (2024). Shifting narratives: A corpus-based discourse analysis of American media’s portrayal of China’s COVID-19 response. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 30(1), 125-141.

Nartey, M., & Mwinlaaru, I. N. (2019). Towards a decade of synergising corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis: a meta-analysis. Corpora, 14(2), 203-235.

Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Seventh National Population Census. (2021). Major figures on the 2020 population census of China. https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/d7c/202111/P020211126523667366751.pdf

Partington, A. (2006). Metaphors, motifs and similes across discourse types: Corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) at work. In A. Stefanowitsch, & S. T. Gries (Eds.), Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy (pp. 267-304). De Gruyter Mouton.

Pei, J., Li, D., & Cheng, L. (2022). Media portrayal of hackers in China Daily and The New York Times: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Communication, 16(5), 598-618.

Pojanapunya, P., & Watson, T. R. (2018). Log-likelihood and odds ratio: Keyness statistics for different purposes of keyword analysis. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 14(1), 133-167.

Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2005). Discourse and Discrimination. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203993712

Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2016). The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (pp. 23-61). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Shi, J. X. (2022). Remain steadfast in keeping economic development as the central focus. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/n1/2022/0224/c40531-32358545.html

Stubbs, M. (1997). Whorf’s children: Critical comments on critical discourse analysis (CDA). In A. Ryan, & A. Ray (Eds.), Evolving models of language (pp. 100-116). Multilingual Matters.

Sun, L. (2024). China’s pro-birth policies not yet enough to counter demographic crisis, expert warns. Retrieved October 19, 2024, from https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3282963/chinas-pro-birth-policies-not-yet-enough-counter-demographic-crisis-expert-warns?

module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article

Taufek, T. E., Nor, N. F. M., Jaludin, A., Tiun, S., Choy, L. K., & Aziz, J. (2022). Media report about climate change in an English online Malaysian newspaper through thematic and discourse analysis approaches. 3L the Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 28(2), 194–210. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2022-2802-13

The Associated Press. (2020). China forces birth control on Uighurs to suppress population. Retrieved June 29, 2020, from https://apnews.com/article/e2674c069d46f6d5c9a3d3be40d612d4

Wang, G., & Ma, X. (2021). Representations of LGBTQ+ issues in China in its official English-language media: A corpus-assisted critical discourse study. Critical Discourse Studies, 18(2), 188-206.

Wang, Z. Y. (2022). Study on family planning report in China Women’s News. [Master’s thesis, Hebei University]. CNKI Overseas. http://acad.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?

dbcode=CMFD&dbname=CMFD202301&filename=1023427277.nh&uniplatform=OVERSEA&v=fWeEOajVioKnbN6kpekgWJLGUB6OTyO9R_9X490znxI9nAL7FWdcZe-rHpwpgyrL

Widdowson, H. G. (2004). Text, context, pretext: Critical issues in discourse analysis. Blackwell Publishing.

Wodak, R. (1990). The Waldheim affair and antisemitic prejudice in Austrian public discourse. Patterns of Prejudice, 24(2-4), 18-33.

Wodak, R. (2011). The discourse of politics in action: Politics as usual. Palgrave Macmillan.

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2016). Critical discourse studies: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (pp. 1-22). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Yang, Y., & Chen, X. (2021). Globalism or nationalism? The paradox of Chinese official discourse in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 26, 89-113.

Yu, Y., & Nartey, M. (2021). Constructing the myth of protest masculinity in Chinese English language news media: A critical discourse analysis of the representation of ‘leftover men’. Gender and language, 15(2), 184-206.

Yu, Y., Chan, T. F., & Huang, Q. (2023). Formulating the discourse of pro-work conservatism: A critical discourse analysis of Weibo posts in response to the implementation of the three-child policy. Feminist Media Studies, 24(3), 497-513. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2200589

Yu, Y., Li, R., & Chan, T. F. (2023). Representing the ‘little fresh meat’ phenomenon in the Chinese English-Medium news media: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 60(2), 910-925.

Yu, Y., Tay, D., & Yue, Q. (2023). Media representations of China amid COVID-19: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Media International Australia, 191(1), 73-87.

Zhang, Y. (2025). “Modest proposals”: Ironic discursive acts against China’s three-child policy from Weibo users. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 15(2), 635-646.

Zhu, H. Y. (2020). The media-making of China’s family planning policy coverage: A framing analysis based on People’s Daily during 1978-2018. [Master’s thesis, Southwest University of Political Science and Law]. CNKI Overseas. http://acad.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?

dbcode=CMFD&dbname=CMFD202202&filename=1020740802.nh&uniplatform=OVERSEA&v=mNM59N_4fdFmfskX_rwRWPHGTjR7TjqKPq18m8E3iWWSARRMQj30LSLdWTToapSw

Zhu, L. (2023). A corpus-based analysis of Chinese and Western newspaper discourse on Xinjiang cotton: A critical discourse analysis perspective. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 13(3), 451-469.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2025-3103-03

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2247

ISSN : 0128-5157