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In July 2021 the Chinese Government unexpectedly released what has become known colloquially as the 'Double-Reduction' policy. The policy decreed the reduction of homework pressure on students and greater control of private tutorial companies. In this paper, we set out to understand why the Chinese central government launched the 'Double-Reduction' policy in mid−2021 by using narratives to analyse the three most circulated explanations for the policy and its timing. We use data from a range of formal and informal policy texts. The three narratives, including one policy narrative dominant in the official discourse and two alternative ones, constructed the causal stories about the policy's rationale from multiple perspectives. The combination of multiple perspectives and a narrative approach helps reveal the policy event's complexity and lays a foundation for researchers interested in tracking the development trajectory of this new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crises constitute ideal opportunities for authoritarian leaders to promote certain narratives, shaping reality in their favor and crafting their own preferred storylines about current events. In other words: they serve authoritarian leaders on a silver platter the opportunity to instrumentalize these unforeseen circumstances to gain domestic political legitimacy by promoting strategic narratives. The COVID-19 pandemic was no exception in this regard. Ever since its onset in early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was among the most active actors worldwide seeking to capitalize on the global crisis for legitimation purposes. Whether applying narratives of governance supremacy, portraying the People's Republic of China as a "global savior," or promoting emotionally appealing nationalistic narratives, the regime used the pandemic as a window of opportunity to rebrand its international role and enhance its domestic legitimacy. When observing the CCP's communication style over the course of 24 pandemic months (2020–2022), however, major shifts become apparent regarding the main narratives crafted in communication with national audiences. Based on this, the paper focuses on the role of such narratives for legitimation claims. Using exemplary media articles collected between the outbreak of the pandemic in China in late 2019 until the harsh Shanghai lockdown in spring 2022, it thus traces the narratives employed by Chinese state elites and explores how they are intertwined with nationalism and broader power claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with similar research mainly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australian mainstream media using discourse analysis, this paper explores the reasons for the narrative shift by conducting semi-structured interviews with leading and well-known Australian narrative producers. This paper takes two conditions as a given. Firstly, the BRI narratives in Australian mainstream media shifted in tone from mostly positive to highly critical. Secondly, the Australian mainstream media's increasingly negative attitudes towards the BRI are essentially not just about the BRI but the Chinese government. Based on my analysis and interviews, this paper makes contributions by filling in the gap of finding out reasons to explain this narrative shift. More concretely, this paper finds out that while mainstream media is influential in many areas of national policy making, mainstream media reporting on foreign affairs is less so. By comparison, the Australian government's BRI or China policy has a significant impact on Australian mainstream media reporting. This narrative shift has been driven by international politics and Australia's China policy, influenced by Australian audiences' preference of local news and their local position, and its democratic responsibilities. Meanwhile, the vagueness and constant changing characteristics of the BRI do not help the understanding of the BRI in Australian media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a well-acknowledged central economic and diplomatic policy of the Chinese government, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. This paper intends to discover the relationship between the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI and its implementation. By using content analysis, this paper analyzes Chinese President Xi's speeches from 2013 to 2020 about the BRI, as well as official statements of the Chinese central government. It identifies the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI: an assemblage of constantly changing policy settings that accommodates various economic and political interests. Also, this paper draws on differences between countries joining the BRI or not, and several case studies to elucidate the implementation of the BRI. Different from repetitive literature that explores either the BRI narratives or its implementation, this paper contributes by combining and comparing the two. Despite positive interpretations of the BRI the Chinese government has adopted, the paper argues that there are no deceptive tricks with skeletons in the closet of the Chinese government, as the BRI public diplomacy narratives are, in general, consistent with its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China communicates strategic narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) in digital media productions to create a shared meaning about its actions and its image in the global race to develop AI. Building upon the literature in emotions and strategic narratives, this study seeks to clarify which emotions are discursively used in China's international AI narratives, and their function and significance. Specifically, the study investigates emotion discourses in AI-focused videos disseminated on China's international broadcasting (CGTN YouTube channel). The analysis reveals that pride, hope and fear discourses have multiple functions in China's international AI narratives on CGTN. Hope is used to represent China as a key competitor in the global AI race, who is catching up to the US. China uses pride to showcase its advances in AI applications, to highlight its transformation of traditional industries, and to identity itself as equal to the US. Fear is used to frame US's perception of China's AI developments, to suggest their crisis of confidence, but also to refute the "China threat". Additionally, the fear discourse is used to deliberate anticipated risks, particularly on job loss and data privacy. These emotion discourses forge China's identity as a future global AI power. The paper then discusses how these findings contribute to key debates about Chinese discourse and media strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a well-acknowledged central economic and diplomatic policy of the Chinese government, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. By using content analysis and interviews, this paper analyzes Chinese President Xi's speeches from 2013 to 2020 about the BRI, as well as official statements of the Chinese central government. It identifies at least five competing diplomatic narratives of the BRI. Different from repetitive literature that explores either the economic or political implications of the BRI, this paper contributes by exploring the original story that the Chinese government tries to tell the world. It concludes that initially, the narrative of the BRI has not been portrayed well from the Chinese side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation is not merely a textual transformation but involves paratextual mediation. Linking Genette's notion of paratext to Baker's narrative theory, this paper examines Yang Jiang's Ganxiao liuji, a personal narrative set during the Cultural Revolution but focusing on everyday occurrences, to uncover how three publishing houses mediate paratextual materials (titles, prefaces, blurbs, notes and afterwords, and visual images) in their translations of this book, and what larger narratives are (re)framed and reinforced in this process. It discloses that while the Hong Kong publishing house prioritises the original personal narrative content and style in its paratextual presentation, its American counterparts foreground the political background while overshadowing Yang's personal narrative and reframing it as part of the larger narratives of a repressive, inhumane China with an authoritarian government and suppressed masses. Such mediation responds to and reinforces Western narratives of the problematic, dystopic China, and directs readers to understand it through a skewed angle, thereby perpetuating established stereotypes of this non-Western country. This research further unveils how paratextual mediation resonates with and contributes to the larger narratives circulating beyond the immediate text, guiding receivers into (re)framed narratives which impact their perceptions and behaviour in the society, and ultimately shape the social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the results of a case study that attempts to uncover the functions and probable genesis of a group of satirical tales told by the Mongolian peoples. Based on the example of one of the stories, about Argachi, a Til Ulenspiegel-like rogue character, popular among the Oirat Mongols of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China, an assumption is made about the possible practical function of the narratives, which is that they served to broadcast traditional litigation strategies. A comparison of the Oirat story of Argachi's victory over the demon with a similar narrative recorded from the Halh Mongols showed that the strategy of behaviour described in the stories allows one to effectively get rid of a malicious, but not very intelligent, mythological character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most baojuan (precious scrolls), predominantly religious-oriented prosimetric texts in the vernacular language, in the late period of their development (late 19th–early 20th centuries) lost connection with heterodox religious teachings. Notwithstanding this several newly emerged religious traditions in the 19th century continued to use the baojuan form to propagate their teachings. This paper analyses specific religious ideas in the Complete Recension of the Scroll of Mulian, first printed in Hangzhou in 1877. This text still has not been translated into any foreign language and is rarely discussed in research work, although it is considerably different from the more widespread recensions of this baojuan. The Complete Recension includes many additional entertaining episodes from the voluminous Mulian dramas of southern China. We can also find ideas of syncretic religious teachings, including references to the inner alchemy technique, which is especially characteristic of the Former Heaven Religion (Xiantiandao) groups. I also compare this text with other recensions of the Mulian Baojuan still recited in China in order to demonstrate the interplay of various beliefs and practices in the late baojuan texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores editorials and opinion columns published in four Chilean mainstream newspapers and analyzes how China is represented within the context of Chinese economic advances in the region and the contextual narratives surrounding bilateral relations. Through a content analysis of editorials and opinion pieces of elite media between 2018 and 2021, this study allows an understanding of how China and its growing influence are perceived locally. Ultimately, despite an overall alignment with China's public diplomacy centered around an economiccommercial dimension, there are still nuances in how China is represented in Chilean op-eds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rise has fuelled much speculation about its potential involvement in regional crises across the world, and especially in the Middle East. In this debate, the agency of local actors is often ignored, and China is described as actively pursuing a long‐term strategy to expand its influence at the expense of the United States. Taking the Syrian civil war as a case study, this study challenges, if not wholly overturns, this mainstream analysis. Through the comparative juxtaposition of Syrian official discourse and Chinese actions, it finds that the Syrian state articulates a strategic narrative which significantly overstates its relationship with China for domestic and foreign policy reasons. This narrative, which depicts China as a supporter of an anti‐American regional coalition that also includes Iran and its allies, has been picked up by Western observers, thereby creating a distorted image of China's level of engagement in Syria and the region more broadly. Accordingly, this paper also prompts important considerations about the dynamics of China's presence with the Middle East and how scholars should study it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The narrative of Japanese animation in Chine market has impact to the Chinese youth's values. There are positive effect on the values of Chinese youth where it continues develop the way of life thinking. The paper investigates the impact of Japanese animation narrative to the Chinese youth specifically focusing on the content, composition and characteristics of anime. This study is based on qualitative methods including a brief historical overview, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews. This study also provides the advantages to Chinese youths that have impact on their lifestyle that can enhance from artistic values in Japanese animation narrative, such as plot, characters, and illustrations. This paper concludes with implications and suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's industrial development and accompanying urbanization since the 1970s established an urban-rural power dichotomy. However, in recent years, this "urban-rural" as "center-periphery" binary has been constantly re-examined and re-imagined. The emergence of rural short videos since 2016 has arguably led the "voices" of periphery to be heard. However, along with these seemingly heteroglossic and de-centralizing narratives of rural China, it is also observed that the state seeks to reclaim the ownership of rural storytelling. This paper looks into My People, My Homeland (2020) and Coffee or Tea? (2020) and examines how these two (quasi-) "main melody" films depict rural revitalization in the social media age. By unpacking the two films' narrative strategies in portraying Chinese countryside as well as the intertextual relations they form with other macro cinematic texts and micro grassroot storytelling of the "periphery," this article demonstrates how the state re-establishes the discursive power in representing and interpreting the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's 'Xi-Li era' is said to be defined by both the concentration of power in the center and the strengthening of Party authority. In this paper, we ask whether these trends have been evident in local appointment practices since Xi Jinping took office in 2013. By comparing the career histories of 3,682 prefectural mayors and Party Secretaries under the Hu-Wen and Xi-Li administrations, we find that while appointment practices have shifted, the observed changes are not wholly consistent with the center- and Party-strengthening narratives. First, developments in the Xi-Li era suggest that while provincial authorities are increasingly using prefectural appointments for their own ends, the center remains high and far away in these decisions. Second, we do not find evidence that cadres with a strong Party background have a particular advantage in the Xi period. Instead, cadres with strong track records in key functional xitong, particularly those with an economic profile, are still the most likely to attain leadership positions. These findings contribute to the current debate on the nature of power reconfigurations unfolding in Xi's China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The United States' strategic narrative on the rise of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has evolved throughout a half-century of changing world orders and mutual perceptions of strategic intent. From the early 1970s and during the last two decades of the Cold War, the US saw a bipolar world in which it sought to assist China's own rise as a partner in Soviet containment and economic globalisation. During its "unipolar moment" in the post-Cold War era, Washington maintained strong economic engagement but increasingly perceived Beijing as an uneasy partner and rising competitor. With the acknowledgement of the transition towards multipolarity, a bipartisan consensus emerged in Washington about the necessity to contain China's rise as a global political and military power and to blunt its challenge to the "rules-based order" (RBO). The evolution from globalisation "friend" to global "foe" points to three directions of the current US strategic narrative on China's rise: defending the RBO, de-coupling to secure Western-normed globalisation, and shaping the Indo-Pacific security environment. The paper concludes that while the US has succeeded in aligning the three forms of strategic narrative (system, identity, and policy), it faces considerable challenges, including from China's counter-narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China Story, also known as Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream of the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation, is widely accepted as the central narrative for the leadership's ideological and political legitimacy-building efforts. Despite its significance and the widespread attention it has received in the decade since its inception, surprisingly little literature has examined the Chinese Dream through the lens of narrative theory. This article seeks to close this gap by offering a structural narratological analysis of the China Story. It illuminates how the narrative comprises policy-oriented rhetorical frames that form overarching themes that direct party-state actions and support Xi Jinping's status as the 'core' leader. The paper argues that as a 'master narrative', it seeks to provide a spiritual foundation and a compelling vision of a strong, prosperous, and unified China under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become an important player in Antarctic governance. Nevertheless, it still has not legislated a law on Antarctica or issued any strategy for its Antarctic activities. As political narratives play an important role in shaping policies, this paper conducted a critical discourse analysis of six key political narratives in China's politics and diplomacy to assess their implications to China and the Antarctic Treaty System. This paper concludes that the narratives do not contradict the Antarctic Treaty's core values, but the nationalism discourses could make China more assertive in the deliberations. These narratives could also be used as opportunities for seeking a common ground when engaging dialogues with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that examining Shang oracle bone inscriptions, which document the earliest form of one of the major systems of writing, can yield fruitful insights into what constitutes narrative. Drawing on some developments in early language acquisition, notably features presupposed in indicative competence, the paper will sketch the view that repetition in Shang oracle bone inscriptions can be construed in terms of co-constructed topic-comment exchanges in dialogue, loosely ordered with respect to the aim of developing joint understanding of aspects of a situation. This proposal supports the claim that an interdisciplinary examination of relatively underappreciated cultural material can contribute to a greater diversity of ways of thinking about narrative than is currently available. Current dominant accounts of narrative, prevalent not only in philosophy but also in the social sciences and other disciplines, are broadly Aristotelian. The philosophical significance of the proposed sketch of narrative suggests an opening toward a non-Aristotelian conception of narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current debate on populism is mostly Euro-American centric. Less attention is paid to how the rise of populist ideas echo and reverberate in other regions of the world. This paper examines how the core concepts to populism, namely 'the people', 'the elite' and 'the other', is constructed and contested in China. I show how the netizens contextualise the rise of populist right in America in relation to China, and how they construct a narrative of 'must learn lessons' for China out of the American experience, with identifiable populist elements. I argue that although non-establishment populist leaders or parties are unlikely to emerge under the one Party rule, the grassroot political narratives in China harbour significant latent populist tendencies, and the potential for populist rupture is real. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originating from within the UNESCO, narratives on 'heritage under threat' tell the story of how and why intangible cultural heritage (ICH) practices are valuable, why are they disappearing, and how they can be protected from destruction. Focusing on PR China, this paper conducts a frame analysis to identify narratives on 'heritage under threat' as employed by the UNESCO, the Chinese party-state, and academics. The study argues that while policy narratives in any country undergo a process of congruence-building, circulation, and implementation, these processes take distinctive forms in authoritarian countries due to the states' discursive and political monopoly: While non-state actors are involved, the state primarily steers the appropriation process. Nevertheless, once established, the policy narrative transforms across time and space, enabling local actors to use it to pursue their own interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast with countries such as the United States, Japan, India and Australia (the Indo-Pacific Quad), the ASEAN countries are in general in favour of a consolidated cooperation with China in the framework of the BRI. In spite of the territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, they put first their own economic development and strategic interests, therefore China is a relevant partner for all of them. They have a pro-growth and pro-development agenda and with the exception of Singapore, all of them need additional resources to finance the implementation of their national development and modernisation plans. They follow their national interest and have the ability to negotiate with strong partners, even with China. They support the BRI as a multilateral initiative led by multiple actors, are members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and are currently negotiating, implementing or supporting projects under the BRI. Bearing in mind these arguments, the present paper has as main goal an overview of China's relations with its ASEAN neighbours under the impact of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's large-scale initiative BRI announced in 2013 first in Kazakhstan, then in Indonesia, detailed in March 2015 and included in the Chinese constitution in October 2017, has become the most intensely discussed and disputed development project worldwide. In the context of actual power shifts, it has been accompanied by both new narratives and actions of countries worldwide but especially in Asia-Pacific and even by the replacement of this denomination with the concept of "Indo-Pacific", strongly supported by the participants at the Quadrilateral Dialogue (United States-Japan-India-Australia). In only several years, BRI has forged for China solid partnerships with some countries but at the same time it increased the antagonism with others. Taking into account the present context, this paper is focused on finding out how the BRI is influencing the relations between the main actors, situated at the core of global changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with China's currently most prominent environmental policy concept: ecological civilisation. As this concept is becoming a cornerstone of China's strategy of socialist modernisation, we examine whether and how the term can enable ecological protection in China and beyond. We argue that ecological civilisation, while a recently emerged discourse, builds on established environmental governance practices in China that shape its manifestation in political action. To illustrate this argument, we explain how two philosophical principles central to ecological civilisation discourse, "holism" and "harmony", have been expressed in environmental political practice in Communist China. Building on this analysis, we suggest that ecological civilisation discourse may have a profound impact in certain policy domains (e.g., resource conservation and ecologi cal conservation redlines), but limited transformative capacity in others (e.g., environmental litigation and resource extraction). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze how "the fall of the Luan clan" of the Jin state (...) is interpreted in various historiographical documents in pre-Qin and early Han periods, and discusses the association between the genre and the narrator's viewpoint and intention of those particular documents. The paper compares the differences in narrative -- including aspects of plot, character image, theme, and viewpoint--between the Zuo Commentary and Sayings of the States, indicating that the two books, though only slightly different in plot, represent "realities" of diverse views. It discusses in what way the content is associated with the genre in the narrative of the pre-Qin and early Han historiographical texts, both archaeological findings and textual records, with particular emphasis on "The Chronicles" in Tsinghua Bamboo Slips II. By comparing the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Zuo Commentary, Sayings of the States, Records of the Grand Historian, and "The Chronicles", the paper points out that "The Chronicles" is of a different genre from the Spring and Autumn Annals. The paper ends by focusing on pre-Qin and early Han historiographical documents regarding "the Fall of the Luan clan," such as the Gongyang Commentary, Guliang Commentary, The Annals of Lu Buwei, Shizi, etc. By illustrating the differences in genre among the books aforementioned, the present study expects to explain the relationship between narrative and genre in historiographical texts from pre-Qin to early Han periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county of Ya’an city, Sichuan Province, China, on 20 April 2013. The Lushan earthquake damage is less than the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake’s, where 70,000 houses collapsed and 2 million people across nineteen prefectures and 115 counties of Sichuan province were affected. Temple Village (fictitious name), an old village in S township, was chosen as an intervention site. As most young adults went to work in the city, the old community became dilapidated and its traditional culture, architecture, custom, skill and wisdom were dying. Social workers were unable to tackle fully this community’s multiple needs, especially those associated with environmental and physical spaces linked to notions of belonging and identity, on their own. A transdisciplinary action research team in which social workers operated hand in hand with the disciplines of architectural design became the means for exploring an alternative model of post-disaster community reconstruction that would enhance the quality of life of left-behind people in this disaster-affected community. Working together, the research team facilitated the formation of a community kitchen project that enabled villagers to create a new building and co-operative organisations for the village’s long-term sustainable development. This paper presents the participatory design process, contribution of green social work and transdisciplinary interventions in post-disaster community reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose China and the USA are among the countries where depression is most prevalent. However, the treatment rate of depression is relatively low in these two countries. Negative attitudes toward depression is one of the major contributor to the low-treatment rate. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of narratives to promote positive attitudes toward depression in China and the USA. In addition, it examines that the psychological mechanisms underlying narrative persuasion in these two different cultural contexts.Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted in both China (n=84) and the USA (n=174). Participants were first asked to complete a short questionnaire about their demographic information and depressive symptoms. They were then asked to read a story featuring a college student with depression. After reading the message, participants completed another questionnaire measuring their attitudes toward depression, transportation (i.e. readers’ involvement with the story), and counterarguing (i.e. the generation of thoughts that dispute the persuasive argument).Findings Results from a multi-group analysis suggested that although narrative messages had similar persuasive effects for readers from different cultures, the relation between narrative transportation and counterarguing was different. For the US participants, the more they were transported to the story world, the less counter arguments they generated. However, transportation was not negatively associated with counterarguing for Chinese readers.Practical implications Findings provide implications for strategically using narrative persuasion to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts.Originality/value This study is the first to test the use of narratives to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mobilities is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the nature of the final particle uè in Longxi Qiang, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in China. Previous studies have briefly described the uses of sentence final particles in 'tail-head' construction in Qiang varieties such as Longxi, Ronghong, and Puxi Qiang. Other studies indicate that the distribution of uè is not restricted to 'tail-head' construction. More features of the Qiang language are found by analyzing the uses of uè in narratives and conversations. First, the absence and presence of uè reflect the realis and irrealis distinction. The Qiang language lacks grammatical tense, but uè serves as a temporal reference to distinguish future and non-future. The choices of the final particle and person marker do not depend on aspect, but rather the realistic status of the events. Second, the use of uè signals the interlocutor's/narrator's evaluation from a third-party perspective, as well as his/her strong epistemic certainty or personal viewpoint regarding an entity or proposition. • Unlike previous studies on varieties of Qiang, I found that the distribution of uè is not restricted to 'tail-head' constructions. • In terms of a narrative discourse composed of sequential actions, uè functions to identify temporal junctures for narrative advancement. • The choices of the final particle and person marker do not depend on the time reference, but the realistic status of the events. • The use of uè in narratives and conversational stories signals the narrator's evaluation and viewpoint of the proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on our oral testimonial projects in Guizhou province in Southwest China. Since 1999, we have employed oral testimony as one of the community development strategies and methods to study the life histories of Miao ethnic minority women in China's impoverished rural regions. By employing this method, we aim to empower the marginalized Miao women, and help them explore their hidden voices and learn about their life experiences, their views on their relationship with their husbands, families, communities, and other social forces that shape their livelihoods. Local women's narratives, especially those of married women, demonstrated their eagerness to talk about their lives as well as their suffering from family burdens, family discord, domestic violence, alcoholism, and other issues which were beyond our agenda. We finally found that suffering is the collective experience of married women, and domestic violence is a major source of women's suffering. This paper seeks to examine how the patriarchal system, rural poverty, and traditional cultural practices intertwine in shaping women's lives and contribute to women's suffering in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the popular concept of the relationship between Taiwan and China as a feminine/ masculine dichotomy which has been constructed within Taiwan's national imagination. First, I will focus on how this dichotomy has been created within the process of identity-shifting in Taiwan since the 1990s as manifested in Taiwanese pop songs. Second, I will demonstrate how it has been appropriated within the process of nation-building. Two primary questions will be addressed: How is the national imagination of Taiwan in Taiwanese pop songs constructed through maternal and feminine images? How is the matrilineal genealogy in Taiwanese pop songs appropriated by the opposition camp, namely the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), to mobilize voters? I will investigate, from a cultural studies perspective, how cultural imagination has come to serve as the vehicle to formulate resistance, mobilize voters, gain power and, most importantly, reconstruct Taiwanese nationalism within Taiwan's political limbo for decades. Furthermore, Margaret Somers' discussion (1993, 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c; Somers and Gibson 1994) of narrative identity is adopted as the framework for this paper in order to look at how identities are constructed within and across multiple realms. My research methods consist of conducting in-depth interviews and analysing texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a narrative perspective, this paper analyzes a public address titled “the Causes of the Unpopularity of the Foreigner in China”. It was given by a Chinese envoy named Wu Ting-fang in 1900 immediately following the Boxer Rebellion. First, the paper represents the narrative event and context - the Boxer Rebellion, within which Wu's speech was given. It then analyzes how Wu challenged the dominant Western construction of the Boxer Rebellion and constructed a different story. Finally, it discusses how Wu's personal background and experiences legitimized his ability and qualification to proffer an alternative construction. The rhetorical artifices Wu used to construct a coherent and factually grounded story include stating all the facts, reconstructing the ordering relations of these facts, and reestablishing the identities and images of the people involved in the story. Wu's special education and career background, which made him a welcome speaker on the topic of cultural differences in Western public forums, legitimizes his role as a truthful storyteller. Transculturally and transtemporally created, Wu's personal experience narrative is not merely an instrument to communicate personal experiences to other people. It transcends spatial and temporal limits and is productive of human knowledge. His speech is pertinent to the present, as all manner of civil and theological clashes of civilization both continue and start anew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is written based on 1 child participant's (Yang) and his family's lived stories as they were shared with Guming Zhao. Three plotlines--China-related, fitting-in, and competing--are followed to see Yang narratively. JJ, Zhao's daughter, started her new schooling in Canada about the same time Zhao started her doctoral program. In this paper, Zhao thought of Yang narratively alongside JJ. She also wove her narrative inquiry journey into this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What narratives can be fashioned by the historian from visual documents, and how might this relate to the narrative intention of those who created them? This paper explores the handful of surviving photographs recording the career of a British member of the Shanghai Municipal Police between 1929 and 1943. War and internment destroyed most of the visual records that former coalminer Frank Peasgood had collected during his police service, saving only those that had accompanied letters he had sent home to his family. The narrative he created with these can be clearly presented, and is discussed in the first part of the paper. Clearly, only visual documents could so powerfully demonstrate the transformation undergone by a man coming from his background, and provide the tools for showing that transformation. The photographs are then revisited and a further, complicating, layer of narrative is added, one which puts the policeman back into his place as a colonial subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research delves into the intricacies of the "Buddha Story Stele" in Cave 133 of the Maiji Mountain Grottoes, China, examining the sculptural combinations and conceptual nuances rooted in Buddhist culture from the 5th to the 6th centuries CE. The research focuses on discerning the identities of the "Two Adjacent-Seated Buddhas" and the Cross-Legged Bodhisattva carved on the stele, concurrently delving into the embedded symbolic significance within its structural composition. Our investigation posits that the upper, middle, and lower segments of the "Buddha Story Stele" respectively symbolize the post-Nirvana Dharmakāya Shakyamuni, the Bodhisattva Shakyamuni, and the Buddha Shakyamuni of Sumedha. Advancing scholarly discourse, it reevaluates the Cross-Legged Bodhisattva's identity and the configuration of the "Two Adjacent-Seated Buddhas", elucidating the interplay of imagery and conceptual themes. This study provides pivotal insights into the sculptural arrangement and religious thought transmission in the Maiji Mountain Grottoes, contributing significant academic and cultural value to preserve this unique heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the global interconnectedness, it becomes essential to critically assess how global events are portrayed in the media, as this could influence public understanding, stoke sentiments, and potentially impact international relations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the portrayal of China's response by the American media became a topic of interest and contention. However, A noticeable gap remains in understanding this portrayal across different pandemic stages. This article examines how American mainstream news media has characterised China's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic over time through a corpus-based discourse analysis. The study employs the analytical methods of ngram, keyword, and concordance lines in corpus linguistics to investigate the frequency and salience of discourse surrounding COVID-19 in China within American media. The results indicate shifting narratives in portraying China's pandemic response over time, with a noticeable trend towards negative representations. The negative representations are characterised by three themes: the stigmatisation of China, the undermining of China's achievements in combating the pandemic, and the politicisation of the pandemic. The article also indicates the perceived challenges in collaboration between America, China, and the WHO in addressing the pandemic, leading to disagreements and conflicts and impacting global mitigation efforts. This study highlights the critical role media plays in shaping public perceptions and international cooperation during global crises. Additionally, it is important for media outlets, policymakers, and stakeholders to reflect thoughtfully on their narratives, avoiding stereotypical beliefs while taking into account their effects on international relations and global collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic boundaries of Chinese identities and the role of family narratives in their formation. It examines the interplay between history and memory, focusing on traditions regarding ancestors of the Fujian Guo lineage of Muslim descent in China, Taiwan and the Philippines, over six centuries. Existing scholarship approaches these traditions in ethnic terms, corresponding to the ethnic discourse prevalent in the P.R.C., focusing solely on mainland groups, but overlooking other variations found overseas. Hence, scholars portray the changing narratives as reflecting a linear process: from past sinicisation, to today's more "historically authentic" Hui identity. The present analysis offers a broader socio-cultural overview, showing how the pan-Asian Guo lineage re-imagines familial history across time and space by highlighting the forced assimilation narrative in which their early Ming ancestors falsely adopted Guo Ziyi, a Han-Chinese national hero, as their ancestor. The paper follows the narrative's continuous transformations, analysing different interpretations of assuming Chinese identity among Muslims' descendants within different contexts of contemporary Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a narrative inquiry approach to investigate how genetic testing companies in Mainland China strategically construct narratives of vicarious experience (NoVE) about their clients to market genetic tests on social media. Ten stories about clients undergoing genetic testing are examined to identify the forms that NoVE take and the functions that they perform in relation to the companies' promotional agendas. Two types of NoVE are identified: 'compound narratives' that combine elements of narratives of personal experience (NoPE) and NoVE, and 'NoVE proper' that are narratives told in the third person throughout. The NoVE demonstrate long Complication and explicit Evaluation, which together with specific discourse devices foreground their authenticity and enhance their tellability. Authenticity of the narratives is primarily foregrounded through heteroglossic interplay of the 'voice of medicine' and the 'voice of the lifeworld' and tellability is enhanced through extreme case formulations. These discourse and rhetorical strategies are powerful tools to facilitate the companies' marketing agendas by better enabling the target audience to relate to the stories. At the same time the strategies conceal the explicit involvement of the companies in the production of the narratives, raising ethical questions about the commodification of genetic tests in the emerging consumer market. • Genetic companies commodify narratives of vicarious experience of clients. • The stories are presented as compound narratives and NoVE proper. • Heteroglossic medical and lay language foreground the narratives' authenticity. • Extreme formulations and emotive language enhance the narratives' tellability • The NoVE are commodified for their promotional and economic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Academic EU studies (EUS) is both a single transnational community and an assembly of separate national communities, each with different preoccupations, traditions and representations of European integration. This article examines how Chinese EUS represents European integration, based on interviews with leading scholars and a systematic study of the most cited English and Chinese-language articles. Drawing on sociology of knowledge and science studies work on the social sciences, the article contextualizes these representations within the material conditions and historical development of Chinese EUS as a network of scholars and institutions. Two findings are particularly interesting. First, EUS scholarship in China resembles Western EUS in important ways. Like Western counterparts, Chinese EUS scholars focus on EU politics and policy, relegating China–EU relations and EU issues with a particular impact on China to a secondary interest. The Chinese scholars also share the general normative bias in EUS towards representing European integration in a positive light, especially if they co-author with Western scholars. Second, in response to challenges such as populism, institutional reform and the EU's multiple crises, Chinese EUS scholars have moved away from the remarkable optimism about the long-term prospects of European integration that used to distinguish them from Western colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon interviews and participant observation conducted with hundreds of middle-aged and elderly Chinese women in rural and urban neighborhoods in Beijing Municipality between 1993 and 2012, this paper explores the emergence of revolutionary new narratives of self-compassion among older women in reform-era Beijing. Taught before 1949 that they should first and foremost serve their families and after 1949 that they should put their own individual needs aside and serve the party and the masses, many older Chinese women in Beijing – after the seeds of market reform were sown in the late 1970s – slowly began to focus more attention than before on themselves, their past and present experiences, sources of and solutions to past and present distress, and their own personal enjoyment of everyday life. The analysis shows how western theories of both gero-transcendence and individualization as modernization are insufficient to account for the complex cultural formations of self-care that have developed among older women in the first decades of post-Mao China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While 'good government' has long been hailed as a defining feature of colonial Hong Kong, this paper argues that it should be seen as an epistemological ordering frame whose existence relied upon constant processes of moralization undertaken by many actors across multiple scales. Central to this was the invocation of certain ways of thinking about the roles of government and citizens implicit in Chinese historical experience. These moral constructs, transplanted and transformed within the colonial milieu, became central elements in the way many British officials and Chinese residents came to express themselves, and by doing so constituted themselves as governing subjects upholding colonial rule. To explore the role of these constructs in particular situated practices and broader strategies of colonial governance, this paper focuses on two case studies concerning the improvement of public health amidst growing threats of epidemics between 1900 and 1908. Although these efforts were not successful in containing the spread of diseases, the emphasis on self-help and revival of 'local traditions' for encouraging people to improve their neighborhoods helped engender a sense of pride an solidarity amongst the Chinese residents and propagated the idea that Hong Kong was an orderly, 'civilized' Chinese society superior to that of mainland China itself. Although both case studies are drawn from particular sites, it is clear that the initiation, implementation and effects of the projects were not confined to the local scale, but were tied to larger shifts in the forms of governance and emerging political discourses beyond Hong Kong. They thus highlight the 'networks of multiple scales' and the translocal processes through which competing conceptions of Hong Kong and its relations to the world were actively being constructed by different actors under colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This research is interested in how dynamics in negotiating cultural meanings in the globalizing market place in China become visible in one particular aspect of culture: colour culture. The purpose of this paper is to explore the provenance of some of the many potential meanings invested in colours in contemporary China, and how and why these influence international business, communication, design and marketing management in particular. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative empirical study with ambition for an emic cultural approach to Chinese colour culture. Narrative analysis of accounts by Chinese colour professionals participating in a focus group interview, and by individually interviewed managers with extensive experience in Sino-Finnish business are reported in narrative format. Findings – The findings support the proposed existence of a phenomenon which the author has named "Colour culture" – a cultural set of meanings that are invested in colours. Unexpectedly, the empirical study proposes a strong tendency towards these meanings being value based in China. Visual manifestations of cultural values appear to be dynamic and dependent on context. Research limitations/implications – The current study does not offer generalizable prescriptions for contextual colour usages. The explorative, qualitative nature of this study serves as a basis for contextual and quantifiable future research on the phenomenon. Practical implications – Since, for the Chinese, colours manifest cultural values and are highly emotional, not only linguistic, but also visual translation of communication is needed. For international communication, design and marketing managers, this further implies a need for contextual understanding of local colour culture. Originality/value – Recognizing the existence of colour culture and its value-based proposition in China opens up new research avenues and practical considerations for cross-cultural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1920s, the Japanese scholar Naito Konan put forward the famous theories of 'the Song dynasty is the beginning of modern China' and 'the cultural transformation was completed during the Tang and Song dynasties,' which exerted far-reaching influence in the academic circle. However, although full of the 'numerous academic growth points and exuberant academic vitality, the theories have not been well explored and illustrated yet.' This paper, taking Liu Yong as a case study, is intended to provide concrete examples to Naito's theories. The urban narrative in Liu Yong's lyrics-the multi-role discourse practice of a prodigal poet, a talented lyricist, and a traveling official-inherited the discourse splitting trend of the late-Tang and Five dynasties and finished the transformation from the elite to the mass discourse. Accordingly, it set the narrative mode of amorous themes and discourse mode of 'talented lyricist plus amorous affairs,' which exerted far-reaching influence on the construction of the new urban culture in the Song dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of mass schooling in most parts of the world, the discourse of the “woman primary teacher” is often the subject of discourse. Yet most stories of these women teachers emerge from other (Western) contexts, with little known about how changing education processes affect the gendered identities of women in other cultural settings. This paper explores how women teachers negotiate their gendered identities in Hong Kong, where modernization has already mingled with the indigenous Chinese culture. It provides the stories of four Chinese women teachers as they engage in ongoing construction and negotiations of gendered identities over their life histories in Hong Kong. All are ethnically Chinese, of different ages and at different stages of their personal and professional lives, and all have grown up in Hong Kong. A framework of post-colonial concepts of hybridity and border crossing helps to suggest how identity resources develop in relation to a range of contemporary practices which are experienced as both pressures and opportunities. These Chinese women teachers' identities are seen to be complex, fluid and multi-faceted, continually under construction in their daily lives, with changes experienced in both work and family settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illness narratives and explanatory models have been a research focus for the discipline of medical anthropology for decades. In recent years, standardized qualitative research tools have been developed to elicit illness narratives as a means of conducting socio-cultural analysis and as a springboard for health-related interventions - particularly with reference to communities experiencing rapid socioeconomic transition or those in which trauma has been experienced. Nevertheless, gaps persist in terms of the latent methodological and epistemological challenges of translating and transplanting such research tools to new contexts. This paper chronicles the adaptation of the McGill Illness Narrative Interview (MINI) for use in the culturally Tibetan region of Mustang, Nepal. This analysis is based on 44 in-depth interviews using an adapted version of the MINI to elicit narratives about experiences of illness. The MINI proved to be a compelling research tool, particularly in terms of engaging research assistants in the field. Yet its deployment in a context where distinctions between individual and social suffering can be blurred, where the dichotomization of 'religion' and 'medicine' makes little sense, and where understandings of causality are rooted in the concept of karma, revealed the extent to which the MINI - and, by extension other such qualitative research tools - emerges from particular models of narrative construction and assumptions about the relationships between self and other, cause and effect. Concluding recommendations are made regarding the adaptation of this tool to other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, based on an examination of evidence from the two Tang dynastic histories with cross references to the relevant Tang anecdotes and funerary inscriptions, discusses the role of mothers in the well-being of the Tang state. The paper argues that motherhood occupied a crucial place in the two dynastic histories and demonstrates that the Tang official depiction of motherhood fitted into a basic pattern of how mothers were represented in earlier traditional Chinese portrayals of motherhood. This essay discloses that there are two possible scenarios behind the placement of the Tang official narratives of maternal acts. Both of these scenarios represent a historiographical recording of maternal actions that the male elite narrators felt were directly or indirectly involved in the preservation of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I challenge the dominant Western discourse on China's rise. This discourse tends to reflect political construction rather than thoughtful scholarship. It is poorly informed by historical evidence and usually evades comparison of China's conduct with that of other countries, such as the United States, now or in the past. It is also characterized by strong tendencies of groupthink and revisionist scholarship to adjust to prevailing official policies and popular sentiments instead of scrutinizing their validity. This discourse is not only wrong but also dangerous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]