ABSTRACT
At this point in time, as China is reclaiming the world power status and playing an increasingly important role on the global stage, it seems imperative for the world to try to understand the great country through its language, especially the political messages it is sending, which may be dramatically different from those of a Western country in their linguistic nature and underlying principles. In this regard, critical discourse analysis (CDA) seems a useful tool to study Chinese and uncover some of the discourse and power structures underneath the characteristic use of the language. Conversely, the critical study of Chinese discourse in its unique cultural, political and economic background may help recalibrate the ever-evolving field of CDA to the Chinese context and expand its area of concerns and research methodology. In this chapter, we hope to investigate how existing CDA rationale and methodology interact with the Chinese discourse at an era when China is becoming a superpower while its language remains enigmatic and sometimes an object of misunderstanding.
