ABSTRACT
This chapter explores conflict management strategies and discursive identity construction in parent-child conflict narratives written by Chinese university students. The participants were 41 undergraduates enrolled in an English-medium course entitled “Language, Culture and Communication” at a top-tier comprehensive university in Beijing. It was found that similar to previous studies, dominating and avoiding ranked the top strategies for managing conflict. Yet a new strategy emerged from the data, which we named “articulating.” Further discourse analysis of transitivity processes revealed that what marked articulating a new strategy was its nature in verbalizing mental process, especially needs and desires. The dominating strategy constructed a paradoxically dependent and independent self while articulating strategy constructed an independent adult on an equal footing with their parents.
