Engineering nationalism: the people's daily's nationalist messaging
Embargo Date
2027-03-03
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
This paper studies how the People's Daily purposefully creates stories about the "Century of Humiliation" and the "Chinese Dream" to grow nationalism among Chinese citizens. Through corpus analysis and qualitative review, this paper finds patterns connecting the framing of China's traumatic history with its current ambitions. The People's Daily subtly fosters an emotional story spanning national subjugation, heroic resistance, and destined rejuvenation.Quantitative analysis first maps associations between target terms. Findings show the People's Daily connects stories through rhetoric about the enduring "Chinese nation" and its resilient "people." This suggests an overarching strategy highlighting China's journey from past struggles toward future glory. Data analysis further unpack each story, showing linguistic choices that emotionally resonate around national dignity, solidarity, and destiny. Then the analysis puts the coverage into two groups. One is an official "humiliation-revival" story to justify the government's right to rule. The other is a populist nationalist story linking big future plans with everyday hopes and dreams. This shows sophisticated message strategies that deeply get into public thinking. It uses dramatic appeals and ties together small and large stories. Ultimately, the paper argues that the People's Daily grows nationalism through . It makes icons out of the Chinese nation and people overcoming humiliations to achieve shared hopes. Thereby, it builds an emotionally powerful historical story arc that is strongly connected with popular nationalism.
Description
2024