Holding Half the Sky: A Corpus-based Critical Discourse

Analysis of the Representation of Chinese Women

in Chinese and British Press (2005-2015)
IGALA 9- Parallel Sessions
Yeqing Kong
Lancaster University, UK

ORIENTATION

RESEARCH BACKGROUND

RESEARCH QUESTION

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1
4

DATA & METHODS

DATA ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION

2
3

01
PART I

RESEARCH BACKGROUND

FEUDAL SOCIETY

STILL remains a long-standing goal in the long run.

When could
women REVOLUTION
truly Holding
Half the Sky?
CIVIL
MODERN
SOCIETY
REPUBLICAN
FEUDAL
SOCIETY
ERA

GENDER EQUALITY
STILL remains a long-standing goal in the long run.
When could women truly Holding Half the Sky?

UK
CHINA

UK

No country
CHINA in the world can yet
say that they have achieved
gender equality.

02
PART II

RESEARCH QUESTION

PA RT
TWO

RE
ES
SE
EA
AR
RC
CH
H Q
QU
UE
ES
ST
T II O
ON
N
R

QUESTION
2
1
How
Are are
there
Chinese
anywomen
similarities
discursively
and/or
represented
differences in
in mainstream
the
construction
Chinese of
and
gendered
Britishidentities
newspapers
of Chinese
in recent
women
years
from the
(2005-2015)?
point of view of Chinese and
western (UK) news media?

03
PART III

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

PA RT
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Critical Discourse
Analysis
(CDA) Approach
Corpus Linguistic
(CL) Approach

Combined
Approach

04
PART IV

DATA & METHODS

DATA

LexisNexis, 2014

DATA

PA RT
FOUR

DA
AT
TA
A &
& M
ME
ET
TH
HO
OD
DS
S
D

Chinese wom*n OR Chinese female* OR

Chinese

girl

OR

Chinese

girls

OR

Chinese lady OR Chinese ladies OR

wom*n from China OR female* from
China OR girl from China OR girls from
China OR lady from China OR ladies
from China

Search
Terms

PA RT
FOUR

DA
AT
TA
A &
& M
ME
ET
TH
HO
OD
DS
S
D

China
China Daily
Daily

Categories
Categories

Articles
Articles

Broadsheet

848

Tokens
Tokens

547,166
Global
Global Times
Times

Tabloid

151

The
The Guardian
Guardian

Broadsheet
(left-leaning)

407

Daily
Daily Mail
Mail
Mail
Mail on
on
Sunday
Sunday

456,250
Tabloid
(right-leaning)

194

Types
Types

22,691

CHINA
CHINA
CORPUS
CORPUS

28,560

UK
UK
CORPUS
CORPUS

METHODS

AntConc & Wmatrix

METHODS

Rayson, 2008

AntConc
Anthony, 2015
Collocations
MI + Log-Likelihood
(p > 0.05)

Methods

POS tagging &

Semantic tagging
USAS
(UCREL Semantic
Annotation System)

Wmatri
x

A
general and
abstract terms

B
the body and
the individual

C
arts and crafts

E
emotion

F
food and farming

G
government
and public

H
architecture,
housing and the
home

I
money and
commerce in
industry

K
entertainment,
sports and
games

L
life and living
things

M
movement,
location, travel
and transport

USAS
N
numbers and(UCREL Semantic
measurement

O
substances,
materials,
objects and
equipment

P
education

Q
language and
communication

S
social actions,
states and
processes

T
time

W
world and
environment

X
psychological
actions, states
and processes

Y
science and
technology

Z
names and
grammar

Annotation System)

Rayson, 2008

AntConc
Anthony, 2015
Collocations
MI + Log-Likelihood
(p > 0.05)

Methods

POS tagging &

Semantic tagging
USAS
(UCREL Semantic
Annotation System)

Wmatri
x

AntConc
Semantic tagging

Collocations

Wmatri
x

Database

224 collocates (China corpus) VS 209 collocates (UK corpus)

05
PART V

DATA ANALYSIS

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Verbal
Collocates

V
Adjectival

Nominal
Collocates

Collocates

V erbal
Collocates

PART 5
DATA
ANALYSIS

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Discourse prosodies of Chinese women in China newspapers identified through verbal collocates

Discourse prosody

Chinese women are associated

with crime, violence and
constraint

Chinese women are related to

clothes and physical appearance

Chinese womens marital

condition is concerned

Semantic tagging

Example of collocates

G2.1- Crime

rape(d), abducted

E3- Violent/Angry

abused, mistreated

A1.7+ Constraint

bound, detained, debasing

S8- Hindering

arrested

B5 Clothes and personal

belongings

dressing, wearing

S4 Kin

marrying, married, marry

T3 Time: Old, new and

young; age (mis-tagging)

dating, date

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Discourse prosodies of Chinese women in UK newspapers identified through verbal collocates

Discourse prosody

Semantic tagging

Example of collocates

Chinese women tend to have

M1 Moving, coming and

enter, returned, came,

some physical actions

going

going, go

Chinese women are related to

I3.1 Work and

some type of work

employment: Generally

Chinese women are connected

working, work

A9+ Getting and

adopt, adopted, taking,

possession

having, had, have, has

A3+ Existing

being, are, were

with the condition of existing or

possession

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

The number and percentage of collocates in USAS broad semantic

category (E, Q, S and X) in China and UK newspapers
USAS Broad
Semantic Category

China Corpus

UK Corpus

Collocates
Percentage of
Collocates
Percentage of
in Category overall Collocates in Category overall Collocates

E Emotional Actions, States

and Processes

8.7%

1.6%

Q Linguistic Actions, States

and Processes

7.2%

11.3%

S Social Actions, States and

Processes

10

14.5%

4.8%

X Psychological Actions,
States and Processes

8.7%

9.7%

Total
(All Categories in corpus)

69

100%

62

100%

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Emotional

Social

E
S

Q
X

Linguistic

Psychological

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Emotional
In China corpus, Chinese womens preference is
about consumption, men and marriage.
Chinese women serve as the object of laughed.

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Emotional

Social

E
S

Q
X

Linguistic

Psychological

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

In China corpus, Chinese womens marital status

is paid close attention.

Social

Chinese women are the objects of allowed,

arrested and forced.

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Emotional

Social

E
S

Q
X

Linguistic

Psychological

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Linguistic
In UK report, Chinese women are always the
objects of the speech acts.

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Emotional

Social

E
S

Q
X

Linguistic

Psychological

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

In China corpus, Chinese womens consideration

is always around dressing, man and family issues.

Psychological

In UK corpus, Chinese women are not the

subjects but the objects of psychological action
think and suspected.

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Concordance of collocates
prefer & laughed
tagged as E2 (liking) and
E4 (happy) in China corpus

are the top 10 brands that

2
3

rich Chinese women

Some Chinese women
Chinese women

Chinese women's

prefer

when it comes to

prefer
prefer

men from Guangdong because

to buy bags," says
for public servants (Chinese

preference

women's ideal jobs of their Mr

5
6
7

Chinese women have

Chinese women who responded
While Chinese women
their performances and their

preferred
preferred
prefer

Right)
men in better
to marry
to look like their peers

passion," said a Chinese girl

preferred

to be called Coco.

who
"It is interesting that Chinese
9

Utzmann

laughed.

ladies are trying to keep the

whitest skin,

"As a musician without a

10

permanent job or income, do

you think I would be able to
marry a Chinese girl? he

laughed.

Since 2002, every relationship

N ominal
Collocates

PART 5
DATA
ANALYSIS

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Nominal collocates based on the Social Actor Approach (van Leeuwen,

1996)
China Corpus
UK Corpus
yoga, career, curling,
volleyball, skywalk,
basketball, football, tourist,
player, writer, customers,
audiences

artist, police

Identification

beauties, celebs, victims,

teenage, feet, hair, team

country, world, couple,

team, group, club, baby,
feet, hair, sex, India,
Japanese, England,
English, American,
Korean

Appraisement

bar, luxury, vogue, alcohol

Functionalization

Categorization

Nomination

Yajuan, jiarui, mingqiao,

yuanyuan, Xiaohong, wen

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Functionalization

Features

Chinese

females

in

the

sports

field

are

represented widely in the Chinese news report.

Functionalization

UK newspapers are not poised to functionalize

Chinese females.

Social Actor Approach

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Identification

Features

Physical identification (hair, feet) is a common feature in

both China and UK corpus.

Identification

Relational identification represents the major category

for the collocates in the UK corpus (country, world, team,
group).
Classification occurs in UK news to classify Chinese women
by their comparison or association with other nations.

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Classification
in UK
Corpus

victims of Japanese

sex slaves with Korean

objects of adoption by
American family
consumers with
Indian

opens an agency
placing baby

girls from China

with American couples

American mah-jong
club where four elderly

Chinese women

meet

labels Huntsman as unAmerican for adopting

girls from China

and India

Chinese girl

outperforms a 27-year-old
American in the Olympic
pool,

when a 16-year-old

The as many as
5 200,000 mainly Korean Chinese women
and
as many as 200,000
Chinese girls
6
mainly Korean and
and women

as sex slaves before and

during
forced to have sex

tens of thousands of
mainly Korean and

Chinese women

to work in frontline brothels

propensity for Indian

and

Chinese women

to colour their hair has also

increased

the language barrier

between a young

Chinese girl

and her English lover

PA RT
FIVE

DA
AT
TA
A A
AN
NA
AL
LY
YS
S II S
S
D

Nomination

Features

Chinese women tend to be viewed as individualized people in

Chinese news articles while as innominate identity or collective

Identification

group in UK newspapers.

Social Actor Approach

A djectival

Collocates

PART 5
DATA
ANALYSIS

A
general and
abstract terms

B
the body and
the individual

C
arts and crafts

E
emotion

F
food and farming

G
government
and public

H
architecture,
housing and the
home

I
money and
commerce in
industry

K
entertainment,
sports and
games

L
life and living
things

M
movement,
location, travel
and transport

N
numbers and
measurement

P
education

Q
language and
communication

S
social actions,
states and
processes ach

O
substances,
materials,
objects and
equipment
T
time

W
world and
th
i
w
environment
s
rie

o
g
e
t
a
cZ
d
a
o
br names and
s
u
p
r
grammar
o
c

e
n
i
s
e
Xollocat
Y
c
t
psychological
s
o
science and
m
actions, states
and processes

technology

broad categories with most collocates

in each corpus
A
22.9%

A
16.3%

Others
54.3%

19

4
4

CHINA

Others
51.2%

22
5

N
11.4%
T
11.4%

UK

T
11.6%

N
20.9%

Category A
general and abstract terms

China
good evaluaions

comparing terms

UK
good
evaluations

negative actions

China Corpus

Category A
general and abstract terms
What is typical woman in China corpus?
They were fatalistic, forbearing but
grateful, and had a strong survival
strength, which are

typical

qualities of traditional Chinese women.

Chen said his wife's attitude is

typical

of Chinese women that she feels ashamed

to be open and aggressive in sexual
matters.

The image was of a quintessential Chinese

women, but Chinese with money at the
time did not want be identified with a

typical

Chinese women with little glamour.

typical

Chinese lady, - middle-aged and middleclass has of late been making waves in
world financial market.

the

Category A
general and abstract terms
What is unusual woman in China corpus?
Chinese women have a quite

usual

body type.

Liu is

unusual

among Chinese women in that she is

proud of her tanned skin.

Category N
numbers and measurements
China Corpus
slim

tall

half

many

most

first
little

full

UK Corpus

Category N
numbers and measurements

many

most

Category N
numbers and measurements
Quantifying human beings has the effect of
representing them as a heterogeneous
group, objectifying them and backgrounding
their individual activities.
- Baker et al. (2008)

Category N
numbers and measurements

Category N
numbers and measurements

Category T
time

elderl
y

young

middle-aged

06
PART VI

CONCLUSION

PA RT
SIX

CO
ON
NC
CL
LU
US
S II O
ON
N
C

Similarities
Chinese women often play passivized roles in emotional,
social and psychological processes.

Chinese women are portrayed as a heterogeneous group

associated with marriage, male, sexuality, and
appearance.
3

Chinese women in the sports field are highly focused

as
functionalized
actor
or
membership
categorization.

PA RT
SIX

CO
ON
NC
CL
LU
US
S II O
ON
N
C

Differences
Chinese womens work and employment as well as education
are paid more attention in UK news than in Chinese news.

Chinese newspapers tend to functionalize Chinese women

while UK newspapers tend to identify them according to
their relations with the group or people from other specific
nations.
3

Chinese news articles tend to nominate Chinese women as

the individualized whereas UK news view them as
collective identities.

PA RT
SIX

CO
ON
NC
CL
LU
US
S II O
ON
N
C

LIMITATIONS

The corpus is not representative enough due to limited data.

The consideration of visual information are lacked in analysis, due to

the current corpus can only present language out of its visual
context.

The identification of discourse prosodies is a rather subjective

Due to the diachronic nature of the corpus, there are unavoidably

process that the research bias is hard to avoid.

some seasonal collocates rather than consistent collocates.

Q&A