A Discourse Analysis On The Reporting Of Traditional Festivals In People’s Daily Overseas Edition Since The 18th CPC National Congress

Founded in 1985,People’s Daily Overseas Edition is an organ newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and a comprehensive Chinese daily of China’s opening to the outside world.In an editorial congratulating the opening of the 18 th National Congress,the People’s Daily Overseas Edition said the 18 th National Congress meant that "a new page will be opened in the struggle of the party and the country".The expression opens a change in its language style and it is not difficult to find that the overseas edition of the people’s daily is making efforts to carry out a comprehensive and profound change in reporting the 18 th National Congress representing a historical opportunity and a milestone in Chinese history.Articles about Chinese festivals which boast unique features of traditional Chinese culture have occupied a large proportion in all reports of the newspaper each year.Great changes,however,can be witnessed since the 18 th National Congress,such as an unbiased position by reporting voices from both sides,a theme of reports clustering on core value,a preference of newsletter in genre and an expanding range of topics.Besides,language style is also gradually changed in the discourse.Language is of great importance in constructing social identity,relationship,knowledge and belief.Discourse analysis on language can reflect changes of society and policies.Different expressions of language are combined under specific social conditions and gradually contribute to a complex discourse through variation and interaction,which may unveil specific changes in history and politics.With the background of political and cultural changes since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,this dissertation selected reports of traditional festivals on People’s Daily Overseas Edition from January 1,2013 to December 31,2021,took Van Dijk’s news discourse analysis theory as the theoretical basis and made a specific discourse analysis on the languages of the reports to argue the relationship between power and ideology.Structurally,various festivals have been introduced with a focus on minority groups and a selection of diverse subjects.Following the pace of national main theme,the reports enriched cultural meanings to traditional Chinese festivals.Besides,a humorous and neutral tone,instead of official pitch,was adopted in publication.Stylistically,it told Chinese stories in a narrative way,kept a balance between humor and facetiousness,and utilized written rhetoric,such as comparative sentences and figurative rhetoric,to highlight core meanings.The overseas edition of People’s daily is dedicated to establishing a mainstream ideology,reporting official voices,guiding public opinions and introducing Chinese culture to the outside world.All in all,analyzing features of the discourse in its reports on traditional Chinese festivals since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,we can deepen our understanding on how its language changes and what it truly means and illustrate the efforts made by Chinese government to construct ideology through splendid traditional Chinese culture.