A Comparative Discourse Study On Comments From Diverse Readers Of Chen Ai Luo Ding (Red Poppies:A Novel Of Tibet)

Text-oriented studies of Chinese ethnic literature works have enjoyed an increasing popularity in Chinese-academic discourse recently while the readers’ aspect hasn’t got its due attention. Paying attention to the importance of readers in completing literary discourse of a given text according to Reader-response Theory, this research collects abundant readers’online comments for the Chinese ethnic literature text of Chen Ai Luo Ding and for its English translation Red Poppies:A Novel of Tibet, and makes a two-dimensional classification of those comments according to diverse discursive backgrounds of the readers. Based on theories of Discourse studies from Norman Fairclough and Michel Foucault, the thesis makes detailed comparative analyses of the four groups of comment data by discussing differences and similarities of perspectives as well as biases of the novel’s readers deciphering the text. The study comes to a conclusion that multiple biases and misunderstanding of the Tibetan culture do exist in both Chinese and Western readers’minds due to cultural and discursive influences, especially influences by the western media and political propaganda. Following these results, the thesis also tries to give insights for solutions of misunderstanding and biases caused by cultural and discursive differences, in pursuit of better cross-cultural communication between the Western World and China on issues like Tibet and human rights.