Jiewei Chen

Jiewei Chen

27 July 2023

Corpus linguistics, President Xi's New Year's speeches, English translation, "Ren (Benevolence)", National image.

In recent years, numerous studies have put focus on the construction of China image using a synergy of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, however, few has ever employed the combination of corpus-based discourse analysis and Chinese traditional philosophy to construct a discourse analysis framework. This study will employ the "Ren" ("benevolence") thought of Mencius and the 20th National Congress Report to construct a new framework to analyze the national image of "benevolence" in President Xi's New Year's speeches. Based on corpus-based discourse analysis, the research shows whether it adopts high-frequency words and key word analysis or using "China" and "Chinese" as node words to examine collocations and concordance lines, or to analyze "We" collocations and concordance lines, the English translations of President Xi's New Year's speeches have shaped the national image of "benevolence" that sticks to high-quality development, the people's supremacy, the world's mind, and innovation internally. Externally, it adheres to an independent foreign policy of peace. At the same time, it has created an image of the "benevolence" of the Communist Party that is full of strict governance of the Party, never forgetting the original intention, and keeping in mind the historical mission, as well as a new "benevolent" person of being modest and prudent, and good at fighting to achieve national rejuvenation in the new era.

© 2023, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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