Home> Archive> 2018> Volume 8 Number 1 ( Jan. 2018)
IJSSH 2018 Vol.8(1): 1-7 ISSN: 2010-3646
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2018.V8.924

Peaceful POWER? Or China Threat? Interpreting the “Symbolic Reality” of Chinese Military Parade

Xu Min

Abstract—Chinese Military Parade on September 3, 2015 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square caused fierce discussions around the global media platforms. Complex symbolic realities were constructed from different political, historical and cultural backgrounds. Based on symbolic convergence theory, this study applied the rhetorical method of fantasy theme analysis to map the rhetorical visions and the value systems. This study analyzed three different online forums: the internet forum in mainland China, the overseas Chinese online forum, and the mainstream English online forums. The results showed that, the overseas Chinese online forum and internet forum in mainland China emerged the similar rhetorical visions, which rooted in the value system “Nationalism”; the overseas Chinese online forum presented Orientalist fantasy and Anti-Orientalist criticism. The subjective landscape “Set up the prestige for the leaders”, which was affected by the “Pragmatism” value, proved to be the most influential and shared fantasy all around the world. The English online forums condemned the 9.3 military parade with “Orientalism” rhetorical visions. The positive “Nationalism” fantasy from Chinese mainland online forum cannot affect the subjective landscapes of citizens from the western countries.

Index Terms—9.3 Chinese big military parade, international communication, symbolic convergence theory, fantasy theme analysis, rhetoric vision.

Xu Min is with the Department of communication, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China (e-mail: xumin.rice@foxmail.com).

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Cite: Xu Min, "Peaceful POWER? Or China Threat? Interpreting the “Symbolic Reality” of Chinese Military Parade," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-7, 2018.

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