Chinese Muslims in China Daily and The New York Times

Offers insights into the ideological representation of Chinese Muslims in Chinese state media and U.S. liberal media, using corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis.

This book presents a study of the ideological representation of Chinese Muslims in two globally influential broadsheets - China Daily and The New York Times. It examines news articles published between 11th September 2001 and 2015, a period of significant socio-political change during which the Chinese government implemented policies related to Chinese Muslims. Additionally, this period experienced rapid economic development in other parts of China, which had economic implications for Chinese Muslim communities. By applying a comparative approach, the author uncovers the similarities and differences in how Chinese Muslims are portrayed in the news coverage from this time period and offers insights into how the two media outlets reported on Chinese Muslims in the context of substantial social and economic changes.

Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this study explores the representation of ingroup and outgroup roles ascribed to Chinese Muslims in media discourse. It analyses topics and attitudes using quantitative corpus analysis, which is complemented by a qualitative investigation of transitivity, topoi, outcasting strategies, and membership categorisations. By combining these methods, a more nuanced understanding of the media portrayal of this Chinese social group is revealed.

The book enriches the theoretical discourse surrounding the media representation of Muslims and sheds light on the impact of global media prejudice on Chinese Muslims.