Dependency or empowerment? A Critical Discourse analysis of rural left‐behind elders’ identity construction in Chinese news reports

Bibliographic Data

ID20253752
AuthorsChen Cai (0000-0002-5854-5121, Zhejiang Shuren University), Heng HU (0000-0002-3698-8706, Zhejiang Shuren University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume13
Issue1
Publication date2026-12-31
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCogent Arts and Humanities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2331-1983 • E-ISSN: 2331-1983
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23311983.2026.2687280
OpenAlexW7164478850
LanguageEN
References cited27

Population aging, rural-to-urban migration, and the erosion of family-based eldercare have made rural left-behind elders a salient social group in contemporary China. Yet little is known about how mainstream Chinese English-language media construct their identities for international audiences. This study examines 457 China Daily reports published between 2014 and 2024. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis and a mixed-method design combining topic modeling with predication analysis, it investigates the discursive representation of rural left-behind elders. The findings reveal a dominant dependency-empowerment binary. Within this framework, rural left-behind elders are represented as institutional dependents, familial sentinels, crisis-protected subjects, technologically empowered recipients, and potential economic contributors. These identity positions place older adults along a continuum from welfare dependence and emotional attachment to developmental participation and productive incorporation. At the micro-linguistic level, reporting verbs and related predicational strategies allocate discursive authority, delimit agency, and legitimize particular subject positions. These representational patterns are closely tied to broader state agendas, including social security reform, Rural Revitalization, and Digital China, while also engaging global aging discourses. The study argues that China Daily does not merely describe the condition of rural left-behind elders; it participates in a state-centered governance narrative that mediates the tension between welfare responsibility and developmentalism

China · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Mainstream · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Salient · Aging and Gerontology Research · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access