Them and us in Shanghai today

Bibliographic Data

ID4873680
AuthorsXiaoling Zhang (0000-0001-7634-3649, corresponding author), Zhang xiaoling (0000-0002-6125-8246)
Year2002
Volume2002
Issue158
Publication date2002-01-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0165-2516 • E-ISSN: 1613-3668
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ijsl.2002.046
OpenAlexW2090810047
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited5

This paper is an exploration of one of the social aspects of China’s dramatic economic transformation — contemporary Chinese literary discourse. Working within the analytic framework of critical discourse analysis, it aims to probe into the issue of human relationships between citizens in urban cities such as Shanghai and temporary rural migrants from all over the country. It focuses on the short story ‘‘Little Restaurant’’ by Wang Anyi, which depicts rural migrants who have come to Shanghai to seek their fortune. It examines both at the lexico-grammatical level such properties as personal references and lexical choices and at the discoursal level such properties as the mode in which the story is written, which in turn reveals evidences of a segregation ideology manifest in an asymmetrical society. The conclusion drawn from the study is that the gulf between ‘‘us,’’ the urbanites in Shanghai, and ‘‘them,’’ the ‘‘provincial people,’’ is created not only by policy-makers but also by people’s attitudes

China · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub