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Speaking about the unspeakable: the evolution of political discourse on popular protest in contemporary China. / 不可言说的话语: 当代中国抗争话语的演变 / CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection / Bu ke yan shuo de hua yu: dang dai Zhongguo kang zheng hua yu de yan bian

于一个国家而言,民众抗争不仅是一个政府治理和治安问题,也是一个战略沟通问题。本研究即选取社会沟通的视角研究当代中国的社会抗争,旨在了解当代中国逐渐开放的抗争话语的演变、产生条件及其深刻意义。 / 于定量与定性相结合的研究方法,本文分析了1990至2010年间中国政治社会精英关于民众抗争的话语。研究发现在抗争数量和规模不断增长的同时,抗争的话语环境发生了显著变化并向日趋宽松的方向发展。中国的政治领导人正逐步正视民众抗争,官方话语也开始同情抗争者。从对抗争的报道来看,以往严密的媒体审查制度逐渐放宽,重大事件的详细报道得以频见于报端。与此同时,越来越多的人士加入到抗争的公开讨论中,社会抗争成为激烈的社会争论的焦点。 / 于以上分析,本文认为政治领导人的话语转变可以被理解为执政当局在一党执政和官民矛盾日益激化的特定条件下为促进政策实施和维持政权合法性而采取的手段,知识分子越来越直言不讳地提出批评意见则源于“话语机会结构的扩展。结合这些见解与已有文献表明,当代中国公民抗争和公共话语似乎彼此促进,形成了一个自我强化的循环。 / 研究意义而言,本研究首先探讨了“话语机会这一概念的价值及其局限性,继而指出民众抗争,精英话语和政权演变之间存在重要的联系。本文发现,只要能够触动社会精英阶层并激起他们的回应,即使是非持续性的,非跨区域性的公民抗争也会带来抗争政治参与空间隐性但却显著的扩展,以及政治话语实践的转变。因此,虽然抗争者没有直接挑战共产党政权,但他们的行动已经从某种程度上促进了中国的政权演变。 / For the state, popular protest is not merely a problem of governance and policing, but also an issue of strategic communication. Investigating protest in contemporary China from a communicative and elite-centered perspective, this dissertation shows that in parallel to the constantly growing number and scale of protests, the communicative environment of citizen resistance over the last two decades was significantly transformed and liberalized. Based on a mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis of political discourse between 1990 and 2010, the study seeks to understand the evolution, conditions, and significance of this widening discursive opening. / The research reveals that the Chinese political leadership gradually addressed the problem of popular protest in the open and shifted its discourse towards more protester-sympathizing assessments. Moreover, tight censorship was gradually lifted and detailed accounts of major protest events emerged in the news media. In parallel to these developments, the topic became accessible to a growing circle of speakers and eventually emerged at the center of a lively and increasingly critical public debate. / Based on this assessment, the present study argues that the political leadership’s discourse can be rendered intelligible as a policy endeavor and a regime-legitimating instrument under the particular conditions of one-party rule and rising citizen-cadre conflict. Moreover, the increasingly outspoken critique from intellectuals can be explained when the opening of the discursive opportunity structure is taken into account. Combining these insights with the available literature suggests that grassroots activism and elite discourse in China may be interlocked into a self-reinforcing cycle. / This research points to both the value and the limitations of the discursive opportunity approach. Moreover, the study also reveals important links between popular protest, elite discourse, and the dynamics of regime evolution. By provoking reactions from the elites, even the persistently episodic and localized forms of citizen resistance have led to an implicit, but still substantial expansion of space for contentious political participation and a modification of discursive political practices. Thus, even though most Chinese protesters may not have challenged the regime head-on, their activism has contributed to an ongoing evolution of the political order. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Steinhardt, Heinz Christoph. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-271). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of contents --- p.v / Acknowledgements --- p.viii / Tables, figures, and appendices --- p.xi / Abbreviations --- p.xiii / Newspapers, magazines, news agencies, television channels, and online portals cited --- p.xiv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / The objective and contribution of this research --- p.4 / A preview of the argument --- p.7 / Conceptual underpinnings --- p.10 / Data and methodology --- p.24 / Chapter description --- p.32 / Chapter 2 --- Background: historical legacies and post-Tiananmen protest --- p.34 / History: official misconduct and the right to resist --- p.34 / Popular protest after 1989: not regime-challenging but increasingly threatening --- p.47 / Conclusion --- p.60 / Chapter 3 --- The central Party leadership: public and internal communication --- p.61 / The appearance and disappearance of key terms over time --- p.62 / From reluctant acknowledgment to open problematization --- p.69 / Conclusion --- p.115 / Chapter 4 --- The news media versus local authorities: protest events and a transforming flow of information --- p.119 / A transforming flow of information and the Chinese state --- p.123 / The emergence of protest events in the news media --- p.130 / Conclusion --- p.159 / Chapter 5 --- The intellectuals: the emergence of critical non-activists --- p.161 / The discursive setting --- p.163 / Tracing intellectuals’ discourse --- p.169 / Conclusion --- p.194 / Chapter 6 --- The driving forces and significance of a widening discursive opening --- p.197 / The dynamics of discursive change --- p.197 / Protest discourse and the practices of protesting and protest policing --- p.221 / Concluding remarks --- p.229 / Appendices --- p.237 / Bibliography --- p.248

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_328058
Date January 2012
ContributorsSteinhardt, Heinz Christoph., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Government and Public Administration.
Source SetsThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
LanguageEnglish, Chinese
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, bibliography
Formatelectronic resource, electronic resource, remote, 1 online resource (xvi, 271 leaves) : ill. (some col.)
CoverageChina, China, China, 2002-, China, 1976-2002
RightsUse of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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