New Discourses in Contemporary China
New Discourses in Contemporary China (NDCC) is a research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Academic Collaboration - International Network, No.F00185O
Duration: September 1, 2006 - August 31, 2009
Part of achievements: Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics, 2009 Vol 2, Beijing: High Education Press; Journal of Language and Politics, 2010 No4, , Amsterdam: John Benjamins
It is widely acknowledged that China is undergoing deep changes in economics, politics and culture. The Chinese phenomenon could be (and indeed is) studied in a variety of academic disciplines, but we believe that the Discourse Analysis approach is best suited to gain a qualitative understanding of this kind of wide-ranging social change. By 'discourse' we understand primarily the ways in which a language is used in diverse systematic ways, in a society as a whole. For example we can distinguish 'discourses' of government, of commerce of the law, of education, etc. and more specific discourses relating to, for example, health, immigrants, women, etc. When we talk of discourses in this sense, we mean not just the jargon used in these fields of activity, but the way complex kinds of verbal exchange are institutionalized, e.g. in the various forms of governmental debate. Discourse embodies implicit assumptions that are made about the way society is or ought to be. Discourses in this broad sense change, merge or disappear, while new discourses or new hybrid discourses also come into being.
In such a context, we are launching an international collaborative research network called NEW DISCOURSE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA (NDCC). The NDCC network will involve scholars both in China and the UK, who are interested in social, political and economic change in contemporary China and in the evolving Western perception of these changes. It is expected that scholars working within a discourse analytic framework will propose specific research projects: the aim of the NDCC network is to facilitate the ongoing exchange of ideas, methods and textual resources by means international colloquia backed up by a NDCC website.
To this end, the NDCC project held its first colloquia and seminar in Nankai University, Tianjin, in April 2006. The second NDCC colloquium was held in Lancaster University, 20-21 September 2007. The third was held in Nankai Univeristy in May 2009.
NDCC as a funded project ends in September 2009, but the research it started continues. We had its fourth international conference in November 2011 in Guangzhou and the fifth in October 2013 in Nanjing.
Links:
Website: New Discourses in Contemporary China (NDCC)