China: Language, Discourse, and Political Culture

T his multidisciplinary course examines language, discourse and political culture in China since 1949. It assumes no prior knowledge of China or the Chinese language, and it has two interrelated parts. In the first, we examine the most colossal programme of centrally-directed 'mind control' in human history – the Chinese Communist Party's attempt between 1949 and 1978 to create new, revolutionary human beings through the control of language and discourse. What were the origins of this attempt? How did it affect people's behaviour? How did it affect Chinese culture? And how successful was it in changing people’s ideas and values? In the second part of the course we will explore the enormous changes that have occurred since the beginning of the Reform Era in 1978. Why did Deng Xiaoping and his successors relax centralised controls over language and discourse? What social and economic changes have encouraged the emergence of new discourses and cultural forms? What opportunities have been created by the explosive growth of the internet? How does the government continue to regulate the media, monitor the internet, and manipulate public debate? How have people sought to evade these controls? What critical discourses still manage to flourish? And why, when so many things have changed in China, does the Chinese Communist Party still use the traditional language of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought? The answers to questions like these offer many insights into continuity and change in China since 1949.