The Reconstruction of Enemies in Post-reform China - a deconstruction of the Japanese enemy image

Nedanstående innehåll är skapat av Mimers Brunns besökare. Kommentera arbete

In April 2005 the Japanese authorities approved eight new history textbooks for secondary school which are accused of trivialising Japanese war crimes. Within hours, the Chinese mass media were teeming with anti-Japanese sentiments and Japanese property worth millions of dollars was vandalised by angry protesters during the weeks to follow ? the question I seek to answer is how the contemporary Japanese enemy image is constructed and maintained in Chinese media? Using a Laclau and Mouffe inspired discourse analysis strategy to analyse the Japanese enemy image as it was represented in the Chinese media in April 2005, I have identified several discourses, which by way of demonising Japan and victimising China in concert constitute and maintain the Japanese enemy image. This is achieved in part through the demarcation of self from other, whereby Japan is represented as deceitful, unrepentant, subhuman and cruel, in opposition to China as honest, accommodating, pure and innocent. In part by rendering Japan the enemy by way of the consistently emphasising Japan?s militaristic past and any perceived signs of resurgence of Japanese ...