Slogans with Chinese characteristics: The political functions of a discourse form

Abstract

This article investigates a distinctive linguistic device – slogans – in the discursive ecology of the history, culture and politics of China. We are interested in how a given language device, one that might seem trivial, can carry out different distinctive and important functions in particular cases. Slogans in China are an important way to carry out a function that all states must engage with: to encourage and teach people to see themselves as ‘co-citizens’ in the state. At the same, this function also and always links to important ideological goals and intersects with the state as a source of coercive power. This article is a first step in a larger project to study the discursive tools used, in different ways in different societies, to accomplish the civic and ideological goals of states. So, China here is a case study, an important one to start with, given the significance of modern China in the global world today.