Constant fear,but lingering nostalgia: British press representations of post-colonial Hong Kong 20 years on

Abstract

This study conducts a corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of post-colonial Hong Kong in The Times over the past 20 years. The primary purpose is to reveal its preferential ways of representing Hong Kong and explicate the intricate relations between language use and the historical and socio-political contexts. Through an integration of the methods and theories associated with critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, this study conducts both synchronic and diachronic analyses of the representations of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2017. The findings suggest that The Times’ representations of Hong Kong tend to be crisis- and conflict-oriented. While evoking constant fear about the future of Hong Kong, it still suggests that it is Britain’s duty and moral obligation to protect the former British colony. The same trend can also be identified in The Times’ representations of the mass protests against the proposed extradition bill in 2019.