VERBALIZATION OF THE “HARMONIOUS SOCIETY” CONCEPT (和谐社会) IN THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF CHINA
Abstract
The article offers a comprehensive analysis of the verbalization of the concept of a “harmonious society” (和谐社会) in contemporary Chinese political discourse from 2000 to 2024, which serves as a core element of the ideological model of the PRC and a key instrument for shaping public perceptions of stability and order. The study is based on a corpus analysis of Chinese- and English-language materials from official media (People’s Daily, Xinhua, China Daily, Global Times) combined with critical discourse analysis, quantitative methods for measuring frequency and collocations, and contextual analysis of semantic oppositions. The research identifies lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic strategies for representing the concept in party documents, leadership speeches, newspaper publications, and online discourse, including elements of internet slang. It traces the diachronic evolution of the concept – from an instrument of domestic stabilization and legitimacy during Hu Jintao’s tenure to the globalized rhetoric of the “community of a shared future for mankind” (人类命运共同体) in Xi Jinping’s era. Semantic oppositions (harmony/ chaos, stability/division, unity/separatism) and the mechanisms of their use in constructing a binary “us/them” worldview are examined. The article also analyzes censorship and euphemization strategies, including protest neologisms (“to be harmonized” – 被和谐, the homonym 河蟹) as indicators of an ironic public reception of official rhetoric. A three-level typology of the discursive evolution (national – transitional – global) is proposed, and the mechanisms for adapting the concept to different communicative arenas are outlined. The study’s novelty lies in combining corpus and linguocultural approaches, which made it possible to identify stable models of verbalizing harmony and to trace their transfer from the domestic political sphere into the PRC’s foreign policy discourse, as well as to determine their potential as a tool for shaping the country’s positive international image. The findings can be used for further research into authoritarian rhetorical strategies and mechanisms of discursive legitimation in a comparative context.
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