A Discourse Analysis of Quotidian Expressions of Nationalism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chinese Cyberspace

Abstract

By conducting discourse analysis on quotidian expressions of nationalism of Chinese netizens and analyzing their “Liking” behavior, this article tries to inductively explore during the COVID-19 pandemic what and how Chinese netizens say about nationalism. This article finds that during the pandemic, Chinese netizens show a confident and rational but confrontational and xenophobic posture in their quotidian discourses. They value reasoning and deliberation in their expressions of nationalist discourses. In the quotidian discourses, they maintain a confident tone when comparing China’s performance with other countries during the pandemic, but show vigilance and even hostile sentiments toward external provocations.