A Genre Analysis of the Reports on the National Party Congressof China in the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun

Abstract

　This study analyzes reports on the National Party Congress（ from the 13th

to the 18th） of China in the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun. Two categories

of reports,“ articles on the opening of the Party Congress” and“ a serial

article on the National Party Congress” are examined using Fairclough’s method

of genre analysis.

　　This study examined how “genre chains” and “genre mixing,” leading to

discourse over China’s one-party system, have changed over time. The Yomiuri

Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun, which are said to have different political positions,

show the same tendency.

　　First,“ genre chains” from“ official documents” to“ expository arguments”

was confirmed in the articles on the “keynote political report” of the Party

Congress. It showed that the newspaper emphasized how to explain the report

instead of the report itself. In an “explanatory discussion” of a “keynote political

report,” there is a tendency to combine various genres such as“ official document,”“

interview,”“ news story,” etc. into new“ formats.” Due to this“ genre

mixing,” the functions of the original genres and the texts using them change.

　　Second, in the series of articles on the National Party Congress, the main

genre gradually changes from“ argument” to“ narrative.” More stories and episodes

were used to express the conflict between the one-party system and the

market economy, and the detailed description of facts increased in the “narra　tive” genre. Along with these changes, the facts picked up in articles changed

from “reference material” to “grounds of an argument.” The author argued

that the above tendency amplified the risk that specific logic could become

fixed and the exclusion of the possibility of constructing other logic. Such a tendency

is presumed to be related to the lack of diversity of discussions about

Chinese society in recent years.