Author(s): Rui Liu

Abstract: The image of Chinese women in official media is a crucial component of China’s national image. The story of Wang Yaping, an outstanding female astronaut, is widely promoted worldwide, influencing foreign perceptions of the country. Using Fairclough’s Three-dimensional Model as a guiding framework, this study analyzes how China Daily constructs Wang’s image. The study yields three major findings: (1) China Daily depict Wang as a space hero to China, a female role model and a knowledge disseminator, linking her personal achievements to national development and emphasizing her qualities such as persistence and approachability; (2) the newspaper balances the authenticity and vividness, provides properly detailed and concise reports and demonstrates objective and immersive narrative of Wang’s story; (3) Wang’s image combines the people’s aspirations and social mainstream values, encourages women to pursue higher achievements and creates a positive international image for China. This study may investigate a new perspective to the field of female image research in China.

Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, news discourse, female image construction, astronaut, corpus.

Article Info: Received: 28 Oct 2024; Received in revised form: 26 Nov 2024; Accepted: 01 Dec 2024; Available online: 09 Dec 2024

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.96.32