Analysing complex policy change in Hong Kong: what role for critical discourse analysis?

Abstract This paper examines online discursive representations of migrant domestic helpers (MDHs) by Hong Kong employers. Unlike existing research, which concentrates on the experiences of MDHs from their own perspectives, this study focuses on positive narrations about MDHs by their employers. Using critical discourse analysis, this study identified the discursive strategies deployed to portray MDHs in more than 2,000 Facebook posts. The findings reveal that, although the interlocutors attempted to commend the MDHs in their employ, they also emphasised their own superiority by portraying themselves as gastronomic experts, good educators, and benefactors, thus developing an ideological paradox. Another dimension of ideological ambivalence concerned the discursive conflict between their high expectations from the MDHs and their underlying belief that domestic work neither requires skills nor deserves high pay. Taken together, these factors are responsible for the entrenchment of the inferior image of MDHs in Hong Kong society, despite the persistent endeavours of activist groups to spread awareness of their exploitation.

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Exploring stance in the manifestos of 3 candidates for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election 2017: Combining CDA and corpus-like insights

Discourse & Society ◽

10.1177/0957926518802934 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 29 (6) ◽

pp. 629-654 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sin Yan Eureka Ho ◽

Peter Crosthwaite

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Corpus Linguistics ◽

Chief Executive ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Linguistic Features ◽

Language Resources ◽

High Stakes ◽

Political Discourses

While much work has been done on the textual analysis of political discourses in Western countries, relatively little has focused on electoral manifestos in the East. Manifestos are open extensive declarations of individual ideologies for campaigns, comprising small texts in terms of word count but with massive implications for voters’ perception of the candidates’ political leanings. Focusing on the manifestos produced by the three candidates for the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election 2017, this article compares the linguistic features of the written political evaluative stances of the candidates. Combining critical discourse analysis using the APPRAISAL model, with analyses traditionally associated with corpus linguistics including log-likelihood keyword analysis and statistically driven visualisations, we find clear differences between the candidates in terms of the allocation of evaluative resources in their manifestos, representative of the perceived evaluative stance of candidate. Our findings justify the use of corpus linguistic techniques as a complement to critical discourse analysis, even in data with small word counts (<5000), in situations where nuanced, micro-managed selection of language resources is crucial to the perception of stance in very high-stakes contexts.

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Discursive representations of domestic helpers in cyberspace

Discourse Studies ◽

10.1177/1461445619887539 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 48-63

Author(s):

Janet Ho

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Power Dynamics ◽

Discursive Strategies ◽

Mainstream Media ◽

Group Identities ◽

The Subject ◽

Discursive Representations

This study investigates the online narratives Hong Kong employers construct around foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) and aims to compensate for the existing gap in discursive research and mainstream media, which tend to focus on the perspective of FDHs. It examines how employers portrayed FDHs both positively and negatively, as well as how they represented themselves in online environments. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyse more than 2000 Facebook posts on the subject of FDHs, identifying discursive strategies used in constructing both power dynamics and identities. The findings revealed that nomination strategies dominated the discourse, constructing both the in- and out-group identities of FDHs. Other strategies, such as predication and augmentation, showed how employers portrayed themselves as opportunity-givers and food critics, which further contributed to the inferior self-perception of FDHs. The study concludes that employers have developed a sense of ideological ambivalence, in which they perceived FDHs as motherly figures while simultaneously maintaining their superior status.

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Recontextualisation of Beijing’s voice: A critical discourse analysis of hegemony and resistance in Hong Kong political discourse

Discourse & Society ◽

10.1177/0957926520914683 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 540-561

Author(s):

Toby Wing-Chun Ng

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Political Discourse ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Social Actors ◽

Alternative Representation ◽

Basic Law ◽

Political Events ◽

The Press

This study adopts critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the recontextualisation of Beijing’s voice in Hong Kong’s governance. Using Beijing’s interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law in 2016, which triggered a by-election in 2018, as the case, this article analyses two texts produced by two social actors: the press conference in response to Beijing’s interpretation by the Hong Kong government and an election flyer by a pro-democracy candidate, complemented by a corpus analysis of pro-Beijing newspapers reporting the incident. The findings show that the local government drew upon Beijing’s voice to help create a dominant representation of the Beijing–Hong Kong relations and thus hegemonised Hong Kong political discourse which influenced other social domains, such as newspapers and elections. The pro-democracy camp, as the resistance to the hegemony, drew upon Beijing’s voice to create an alternative representation to secure votes during the by-election. This article then proposes a model which could comprehend Beijing’s role in Hong Kong’s political events, of creating and perpetuating the tension between the hegemony and resistance in Hong Kong.

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JUDGING THE ONLINE JUDGES: THE TWO #METOO CASES IN HONG KONG

Facta Universitatis Series Philosophy Sociology Psychology and History ◽

10.22190/fupsph2003241t ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 241

Author(s):

Chris Y. H. Tsui

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Law Enforcement ◽

Sexual Assault ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Victim Blaming ◽

Over Time

On November 30, 2017, Hong Kong track athlete Vera Lui posted a photo on Facebook marked with the #MeToo hashtag and described an experience of being sexually assaulted. Three days later, Hong Kong actress Louisa Mak published a similar #MeToo post on her Facebook page. While both posts, especially Lui’s, initially received many supportive comments, over time, the comments became negative and victim-blaming. Since these incidents, no other Hong Kong celebrities have risked revealing their experiences to respond to the #MeToo Movement. In this paper, I analysed the first 500 comments posted on each of the posts using qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The results reveal the practice of online judging that inhibits the disclosure of cases of sexual assault. The paper further describes the interplay between online judging and selective law enforcement by the Hong Kong Police, which has been a persistent issue in Hong Kong.

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Deconstructing the Myths About Intimate Partner Violence: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reporting in Hong Kong

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260516660298 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 34 (11) ◽

pp. 2227-2245 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lai-Ching Leung

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

News Reporting ◽

Seeking Behavior

This article depicts the dominant discourses on intimate partner violence (IPV) in newspaper reports and discusses how the myths about IPV are perpetuated in news reporting in Hong Kong. The myths about IPV consist of a set of prevalent assumptions in society that adversely affect the help-seeking behavior of survivors and impede social change. It is sometimes assumed that the victims cause the abuse and are personally responsible for solving the problem. This study reveals how news reporting in Hong Kong perpetuates the myths about IPV by engendering unequal power relations through the language and text used in newspapers. A critical discourse analysis is performed to depict the language used in the text and the embedded meanings in discourses on IPV in two popular local newspapers, Apple Daily and Ming Pao. The findings indicate that the two newspapers tend to use five major discursive frameworks in their reporting on IPV, namely, (a) gender symmetry, (b) stereotyping the abuser, (c) labeling the abused, (d) blaming the victim, and (e) ignoring women’s rights. The study reveals evidence of the systematic stereotyping of IPV abusers and blaming of survivors in newspaper reporting. These powerful discourses may perpetuate the myths about IPV and marginalize IPV survivors in society.

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