TITLE:
Discursive Strategies in the Self-Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s International Image: A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Study of China Daily
AUTHORS:
Wen Gong
KEYWORDS:
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), International Image, Self-Construction, Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
20,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study examines how China Daily discursively constructs the international image of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Drawing on a corpus of 3533 news reports published between 2019 and 2025, comprising approximately 2.53 million tokens, it adopts a corpus-based critical discourse approach integrating Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, Appraisal Theory, conceptual metaphor analysis, and narrative analysis. Quantitative keyword and collocation analyses are combined with qualitative examinations of semantic prosody, metaphorical framing, and narrative strategies. The findings reveal three mutually reinforcing dimensions of positive self-representation. First, lexical choices and positive semantic prosody foreground economic development, technological innovation, and regional integration. Second, construction, growth, and connectivity metaphors portray the GBA as a purposefully designed, dynamically evolving, and globally connected region. Third, progress narratives, human-interest framing, and strategic source selection organize regional developments into coherent accounts of achievement. The study extends corpus-based critical discourse analysis by demonstrating the interdependence of evaluation, cognition, and narration, and suggests that greater source diversity, culturally distinctive metaphors, and more nuanced narratives could strengthen the credibility and resonance of the GBA’s international communication.