Online Chinese nationalism: a competing discourse? A discourse analysis of Chinese media texts relating to the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Paris

Hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics brought about a boost of national pride among the Chinese public. However, Chinese national pride was hurt as soon as the international torch relay of the Beijing Olympics received considerable protests in London and Paris against Beijing's policies on Tibet and human rights. After the chaos of the torch relay in Paris, ordinary Chinese used the internet to vent their nationalist anger and disseminate information of how the Beijing Olympic torch relay was sabotaged by pro-Tibet protestors, as oppose to the official media discourse in which the Paris leg was largely constructed as harmonious and peaceful. Based on a discourse analysis of media texts collected from the People's Daily and Tianya Forum, this paper interrogates how both official and online popular media respectively shape Chinese nationalist discourses through representations and discussions of the Paris leg of torch relay. The paper also attempts to discuss the changing power relations between state and popular players in the context of online political communication in China, and critically discusses the extent to which the rise of online popular nationalism can challenge the role of the Chinese state in the production and construction of nationalist discourse.