Keywords
rural revitalization, appraisal theory, Chinese rural image, comparative analysis, English report.
Abstract
Since the 19th CPC National Congress put forward the rural vitalization strategy in 2017, China has realized the transition from poverty alleviation to comprehensive rural revitalization by 2021. Beautiful village construction has shaped a multi-dimensional rural image of China. Although rural revitalization attracts wide attention, few studies examine its English news coverage from the perspective of appraisal theory. Prior research mainly focuses on China Daily reports before 2023, and comparative studies between Chinese and foreign media are insufficient.This study selects 63 English reports from China Daily and the NOW Corpus, adopting Martin & White’s appraisal theory and a mixed research method. With UAM Corpus Tool 6.2 for annotation, it compares appraisal resources in Chinese and foreign media reports and explores the constructed rural images.The results show that both media share similarities in the distribution of appraisal resources, while significant differences exist in attitude, engagement and graduation resources. China Daily builds a positive, authentic rural image with rich micro-level details, highlighting agricultural progress, sound ecology and governance outcomes. NOW Corpus also presents a generally positive rural image, yet foreign media employ more negative attitude resources which may weaken this image. This research helps improve cross-cultural communication of China’s rural revitalization and deliver a vivid Chinese rural story.
