Representations of left-behind children in Chinese English-language news media: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis

Due to China's urbanisation and rapid development in the last forty years since its reform and opening policy, many people have migrated from rural to urban areas. Unfortunately, one of the by-products of this process is a phenomenon known in English as Left-behind children (in Chinese, 留守儿童or liúshǒuértóng). Essentially, these are children under 18 who have stayed in their rural homes and were raised by their grandparents or other relatives when one or both of their parents migrate to urban areas for economic activities for half a year or longer (Cheng & Sun, 2015). Limited research has been conducted on the linguistic representations of left-behind children and how this particular group is presented to international society. To fill this gap, the present study applies a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach, specifically collocational network analysis and keyword analysis, to examine how the group of left-behind children is represented in Chinese English-language news media and also contributes to the growing literature on howChinese minority groups are represented to the outside world. The findings reveal that these media describe the Chinese government's efforts in handling the left-behind children problem but overlook themost critical reason that causes it: the strict Chinese Household Register or, in Chinese: hùkǒu (户口) system.