Narrating the Hong Kong Sovereignty Transfer: Language and Ideology in the Taiwanese and Chinese English-Language Press

Speaker

Prof. Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven)

Date and Time

October 21, 2026, 6.15 pm 7.30 pm

After the lecture an Apéro riche will be served. Please registerhere.

Venue

Zürichbergstrasse 4, CH-8032 Zurich, Room ZUB-416

Abstract

This talk explores Taiwanese narratives of the 1997 Hong Kong Handover against the backdrop of Taiwan’s political transition, shortly before the Democratic Progressive Party’s first presidential victory after decades of Kuomintang rule. Drawing on Lutgard Lams’ Narratives of the Hong Kong Sovereignty Transfer, it examines how Taiwan’s English-language newspapers, the China Post and China News, framed the Handover through contrasting themes and linguistic choices reflecting their distinct ideological orientations. Their coverage is compared with that of mainland China’s China Daily, which addressed both domestic and international audiences, revealing how different political contexts shaped distinct media narratives of the same historic event and communicated these perspectives to the wider worlds.

Organization

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Chinese Studies