Discursive Representations of Sexual Minorities in China's English-Language News Media: A Corpus-Based Study

The paper investigates how sexual minorities (SMs) are represented in China’s English-language news media. The context includes heightened homophobic sentiments, illustrated by the 2021 blocking of WeChat public accounts related to SMs and broader patterns of marginalization and stigma. Prior research has documented negative portrayals in Chinese-language media, but little is known about English-language outlets. The study addresses this gap with three objectives: (1) to identify keywords associated with prevalent themes about Chinese SMs; (2) to analyze discursive representations of SMs; and (3) to explore potential factors shaping these representations.

Prior studies in Chinese-language media have predominantly shown negative and conservative portrayals of SMs. Kang (2010) traced historical media depictions of same-sex relations as destabilizing and abnormal. Zhang (2014) found evolving portrayals of transgender people—from suppression to pathologization to limited legal recognition—often associated with discrimination and depression. Chang and Ren (2017) identified portrayals of gay men and lesbians as crime victims, violent subjects, cultural enemies, and threats to stability, noting greater acceptance for lesbians than gay men. Huang (2018) quantified stereotypes such as criminality, moral objection, social abnormality, links to HIV/AIDS, discrimination, mental illness, and ideological deficiency. Similar conservative portrayals appear in African and Southeast Asian contexts. One English-language media study (Zhang et al., 2022) focused on gay men (2009–2019) and found predominantly negative representations, but excluded lesbians, bisexuals, and trans individuals. This study extends the scope to L, G, B, and T in English-language Chinese media.

The study uses a corpus-assisted discourse analysis informed by Wodak’s discourse-historical approach and van Leeuwen’s social actor-network. Steps: (1) Research contextualization following the July 2021 WeChat bans and review of prior studies to define objectives. (2) Corpus compilation: purposive sampling from four English-language outlets (Beijing Review, China Daily, Global Times, Shanghai Daily) spanning Jan 2001–Dec 2021. Search terms included tongxinglian, homosexual, homosexuality, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBT, sexual minorities. From 441 retrieved items, 354 were relevant, totaling 305,733 words (China Daily 168 articles/122,499 words; Global Times 153/155,570; Beijing Review 14/9,553; Shanghai Daily 19/18,111). (3) Keyword analysis using AntConc 3.5.8; British National Corpus (BNC) as reference; USAS semantic tagger for categorization. Only the top 100 keywords by keyness were examined. (4) Qualitative analysis of concordance lines and extracts around salient keywords, applying discursive strategies (nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivation, intensification/mitigation) and social actor representations (activation/passivation, legitimation).

- Keyword analysis revealed four semantic groupings: (1) SMs as unhealthy/linked to disease (e.g., hiv ~1000, aids ~930, health 340, prevention 282, disease 253, treatment 217, patients 188, mental 187, infected 131); (2) SMs as victims regarding rights and family (parents 676, marriage 534, family 426, rights 376, orientation 314, married 248, discrimination 229, marry 134); (3) SMs as progressionists involved in social advancement (university 360, center 292, online 234, website 138, ngos 98, blued 96, ngo 78, app 70); (4) SMs as sexually promiscuous (“sluts” category) tied to sex/sexual activity (sex 888, sexual 677, users 112, boyfriend 105). - Qualitative analysis focused on three categories: Unhealthy, Victims, Progressionists. • Unhealthy: News frequently linked HIV/AIDS to gay men, using intensification and aggregation (e.g., 82% of infections among 15–24 due to “acts of homosexuality”; 27.5% infections from homosexual sex) and expert legitimation; trans people and homosexuals sometimes framed as mentally disordered, with frequent references to “treatment” or “cure.” • Victims: Cases of workplace discrimination (forced resignation), repeated evictions of LGBT centers due to neighbors’ complaints, detentions of volunteers raising rainbow flags, denial of NGO registration citing tradition and lack of legal basis, and bureaucratic obstacles for trans ID changes, highlighting passivation and self-legitimation by authorities. • Progressionists: Accounts of LGBT-friendly entrepreneurship, student clubs established as early as 2006 and annual activities, corporate responsibility by Blued (e.g., curbing minor accounts), and queer-focused art exhibitions receiving emotional support from audiences. - Overall, conservative and liberal representations co-exist in English-language media, with negative health/immorality frames alongside victimhood and progressive agency frames.

Findings corroborate earlier research in Chinese-language media showing predominant negative frames (medicalization, pathology, promiscuity), while also revealing more liberal/affirmative portrayals in English-language outlets that highlight SMs as victims of discrimination and as progressive agents advocating equal rights and contributing to public welfare. The coexistence of frames suggests competing discourses in China’s English-language news sphere. The paper discusses potential factors contributing to more positive portrayals: (1) policy climate and the “Chinese Dream,” with official statements on health rights, voluntary sex reassignment, and privacy; (2) English-language media’s moderate orientation, openness to diverse voices, and international influence; (3) growth of the “pink economy,” positioning SMs as economic contributors; and (4) activism by LGBT individuals and organizations (e.g., Geng Le, Li Yinhe) collaborating with media to counter stereotypes. Discursively, strategies of activation/passivation, aggregation, intensification, and legitimation shape public perceptions across cases.

The study provides a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of 354 English-language news articles (2001–2021) on Chinese sexual minorities, identifying dominant representations and discursive strategies. It finds persistent negative medicalized and promiscuity frames, alongside victimhood and progressive agency frames that reflect more liberal perspectives in English-language outlets. The paper posits sociopolitical, media, economic, and activist dynamics behind more positive portrayals. Future research directions include: (1) multimodal analyses of visual semiotic resources; (2) comparative studies of portrayals of gay men versus lesbian women; and (3) focused examinations of specific LGBT-related topics (e.g., domestic violence, Pride Parade, same-sex marriage litigation, homophobic textbooks, tongqi phenomenon) to understand framing effects over time.

The analysis, due to space constraints, examines in depth only three semantic categories (unhealthy, victims, progressionists) despite identifying four, limiting discussion of the “promiscuity/sluts” category. The study focuses on English-language outlets from four newspapers (2001–2021) and relies on keyword-driven sampling and the top-100 keyword list, which may constrain coverage. The approach is text-based rather than multimodal, leaving visual representations for future work.