65
to be so. Therefore, the subjective pronoun naturally falls in with "nation/country" of at least party/government,
Facework Done By the Press
The concern of a nation's face is vivid. But why did the factors and attributes of a nation's face appear more often in face-enhancing situations than in face-threatening situations for China? Why is this ratio significantly larger than that in the case of sentences on other countries? This could imply that the concern of the press was the Chinese nation's face, the well-being of it, so it strived to make the best possible portrayal of the nation as a whole (though some poor performances could hardly escape the attention of a more open society). The most obvious enhancing strategy is the high degree of favourableness in the contents of front page articles which were exceptionally enhancing to the face of China and Chinese.
Aside from front page articles, in the search for other face strategies used by the press, the results are within expectations. In face-enhancing situations, enhancing Chinese success, and entitling the victories to China are pervasive throughout the sample. Very little evidence for self-depreciation could be gathered. Even there was self-depreciation, it could be regarded as modulation of the tone of self-boasting.
On the other hand, in face-threatening situations to China, various types of strategies were used to "save" the face of Chinese athletes and to avoid the contamination of face spilling over to the country as a whole. Attribution to the defeats usually was designated to the individuals themselves (mood, morale, not following advice from coaches etc) or to some third party objects such as the weather, the order of competition. Rarely were the defeats of Chinese athletes due to the responsibility of poor coaching, inadequate organization of the sports federations concerned and so on.
In contrast to the attribution custom in face-enhancing situations is that the country provided the backbone, the leaders provided the support to the athletes and were thereby responsible for their success. This difference in the depictions of accountability again highlights that the genuine concern of the Chinese press is the face of the nation instead of the individual athletes.