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as the middleman, the missing link between these two blocks of Chinese
Putting it another way, sports and politics are closely related. This could be seen in the review earlier where many of the functions of sports are loaded with political flavour. But these two spheres of activities stand distant and alien to the masses. The role of face is to act midway between the masses and these activities Through the depiction of the status, performance, moral behaviour and face attributes of the athletes, the masses could feel with the athletes because they themselves are familiar with the working of these factors and attributes of face. Through the reports on the athletes, the editorial remarks, the semantic allusions to politics or the political sphere, the masses would be more susceptible to the political and ideological teachings behind
Many lucid illustrations could be found in the sample. For example, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang were said to have watched the winning Chinese women volleyball team against the USA Frequent implications were made that China was dominant in Asian Games, and her strength in the Asian sports scene. This could be taken as dominance and propaganda instilled by the Chinese press. The non-recognition of the Taiwan government was also indirectly hinted at. The People's Daily praised the participation and spirit of the Chinese Taipei volleyball team but stressed that players from both Chinese teams yearned for union. The identity and self-image of China were such that she was a strong, morally upright nation with honour, her government exercised good leadership and influence. The government's current politico-ideological campaign was the four modernizations. This was reiterated time and again in the sample The people were told to continue their dedication to work for the four modernizations following the spirit of the women volleyball team and thereby enjoy success. 26
By conjuring the concept of face or its components, the people could easily and more readily feel with the athletes. The performance of athletes are clearly defined: win or lose. The moral behaviour is up to the depiction of the press. making friends with other countries, welcomed by the home crowd ... etc. The face attributes are even more abstract. Newspaper readers had nothing to challenge the association of an athlete's gold winning efforts with the honour of the country, both seemed favourable to their identity - a national of the country and a compatriot of the athlete. In this way,
the newspaper contents had all the favourable resources to induce
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as the middleman, the missing link between these two blocks of Chinese
Putting it another way, sports and politics are closely related. This could be seen in the review carlier where many of the functions of sports are loaded with political flavour. But these two spheres of activities stand distant and alien to the masses. The role of face is to act midway between the masses and these activities Through the depiction of the status, performance, moral behaviour and face attributes of the athletes, the masses could feel with the athletes because they themselves are familiar with the working of these factors and attributes of face. Through the reports on the athletes, the editorial remarks, the semantic allusions to politics or the political sphere, the masses would be more susceptible to the political and ideological teachings behind
Many lucid illustrations could be found in the sample. For example, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang were said to have watched the winning Chinese women volleyball team against the USA Frequent implications were made that China was dominant in Asian Games, and her strength in the Asian sports scene. This could be taken as dominance and propaganda instilled by the Chinese press. The non-recognition of the Taiwan government was also indirectly hinted at. The People's Daily praised the participation and spirit of the Chinese Taipei volleyball team but stressed that players from both Chinese teams yearned for union. The identity and self-image of China were such that she was a strong, morally upright nation with honour, her government exercised good leadership and influence. The government's current politico-ideological campaign was the four modernizations. This was reiterated time and again in the sample The people were told to continue their dedication to work for the four modernizations following the spitit of the women volleyball team and thereby enjoy success. 26
By conjuring the concept of face or its components, the people could easily and more readily feel with the athletes. The performance of athletes are clearly defined: win or lose. The moral behaviour is up to the depiction of the press. making friends with other countries, welcomed by the home crowd ... etc. The face attributes are even more abstract. Newspaper readers had nothing to challenge the association of an athlete's gold winning efforts with the honour of the country, both seemed favorable to their identity - a national of the country and a compatriot of the athlete. In this way,
the newspaper contents had all the favourable resources to induce
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