Framing the Spring Festival: Leadership, Cultural Diplomacy, and Xi Jinping's New Year Addresses in China Daily (2021-2025)

Wensui Wang, Hamedi Mohd Adnan and Pui Yee Choong

Studies in Media and Communication, 2026, vol. 14, issue 2, 186-197

Abstract: This study examines how China Daily's English-language coverage of Xi Jinping's New Year Addresses from 2021 to 2025 constructs national narratives and promotes China's cultural diplomacy abroad. Drawing on framing theory, agenda-setting, and critical discourse analysis (CDA), the research analyzes a corpus of 20 articles, including news reports, editorials, and features. Findings reveal three overarching patterns- (1) leadership legitimacy and moral authority are consistently emphasized; (2) the Spring Festival is increasingly leveraged as a vehicle of festival diplomacy to enhance China's soft power; and (3) English-language media demonstrate a gradual shift from domestic reassurance toward global audience engagement, with genre-specific strategies tailoring content for different readerships. The study contributes to understanding how ritualized political communication is transformed into international messaging and highlights the intersection of leadership, culture, and soft power in contemporary Chinese media practice.

Date: 2026
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