Cultural Narratives and Communicative Functions in Academic Discourse: Qualitative Content Analysis of Scholarly Articles of Cultural Identity in Modern Chinese Literature Research

Jiancheng Wang and Xiyuan Zhang

Studies in Media and Communication, 2026, vol. 14, issue 2, 236-247

Abstract: This research aims to explore the way the academic literature on modern Chinese fiction conveys, forms, and restructures meanings of Chinese cultural identity and traditional values. The study is based on a qualitative and interpretive research design, which involves the application of qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis to a purposely chosen sample of twenty-three English-language academic articles published in the years 2005-2025. The results indicate that modern academic discourse significantly rewrites the Chinese literary historiography by disrupting Eurocentric and monologic paradigms, expanding the canon by addressing the marginalized, diasporic, and transnational voices, and using allegory, symbolism, and mythological continuity to express the multi-layered cultural histories. Additional findings indicate that scholarly discourse has important mediating roles in the selective localization of Western theoretical paradigms, prefiguring translation and reception as spaces of cultural power, and assuming hybrid methodological positions to locate the Chinese literary identity in the international academic discourses. Traditional and modernity dialogic interactions generate plural, conflictual cultural negotiation spaces. In conclusion, academic research on contemporary Chinese fiction constitutes a dynamic field of cultural negotiation that defines the limits of tradition, legitimizes specific interpretive voices, and shapes how Chinese identity is redefined within world literature. These conclusions serve to underscore the larger implications of the scholarly discourse in the context of comprehending cultural authority, identity formation and knowledge production in the globalized humanities. Overall, the study highlights scholarly discourse as a critical agent shaping cross-cultural understanding, epistemic legitimacy, and evolving narratives of Chinese literary modernity.

Date: 2026
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