This book adopts a corpus-based critical discourse analysis approach and examines a corpus of newspaper articles from Pakistani and Indian publications to gain comparative insights into the ideological construction of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) within news discourses. This book contributes to the works on perceptions of BRI in English newspapers of India and Pakistan. A multi-billion-dollar project of BRI or the "One Belt One Road” (OBOR), CPEC symbolizes a vision for regional revival under China's economic leadership and clout. Propelled by the Chinese Premier’s dream to revive the Chinese economy as well as to restructure and catalyze infrastructural development in Asia, BRI is aimed at connecting Asia via land and sea routes with Europe, Africa, and the Middle Eastern states.

This nine-volume set LNCS 14104 – 14112 constitutes the refereed workshop proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2023, held at Athens, Greece, during July 3–6, 2023. The 350 full papers and 29 short papers and 2 PHD showcase papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 876 submissions. These nine-volumes includes the proceedings of the following workshops: Advances in Artificial Intelligence Learning Technologies: Blended Learning, STEM, Computational Thinking and Coding (AAILT 2023); Advanced Processes of Mathematics and Computing Models in Complex Computational Systems (ACMC 2023); Artificial Intelligence supported Medical data examination (AIM 2023); Advanced and Innovative web Apps (AIWA 2023); Assessing Urban Sustainability (ASUS 2023); Advanced Data Science Techniques with applications in Industry and Environmental Sustainability (ATELIERS 2023); Advances in Web Based Learning (AWBL 2023); Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers: Technologies and Applications (BDLTA 2023); Bio and Neuro inspired Computing and Applications (BIONCA 2023); Choices and Actions for Human Scale Cities: Decision Support Systems (CAHSC-DSS 2023); and Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAM 2023).

This book focuses on Australian mainstream media narratives about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from 2013 to 2020. Set against the background of Sino-Australian relations and taking into account the different media systems of China and Australia, this book also critically investigates the Chinese public diplomacy narratives of the BRI. Drawing on my analysis and semi-structured interviews with prominent experts in this area, the book addresses an important but under-explored question: how have Australian mainstream media narratives portrayed the BRI of the Chinese Government from 2013 to 2020? This book fills a gap regarding the portrayal of the BRI in Australian mainstream media and provides new insights into the reasons for narrative shifts in the coverage of the BRI. More concretely, the book finds that the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI were not explained well by Chinese officials, thus allowing Australian journalists and commentators to project their own negative, fearful narratives of China onto the BRI project, particularly from 2017 onwards. More importantly, this book argues that the Australian Federal Government’s policy towards China had a significant impact on the Australian media’s coverage of the BRI; that the media clearly followed the Australian Federal Government’s lead, and not vice versa. Thus, in many ways, Australian mainstream media narratives of the BRI have had a similar outcome as China’s ostensibly much more restrictive and propagandistic state-dominated media system. Noticeably, this book not only has academic significance in the international research community but also holds practical importance in the real world, benefiting Australian business leaders, media professionals, think tank specialists, and policymakers.

This Research Topic is the third volume of Research Topic "Discourse, Conversation and Argumentation: Theoretical Perspectives and Innovative Empirical Studies". Please, see the second volume here. Also, please see the first volume here. As members of a social world within which interaction needs and communicative tools are intertwined in a series of situated relationships, interactions between individuals, but also between groups and between institutions, emerges from the beginning of life. Thinking about how we participate in an interaction, through verbal and non-verbal exchanges, allows us to focus on explicit and implicit norms, on personal and collective preferences, on subjective and interpersonal theories, and on social processes of construction of meaning that characterize the communicative interactions. Although discursive, conversational, and argumentative interactions play an essential role in our lives, there is no integrated area of psychological research on these types of communicative interactions. A wide variety of works is available concerning the focus on the different roles played by social actors within the interactions (symmetric-asymmetric, protagonist-antagonist, teacher-learner), as well as the interest for the constitutive aspects of the interactions (emotional, motivational, cognitive) or developmental factors (skills, competences, knowledge). However, research on discourse, conversation, and argumentation is conducted in a number of separate research communities that are spread across disciplines and have only limited intertwinement. We believe as necessary to create a space for open dialogue within the community of researchers interested in discourse, conversation, and argumentation from a psychological perspective.

In a world witnessing the transformative rise of China, the intricate dynamics of its soft power diplomacy have become a focal point of global attention. As geopolitical landscapes shift, the need to understand how China crafts its foreign policy, especially through the strategic use of soft power, becomes imperative. Soft Power and Diplomatic Strategies in Asia and the Middle East is a crucial resource to unraveling these complexities. The book addresses the post-COVID-19 changes in China's soft power application, providing an in-depth, comparative analysis of its diplomatic endeavors in the Middle East and East Asia. By exploring cultural exchanges, economic collaborations, and religious engagements, the book offers nuanced insights into China's strategies, making it an indispensable tool for academics, policymakers, diplomats, and those intrigued by contemporary geopolitics. This book aims to dissect the multifaceted approaches China employs to achieve its diplomatic objectives. From cultural initiatives to economic partnerships and religious engagements, the book unravels the adaptability and complexity of China's foreign policy mechanisms. Its primary objective is to provide a comparative framework for studying China's soft power diplomacy, filling a notable gap in existing scholarship. The interdisciplinary approach ensures rich, diverse analyses, fostering dialogues across international relations, Asian studies, and political science. By offering new theories, methodologies, and empirical data, the book not only challenges existing notions but also sparks further academic inquiry into the strategic use of soft power in foreign policy.

This edited thematic collection features latest developments of discourse analysis in translation and interpreting studies. It investigates the process of how cultural and ideological intervention is conducted in translation and interpreting using a wide array of discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistic approaches and drawing on empirical data from the Chinese context. The book is divided into four main sections: I. uncovering positioning and ideology in interpreting and translation, II. linking linguistic approach with socio-cultural interpretation, III. discourse analysis into news translation and IV. analysis of multimodal and intersemiotic discourse in translation. The different approaches to discourse analysis provide a much-needed contribution to the field of translation and interpreting studies. This combination of discourse analysis and corpus analysis demonstrates the interconnectedness of these fields and offers a rich source of conceptual and methodological tools. This book will appeal to scholars and research students in translation and interpreting studies, cross-linguistic discourse analysis and Chinese studies.

Pakistan occupies an elevated role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and hosts its ‘flagship’ project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It has attracted the largest volume of investments under the BRI and opened itself comprehensively to its transformative potential. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of CPEC’s impact on Pakistan’s economy, politics, and society, covering its developmental benefits as well as resulting controversies. Interdisciplinary and international experts capture the complexity of CPEC, presenting new empirical data in the form of interviews, archival materials, and documentary evidence. Covering topics ranging from agriculture to the environment, gender to security, they focus on local outcomes challenging prevalent narratives about the BRI as a strategic, China-driven vehicle to transform other countries in its image. They argue that examples like CPEC should be understood as interactive processes between China and its international partners, which produce interdependent relations between them. Beyond the case of CPEC, these findings contribute to the burgeoning field of ‘Global China’, through a comprehensive yet granular assessment of the first ten years of the BRI’s flagship project. This book will be of interest to scholars of area studies, regionalization, international relations and development studies, as well as China studies and South Asia studies focused on the most important and far-reaching national-level implementation of the BRI to date.

Zhang’s book focuses on the analysis of the sociohistorical context, linguistic patterns of discursive construction, and media representations of the “Chinese Dream” in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States. Analyzing data from the Chinese leader’s speeches and articles from China Daily, the South China Morning Post, and the New York Times, the author provides insights into the understanding of contemporary Chinese society through a critical discourse analysis of the “Chinese Dream” and its mediatized construction. Focusing on the discursive construction, the book examines the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s narratives on the “Chinese Dream” from multidimensional perspectives, such as thematic representations, discursive strategies, and narrative frames, which emphasize the overall structure of the “Chinese Dream” as a political discourse. Methodologically, Zhang combines a discourse-historical approach, corpus linguistics, and framing analysis into a complementary framework, which draws merits from the three approaches. This innovative research volume will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students in the fields of discourse analysis, political research, Chinese politics, and East Asian studies.

Adopting the tripartite theory of social psychology as its theoretical framework, this book advocates that the three components of social interaction – affect, behaviour, and cognition – underpin the daily activities of translators and interpreters. In particular, it argues that the affect or emotion of translators and interpreters should not be overlooked or treated as a separate entity, but as a crucial link between their mental process (cognition) and physical process (behaviour). This central theme of the intertwining nature of the affect, behaviour and cognition of translators and interpreters is examined theoretically, empirically, and methodologically with contributions from around the world, featuring literary translation, translator training, and interpreters' practice. It is a timely contribution to the field of Translation Process Research where affect is increasingly recognised as playing a key role in translation and interpreting phenomena.