Parodies in Chinese Government Work Reports

Abstract This study accounts for how parody enters such official political discourse as Chinese Government Work Reports (GWRs). It quantitatively and qualitatively studies parodies from 44 GWRs (1978–2021) via the convergence-economy, variation-effectiveness, and relevance model. Our findings are: 1) parodies have appeared more and more frequently in GWRs over the last 44 years; 2) word parodies occur more frequently in GWRs than phrase, sentence, and paragraph parodies; 3) brand-new parodies, of higher pragma-rhetorical values, are used in GWRs; 4) parodies tend to reoccur mimetically once utilized, for ready-made security and effectiveness; and 5) the increasing frequency of parodies is caused by the politicians’ quest for their identification-oriented “markedness effects.”