Das chinesische Frühlingsfest in zeitgenössischen chinesischen Zeitungsberichten

eine semiotische Rekonstruktion

Abstract

On the basis of Roland Posner’s theory of cultural semiotics, the Chinese Spring Festival can be understood as a sign system that manifests itself in the social, material and mental culture of Chinese society. The present contribution explores the spring festival from the perspective of cultural semiotics, based on the qualitative text analysis of all the reports about the Chinese Spring Festival in Guangming Daily from January 1st 2008 to August 1st 2018. Using Peirce’s theory of semiotics, the most important signs related to the Spring Festival are reconstructed and brought into relation to their cultural functions. Through the analysis, it is determined that the Chinese Spring Festival, an important sign system in Chinese culture, has gone through a process of transformation. The semiotic reconstruction demonstrates both the change of meaning of traditional symbols and the generation of new symbols. Cultural semiotics provides the basis for reconstructing contemporary social functions of the Chinese Spring Festival, as well as their historical development.