This study investigates the semantic transformation of the term “East Asia” within Chinese new media, tracing its evolution from a neutral geographical signifier to a highly emotionalised and contested concept. Using a diachronic corpus of 141 highly-read articles from WeChat Official Account platform published between 2016 and 2024, this research combines corpus linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to analyse this shift. The findings reveal a critical turning point in early 2018, after which “East Asia” was increasingly used as an adjective or possessive modifier to frame social critiques. The analysis identifies five core metaphorical clusters driving this emotionalisation: “Monster-Room” (geopolitical competition), “Hell-Mode” (educational pressure), “Patriarchy” (gender critique), “Involution” (youth struggles), and “Powder-Keg” (security risks). Furthermore, the study highlights the prevalence of identity terms such as “East Asian mother/daughter/youth” that anchor abstract anxieties in personal, intergenerational narratives. The research concludes that the semantic shift of “East Asia” is a phenomenon driven by the interplay of pre-existing structural anxieties in Chinese society and the affordances of digital platforms, whose algorithms amplify emotionally resonant and identity-focused content. This process provides a crucial lens for understanding the dynamics of digital nationalism, platform governance, and social sentiment in contemporary China.

Abbott, Jason P. 2019. "Of Grass Mud Horses and Rice Bunnies: Chinese Internet Users Challenge Beijing's Censorship and Internet Controls". Asian Politics & Policy 11 (1): 162-168.

https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12442

Akaliyski, Plamen. 2023. "Distinct Conceptions of Freedom in East Asia and the Protestant West Underpin Unique Pathways of Societal Development". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 54 (2): 173-194.

https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221143320

Bamberg, Michael, and Molly Andrews. 2004. Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating, Resisting, Making Sense. 1st ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.4

Bradsher, Keith. 2025. "China's Economy Slows Broadly Even as Exports Keep Rising". The New York Times, August 15. [20/12/2025].

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/business/china-economy-july-tariffs.html

Bruns, Axel. 2023. "From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics: Towards an Empirically Founded Model of Contemporary Public Communication Spaces". Communication Theory 33 (2-3): 70-81.

https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtad007

Chang, Aizi. 2025. "Safe Spaces for Feminist Activists Online: Chinese Networked Feminists' Self-Censorship Strategies in Response to Online Misogyny and Government Censorship". Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 12 (1): 1-10.

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04802-2

Chen, Bonnie H.Y., Yuchen Zhou, and Liu Yang. 2024. "The Role of Involution on Chinese Youth Pursuit of Postgraduate Education Abroad: Examine through the Lens of Normative Social Behaviour". Asia Pacific Journal of Education: 1-14.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2024.2408394

Chen, Yimin, Yulin Liu, and Xin Fang. 2021. "The New Evidence of China's Economic Downturn: From Structural Bonus to Structural Imbalance". PLoS One 16 (9): e0257456.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257456

Chen, Yue. 2025. "Modelling the Choice between PP+DE+N and PP+N Possessive Constructions in Mandarin Chinese: A Mixed Effects Logistic Regression Approach". Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 61 (1): 1-29.

https://doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2024-0053

Cheng, Tun-jen, and Yun-han Chu, eds. 2018. Routledge Handbook of Democratization in East Asia. 1st ed. Abingdon (UK) - New York: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315733869-1

Cong, Pei-Kuan, Wei-Yang Bai, Jin-Chen Li, Meng-Yuan Yang, Saber Khederzadeh, Si-Rui Gai, Nan Li, et al. 2022. "Genomic Analyses of 10,376 Individuals in the Westlake BioBank for Chinese (WBBC) Pilot Project". Nature Communications 13 (1): 2939.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30526-x

Fairclough, Norman. 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. 2nd ed. London: Longman.

Gu, Yijia, and Luke Heemsbergen. 2023. "The Ambivalent Governance of Platformed Chinese Feminism under Censorship: Weibo, Xianzi, and Her Friends". International Journal of Communication 17: 3822-3843.

Han, Xu, and Mei-chun Cheung. 2025. "The Relationship between Dual Filial Piety and Mental Disorders and Symptoms among Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies". Adolescent Research Review 10 (1): 31-45.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-024-00234-2

HSBC Business Go. 2024. "Complete Guide to WeChat Official Accounts: Learn More about WeChat Official Accounts". The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, July 10. [20/12/2025].

https://www.businessgo.hsbc.com/zh-Hant/article/wechat-official-account-en

Hung, Suet Lin, Langjie He, Kwok-kin Fung, Chi Yuen Lai, and Jun Chen. 2025. "Lone Motherhood in Mainland China: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of Weibo Posts". Social Sciences & Humanities Open 11: 101476.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101476

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2011. "Protected Areas in East Asia", July 5. [20/12/2025].

https://iucn.org/content/protected-areas-east-asia

Iori, Ilaria. 2023. "A Micro-Diachronic Corpus Investigation of Violence-Related Metaphors Used to Frame China during the Covid-19 Pandemic". Lingue Culture Media­zio­ni / Languages Cultures Mediation - LCM 10 (2): 33-53.

https://doi.org/10.7358/lcm-2023-002-iori

Jiang, Tingting, Ying Wang, Tianqianjin Lin, and Lina Shangguan. 2021. "Evaluating Chinese Government WeChat Official Accounts in Public Service Delivery: A User-Centered Approach". Government Information Quarterly 38 (1): 101548.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2020.101548

Kang, David C. 2010. "Hierarchy and Legitimacy in International Systems: The Tribute System in Early Modern East Asia". Security Studies 19 (4): 591-622.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2010.524079

Komatsu, Hikaru, and Jeremy Rappleye. 2018. "Is Exam Hell the Cause of High Academic Achievement in East Asia? The Case of Japan and the Case for Transcending Stereotypes". British Educational Research Journal 44 (5): 802-826.

https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3468

Lai, Jocelyn Yi-Hsuan. 2020. "Divergent Staging of East Asian Patriarchy within the Confucian Order in Taiwan's Transnational Television Drama Co-Productions". Continuum 34 (5): 651-664.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2020.1812215

Liang, Yuchen. 2024. "Seeking Stability in China's 'Involuted Generation'". The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography 14 (1): 35-50.

https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v14i1.12047

Lueg, Klarissa, and Marianne Wolff Lundholt, eds. 2021. Routledge Handbook of Counter-Narratives. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279713-1

Mao, Chengting. 2020. "Feminist Activism via Social Media in China". Asian Journal of Women's Studies 26 (2): 245-258.

https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2020.1767844

Massumi, Brian. 2021. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. 20th anniversary ed. Durham: Duke University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021971

Papacharissi, Zizi. 2014. Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199999736.001.0001

Partington, Alan, Alison Duguid, and Charlotte Taylor. 2013. Patterns and Meanings in Discourse: Theory and Practice in Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS). 1st ed. Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.55

Roberts, Margaret E. 2018. Censored: Distraction and Diversion inside China's Great Firewall. Princeton - Oxford: Princeton University Press.

https://doi.org/10.23943/9781400890057

Roberts, Tony, and Marjoke Oosterom. 2024. "Digital Authoritarianism: A Systematic Literature Review". Information Technology for Development 31 (1): 1-25.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2024.2425352

Ruan, Lotus, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, Ruohan Xiong, and Jakub Dalek. 2021. "The Intermingling of State and Private Companies: Analysing Censorship of the 19th National Communist Party Congress on WeChat". The China Quarterly 246: 497-526.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741020000491

Schneider, Florian. 2024. "Nationalisms on China's Evolving Internet". Communication and the Public 9 (4): 426-430.

https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473241270580

Sechiyama, Kaku. 2013. Patriarchy in East Asia: A Comparative Sociology of Gender. 1st ed. Leiden: Brill [Engl. transl. by J. Smith].

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004247772

Stevens, Friso M.S. 2025. "Gripped by Fear: China's Digital 'Stability Maintenance' and Revanchist Emotional Nationalism". Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 54 (3): 416-429.

https://doi.org/10.1177/18681026251326100

Su, Yaqin. 2025. "Expansion of Higher Education and Underemployment of College Graduates: Evidence from China". Education Economics 33 (6): 1-23.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2025.2525862

Wang, Feng (Robin), Yanchao Yang, and Tianxue Cui. 2024. "Development and Validation of an Academic Involution Scale for College Students in China". Psychology in the Schools 61 (3): 847-860.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.23087

Wang, Rui. 2022. "Community-Building on Bilibili: The Social Impact of Danmu Comments". Media and Communication 10 (2): 54-65.

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i2.4996

Weninger, Csilla, and Danyun Li. 2023. "Performing Microcelebrity: Analyzing Papi Jiang's Online Persona through Stance and Style". Language in Society 52 (2): 263-294.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404521001020

Wu, Yan, and Matthew Wall. 2019. "Prosumers in a Digital Multiverse: An Investigation of How WeChat Is Affecting Chinese Citizen Journalism". Global Media and China 4 (1): 36-51.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2059436419835441

Yang, Guobin. 2018. "Demobilizing the Emotions of Online Activism in China: A Civilizing Process". International Journal of Communication 12: 1945-1965.

Yang, Xiaofei, and Ning Hu. 2024. "Girls Help Girls#: Feminist Discussions and Affective Heterotopia in Patriarchal China". Feminist Media Studies 24 (6): 1298-1313.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2229967

Yang, Zaoli, Qingyang Wu, K. Venkatachalam, Yuchen Li, Bing Xu, and Pavel Trojovský. 2022. "Topic Identification and Sentiment Trends in Weibo and WeChat Content Related to Intellectual Property in China". Technological Forecasting and Social Change 184: 121980.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121980

Zhang, Ming, and Chi Zhang. 2025. "A Feminist Reading of Digital Activism in China: The Zhu Ling Case and the Intersection of Justice, Power, and Social Media". International Feminist Journal of Politics 27 (4): 934-951.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2543544

Zhang, Muhui. 2025. China-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Cooperation: Institution Building and Power Politics. 1st ed. Singapore: Springer.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-9148-4_1

Zhang, Wei, and Yoko Yamato. 2018. "Shadow Education in East Asia: Entrenched but Evolving Private Supplementary Tutoring". In Routledge International Handbook of Schools and Schooling in Asia, edited by Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee, 323-332. New York: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694382-30

Zhang, Wen, Chao Pan, Shiming Yao, Jiajia Zhu, Dong Ling, Hanchun Yang, Jingsha Xu, and Yan Mu. 2024. "'Neijuan' in China: The Psychological Concept and Its Characteristic Dimensions". Acta Psychologica Sinica 56 (1): 107-123.

https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.00107

Zhang, Xiaoyu, Delia Dumitrica, and Jeroen Jansz. 2024. "Mapping Chinese Digital Nationalism: A Literature Review". International Journal of Communication 18: 1891-1912.

Zhang, Zixuan, and Ke Li. 2023. "So You Choose to 'Lie Flat'? 'Sang-Ness', Affective Economies, and the 'Lying Flat' Movement". The Quarterly Journal of Speech 109 (1): 48-69.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2022.2143549

Zhao, Jiaye, and Dechun Zhang. 2024. "Visual Propaganda in Chinese Central and Local News Agencies: A Douyin Case Study". Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 11 (1): 1-14.

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03059-5

Zhao, Tingyang. 2006. "Rethinking Empire from a Chinese Concept 'All-under-Heaven' (Tian-Xia)". Social Identities 12 (1): 29-41.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630600555559