Representing Chinese Female Athletes: A Transitivity Analysis of China Daily’s Paris 2024 Olympic Coverage

Abstract

Media discourse does not simply report sports; it actively shapes gendered representation and influences how female athletes are perceived. While decades of research have shown that female athletes are routinely trivialized in Western sports media through emphasis on appearance, emotion, or domestic roles, far less is known about how Chinese media discursively represents women in sport. This gap is striking given China’s global sporting prominence and the ideological role of state media in projecting national identity. This study addresses that gap by analyzing China Daily’s coverage of Chinese female athletes during the Paris 2024 Olympics, drawing on 59 articles that constitute the female-athlete corpus. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the study combines quantitative analysis of coverage patterns with qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-based transitivity analysis within a hegemonic femininity framework. Quantitative findings show that female athletes received more coverage than male athletes across multiple sport types rather than being confined to gender-appropriate sports. Qualitative analysis reveals a predominance of material processes, positioning female athletes as active Actors, alongside mental and relational processes constructing them as confident and professionally competent. The findings point to a culturally specific form of hegemonic femininity in Chinese sports media, characterized by athletic agency and professional legitimacy. This presentation contrasts sharply with the appearance-centered femininity reported in Western contexts, offering new insight into gendered representation in a non-Western, state-mediated sporting context.