Presumed knowledge in the discursive construction of socio-political and cultural identity

This article describes and analyses the role of presumed knowledge in constructing a model socio-political and cultural identity for Hong Kong in one newspaper in post-handover Hong Kong politics. Drawing on aspects of discourse analysis and cultural studies, it looks at how sociopolitical and cultural identity is presumed by the discourse of one Hong Kong newspaper, Ta Kung Pao. The paper asks the following questions: 1. What kind of knowledge about socio-political and cultural identity is presumed by the discourse of Ta Kung Pao? 2. What sort of discursive strategies are used in presuming such identities? 3. To what extent do these strategies promote the discursive hegemony to which the discourse of To Kung Pao is directed? The findings and implications of these inquiries will not only provide a better perspective of the role of language and, in particular presumed knowledge, in the construction of the political and cultural identity of Hong Kong Chinese, but also the disjunctures and tensions between the local and the national under the postcolonial cultural climate of Hong Kong. More generally, the findings will further illuminate our understanding of the role presumed knowledge in discourse and in political and cultural identity construction. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.