Panda as the Flagship of China’s Digital Diplomacy: Rethinking the Intersection of Network and Emotional Narrative Strategy

This chapter aims to rethink the mediated communication ontology of China’s digital public diplomacy, taking digital panda diplomacy – the most successful public diplomacy campaign of China on social media in more than a decade of digital diplomacy – as a case to identify the emotional network communication structure and narrative strategies led by Beijing, so as to serve the Communist Party of China (CPC) ’s public diplomacy goals of telling China’s stories and demonstrating positive energy towards foreign publics. Chinese media have constructed a journalistic paradigm that promotes feelings of happiness in message receivers. The online production of panda-themed news stories involves three strategies: (a) anthropomorphic rhetoric that implements human-like expressions to make pandas seem “human,” (b) visual images of pandas to mediate relevant knowledge, and (c) manipulation of panda imagery to frame political and public-diplomatic messages that endorse China and its government.