Abstract：Abstract: By integrating corpus-based discourse studies, with social actor system and transitivity process, the present study investigates how Japan's mainstream newspapers discursively construct the collective identity of Chinese students in Japan. Looking into the typical collocation of central node words, referential strategies of social actors and process types of related clauses, the study reveals that: (1) The collective identity of Chinese students is mainly labelled by "knowledge seekers and laborers", “volunteers”, “grass-root messengers”, and “challengers of social order”. (2) Discourse producers adopt two referential strategies including “nomination” and “categorization” to adjust and construct in-group and out-group relationships between different types of Chinese students. (3) The characteristics of process types for the four types of collective identity vary significantly, and "material process" especially focuses on certain Chinese student’s criminal behaviors and magnifies them into collective threats, thus directly downplaying readers' social cognition of overseas Chinese students.
Key words: overseas Chinese students; collective identity; corpus; social actor system; transitivity
