The Study of English in China as a patriotic enterprise

// World Englishes. 2012. Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 351–365.Drawing on research on China’s path to individualization, this paper deconstructs a nationally renowned Chinese individual’s construction of his success in learning English in China. By deconstructing his success, this paper illustrates how he skilfully integrates traditional cultural discourses into his messages, calling upon individual Chinese to invest effort into learning English. The deconstruction helps reveal that this successful learner has consistently projected himself as a ‘desiring’ and ‘enterprising’ individual who remains patriotic in his pursuit of English competence. It can be argued that the successful language learner in his construction is a product of the individualization process, which has been managed and endorsed by the political establishment on the Chinese mainland.