Scientific Development Research

Guangzhou, a prominent city in southern China and the capital of Guangdong Province, serves as a vital hub for domestic economy, trade, and transportation. Its strategic location in the Pearl River Delta has made it a gateway for international trade and a key player in China’s economic development. In the era of globalization, the image of a city has become a critical component of its core competitiveness, acting as both a driving force for modern city development and a central arena for inter-city competition. Therefore, building and effectively disseminating a positive city image is essential for enhancing a city’s attractiveness and global standing. This study focuses on Guangzhou’s international image by collecting news reports from the official English website of the Guangzhou International between January 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024. Using “Guangzhou” as the search term, a self-built corpus was constructed. The research employs AntConc 3.5.9, a corpus analysis tool, alongside Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework from critical discourse analysis, to examine high-frequency words, concordance lines, and clusters within the corpus. The findings highlight Guangzhou’s latest international image in the two years following the pandemic (2023–2024). The analysis reveals that Guangzhou is a city deeply connected to both the nation and the global community, a thriving center for global economy and trade, and a cultural hub with a rich historical heritage.

Guangzhou; City image; Critical discourse analysis; Corpus linguistic