“Hong Kong’s Democracy Debate.” BBC. 23 Sept. 2014.Web .2 Oct.2014.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27921954

Reflections:

This article explained the background and the cause of Hong Kong’s Democracy movement, which is connected to my chosen topic. And my chosen resources of my rhetorical analysis may mention little about the cause of the matter but to analyze the successive events and another dimension on this event that Beijing blocked the news. So this article help reader understand more about the whole view of the protest and also provided me with detailed information about the political relationship between Hong Kong and Beijing.

Notes/Summary:

Occupy Central(和平佔中 in traditional Chinese): an advocacy group for universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2014 using nonviolent civil disobedience

Hong Kong Basic Law: It refers that “the ultimate aim“ is to elect the executive “by universal suffrage”, which provides law support with Hong Kong people to fight for their autonomy.

The main argument of this article is to introduce the cultural background as well as history connection between Hong Kong and China, and reflected the current situation in Hong Kong both among people against the Beijing decision and those do not want to annoy Beijing.

The topic that I want to analyze is about the protest happened in Hong Kong recently. At first, I didn’t care too much about this protest when my iphone news app reminded me of this. The reason that I finally raised my interest in it was a message that one of my friends posted on WeChat (one of Chinese social APP ). She asked what happened in Hong Kong because the main land of China totally blocked the news. So I went through BBC, CNN and China daily, and I found totally different reflections on this event. On BBC and CNN, they posted the whole process of the protest quite objectively I think. But on China daily, the report was short and without pictures or video. It described the situation as if it was just a normal campaign and it was no big deal. And after that, I found a report on New York Times directly pointed out that Beijing blocked the reports on Hong Kong Democracy Movement. This upsets me actually. I kind of understand why Beijing blocks the reports. I can’t blame my country but I also feel sad about it. China needs stability, and although recently years have seen tremendous progress on democratic expression among the public, especially on the Internet, China still block some sensitive area of expression. And the media still cannot get rid of the control of the so-called “mainstream”. I may not choose China daily’s report as one of my sources because it was really short and full of official tone. I may choose the report on CNN and New York Times. The question I want to ask is about the content of my rhetorical analysis. I am still confused about the content that I am going to analyze. To analysis a rhetoric, does it mean that I may analyze the rhetorical situation, the purpose, the audience, the ethos, the pathos, the logos of it? Because I think if I only analyze these things without my own opinion, it would be hard for me to reach 2000 words. Also, I really want to add the report from China daily so that I think with three reports, I can express all my thoughts on this protest event. (And to be honest, I also want to preserve the BBC one. Or maybe Lisa, you can choose two of them for me.)

CNN: Hong Kong ‘Occupy’ activist digs in for the long-run: ‘It is a war,’ not a battle

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/09/29/hong-kong-occupy-activist-digs-in-for-the-long-run-it-is-a-war-not-a-battle/?iref=allsearch

New York Times: Beijing Blocks Reports on Hong Kong Democracy Movement

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/beijing-blocks-reports-on-hong-kong-democracy-movement/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpBlogHeadline&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

China daily: Illegal assembly in Hong Kong leads to clashes

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-09/29/content_18678604.htm

BBC: Why is Hong Kong Protesting?

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/09/29/hong-kong-occupy-activist-digs-in-for-the-long-run-it-is-a-war-not-a-battle/?iref=allsearch

Because I really care about the issues, so I find four differences sources towards the Hong Kong events

Topic 1: Hong Kong’s Protesting

BBC: Why is Hong Kong protesting

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29054196

CNN: Hong Kong ‘Occupy’ activist digs in for the long-run: ‘It is a war,’ not a battle

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/09/29/hong-kong-occupy-activist-digs-in-for-the-long-run-it-is-a-war-not-a-battle/?iref=allsearch

China daily: Illegal assembly in Hong Kong leads to clashes

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-09/29/content_18678604.htm

New York Times: Beijing Blocks Reports on Hong Kong Democracy Movement

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/beijing-blocks-reports-on-hong-kong-democracy-movement/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpBlogHeadline&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Topic 2: Climate change

New York Times: How Climate Change Could Foil China’s Smog-Fighting Efforts

CNN: Obama: Climate change ‘growing and urgent threat’

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/23/politics/obama-un-climate-change/index.html?iref=storysearch

Exigence: The exigence of Emma Watson’s speech is the gender inequality in the society that females are not treated as fairly as males.

Audience: The primary audiences of Emma Watson’s speech, I think, are males. Emma Watson invited men to join the program called HeForShe to work for the equality of both female and male. Meanwhile, due to her special status that she was a famous actress in the movie Harry Potter, her speech is more influential. The secondary audiences are those who care about Emma Watson’s speech and those who are fan of Harry Potter, I think.

Constraints: The first constraint is Emma’s nervousness. Because of nervousness, her voice was a little shivering. But I think it is natural, after all it was her first speech at the UN. The second constraint is her association with Harry Potter. This may make her speech not taken seriously.

The main purpose of this article is to revive the notion of rhetorical situation. Bitzer introduces the conception of rhetorical situation and highlights the importance of rhetorical situation that always be ignored by rhetoricians. First of all, he explains the connection between rhetorical discourse and rhetorical situation. He points out that it is the situation that calls the discourse into existence. Then he sketches the conception of rhetorical situation giving seven summarized explanations. After that, he discusses three constituents of rhetorical situation with each one in detail. He distinguishes rhetorical exigencies and other exigencies and also rhetorical audiences and other audiences and introduces the third constituent, constraints. Next, he presents six general characteristics of rhetorical situation. He points out that rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation and rhetorical situation invites a fitting response rather than any other response and also it must prescribe the response that fits. The forth is that the rhetorical situation is real rather than contrived. And it exhibit structures whether they are simple or complex, and more or less organized. He points out that not all rhetorical situations exist forever, some mature, some decay but some persist indefinitely and base on that, he illustrates some cases of recurring situations. At last, he summarize his opinion towards rhetorical situation, comparing with scientific method and draw the conclusion that rhetoric is justified philosophically insofar rather than a mere craft of persuasion.

I think this article is well structured. The contents in each unit are well connected and presented logically. Also Bitzer illustrates lots of examples to support his point of views, making the article more convincible. What he presents in the article arises my awareness of rhetorical situation, which really is easy to be ignored. Before I read the article, I pay less attention to rhetorical situation. I think rhetorical situation exists naturally when a rhetorical discourse published. I never consider the cause and effect in it. Through this article, I know the relationship between rhetorical discourse and rhetorical situation, knowing that it is rhetorical situation that calls the discourse into existence. This realization facilitates me to understand more about rhetoric.

When reading about the forth characteristic of rhetorical situation, Bitzer distinguishes the difference between rhetorical situation as real and fictive rhetorical situation. I am confuse at this paragraph. Is fictive rhetorical situation also one type of rhetorical situation or not? If it is, how can we explain that rhetorical situation is real and objective since it is already a fictive one. Does it mean that fictive rhetorical situation is real and objective in the certain play or novel?

Ethos refers to the credibility of the rhetor, which means to what extent the author of the composition piece can convince the audiences.Pathos means to raise same feeling among audiences and logos means to organize the sentences logical and rational. i think these three components cannot be isolated from one another. They together form the structure as well as the content of the article.

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