“Modest Proposals”: Ironic Discursive Acts Against China’s Three-Child Policy From Weibo Users

This study adds to the growing literature on irony in Chinese social media through a case study of 39 “modest proposals” for enforcing China’s three-child policy on Weibo. Using the media discourse analysis approach, this study highlights the interplay of language, culture and media within the framework of the pretense theory of irony. Six frequent themes of “modest proposals” were analysed in detail. This study suggests that by means of “modest proposals” for promoting fertility, Weibo users intended to implicitly communicate criticism of the three-child policy and those who advocated or stipulated it, and demonstrate communal discursive acts against mainstream discourses and dominant ideology. This study not only demonstrates a strategy of irony in response to the three-child policy in Chinese social media, but also sheds light on the phenomenon of ironic discursive activism in Chinese cyberspace.