Beijing’s identity as represented in the local government official Website

In China government websites have been considered as crucial tools for the implementation of the open government information policy since 2008. In 2015 the Chinese government conducted the first national survey of official government websites. Throughout the year, the survey examined institutional websites published by the central and local levels of the state executive apparatus. One of the declared objectives of the survey was “to raise the government websites authoritativeness and influence and to safeguard the governments’ credibility”. This statement confirm the relevance still accorded to the Internet as a medium in the institutional communication with the general public, and the focus on the state intent of moulding public opinion. As a country capital is often considered as an emblem of national identity, this paper will focus on the representation of Beijing as the centre of the country spirit and life for Chinese audiences. It will particularly concentrate on how the municipality’s identity is constructed through Beijing’s Chinese language website (www.beijing.gov.cn). This online materials seem to be relevant as the 2015 survey data identify the official website of the municipality of Beijing as one of the most reliable at the provincial level, affirming therefore it has an influence over the national public. In this framework, the paper will start by analyzing the structure and the content of Chinese language version of Beijing’s website. Then it will classify the main genres displayed by the website. The hypothesis is that genre identification can shed a light on the intended purposes of the online texts and highlight the concrete functions performed by the website, thereof further clarifying the peculiarities of the representation of the city role in the country.