The Meanings of the PRC`s Space Program: “Space Dream of the Chinese People” Between Past and Future

The current article is a result of the first stage in studying the ways that heterogeneous symbolic resources are configured under the name of “Space Dream of the Chinese Nation”, a rhetorical figure employed by Xi Jinping as a part of the new national ideology — “Chinese Dream”. The reconstruction of a network of meanings associated with the PRC`s Space Program is presented, and thus the author addresses the question about the circumstances that were favorable for integrating Chinese astronautics into the new ideological policy. Therefore, a hypothetical solution to the following problem is also found out: what made the introduction of the National Space Day of China in 2016 possible and necessary? The article starts by mentioning a lacuna in the scholarship concerning Chinese astronautics: despite the growing popularity of its media image in China, this phenomenon has been studied mainly from the theoretical standpoint of political utilitarianism; the “Space Dream” itself has not received any focused scientific consideration at all. The present study employs the theoretical optics developed in the field of Cultural sociology by Jeffrey Alexander which is contextually important for two reasons. First, hermeneutic methodology is well accorded with special characteristics of the analyzed object: the content of rhetorical figures put forth by the PRC`s political leaders are not determined in advance from ‘the top’, but vice versa — the meaning is infused by local actors in the process of their own interpretative work. A researcher`s goal in such a case is then to try doing the same work herself/himself. Second, Cultural sociology is an integrative theoretical frame which makes it possible to connect local meaning-constitutive practices, on the one hand, with the social and cultural resources, on the other. The present article demonstrates how the evolution of Chinese astronautics’ public image with its peculiarities might be explained with the idea of such a dialectic relationship. In the end the author arrives at the conclusion that “Space Dream” is a performative resource that has been able to allow individuals to feel solidarity as a people in relation to astronautics’ projects. 

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