A hidden population: A rhetorical genre analysis of the posts in the Baidu depression community

Since its beginning in the 1980s, the mental health rhetoric research (MHRR) has explored the rhetorical construction of mental illness from a genre perspective. Despite a growing body of research on the rhetorical study of mental health in the West, the discourse of depression has been rarely explored in the Chinese context. This study investigates a corpus of 3217 posts in the Baidu depression community in China with an attempt to identify typical rhetorical features of the posts in the depression community as a genre. We intend, through an exploration of the exigences, social actions, and consequences of the posts, to facilitate a better understanding of the depressed population in China. We argue that the social exigences for the posts in online depression communities can be regarded as a failure of the rhetorical environment in real life and that expressing emotions, exchanging information, establishing interpersonal relationships, and communicating across spatiotemporal boundaries are the typified social actions performed by the posts in the Baidu depression community. Moreover, as a genre, the posts have successfully created an ambience of collective intimacy. Taken together, the findings shed light on the rhetorical study of depression in China.