Abstract
Although virtually all states in the world adhere to market economy, they have different visions about how the market economy should work properly. We may identify three main ideal-typical models of market state, welfare state, and developmental state, which are in practice realized by the US, the EU, and Pacific Asia.
These ideas about global economy serve as strategic narratives, which are formed within the respective regions, projected into other regions, and received in these other regions. Reception of narratives, particularly by ordinary people, has attracted attention of scholar only very recently and still remains under-studied.
This article focuses on reception of Chinese narrative towards Africa, which stresses win-win cooperation based on "business as usual" approach, with no political interference and no strings attached. Kenya was chosen as a representative case, discourse analysis of media news discourse as a method, and leading newspaper The Daily Nation as the source of data.
Analysis reveals that the newspaper reproduces this Chinese narrative, while simultaneously challenging it. At least two main constituent parts of this narrative are openly contested on the pages of The Daily Nation: that Chinese aid to Africa is without conditions and that Chinese engagement in Africa is selfless and mutually beneficial.
Thus, the presented article confirms that while Kenyan leadership seems to be charmed by the Chinese narrative, this is not accepted unreservedly within Kenyan society.