Abstract:

Due to the continuous improvement of China’s international influence, China’s national image has gradually become one of the focuses of current research. As media discourse plays an important role in shaping a national image, the proportion of media discourse in the research on China’s national image is increasing. Based on the relevant reports on the Sino-US trade war in the mainstream media in China and the US, this paper analyzes the metaphorical construction of China’s image in the media discourse in China and the US by applying Charteris-Black’s method of critical metaphor analysis, which includes the three stages of metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation, and metaphor explanation. The study revealed that the media in China and the media in the US differ in the choice of the metaphors used to construct China’s image. While the American media use more war metaphors than the Chinese media, the Chinese media use more game metaphors than the American media, which is sound proof of the tendency for the American media to choose to antagonize trade disputes while the Chinese media opt to resolve trade disputes by means of healthy competition. Furthermore, the media in the two countries tend to construct different images of China by using different conceptual metaphors: American media construct negative images of China, such as the “enemy of US” that “harms the interests of US”, while the Chinese media manage to establish a positive image as a “win-win partner” that pursues peaceful development.

Keywords: Sino-US trade war; metaphor; China’s image; contrastive analysis

摘要：

随着中国国际影响力的不断提升，中国形象逐渐成为研究的焦点之一。媒体话语在国家形象塑造中起着重要的作用，因此，媒体话语研究在中国形象研究中的比重日益增大。本文以中美主流媒体关于两国贸易战的相关报道为语料，运用Charteris-Black的批评隐喻分析法，对概念隐喻进行识别和阐释，探讨中美媒体话语中中国形象的隐喻建构问题。研究发现，中美媒体在建构中国形象过程中采用了不同的隐喻：美国媒体使用战争隐喻的比例高于中国媒体，而中国媒体则比美国媒体采用了更多的竞赛隐喻，这充分印证了美国媒体选择将贸易争端敌对化而中国媒体则选择通过良性竞争解决贸易争端的倾向；两国媒体借助概念隐喻建构出不同的中国形象：美国媒体把中国塑造为“美国的敌人” “美国利益的伤害者”等负面形象，而中国媒体则努力塑造中国追求双赢、和平发展的正面形象。

关键词: 中美贸易战, 隐喻, 中国形象, 对比分析