This paper explores the origin of dun as rhythmic unit in new Chinese metrical poetry by re-examining a well-known dispute between Sun Dayu and He Qifang, which was initiated by Sun Dayu. After comparing the differences between dun and yinzu (or meter in Sun Dayu’s term), the paper concludes that Sun Dayu’s accusation that He Qifang stole “his creativity” in terms of yinzu is in fact invalid, and there is also a general misunderstanding of the concept of Sun Dayu’s yinzu among poets and poetic scholars, who consider it to be a “sound group” instead of meter in Sun Dayu’s sense of the term. As the mainstream translation method for contemporary Chinese poetry translation is “dun for foot”, the clarification of the difference between dun and yinzu, as well as of the origin of the rhythmic unit promoted by new Chinese poets, is of great significance in the further identification of the poetic defects of dun in the construction of poetic meter. On one hand, it is conducive to enabling Chinese poetry translators to better understand the essence of dun; on the other hand, it is also helpful for allowing us to identify the problems in the development of new poetry with meter.

Oppositional collocation is a particular pragmatic phenomenon that operates by contrasting positive and negative meanings to highlight a certain positive sense. This structure can achieve certain semantic and emotional effects that cannot usually be achieved through consistent semantic collocations. Both Chinese and English have such semantically-oppositional collocations; that is, a commendatory adjective plus a derogatory adverb means something extremely positive, such as 帅呆了 (handsome+dumb+le = extremely handsome), 好得要死 (good+de+wanting to die = extremely good), or damn good, terribly glad. This paper first presents a working definition that confines the research to the collocation between an adverb and an adjective. The formal features of this type of collocation in Chinese and in English are then compared. A key point is the analysis of degree adverbs in the two languages, which are believed to have undergone a certain degree of grammaticalization, together with the collocational features. The conclusion provides a three-dimensional interpretation of the collocation’s expressive mechanism, involving the discourse context, usage conventions, and expressions of emotion.

This paper adopts the perspective of deliberate metaphor theory, an emerging theory of cognitive metaphor, to examine 34 of President Xi Jinping’s by-lined overseas articles from 2014 to 2018 as a corpus to elaborate on the top leader’s diplomatic concepts in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Through a comparison of Chinese and English texts, this paper aims to investigate the translators’ understanding of deliberate metaphors in the diplomatic ideas and translation strategies employed. This paper attempts to contribute to extending President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic views that are reconstructed by interpreters for target text readers in a panoramic way to truly clarify China’s diplomatic views and attitudes. The goals are to promote friendly relations among countries and for the world to develop in a climate of peace and stability.

Based on the “Data Base of African English Media” created by the College of Foreign Languages, Qufu Normal University, this study delves into the coverage of China-Africa relations in English media in nine African countries, and analyzes the important topics, attitudes and media power reflected in the reports via a data-driven approach. The findings revealed that cooperation and development were issues of common concern in the African media, that the economy was the center of interest, and that infrastructure was another frequently reported issue. In addition, different African countries have individual focus of attention; for example, Egypt pays more attention to bilateral political and economic exchanges, Ethiopia to labor and employment issues, and Zambia to agriculture and rural development. The study also revealed that African media generally expressed a positive attitude toward China-Africa relations and affirmed China’s positive role in Africa’s economic and infrastructure development, but there were still concerns despite the overall positive attitudes. By analyzing negative discourses, the study identified the specific concerns of African countries and the influence of Western media on African media. The suggestion is that, in order to promote healthy China-Africa relations, it is necessary to take targeted measures in African countries in accordance with the situations and concerns of each country, and it is important to strengthen China-Africa media cooperation to promote the dissemination of Chinese discourse.

Due to the influence of constructivism and post-structuralism, the “linguistic turn” began to appear at the forefront of international politics and international relations studies in the late 1980s. As a powerful discourse strategy, the constructive role of metaphors in political news discourse has gradually attracted attention in academic circles. By drawing on Charteris-Black’s (2004) theory of critical metaphor analysis, this paper analyzes the metaphors with “TPP” and “US Withdrawal from TPP” as target domains in the reports on “US Withdrawal from TPP” by mainstream media in the US, thus revealing the ideological meaning and biases hidden in these reports and analyzing their constructive impacts on social cognition. The results revealed that, although the impact of US withdrawal from TPP on China is multifaceted, the US media use metaphors to emphasize the favorable impact of this event on China while concealing its adverse impact on China, and to promote the “China threat theory”. Through the use of metaphors, the US media attempt to persuade readers to construct a certain mental model about this event. By repeatedly using these metaphors to convey the same point of view, the US media intend to strengthen the mental model constructed by the readers in order to promote the construction of a relevant social context model, and to achieve the purpose of influencing the public’s views and constructing reality. In light of this, domestic media should use media resources effectively in order to impact the agenda setting and to establish its own discourse system in the international community.

When entering the new era, China’s higher Arabic education should not only continue to introduce the Arab world to China but, more importantly, to introduce China to the Arab world. To tell the story of contemporary China in detail we must first understand contemporary China. The multilingual version of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China is an authoritative text for understanding contemporary China. The “Understanding Contemporary China” series of textbooks adheres to the principles of systematic arrangement, comprehensive coverage, integrated learning, ability orientation in the compilation process, and emphasizes the characteristics of each textbook, which is a key link in the in-depth advancement of the “Three Advances” work, which is an important resource for foreign-language majors to keep pace with the times and to respond to the urgent needs of the country. The “Understanding Contemporary China” series of textbooks is an effective way to innovate and improve the foreign-language professional knowledge and curriculum system.

The burgeoning of educational research from a sociocultural perspective has fostered the spectacular expansion of scholarly interest in cultural-historical activity theory and other related concepts. This paper focuses on an interview with Professor Yrjö Engeström, who is Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki, to explore and enhance the understanding of activity theory, expansive learning, and the Change Laboratory. In this interview, Professor Engeström first illustrated the theoretical roots and developmental trajectories of cultural-historical activity theory before explaining the interpretive and transformative features of activity theory. In addition, he defined the relationships of activity theory, the sociocultural approach, and action research, and then elucidated several relatively new constructs, such as expansive learning, transformative agency, and the interventionist method of the Change Laboratory. Finally, Professor Engeström speculated on the future development of activity theory, and expressed his earnest hope for young scholars of the whole world to enter the research field and to conduct meaningful research. This interview examines cultural-historical activity theory, related concepts, and their applications; in doing so, it contributes to the existing body of research on activity theory and illuminates the thinking and practice in educational studies and foreign-language education research.

Conceptual metaphors are ubiquitous cognitive tools. They are widely used in political discourse in order to explain abstract concepts in a vivid way. Using a corpus based study on President Xi Jinping’s series of international political speeches, this paper summarizes and analyzes the “road” metaphors and their functions in constructing national identity. The research revealed that the conceptual metaphor of “road” in Xi Jinping’s series of diplomatic speeches is rich in terms of representation and connotation. A critical metaphor analysis revealed that, in order to express China’s outlook on development and cooperation and the worldwide significance of China’s development, the speaker tactfully used the metaphor numerous times to exemplify China’s proposed development via the common experience of the human cognition of “road”. The metaphor was also used to illustrate China’s attitude, confidence, determination and courage in seeking the common goal of development and prosperity for the entire world through the establishment of a new global development partnership, and of creating a better future for mankind. The “road” metaphor is integral to the promotion of a positive national identity as “a people-oriented, road-confident developing country”, “an open and inclusive, mutually beneficial and win-win partner”, “a willing-to-help, responsible member of the international community”, and the promotion of a national image as “a responsible major country” in the global community.

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.

This paper adopts the perspective of lexico-constructional pragmatics to consider pun of traditional rhetoric as a pun trigger, and regards pun in the true sense of the term as a pun construction. In terms of sound, form, meaning, and effect which are four essential pragma-rhetorical parameters, pun constructions fall into three categories: the {X + same sound, same form, varied meaning and effect + X} pun construction, the {X + same/similar sound, similar form, varied meaning and effect + X} pun construction, and the {X + same/similar sound, varied form meaning and effect + X} pun construction. With regard to pragmatic effects, it is found that in addition to what has been addressed in earlier studies, such as humor, novelty, and association, pun construction can be employed to present the rhetor’s emotional attitudes, to circumvent excessive frankness, to deliberately misinterpret an utterance, or to downplay embarrassment. The paper also addresses semantico-pragmatic ambiguity, inheritance, networks, and the pragma-rhetorical effects of pun constructions.