Translating conflict metaphor in political discourse of China: Representation, legitimacy, and ideology

Abstract

This research critically analyses the CCP’s official English-language translation of the Conflict Metaphor, a conventional metaphor in Chinese political discourse that comprises metaphors of war and physical altercation, and dates back to the revolutionary days of China during the 1950s-1960s. Analysing the original and translated conflict metaphors from the twenty Chinese national congressional reports and their English translations between 2004 and 2020, this research aims to ascertain to what extent and how the Conflict Metaphor in translation consolidates the CCP’s political power. To address the research question, this study proposes a dialectical-relational approach to conventional metaphors in translation, which analyses the translated conflict metaphors on the levels of language, representation, and discursive convention. This multilevel investigation is facilitated by an operationalisation of the English-based metaphor identification procedure Vrije Universiteit for Mandarin texts, and by a combination of quantitative corpus-based techniques and qualitative analysis. On the linguistic level, the study finds that, in general, around 56% of the original conflict metaphors are not retained in the TTs. Nevertheless, the official translation largely reproduces the positive representations of the CCP and China from the STs, yet in a more literal way, and it also generates a set of TT-specific ones. While the ST representations contribute to legitimising the CCP’s continued rule in China, those (re)produced in the TTs shift the emphasis of legitimisation to China’s distinct political system. Moreover, by substantially dismissing the conflict metaphors, the translation may transform the CCP’s combative image in the STs into a non-aggressive one and de-communise the TTs for international publicity. Furthermore, this study argues that the Conflict Metaphor, as part of the convention of Chinese political discourse, articulates nationalism and the progressivist metanarrative, and these two ideologies are reproduced in the STs to justify and sustain the CCP’s domestic dominance. In translation, the former is largely discarded due to the change of audience, and the latter is retained yet in a more literal way to anticipate a prosperous future for China. The manipulation of representations and ideologies in translation arguably results from the CCP’s pragmatism, as it mainly seeks to project a favourable international image for itself and China, which is of great utility for the Party’s global participation and domestic domination. This study also briefly explains the use and translation of the conflict metaphors with reference to socio-political dynamics. This systematic analysis contributes to the fledgling discussions on cognitive metaphor within TS, and represents one of the pioneering projects to expand these primarily descriptive discussions by incorporating critical investigation. This study also provides a feasible theoretical framework and methodology for the critical analysis of conventional metaphors in both monolingual and crosslingual communications. It also offers important contributions to CMA research, Chinese studies, and political science.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Maeve Olohan (Supervisor) & Tine Breban (Supervisor)