The construction and survivability of “blaming” metaphors on Chinese social media
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Dennis Tay
Abstract
Social media facilitates massive interactive dissemination of public opinion on contentious socio-political issues. In contexts with curtailed civil liberties, it has fostered refreshing examples of “blame discourse” where citizens may feel relatively empowered to criticise authorities for misgovernance. Metaphor is a wellknown and multi-faceted phenomenon in such discourses. Basic questions include who/what gets metaphorically represented, with what, how, and why (i.e., the targets, sources, mappings, and functions). Given the turn-based architecture of online forums where users and their metaphors may be both collaborative and competitive in acts of blaming, we may also consider novel methods and analytic perspectives on issues like metaphor “survivability”, as different conceptualisations vie for attention in a crowded space. This chapter is a case study of user responses to the Hubei Red Cross Foundation, whose perceived gross mismanagement of medical relief to Wuhan, China during the initial COVID-19 phase triggered huge discontent on Sina Weibo, the most influential Chinese microblogging web platform. We adopt an approach combining quantitative modelling with critical interpretation on a web-scrapped corpus of 14540 user comments (292253 Chinese characters) to investigate i) the relative survivability of different metaphor variants, and ii) the coconstruction, collaborative or otherwise, of metaphors across posts. Our objectives are both theoretical and methodological - to shed critical light on metaphors in a cultural context not traditionally accustomed to “blaming”, and to demonstrate the relevance of data analytic techniques like survival analysis for such a purpose. Relevant Python code is available on the first author’s website (https://github.com/denistay1981) or upon request.
Abstract
Social media facilitates massive interactive dissemination of public opinion on contentious socio-political issues. In contexts with curtailed civil liberties, it has fostered refreshing examples of “blame discourse” where citizens may feel relatively empowered to criticise authorities for misgovernance. Metaphor is a wellknown and multi-faceted phenomenon in such discourses. Basic questions include who/what gets metaphorically represented, with what, how, and why (i.e., the targets, sources, mappings, and functions). Given the turn-based architecture of online forums where users and their metaphors may be both collaborative and competitive in acts of blaming, we may also consider novel methods and analytic perspectives on issues like metaphor “survivability”, as different conceptualisations vie for attention in a crowded space. This chapter is a case study of user responses to the Hubei Red Cross Foundation, whose perceived gross mismanagement of medical relief to Wuhan, China during the initial COVID-19 phase triggered huge discontent on Sina Weibo, the most influential Chinese microblogging web platform. We adopt an approach combining quantitative modelling with critical interpretation on a web-scrapped corpus of 14540 user comments (292253 Chinese characters) to investigate i) the relative survivability of different metaphor variants, and ii) the coconstruction, collaborative or otherwise, of metaphors across posts. Our objectives are both theoretical and methodological - to shed critical light on metaphors in a cultural context not traditionally accustomed to “blaming”, and to demonstrate the relevance of data analytic techniques like survival analysis for such a purpose. Relevant Python code is available on the first author’s website (https://github.com/denistay1981) or upon request.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Merging tenets and tools in socio-political metaphor analysis 1
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I Construing reality through metaphor
- Similes vs. metaphors. A case study on the conceptualisation of Covid-19 pandemic 23
- From the closet to the stars. Metaphoric construals of gender identity in tumblr. A case study 51
- “A wall of human misery”: Critical metaphor analysis and the discursive representation of Ukrainian refugees in British news articles 81
- Polarising metaphors in far-right populist tweets: A comparative crosslinguistic study 107
- Imagine a cell as a medieval fortress: Metaphor as a tool of explanation and persuasion in the Serbian pro-vaccination discourse 135
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II Contesting the world through metaphor
- War metaphors and conspiracy theories 159
- Fighting metaphors: Social resistance to mainstream metaphors 177
- The construction and survivability of “blaming” metaphors on Chinese social media 207
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III Performing ideology through multimodal metaphor
- Metaphorical perspectives on women in armed conflicts. Female depictions in the murals of Northern Ireland 229
- Identifying and interpreting visual metaphors in political cartoons 255
- Image-schematic structuring of metaphor in visual art from the perspective of socio-political context. A case study of Jerzy Kalina’s sculpture Pomnik Anonimowego Przechodnia ‘Monument of an Anonymous Passer-by’ 279
- Fire, war and revolution: Metaphor in media discourses of political protest 307
- Index 333
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Merging tenets and tools in socio-political metaphor analysis 1
-
I Construing reality through metaphor
- Similes vs. metaphors. A case study on the conceptualisation of Covid-19 pandemic 23
- From the closet to the stars. Metaphoric construals of gender identity in tumblr. A case study 51
- “A wall of human misery”: Critical metaphor analysis and the discursive representation of Ukrainian refugees in British news articles 81
- Polarising metaphors in far-right populist tweets: A comparative crosslinguistic study 107
- Imagine a cell as a medieval fortress: Metaphor as a tool of explanation and persuasion in the Serbian pro-vaccination discourse 135
-
II Contesting the world through metaphor
- War metaphors and conspiracy theories 159
- Fighting metaphors: Social resistance to mainstream metaphors 177
- The construction and survivability of “blaming” metaphors on Chinese social media 207
-
III Performing ideology through multimodal metaphor
- Metaphorical perspectives on women in armed conflicts. Female depictions in the murals of Northern Ireland 229
- Identifying and interpreting visual metaphors in political cartoons 255
- Image-schematic structuring of metaphor in visual art from the perspective of socio-political context. A case study of Jerzy Kalina’s sculpture Pomnik Anonimowego Przechodnia ‘Monument of an Anonymous Passer-by’ 279
- Fire, war and revolution: Metaphor in media discourses of political protest 307
- Index 333