Multimodal metaphor (re)framing: a critical analysis of the promotional image of China’s Hubei Province in the post-pandemic era on new media

ABSTRACT

This study presents multimodal metaphors as (re)framing tools in the analysis of a 10-minute promotional video of Hubei Province produced by the Chinese government and circulated on new media platforms like YouTube, Douyin (Chinese Tik Tok) and WeChat Channels. The video introduces Hubei Province to the world in the pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic stage to erase the prejudiced “Wuhan virus” and “China virus” painted by Western media. Drawing upon MIPVU (the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universitei), multimodality of metaphors, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study analyzes how the Chinese government attempts to reframe Hubei as a place of courage, prosperity and humanity via metaphors like WAR, BRIDGE, HAND and BACK. The benefits and drawbacks of such metaphor usage are also discussed with appropriate contextual and socio-cultural relevancies. The study provides a hands-on practice of the CDA-based analysis of multimodal metaphors and justifies the feasibility of integrating translation, metaphor and semiotic studies through the sociological theory of framing.

KEYWORDS:

• Metaphor
• multimodality
• (re)framing
• new media
• coronavirus
• Wuhan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Due to the word limit, the step-by-step MIPVU/SDVP procedures are not detailed here. Only the key decision-making processes are described.

2 Please see https://sigma.ontologyportal.org:8443/sigma/WordNet.jsp?word=war&POS=0.

3 Please see https://sigma.ontologyportal.org:8443/sigma/WordNet.jsp?word=bridge&POS=0.

4 Please see https://sigma.ontologyportal.org:8443/sigma/WordNet.jsp?word=fist&POS=0.

5 M-O and O-M are equivalent to Toury’s M-0 and 0-M. The study uses the alphabetical “O” rather than the numerical “0” in order to make sure the six translation strategies alphabetically consistent.

6 The official website of the special event, “Heroic Hubei: Reborn for New Glories” is http://en.hubei.gov.cn/special/hubeiglories_2021/index.shtml and one YouTube link for the promotional video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc2ytmfE9J0.

7 All pictures used in Tables 7 and 8 are taken by the authors of the study.

8 Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist#cite_note-1.

9 https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zwjg_665342/zwbd_665378/t990263.shtml.

10 Please refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_with_shared_future_for_mankind.

11 Although this promotional video also emphasizes the heroic Hubei people, metaphorical language in this regard is less used.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yufeng Liu

Yufeng Liu, is a PhD candidate at Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests lie in the intersection of metaphor, translation and communication studies.

Dechao Li

Dr. Dechao Li, is an associate professor at Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His main research areas include corpus-based translation studies, empirical approaches to translation process research, history of translation in the late Qing and early Republican periods and problem-based learning and translator/interpreter training. He has published over 50 articles in journals such as Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, The Translator and Interpreter Trainer, Interpreting, Discourse & Society, Target, Frontiers in Psychology as well as some book chapters published by Routledge, Springer and Wayne State University Press.