How is the Chinese-American trade war portrayed in political cartoons in both nations?
What is it about?
Political cartoons make meaning by drawing on scenarios that must be immediately recognizable by their intended audience. Crucial meaning-making mechanisms in these scenarios are visual metaphors. In this paper we investigate 69 Chinese and 60 American political cartoons published in 2018 and 2019 that pertain to the two nations’ trade conflict. We find cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of key metaphors: TRADE CONFLICT IS JOURNEY; TRADE CONFLICT IS WAR; and TRADE CONFLICT IS GAME. We also chart how "USA" and "China" are portrayed. America is often depicted metonymically as Donald Trump or Uncle Sam in both nations' cartoons. The Chinese cartoons depict "China" via the stereotypical "Chinese citizen." We end by briefly discussing some other knowledge sources that are necessary to understand the cartoons, pertaining to (1) intertextuality, (2) idioms and expressions, (3) themes and "topoi"; and (4) comics' symbols.
Why is it important?
Lakoff and Johnson have claimed, in Metaphors We Live By (1980) that we can only think metaphorically, namely by coupling abstract, complex phenomena (here: TRADE CONFLICT) with concrete, physical, perceptible phenomena (here: JOURNEY, WAR, GAME). Such structural metaphors reveal universal ways of making meaning -- not just in language but also in pictures. It is worthwhile investigating the similar and different ways in which Chinese and American cartoonists make use of these universal metaphors in depicting a highly sensitive political issue. A research project like this one shows how structural, universal metaphors acquire culturally-specific dimensions.