Souls, Comrades and Puppets: A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Chiang Kai-shek’s Early Wartime Rhetoric
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The proposed study adopts a Critical Metaphor Analysis approach to Chiang Kai-shek’s internal propaganda by investigating his New Year and National Day speeches in the 1950’s. Chiang’s internal rhetoric exhibits the following patterns—first, one of Chiang’s important rhetorical features is his frequent metaphorical reference to the Communist China only as a “puppet” regime knowing nothing, with Russia as the mastermind. Second, idolizing the dead was a frequent rhetorical strategy for Chiang to impose his worldview onto his citizens; in his speeches there were frequent mentions of the souls in heaven of National Father and the forerunners, praising their achievements and their contribution to the country’s glorious past, as a way of mobilizing the state. The third rhetorical strategy of Chiang is his invention of imaginary comrades within the “slaved China” waiting for the best time to overthrow the “bandits’” rule. On many occasions in his speeches, he addressed these imaginary agents as an indirect means of creating a false better impression of self and a lower image of the Communist Bandits. It is hoped that the presentation will help shed light on research of leadership rhetoric and Asian Studies with a conceptual metaphor approach. |