Tag: Metaphor

By Joyce Fung

Political slogan is a widely used method of propaganda in China to spread the ideologies of the Communist Party. Slogans are fast and effective in spreading political ideas because they are short and concise. We can understand more about a certain historical event by analyzing political slogans. Let’s take the Great Leap Forward as an example.

The Great Leap Forward is an important mass movement in China from 1958-1962. The Three Red Banners Movement aims at modernizing China in both industrial and agricultural area. Mao and the Communist Party successfully used different political slogans to motivate Chinese to take part in the event. Therefore, we can see how powerful the language and metaphors are behind the words of the political slogans.

I will try to apply Critical Metaphor Analysis to analyze the metaphors of CCP’s political slogans in this period. The metaphors domain can be divided into five groups, which are conflict, building, journey, plant and religious metaphors.

Conflict metaphors

“Drowning the enemy” is an attack to the opposite camp who holds different ideology. One of the aims of the Great Leap Forward is to defeat the opposite camp in industrial area, so the attack of China is described as “torrent of steel”. China aims at catching up with the industrial development of US in fifteen years. From the poster, the children are putting the metal utensils into the dragon body to give energy to the dragon to drown the enemies. We can see that even children are engaged into the power conflicts between different world powers. China creates a national enemy for Chinese to competitive with and call for the Great Leap Forward Movement.

Building metaphors

鼓足幹勁、力爭上游、多快好省地建設社會主義

“Go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better, and more economical results to build socialism”

The word “build” is mentioned directly in the slogan to show the ultimate goal of building a socialist state. Building socialism needs the public to support and work together hand in hand. In this way, the goal of socialist society can be achieved in a shorter time. Therefore, we can see different classes of people are facing the same direction energetically in the poster. It shows that the cooperation of people creates a fundamental base for the development of a country. People should follow the guidelines and orders of the government to build a new China.

Journey Metaphors

總路線萬歲！大躍進萬歲！人民公社萬歲！

“Long live the General Line! Long live the Great Leap Forward! Long live the People’s Communes!”

This slogan is the main idea in the Great Leap Forward. The literal meaning of “路線”is route, showing the path or road of China to become modernized and industrialized. The name “Great Leap Forward” also indicates the journey of China for moving a big step towards modernization. The three red flags in the poster indicates the Three Red Banner Movement, it is like the battle flags that guide different classes of people to go on a journey of socialism. “Long live” the journey is a wish of China as it represents unstoppable development of the country.

Plant Metaphors

坐著花生過黃河

“Crossing the Yellow River while sitting in a peanut”

“Peanut” is a metaphor of the People’s Commune. One of the functions of the People’s Commune is to distribute resources equally to every Chinese. The slogan tries to show the rapid agricultural production growth. The “Yellow River” has important cultural meanings to Chinese as the Yellow River is seen as the origin of the Chinese civilization. Therefore, the slogan implies the idea that the People’s Commune can let Chinese people have countless food to eat, hence have a better livelihood. It also further emphasizes that people should cooperate together and farm more food to make the nation become more prosperous.

Religious Metaphors

公社如巨龍，生產顯威風

“The commune is like a gigantic dragon, production is visibly awe-inspiring”

The “dragon” is not only a legendary creature, but also a kind of religious belief in China. In Chinese tradition, dragon symbolized power and strength. The Slogan is trying to compare the People’s Commune with “a gigantic dragon” to show the power of the People’s Commune and let the Chinese to respect it. At the same time, dragon is the God of the sea in Chinese mythology. Because of the ability of dragon to control rainfall and flood, the slogan implies that the People’s Commune can bring a great amount of agricultural production to China.

Reference:

Chinese Posters. (2019, October 13). Great Leap Forward (1958-1961). https://chineseposters.net/themes/great-leap-forward.php

Lu, X. (1999). An Ideological/Cultural Analysis of Political Slogans in Communist China. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 487-508.