Military metaphors in contemporary Chinese disease coverage: a case study of the People's Daily, 1946–2019

Abstract

Although military metaphors have been used widely to discuss diseases, little research has been conducted from the perspective of diachronic quantitative analysis, especially in the Chinese context. The outbreak of the major disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) occurred in China in 2002 and 2003, which was followed by Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) in 2019 and 2020. A semantic network analysis is conducted to gain insights into the relationship between the external environment and the use of military metaphors in the Chinese coverage of diseases and to provide a basis for the analysis of COVID-19 discourse in China. A semantic network analysis is conducted to examine the use of military metaphors in the coverage of diseases in the People’s Daily. The findings showed that the use of military metaphors in the contemporary Chinese coverage of disease has declined overall, but there were two peaks in the periods from 1966–1975 and from 1996–2006. These peaks could be explained by the contemporary cultural and social changes in China and/or the sudden emergence of infectious diseases throughout the country. The findings also showed that offensive military metaphors have been favored over defensive and military process metaphors, which may be related to the traditional demonization of disease in China. Finally, the findings showed connections between the collectivization of the subject and the use of military metaphors in the Chinese coverage of disease.