Let Us Check the Way They Say China ——From the Perspective of Critical Metaphor Analysis

Based on Charteris Black's critical metaphor analysis theory, this paper conducts a critical discourse analysis of the metaphors in the headlines of the Belt and Road related news in the New York Times, aiming to study how the Western mainstream media use conceptual metaphors to construct the image of China in the reports on the "Belt and Road Initiative". It is found that the mainstream Western media, represented by the New York Times, take "BRI" and "China" as the target domains in their headlines about the Belt and Road initiative, and adopt several main conceptual metaphors, such as "BRI is the battlefield", "BRI is the journey" and China is the "challenger and substitute", "troublemaker and benefit reaper", and "participant who does not obey the rules". Based on the above findings, this study makes an in-depth analysis of the subconscious metaphorical choices made by the media in news texts, which reflect that in a specific context, news creators have specific persuasive strategies, as well as ideological and value choices. A critical metaphor study of the reports on the Belt and Road Initiative in Western media, especially in English mainstream media, can help us find out how the Chinese image is described and constructed in the metaphorical choices of these media. so as to provide reference for the domestic media to fully understand the international media communication strategies and to do a good job in external publicity.