Frontiers in Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 3 Issue 3, 2023

ISSN: 2710‐0170

English Translation of Conceptual Metaphors in Xi Jinping’s

Diplomatic Speeches: A Case Study of the Keynote Speeches at the
Opening Ceremony of the Asian Civilization Dialogue Conference
and the China International Import Expo
Xi Wang, Bin Liu*, Xue Jia
School of Languages and Literature, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China
*Corresponding Author

Abstract
Diplomatic speeches are an important activity for heads of state and representatives of
diplomatic organizations to achieve their foreign policy goals through peaceful dialogue.
It can not only safeguard national interests and expand international influence, but also
develop diplomatic relations with other countries. As Chinese leader of the Party and the
State, General Secretary Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches are an important way for
domestic and foreign audiences to understand China's values and policy guidelines. This
article selects President Xi Jinping's keynote speeches at the opening ceremony of the
Asian Civilization Dialogue Conference and the China International Import Expo as
research subjects. By classifying and counting the conceptual metaphors in the 2
speeches, 210 metaphorical expressions are compiled and summarized. Furthermore,
their English translations are further studied through summarizing corresponding
translation strategies. The study also reveals the distribution pattern of conceptual
metaphors in Xi’s diplomatic speeches, so that the target language audiences can
correctly understand the translations, which effectively promote Chinese culture.

Keywords
Diplomatic Speeches; Conceptual Metaphors; Translation Strategies.

1. Introduction
Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping has published a
series of important diplomatic speeches in the practice of leading and promoting the
governance of the country in the new era, and put forward many major ideological viewpoints
that are original, contemporary and instructive, which have further enriched and developed
theoretical achievements of the CPC. The achievements of the Communist Party's theoretical
innovation have drawn a grand blueprint for the new great project of Communist Party building
on the coordinates of a new era.
As a special kind of political discourse, diplomatic speech has become a hot topic for many
scholars. Linguists have done some research on conceptual metaphor in political discourse.
Miller[1] is the first to attempt to discuss the importance of metaphor in the political realm.
Since then, many scholars have paid their attention to diplomatic speech. Abdulwahid [2] uses
conceptual metaphor theory to analyze president Obama's three speeches and King Abdullah's
three speeches. Mose [3] analyzes war metaphors used in conflict management in her 2013
Kenyan presidential election speech. Pasaribu [4] examines Joko Widodo's victory speech and
inauguration speech. Nguyen [5] applies conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual
integration theory to conduct a comparative analysis of metaphorical strategies in Obama's and
Trump's inaugural speeches. From the perspective of metaphor, Cabrejas‐Peñuelas [6] makes

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a comparative analysis of two kinds of political speeches in Spain and the United States. Li Xue
and Liangbin Tian [7] analyze the conceptual metaphors in President Xi's speeches at the Boao
Forum for Asia in 2013 and 2015.
However, there are still few studies on the combination of conceptual metaphor and diplomatic
speeches. This paper selects 2 speeches as research objects in the diplomatic parts of Xi Jinping:
The Governance of China (Volume III). Based on the source ___domain of conceptual metaphor, this
paper classifies and studies the conceptual metaphors that appear in these diplomatic speeches.
Furthermore, based on the working mechanism of metaphor in conceptual metaphor theory,
the translation strategies adopted in the English version are summarized and described. This
study has some innovative value in diplomatic speech translation guided by conceptual
metaphor theory. It plays an important role in promoting Chinese culture and enhancing
China's international discourse power.

2. Basic Introduction to Conceptual Metaphor

Since Lakoff and Johnson have mentioned conceptual metaphor in their book Metaphors We
Live By, published in 1980, conceptual metaphor has been studied by scholars at home and
abroad. Lakoff and Johnson argue that conceptual metaphor usually refers to the use of one
thing to understand and experience another thing, the essence is to understand and experience
[8]. They call the former the “source ___domain”, which is like a tool for understanding another
thing. While the latter is named after the “target ___domain”, which refers to the object to be
understood. The source ___domain usually refers to familiar things or concepts, while the target
___domain usually are unfamiliar, abstract concepts.
Next, examples of conceptual metaphor will be given, such as the metaphor of “Argument is
war”. “Argument” is a kind of discourse form, while war is a strategy of military activity, and
they belong to different domains. However, “argument” is often seen as a form of war, and some
of the expressions used in the concept of “war” are used to construct, understand and describe
a verbal debate, thus giving rise to the phrases “he lost to the other side in the argument”, “he
defeated others in the argument [8]”.
Lakoff and Johnson also classify conceptual metaphor into three main types: structural
metaphor, ontological metaphor, and orientation metaphor. The first type is structural
metaphor, which Lakoff defines as the construction of one concept through another, usually
through some concrete concept to construct a more abstract conceptual meaning [8]. Structural
metaphor uses concrete things that are more familiar in reality to better convey the content of
the speech and its cultural and spiritual connotations to the audience. The second type is the
ontological metaphor, which is the basis of human cognitive conceptual systems and refers to
the way in which people perceive abstract and complex ideas, emotions, states, mental activities
and other intangible concepts as concrete, tangible entities [8]. It is the cognitive process of
projecting one concept into another concept ___domain [8]. When there is more abstract and
obscure lexical content in a speech, ontological metaphor can be used to turn the abstract into
the concrete and convey the cultural content of the text. The third type is the orientation
metaphor, which is derived from people's direct bodily experience, i.e., it refers to the self‐
organization of elements within the same conceptual system, following space orientations such
as up and down, inside and outside, front and back, depth, central edge, etc. [9]. The orientation
metaphor is a measure of mapping some popular orientation terms in human life into abstract
concepts.
As mentioned above, Lakoff and Johnson held that conceptual metaphor is to understand and
experience one kind of thing through another. Lakoff and Johnson further explain the mapping
process of conceptual metaphor by introducing the concepts of “source ___domain” and “target
___domain”. The “source ___domain” usually refers to the things that people are more familiar with,

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while the target ___domain is usually the things that are unfamiliar to people [8]. The existence of
___domain is just like a huge network, which connects the source ___domain and the target ___domain
through some well‐known experiential mapping process so that realizes the leap from the
source ___domain to the target ___domain.
Lakoff takes “Life is a journey” as an example, where “the traveler”, “the starting point”,
“obstacles”, “distance” and “destination” in the journey ___domain correspond to “the person”,
“birth”, “difficulties”, “duration” and “death” in the life ___domain [10]. As the following chart
shows:

Fig 1. The mapping of "Life is a journey“

To sum up, conceptual metaphor is a mapping process from source ___domain to target ___domain
based on human cognitive experience. However, not all knowledge and structures in the source
___domain are mapped to the target ___domain. Generally speaking, the same or similar parts of the
source ___domain and target ___domain are selected and retained in the mapping process. Only in this
way, some political concepts in diplomatic speech texts can be better understood by the
audience, so as to achieve the icing on the cake effect.

3. Study on Conceptual Metaphors in Xi's Diplomatic Speeches

Xi's public speeches have also attracted attention from political and media circles at home and
abroad. Xi often uses vivid, graphic metaphors, plain language, and accessible arguments in his
speeches [11]. Reading through his diplomatic speeches, we can not only appreciate the feelings
of cosmopolitanism, but also experience the emotion of Chinese cultural heritage. Based on
conceptual metaphors, this paper studies and analyzes the metaphors in the selected speeches,
further studies the corresponding translation strategies in their English translations, and
interprets their positive significance for the promotion of Chinese culture.
3.1. Statistics of Conceptual Metaphors
The texts of the speeches selected for this article are taken from Xi Jinping: The Governance of
China (Volume III). The author has selected the infectious speeches of the opening ceremony of
the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations and the China International Import Expo. Both
the 2 speeches were published in2019. Their English version were jointly compiled by Publicity
Department of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council Information Office, Institute of
Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, and China Foreign Languages. The
translator takes the reader's perspective into account, while taking into account the core
content of the source text, and flexibly uses different translation strategies to maximize the
effect of the translation on the target language. In this study, the English‐Chinese database of Xi
Jinping's 2 diplomatic speeches was constructed, and the conceptual metaphors were
categorized based on this database.
3.2. Different Types of Conceptual Metaphors
In Metaphors We Live by, Lakoff and Johnson formally introduce conceptual metaphor theory,
which is the first comprehensive exploration of metaphor in terms of human experience,

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categories, and conceptual systems. The theory argues that human cannot understand or
adequately represent metaphors if they lack an experiential basis [8]. Thus, the skillful use of
conceptual metaphors, both in speech and in discourse, can lead to a more accurate
understanding of the content of a particular conversation or discourse. A check of relevant
studies show as follows: Cao Lingmei and Hong Wang [12] studied the English translation of
metaphors with Chinese characteristics in Xi Jinping's discourse, and classified the metaphors
with Chinese characteristics in President Xi's discourse into five types: animal metaphor,
disease metaphor, building metaphor, diet metaphor and life metaphor; Yu Qin [13] divides
metaphors into seven types: war, journey, disease, life, natural environment, body and animal
in her research; Ji Yan [14] divides conceptual metaphor into seven subcategories: nature,
animal, living goods, disease, body, food and plant in an analysis of conceptual metaphor in
General Secretary Xi Jinping's political discourse. According to the study, there are 210
conceptual metaphors in the 2 diplomatic speeches of Xi Jinping. Based on Lakoff and Johnson's
classification as well as the scholars mentioned above, the author firstly subdivides conceptual
metaphor from three perspectives: structural metaphor, ontological metaphor and orientation
metaphor. Next, the author further divides structural metaphor into architecture metaphor,
nature metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, and machine metaphor. Ontological
metaphor is further divided into plant metaphor and body metaphor. Orientation metaphor can
be further divided into space metaphor and time metaphor.
3.2.1. Structural Metaphor
As mentioned above, structural metaphor is the construction of more abstract concepts through
some concrete ones. Structural metaphors use concrete things that people are more familiar
with in reality. In these 2 diplomatic speeches, the structural metaphors are divided into five
sub‐categories: architecture metaphors, journey metaphors, nature metaphors, war metaphors,
and machine metaphors, as shown in the following table.

Table 1. Structural metaphor categories and their frequency

Structural
Key words Examples Total
Metaphors

坚持“拆墙”而不是“筑墙”.
architecture 建设、基础、门、平台、壁
63
metaphors 垒、路、道、拆墙、筑墙等
亚洲文明对话大会，为促进亚洲及世界各国文开展平等
对话、交流互鉴、相互启迪提供了一个新的平台。

面向未来，我们应该把握大势、顺应潮流，努力把亚洲
人民对美好生活的向往变成现实。
nature metaphors 潮流、色调等 32
如果人类文明变得只有一个色调、一个模式了，那这 个
世界就太单调了，也太无趣了！

journey metaphors 起点、步伐、进步、推进等 站在新的历史起点，中国开放的大门只会越开越大。 25

为了更好运用知识的创造以造福人类，我们应该共同加
war metaphors 战略、封锁等 强知识产权保护，而不是搞知识封锁，制造甚至扩大科 13
技鸿沟。
共同把经济全球化动力搞得越大越好、阻力搞得越小越
machine metaphors 动力、阻力、动能等 10
好。

In President Xi's speech, structural metaphors are used most frequently, with 143 cases,
accounting for 68.0952% of the overall metaphors. As can be seen from Table3‐2‐1,
architecture metaphors are the most frequently used, accounting for 30%. Then, it followed by
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nature metaphors, accounting for 15.2381%. Finally, journey metaphors, war metaphors, and
machine metaphors, account for 11.9048%, 6.1905%, and 4.7619% respectively. The
architecture metaphor takes the first place, depicting building actions (建设、拆、筑), building
categories (壁垒、路、道), and building components (基础、门、平台). President Xi uses such
common building actions to different cultures to carry out metaphors, trying to make the
audience immerse themselves in the building actions and become the collaborators to
eventually achieve the building goals. This not only brings the audience closer to him, but also
facilitates the understanding and dissemination of complex political ideas.
3.2.2. Ontological Metaphor
Ontological metaphor is the basis of human cognitive concept system, which refers to the
cognitive process of projecting one concept to another concept ___domain by considering abstract
and complex ideas, emotions, states, mental activities and other intangible concepts as concrete
and tangible entities that can be reasoned, quantified and categorized [8]. When there are more
abstract and obscure words in the speech, ontological metaphors can be used to turn the
abstract into concrete, so as to convey the cultural connotation of the text. The ontological
metaphors in these 2 speeches are divided into two subcategories: plant metaphors and body
metaphors, which are distributed as follows.

Table 2. Ontological metaphor categories and their frequency

Ontological
Key words Examples Total
Metaphors
成果、共享、落实 各国应该加强创新合作，推动科技同经济深度融合，
plant metaphors 24
等 加强创新成果共享……
双臂、站、拉手、
body metaphors 坚持“拉手”而不是“松手” 10
松手等

From the statistics in Table 2, we can see that there are 34 cases ontological metaphors in the
2 speeches, with the proportion of 16.1905%, the proportion of plant metaphors is 11.4286%,
and the proportion of human body metaphors is 4.7619%. Xi uses more plant metaphors in his
speeches , such as "成果共享" and "让发展成果惠及" in the source text, so that the audience can
feel the vitality of the speaker's words. The body metaphor regards things as an obvious
ontological metaphor with human nature" [15]. And in the source text, Xi uses "张开双臂",
"拉手", and "松手". President Xi uses these body metaphors to map intangible political concepts
into concrete, tangible human actions or behaviors, making the abstract concepts directly
perceptible to people, and thus successfully conveying its political connotations.
3.2.3. Orientation Metaphor
The orientation metaphor is derived from direct bodily experience, i.e., the organization of
elements within the same conceptual system, following spatial orientations such as up and
down, inside and outside, front and back, depth, center and edge, etc. [9]. The orientation
metaphor is a way to map some orientation words that are common in human life to some
abstract concepts as a measure. Time metaphor and space metaphor are subcategories of
orientation metaphor. In diplomatic speeches, we can understand the emotions and attitudes
of the speaker more deeply by using orientation words that are commonly known in our daily
life. The orientation metaphors used in this speech are divided into two categories: space
metaphor and time metaphor, as follows.
As shown in Table 3, we can see that there are 33 cases ontological metaphors in the 2 speeches.
The total percentage of orientation metaphors is 15.7143%, of which 13.3333% are space
metaphors and 2.3810% are time metaphors. Space metaphors such as "高" and "低" are mainly

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used to describe the equality of civilizations, while the temporal metaphors such as "前" and
"后" are usually used to describe the actual development gap between some countries, so that
the audience can better understand the current development status of the country as a whole,
and thus better set the right attitude to create a civilized society.

Table 3. Orientation metaphor categories and their frequency

Orientation
Key words Examples Total
Metaphors
上、下、 各国应该坚持人类优先的理念，而不应把一己之利凌驾于人类利
space metaphors 28
高、低 益之上。
中国将积极参与联合国、二十国集团、亚太经合组织、金砖国家
等机制合作，共同推动经济全球化向前发展。
time metaphors 前、后 5
共同消除一些国家民众依然面
临的贫穷落后。

3.3. Summary
According to the analysis, it can be seen that the percentages of the three major metaphor types
in the overall metaphor of this speech are: structural metaphor:68.0952%; ontological
metaphor:16.1905%; and orientation metaphor:15.7143%. It can be seen that the structural
metaphor accounts for more than half of the speech, and is the main force of the conceptual
metaphor used in the speeches. Because people have more cognitive psychological and
experience‐based commonality of the structural metaphor in speech, among which the
architecture metaphor is used the most. In this way, the speaker makes the audience become
the collaborator of the building action and realize the building goal together through the
architecture metaphor. This not only brings the speaker closer to the audience, but also
facilitates the dissemination of political ideas in diplomatic speeches. The ontology metaphor
and the orientation metaphor are similarly used in this speech, though not as frequently as the
structural metaphor, but their metaphorical effects cannot be ignored. The ontological
metaphor gives the abstract economic concept a practical meaning related to organic life, which
makes the whole speech more vital, conveying the political connotation successfully. The
orientation metaphor, on the other hand, uses familiar orientation words to make a call and
appeal, which persuades, infects and moves the audience while conveying the message.

4. Translation Strategies of Conceptual Metaphors in Xi's Diplomatic

Speeches
As a kind of thinking practice activity, translation should properly deal with the complex
cognitive process of conceptual metaphor between the source text and the target text. The
origin ___domain, target ___domain, mapping and knowledge experience are the key elements of
conceptual metaphor. The metaphorical map is the process of motivating the audience to
transfer from the source ___domain to the corresponding target ___domain. In the process of
reconstructing the cultural model of the source language, translators usually have various
choices, such as: transferring its metaphorical meaning, reshaping its subject image, modifying
its metaphorical meaning, and adjusting its metaphorical meaning in combination with the
original ___domain [16]. Through the analysis of the translation of conceptual metaphors in Xi's
diplomatic speeches, it is found that translators mainly adopt the following translation
strategies of conceptual metaphors: “retaining conceptual metaphor”,“transforming conceptual
metaphor”, “deleting conceptual metaphor” and “adding conceptual metaphor”. In the following
part, the above four translation strategies will be introduced, and some representative
examples will be selected to elaborate.

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4.1. Retaining Conceptual Metaphor

Human beings perceive the world based on the experience of objective things. Despite the
differences in various cultures, the perception of the natural laws of nature, natural phenomena
and architectures in the objective world are basically common. Therefore, human beings may
use the same conceptual metaphors when recognizing and expressing abstract things or
concepts. In translating such conceptual metaphors that have commonality of cognitive
experience, the method of retaining conceptual metaphor is often used.

Example 1
ST：坚持“拆墙”而不是“筑墙” [17].
TT：We need to tear down walls rather than erecting them [18].

Example 2
ST：面对矛盾和摩擦，协商合作才是正道 [17]
TT：The right solution to any problem lies in consultation and cooperation [18]

Example 3
ST：亚洲文明对话大会，为促进亚洲及世界各国文开展平等对话、交流互鉴、相互启迪
提供了一个新的平台 [17]。
TT：The Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations is for this very purpose, as it provides
a new platform for civilizations [18].

In Example 1, President Xi has used the metaphor of "墙" . "拆墙" refers to openness and
cooperation, while "筑墙" is the opposite. It is easy for the audience to understand the use of
"拆" and "筑" as a metaphor for communication and cooperation. In Example 2, "正道" refers to
the correct way of all things, the right path and method, etc. The translator uses "正道" to
convey a similar meaning, which helps the target language audience to understand. In Example
3, the word "平台" refers to a good opportunity and a solid foundation for civilization
cooperation among countries. The English translation of the target ___domain does not differ much
from the origin ___domain, so the translator directly translates it as "platform", which ensures the
successful mapping of the conceptual metaphor in the most direct way. All three examples
above can find corresponding metaphors in the translation, which can make the target language
readers receive the same cultural expressions and convey the same metaphorical meanings.
Therefore, the translation method of directly retaining metaphors can satisfy the audience's
experience.
From the above examples, we can see that the mechanism of architecture metaphor mapping
in Chinese and Western cultures is basically the same. In this case, the retention of the
conceptual metaphor ensures the success of the conceptual metaphor mapping process in the
easiest way, and fundamentally preserves the cultural connotation that the source language
culture is intended to convey, maximizing the sense of cultural experience in the source
language for the target language audience.
4.2. Transforming Conceptual Metaphor
Although there are similarities in people's perception of objective things, there are certain
differences in the language habits of various ethnic groups, and the expressions and metaphors
of the same thing may also be different. When translating such conceptual metaphors,

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translators need to replace the original metaphors appropriately according to the habits of the
translated language, and select the most suitable translation strategies .

Example 4
ST：坚持“拉手”而不是“松手” [17]
TT：We need to stick together rather than drifting apart [18]

Example 5
ST：而不是搞知识封锁，制造甚至扩大科技鸿沟 [17]
TT：Rather than stifling the flow of knowledge, or even widening the technology divide [18]

In Example 4, "拉手" and "松手" have the same function as "拆墙" and "筑墙" in Example 1. They
refer to the fact that in the context of globalization. Countries should work together instead of
falling apart. However, unlike Example 1, which adopts the direct retention method, Example 3
adopts “transforming conceptual metaphor” strategy to translate the body metaphors into the
nature metaphors of "stick together" and "drifting apart". The replaced metaphor is more
natural and vivid, which is in line with the linguistic thinking of the English language, and the
metaphorical meaning is more acceptable to target readers. In Example 5, "封锁" is a war
metaphor, while "鸿沟" is a nature metaphor. Both metaphors in this sentence adopt
transforming conceptual metaphor method, "封锁" is translated as "stifling", which expresses
human behavior and action. Similarly, if the word "鸿沟" is directly translated into "wide gap",
it will make the target language readers difficult to understand the content. So, the translate
selects the word “divide” instead of direct translation.
From the above examples, we can see that there are certain differences in the cognitive patterns
of body metaphors and war metaphors between China and the West. In such situation, the
direct retention of conceptual metaphors is likely to cause misunderstanding among the target
language audience. Therefore, it is necessary to replace metaphors flexibly and use translation
methods acceptable to the target language audience to ensure the successful mapping of
conceptual metaphors.
4.3. Deleting Conceptual Metaphor
Metaphors have relatively unique socio‐cultural characteristics. Sometimes, there are
metaphorical gaps or metaphorical repetitions in different language habits, which may lead to
misunderstandings or comprehension barriers if metaphors are forcibly retained. Therefore, if
the metaphor in source language is repeated while the target language is vacant, the metaphor
in source language metaphor can be deleted based on the understanding the perspective of
target reader.

Example 6
ST：共同把全球市场的蛋糕做大 [17]
TT：We must work tighter to make the global market bigger [18]

Example 7
ST：营商环境是企业生存发展的土壤 [17]
TT：A sound business environment provides the necessary conditions for enterprises to survive
and thrive [18]

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In Example 6, "蛋糕" is a common economic term, which refers to market share, national
economic value, etc. In the source text, "蛋糕" is a synonym of "global market". And it is in line
with the linguistic habit in Chinese. Therefore, the translation is simplified by dropping the
"cake", which not only avoids repetition but also increases the readability of the translation.
Similarly, in Example 7, "土壤" is a synonym of "business environment", so the translator also
discards the translation of "soil”, adopting the method of deleting metaphor to achieve the
purpose of language communication.
4.4. Adding Conceptual Metaphor
Adding conceptual metaphor means that some non‐metaphorical expressions in the source
language are transformed into metaphorical expressions in the target language. For metaphors
that are unique to the target language but missing in the source language, in order to ensure
that the target language audience can successfully read the cultural connotation of the source
language, it is necessary to flexibly apply translation strategies and add appropriate
metaphorical mapping mechanisms to the translation.

Example 8
ST：中国将增强国内消费对经济发展的基础性作用 [17]
TT：China will better leverage the fundamental role of domestic consumption in fueling
economic development [18]

The word "leverage" in the translation of Example 8 is also a common economic term, and it
means to play a role, to exert influence, to make use of, etc. According to the context, the word
"leverage" is used here and modified by "better". However, the source text is highly condensed
and concise, which does not contain the meaning of "make use of".
Due to text limitation, only the metaphorical keywords that appear relatively frequently in
these 2 diplomatic speeches are listed above as examples. Their translations are described and
analyzed in terms of the translation strategies of retaining conceptual metaphor, transforming
conceptual metaphor, deleting conceptual metaphor, and adding conceptual metaphor. The
translator's translation of the source text was found to be a considerate examination of the
source language culture and the target language culture. On the basis of ensuring that the
readers of the target language can correctly understand the content of the source language, the
translator effectively ensures the successful output of the cultural connotations and emotional
attitudes of the source language, and provides excellent translations for the readers of the
target language.

5. Conclusion
The current China is standing on a new starting point. Diplomatic speeches, as the top priority
in political discourse, are the central medium of language exchange among countries. The
diplomatic speeches delivered by General Secretary Xi in public are of great significance to
domestic and international audiences in understanding China's current development
philosophy and related policies. Diplomatic speeches in the new era should not only shock and
convince the audience, but also reflect the spirit of a country’s culture. For the metaphor
translation of diplomatic speeches, it should not only retain the same target connotation when
the metaphors are similar, but also effectively compensate for the differences in the target
extension when there are metaphor deviation. In the translation of diplomatic speeches from
the perspective of conceptual metaphor, the translator should not only focus on the surface
meaning of the words, but also take into account the differences in the way of thinking and

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culture mode between the source language and the target language. Furthermore, they should
also dig deeper into the target ___domain products of the source language in the process of
conceptual metaphor mapping, and choose the optimal translation strategy. In this way, an
excellent translation will be presented to the target language audience, and it will also play an
active role in promoting the culture of diplomatic discourse system.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project
of Hunan Province “A Study on English Translation of Conceptual Metaphors in Xi Jinping: The
Governance of China (Volume III)” (No. CX20210929) and the Project of Social Science
Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 18YBA366).

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