中國的「睡」與「醒」：不對等的概念化與應付手段之研究

藉由與概念交流，語言不斷地豐富自己與其他語言的內在意含。雖然這並非現代的新現象，但十九、二十世紀間更為密集迅捷的交流，已大規模同質化了世界現代語言。這個同質化是以現代秩序與等級概念為核心的。因爲這些全球化概念的共同特質隱藏在不同語言的表層之下，對它們的存在大部分的說話者並無認識。概念的抽象性使其無法在適當的時空中直接引領行動，為達此目的，必須求助於隱喻和明喻，這些隱喻和明喻因而成為視覺再現的素材，就如在政治漫畫中所見。本文將針對隱喻的徙動與其跨越語言文化的視覺表達形式進行研究，並聚焦在「中國的沉睡／中國的覺醒」此隱喻之上。此隱喻在十九世紀成為國際通曉的說法之後，至今仍是全球性隱喻典庫的一部分。本文將探討這個隱喻在這極度不對等的跨語言和跨文化交流中的互動，與其相關的文化中介者，並涉及文化交流互動的接觸地帶。

關鍵字

隱喻；不對等；跨文化；漫畫；政治；語言學

並列摘要

Languages continually enrich themselves and other languages with concepts they exchange. While not a modern phenomenon, denser and faster communication during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has resulted in a large-scale homogenization of the newly-emerged national languages around a core of globalized concepts with a modern order and hierarchy. The common features of these concepts are hidden below the linguistic surface of the respective languages, with most speakers being generally unaware of their existence. As concepts are abstract and therefore unable to guide action in time and space directly, recourse is generally taken to metaphor and simile. These in turn lend themselves to visual representations such as political cartoons.This article investigates the migration of such metaphors and their visualized forms across languages and cultures. It will focus on the metaphor of ”China asleep/China awakened”, which became common parlance during the nineteenth century and has remained in the global metaphorical canon to this day. The article addresses the dynamics of this highly asymmetrical translingual and transcultural migration, the cultural brokers involved, as well as the contact zones where the exchanges take place.