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An Anatomy of Reform: The Cognitive Role of the Organism Metaphor in China's Higher Education Policy

Author(s)

Jiang Weibin

Affiliation(s)

Minnan University of Science and Technology, Quanzhou, Fujian, China

Abstract

"Structural reform" represents a core policy direction for Chinese higher education during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The frequent occurrence of terms such as "impeded blood flow" and "mechanism blockages" in official discourse constitutes a systematic "organism metaphor". Framed within conceptual metaphor theory from cognitive linguistics and employing critical discourse analysis, this paper examines relevant policy texts. The research finds that by conceptualising the higher education system as a living organism, the organism metaphor successfully reconstructs complex institutional issues into intuitive physiological problems of "health and disease". This cognitive framework not only endows "structural reform" with an unquestionable natural legitimacy and a sense of urgency for action, effectively simplifying public understanding and driving consensus formation for reform, but it also obscures deeper social complexities within the system, such as power struggles, cultural conflicts, and value choices. This paper reveals the powerful cognitive-constructive and driving effects of metaphor in policy discourse, provides a novel analytical perspective for understanding higher education reform in China, and offers critical reflection on the cognitive limitations that may arise from over-reliance on a single metaphorical framework.

Keywords

Organism Metaphor; Policy Reform; Cognitive Linguistics; Conceptual Metaphor Theory

References

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