Intercultural Communication Studies XV-3 2006 Song Exploration of Society as Family Metaphor in the Chinese Culture1

Family, as the basic unit of society, plays a unique role in the Chinese culture. In this paper, the author attempts to examine how the family is used as a conceptual framework in shaping the Chinese social pattern and way of life. By dissecting what constitutes the concept of family in terms of its structure and functions, and by elaborating on the mappings between the Chinese conceptualization of family and society as well as the Chinese social behavior within these two types of scenarios, the author wishes to identify the mechanisms through which the Chinese family model is projected onto the Chinese society at different institutional levels. The author concludes that Society as Family is a cardinal conceptual metaphor in the Chinese mind, and it contributes significantly to the Chinese perception of social life and the way they live as social beings. We live by metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and by metaphors we access the inaccessible, perceive the invisible and experience the unexperienced. By metaphors we are able to understand the world, to relate ourselves to the environment and the people around us. To understand the Chinese people and the Chinese culture, it entails the exploration of the cardinal conceptual metaphors underlying the Chinese way of life. And for this purpose, the author of this paper attempts to examine the most fundamental concept of family in the minds of the Chinese and how the idea of family is used as a conceptual framework in shaping the social pattern and way of life in the Chinese culture. The present exploration will begin with clarification of the conceptualization of Chinese family in terms of its structure and functions. Then the paper will examine how the family model is projected onto the Chinese society at different institutional levels. By probin