Towards a New Chinese Rhetoric

The presentation aims to explore and evaluate the current academic status of the Chinese rhetorical studies and raise awareness of its importance. For many historical and cultural reasons, although a Chinese rhetoric has been touched upon by scholars every now and then, there has never been a discipline devoted to the systematic and theoretical studies of the field. This presentation reviews the existing literature dedicated to, or touched upon the topic of a Chinese rhetoric, comments on what they achieved, and what have been covered in the field to give audience an idea of where the field might go in the future. The presentation breaks down into two sections. The first reviews the origin of Chinese rhetorical study and how it ended up being merely aesthetic. This part also summarizes some major works before the 20th century that helped building the Chinese rhetorical theory to achieve what it is in the Chinese academia. The second section focuses on the studies by recent Chinese scholars who received education in the western culture and understood rhetorical studies in the western way. This section reviews their theories and the recurrent themes in their works that future research can build upon