Inventing Left and Right in China

This book explores the introduction and localization of the political concepts of left and right in Chinese media discourse from the late Qing to the late 1920s, analyzing their shift from spatial metaphors to political symbols that redefined Chinese society, politics, and culture. Globally established as political terms in 1789, left and right began to appear in Chinese media by the late nineteenth century. This study traces their evolution, analyzing their construction and transformation within Chinese discourse. It explores their metaphorical extensions into morality and value judgments, uncovering the power structures in media narratives. The book also demonstrates how left-right discourse intersected with radical, conservative, and liberal ideologies, forming intricate conceptual networks that influenced ideological contestation and the development of political communities. Designed for researchers and graduate students in political communication, media studies, conceptual history, Chinese studies, and comparative politics, this provides valuable insights into the evolution of political discourse, ideological categorization, and the adaptation of global political concepts in non-Western contexts.

Ye Ma is an Associate Researcher at the College of Journalism, Communication and Publishing Sichuan University. Her research interests are in media and social thoughts, the history of Chinese Journalism in the twentieth century, and media discourse.

1. Theoretical Genealogy of the Left-Right Political Distinction 2. Concept Travel: Global Reference and Local Dynamics of the Left-Right 3. The Preliminary Formation of Left and Right: Introduction and Media Discourse Practice in Modern China 4. Intellectuals and Political Thought: The Left-Right Spectrum in the May Fourth Movement 5. Manufacturing Left and Right: Partisan Politics and Factional Differentiation 6. The Evolution of the Left and Right: Metaphorical Transformation and Semantic Change 7. Conclusion: Metaphor, the Press, and Historical Transformation of Chinese Political Discourse