From fever to flu : The rhetoric of reporting Asia in a Swedish business magazine

• In this paper some aspects of the stereotyping of China and Japan are explored by using a sample of articles from a Swedish business magazine. The main objective is to show how stereotypes are adapted to capture new developments in economy and technology. During the years of high hopes for the largest Asian economies, stereotypes proved to be far from timeless and unchanging. Also a large number of metaphors were used to express perceived similarities between East and West, further undermining tradi-tional Western understanding of Asia as inert and eternally different. The recent decline of Japan put an end to this, creating a return to a vocabulary of cultural characterisations and explanations.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Business media

China and Japan

Economic and technological change

Metaphors

Stereotypes

Business magazines

Swedishs

Technological change

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)