Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. (2008) Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning, in E. Berendt (ed.) Metaphors of Learning, cross-cultural perspectives, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp.177-202 1 Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning Lixian Jin & Martin Cortazzi De Montfort University, The University of Warwick, UK Abstract This chapter examines a range of Chinese images and metaphors in the context of Chinese cultures of learning. It presents classroom and independent learning as embodied metaphors, and focuses particularly on images of ‘good’ teachers, study and learning, and relates these to classroom interaction through the example of students asking questions. The chapter draws on data from questionnaires and interviews, collections of Chinese traditional sayings, and classroom observations and photographs. Aspects of Chinese images of learning are briefly contrasted with British, American, Lebanese and Malay images and participants’ comments and, within Chinese cultures, we take brief examples from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. There is some exploration of interactional consequences of different metaphors of learning across cultures. Introduction The use of metaphors, images and analogies has a long history in Chinese learning: the Li Ji, one of the five ancient classic texts said to have been taught by Confucius, maintains that The scholars of ancient times learned the truth about things from analogies (Lin 1938: 50). Still today, the importance of Chinese cultures for the study of learning internationally can hardly be doubted, given several millennia of a notable civilization with a continuous tradition of literacy and scholarship, the current rapid economic development of China and her status and influence in world affairs, the fact that China has the world’s largest education system and that this is one which has made notable progress in recent years, and that, in many countries, there are increasing numbers of international students from China and significant communities of learners from Chinese heritages who are often highly successful. Chinese attitudes, beliefs and practices of learning should therefore be of some interest to anyone involved in education and the images and metaphors of learning used by Chinese speakers are potentially valuable sources of insight for the study of metaphors of learning. This chapter explores images and metaphors in Chinese cultures of learning, taking the notion of ‘a culture of learning’ as the distinctly cultural processes through which teachers and learners conduct classroom-related work. The chapter focuses on an analysis of data relating to conceptions of the roles of teachers and learners, mainly from ‘mainland’ China with some comparison with the UK, USA, Lebanon and Malaysia. We locate the analysis of linguistic data within actual classroom practices through commentary based on extensive observation of Chinese classrooms and interviews with teachers and learners in a dozen major Chinese cities over fifteen years. To develop this connection between images of learning and actual classroom interaction we also examine data related to asking questions, since the practices and beliefs about questioning in classrooms seem crucial to ways in which talk is used interactively to construct learning between teachers and learners. This approach therefore differs from the purely linguistic