Culture-specific conceptualisations relating to corruption in China English

•Metaphorical conceptualisations relating to corruption in CE are examined.•The identified conceptualisations are closely associated with cultural schemas.•Cultural Linguistics provides an effective theoretical-analytical framework.•CE has its own distinctiveness in lexical, conceptual and cultural aspects.•A diagram is provided to understand cultural conceptualisations of corruption in CE. This paper examines the metaphorical conceptualisations relating to corruption in China English and explores the role of culture in shaping these conceptualisations, from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. Following a corpus-assisted cultural and discursive approach to the data of China media English between 2013 and 2018, this study finds 15 instantiations of metaphorical conceptualisations, which are subsumed under three higher-level conceptual metaphors: CORRUPTION AS HARMS TO HUMAN LIFE, ANTI-CORRUPTION AS SECURING HUMAN SURVIVAL and THE RULING PARTY AS A BENEVOLENT AND EXEMPLARY PERSON ELIMINATING THESE HARMS. These metaphorical constructions appear to be closely associated with cultural schemas CORRUPTION IS DEVIATION FROM VIRTUE, VIRTUE IS THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN LIFE and RULERS SHALL BE VIRTUE EXEMPLARS AND EXERCISE BENEVOLENT GOVERNANCE, which derive from Confucian teachings and dominant ideologies of modern China. Several cultural image schemas are also encoded in this study's data and have provided context for the metaphorical conceptualisations of corruption. The above cultural constructs mark the uniqueness of China English in lexical, conceptual and cultural aspects. They also serve the ideological purpose of building a positive image for the ruling party. This paper calls for more awareness and exploration of the cultural conceptualisations present in China English.