The purpose of this BA-study is to analyse articles about blood selling and blood donations in the Chinese daily newspaper People?s Daily between 1985 and 1998.With publications of popular scientific material, reports from rallies and portraits of blood donating ?heroes? etc., the People?s Daily, i.e. the Chinese Com­mu­nist Party, actively addresses the underlying cultural reluctance to give blood by different means. People?s Daily and the CCP resolutely aims to transform negative Confucian and other traditional notions of losing blood into represen­tations of courage, honour, duty, etc.

Metaphors and their use as a rethorical vehicle are examined. Two texts, one in Chinese and one in Swedish, are compared and analyzed to determine the extent to which the associations they create successfully capture the author's intent. Seecondarily, a shift from the assumptions that rhetorical analyses often assume (read: antiquity and Aristotles) to a more abstract internal human platform is suggested. Neurological and cognitive research is cited in support of this shift.The essay examines the question: How can metaphoric contribute to conveying the communicator's intention? By comparing metaphorics used by an historical Chinese rhetor with those used by a contemporary Swedish rhetor.

This thesis aims to examine the conditions for entrepreneurship in Taiwan by the occurrence of cultural phenomenon guanxi. Based on the concept of familiness and guanxi, the family is central in this study of family business. Traditional descriptions of the Asian culture claim that guanxi is vital in the business context. Though, recent studies indicate that significance of guanxi seems to be changing. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of the importance and relevance of guanxi in the context of Taiwanese family business.By travelling to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to interview six managers of Taiwanese family firms this study?s empirical material was gathered for further processing based on a qualitative approach.

SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] penetrated China in spring of 2003, created havoc in the social society, exposed weaknesses within the political system and pushed the nation towards a crisis of confidence. At the same time the crisis revitalised the Party's position, brought people from different social stratum together and had a beneficial impact on the populace's knowledge on health related issues.What makes the SARS crisis in China interesting for further and deeper investigation is the method it chose to respond to its national crisis. They plan of response was indeed a retrogression back to "older" times, using methods and propaganda very much like those used during Mao Zedong and later Deng Xiaoping. The first step of response was denial and cover up of the real situation, which quickly turned to unprecedented transparency, as the magnitude of SARS became known. The Party and the government were quick to proclaim themselves as the bearer of the key knowledge and information on how to best fight the disease, this in sharp contrast to the political trend of more co-operation between the private and public sector and political transparency.