Introductory Blog – Yufeng Liu ( Kiki )

Hello! My name is Yufeng Liu, also known as Kiki, and I have recently joined the CASS team as a Senior Research Associate on the 4D PICTURE project (https://4dpicture.eu/). This project, funded by the EU Horizon with a budget of nine million euros across sixteen partners, aims to transform health care decision-making in oncology by integrating evidence-based decision-support tools and redesigning patientsโ€™ care paths using the MetroMapping service design methodology.

The Lancaster team (https://4dpicture.eu/teams/lancaster-university/) will be leading a work package to develop a conversation tool for cancer patients, their significant others, their clinicians and citizens based on the analysis of patient experience data and citizen science methods. This tool builds on the teamโ€™s previous work on the Metaphor Menu for People Living with Cancer and the Metaphor in End of Life Care project. My primary role in the project involves analysing metaphors for cancer in English and sharing expertise with colleagues working on other languages (Dutch, Danish and Spanish). I will be working closely with Professor Elena Semino, Professor Paul Rayson (School of Computing and Communications), and Professor Sheila Payne (International Observatory on End-of-Life Care).

Before joining this project, I was doing my PhD at the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. My research focused on (Chinese and English) metaphor translation in COVID-19 news reports in China, USA, and the UK, with a particular emphasis on metaphorical framing and stance evaluation. Although my expertise lies in linguistics and translation, I have a broad interest in interdisciplinary studies that explore language as a form of social interaction. Additionally, I have analysed multimodal metaphors in government-initiated promotional videos.

Beyond my academic pursuits, I enjoy cycling and writing blogs. I have cycled through the Golden Gate area in San Francisco during an academic visit to the Department of Linguistics at the University of California Berkeley. My blogs mostly cover my experiences in different cultures, written mainly in Chinese, as I have travelled extensively to Asian, American, and European countries. Another passion of mine is cooking, as it allows me to savour the flavours of my hometown (Sichuan Province, China) while living abroad.