As China moves increasingly closer to the center of the world stage, "telling China's stories well and spreading China's voice effectively" has become an important mission entrusted to foreign language education in the new era. Foreign language textbooks, serving as vehicles for talent cultivation, utilize deliberate metaphors to provide cognitive pathways for telling China's stories well, fulfilling significant communicative functions. This study selects Unit 9 "Whither Civilization" from the textbook Understanding Contemporary China: A Reading and Writing Course, as its research subject. Based on Deliberate Metaphor Theory (DMT), it analyzes the types of deliberate metaphors, their discursive construction mechanisms, and communicative functions. The study identifies seven types of deliberate metaphors in this unit, such as food and cultural metaphors, which play important roles in conveying diplomatic concepts, mobilizing emotions, and fostering moral education. This research not only verifies the applicability of DMT in textbook analysis but also provides theoretical support and practical reference for the study of foreign language textbooks with Chinese characteristics.