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The advertisements presented here hope to spark a discussion concerning consumer values and consumer identity in China. Note, however, that these are advertisements, and they are therefore by necessity projections of perceived consumer values and identities from the perspective of the producer. That said however, advertisements are so prolific and so intrinsic in modern societies especially in ones bursting with development such as China that it is almost impossible not to see them as a reflection of the culture itself, especially when considering the specific audiences targeted by specific ad campaigns. That is it is easier to draw a profile of the consumer once broken down into categories such as those proposed by Jing Wang in her book Brand New China, she divides Chinese consumers into 4 sections rather than the typical three, ‘gold-collar’, ‘white-collar’ and ‘blue-collar.’ These groups can further be segmented into generations (generation X, Chinese Baby Boomers, Cultural Revolution Generation) and finally, as a more nuanced if not entirely different categorization than that of the generations the Chinese consumer can further be segmented in terms of their hedonic or utilitarian consumer values. Now, having mapped out the specific demographics the advertisements are aimed at it is possible to analyze the ads as reflections of the consumers themselves. When doing so, it is interesting to note the ever increasing effort to ‘localize’ ad campaigns in an effort to make the advertisement more relatable to the targeted audience. As part of and in addition to this effort, I argue that one can see reflected in the ads the interaction between images of ‘new’ and ‘old,’ i.e. new (perhaps westernized) values vs. old (traditional) values and the way this creates a sort of cultural intertextualization, that is the hybridizing construction of global and local meanings. This term comes from an essay written by Stephen Gould and Nancy Wong entitled, The Intertextual Construction of Ererging Consumer Culture in China as Observed in the Movie Ermo: A Postmodern, Sinicization Reading, it indicates the way in which culture is not merely constructing the world for consumers, but it, itself, is also being reconstructed by the process of intertextuality. Rapid development such as that taking place in China requires the construction of new sociocultural and self narratives in order to describe the changing everyday life. These new narratives are the expressed in consumer attitudes. Now, postmodern theorists suggest that consumers transform themselves in a self-liberating manner, suggesting a displacement of fixed identities in favor of more fluid, role-based ones. At the same time though, Chinese traditional narratives persist and again we see the tension between new and old and consequently the tension between traditional Chinese versus newer Western-type values. (Gould and Wong p.158). Gould and Wong demonstrated the tendencies of this conflict through their discussion of the movie Ermo, I suggest that it, in combination with market theories, can be used in the analysis of advertisements as a means for discussing the developing Chinese consumer.

So, let’s try it out. First, here is a New Years Coke commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy4PqT1Pm6M&NR=1

Here, another coke commercial but with a different target demographic and a different message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80YJMNRRnXs

Here, a Chinese liquor company:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05SQNW24nv4

This ad Yahoo search ad is particularly interesting in its rural imagery and Lassy like appeal, but I wonder how successful it was, it seems in some ways to be targeting a mixed demographic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T14JJG4xntE

A Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertisement, the factor of authenticity is raised:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0akZIFIhQ&NR=1

This Nike ad, un-like the others was unsuccessful in its efforts to localize, so much so, that it was banned from China for being seen as disrespectful to traditional Chinese deities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPJPe6Kti7g

I have uploaded a section from Jing Wang’s recent book Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture. She is a professor of Chinese Language and Culture at MIT, Chair of the International Advisory Board of Creative Commons China Mainland and author of High Culture Fever. If you have the opportunity, read this excerpt it offers a good base for my presentation and our subsequent discussion of Consumerism in late 20th Century China.

Brand New China p. 1

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As a follow up for what many of us have been watching on the Tibet front, I ran into this video on You Tube that is at once ridiculous and fascinating as a view from the “other side” of the discussion. It makes one wonder about the power of nationalism and the force of denial/skewed education. Here’s the link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34c…

let me know what you think.

Is anyone else getting a massive amount of spam comments? If so, is there anything we can do about? My mailbox is being bombarded with ‘moderate comment’ emails and they all end up being junk… bahh

I found a sample of Chinese advertisements that I think are very interesting in terms of a music analysis. Both of the articles discussed the ways in which rock music can be seen as a political tool. What struck me however is the way in which music has also been reco-opted to be used as a marketing tool. Hout’s article discusses the way in which cultural revolutionary songs have been co-opted and altered in Chinese rock often in a subversive way. Therefore, I was interested in the way this first Chinese ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz65YFeZsVs) for a Chinese brand computer uses both imagery and a revolutionary tune to promote the product. Arguably the marketing idea was to promote a sort of nationalism that would encourage Chinese to buy a product of their own country rather than an outsider brand. Ironically, communism is diametrically opposed to the capitalism that this sort of advertisement provokes. Furthermore, Mao was very anti-technology so the fact that his rhetoric is being used in this context to sell new computers and advance the consumer capitalism in China is notable. It perhaps suggests that the nationalistic sentiments out way the communist ideal. Also, it is perhaps a nod to the global obsession with technology and China’s unwillingness to be left behind. Furthermore, it can even be seen as a national identification with consumerism. Regardless, the use of the revolutionary music in a commercial setting is at the very least evidence of the way in which such music has been borrowed by more than just Cui Jian and can be used to transmit a variety of meanings.

In a similar vein, although with different origins, I found the following advertisement for a Chinese alcohol very interesting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05SQNW24nv4). It echo’s Confucianism and the philosophy of old as a means to promote a substance that from a western point of view is seen as harmful. It is for this reason I think the marketing is especially clever. By evoking themes of tradition and culture it the ad purposely steers clear of negative connotations. Furthermore the scenery of the ad is that of the most beautiful natural spaces in China. It therefore suggests that drinking this liquor is not only part of one’s cultural history, but it is also natural and pure like the river floating through the scenery.

In both of these advertisements marketers have affectively co-opted images and music from a time before and reworked them in such a way as to promote a product. It is fascinating to see the way music is used constantly throughout life (on both sides of the globe) to draw parallels and create associations/connotations that are either written specifically for the purpose or borrowed and reused to provide the same effect. It makes me think of the American Ford commercial that uses the country song “Proud to be an American” as its backdrop.

Her are a few of the ideas I’ve been throwing around while researching my project. I thought I would post in case anyone had any other thoughts/comments/suggestions/etc…

Is consumerism the inevitable consequence of the acquisition of new wealth and the seemingly inherent human desire to display status? Is it feasible to base an argument on the assumption of such “inherent” human values? Is there anyway of proving it, and would it be necessary to prove it for the purposes of this project? In thinking and reading about the emergence of consumerism in China in conjunction with my theoretical readings of consumerism in general I began to wonder whether consumerism in China wasn’t just another example of a world wide phenomenon. South America has exhibited similar trends towards a consumerist culture during development stages and from my experiences it seems to be almost entirely associated with an intense albeit often unconscious necessity to display status. It seems not too far out of the realm to slightly refocus this project to look at how and to what extent Chinese consumerism is focused around the issues of status, and furthermore how this desire for status and the urge to consume reflects personal identity as a whole.

Continuing this thought, and my efforts to find the why of Chinese consumerism, I keep coming back to a question posed by Cochran. He asks, “Have Western-based transnational corporations been homogenizing the world’s cultures, or have individual consumers in local cultures been diversifying the world’s culture?” (p. 2) I haven’t fully parsed out all the implications of this question, but I like the shift in focus away from the ‘pushing’ of the corporations and instead to the ‘pulling’ of the individual (or mass) consumer. Complicating that idea, and perhaps, although not necessarily, refuting my thought of a universal human urge toward consumerism Ciarlante and Hellmut argue that “culture ensures that consumers are not that same. They are fundamentally different in their tastes and preferences, perceptions, ordering of needs and motivations to consume.” They state a divergence in the Western and Asian consumer so large that it is necessary to create a wholly new consumer behavior theory (p.195). However, while these differences are interesting and help to answer many of my questions about the specifics of the Chinese consumer, I do not think that they necessarily negate the idea that the overall why of consumption is the same world over. Or does it?

On another theoretical note but following the same general theme, how do the products consumed and the desire to consume them affect/shape personal identity? Bourdieu argues in his introduction that, “art and cultural consumption are predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfill a social function of legitimating social differences” (p.7). Could we extend that to product consumption and say that the desire to consume culturally esteemed products is an effort to legitimize a status claim? The concept of identity is complicated however, by the particularities of a case study. Such generalizations may or may not necessarily apply to the Chinese sense of identity. Do the specific cultural dynamics of 20^th century (or maybe even pre-communist era) China play into this model of consumption as defining social class? Perhaps, as Barmé interestingly noted, “under the party’s aegis, comrades have become consumers without necessarily also developing into citizens” (xiv). Could it be argued therefore that communism itself bred a sort of state-dependent, conformist social system that lends itself perfectly to a consumerist culture?

Even with all the blood violence and gore I really enjoyed this book. One of the things that struck me as interesting was the frank descriptions of the narrator. It reminded me very much of the conversation style of many of my friends in China. Not that we were ever discussing subjects as graphically as this book did, but still I have found in my experience that Chinese people have a certain manner of talking that doesn’t beat around the bush. Perhaps this is one reason I found it such an enjoyable read, even in my horror at some of the events I was impressed by the style.

Furthermore, I would like to take this theme of violence a little deeper. I was struck while reading at the characters fascination with violence and at the nostalgic (although perhaps this is the wrong word) way in which it is represented. I say nostalgic only in that I see a sort of romantization of the heroism of violence. This is what I would like to explore, and I think this paper assignment might be a good forum.

The Chinese have such a long history of violence that I see the themes of identity, nationalism, community the family and individualism all wrapped up in it. Especially in terms of the periods of history we have been studying of late. The Japanese war and the Cultural Revolution are both extremely violent periods and periods in which Chinese identity was very much in question. Furthering this a little, I think one can even see how Mao used heroic nationalist and violence during the cultural revolution to advance his cause and work towards a communist nation under his control.

Now, granted this topic could be expanded to book length, but also I think it can be focused into a fairly workable short essay. By using the novel Red Sorghum, the movie In the Heat of the Sun and the posters of the Cultural Revolution from Picturing Power I think I can draw out an idea of how violence has helped shape the Identity through the Japanese war and the Cultural Revolution.

I found this poster particularly interesting. It represents the relocation period of the Cultural Revolution from 1968 onward. During this period students were sent to the villages to live and learn from the rural working class. Imaginably, this poster would be an exciting encouragement for young urban students. It says, yàn zhe máo zhŭ xí de wú chăn jiē jí wén yì lù xiàn shèng lì qián jìn which means approximately, go forward and live in the seat of the proletariat class struggle and help advance the triumph of their culture. Being of the most impressionable age, students were perfect targets for a populist movement. The idea of the adventure and excitement of taking off on ones own at such a young and rebellious age would be understandably seductive. The smiling faces of visible young persons in this poster would be identifiable to otherwise bored urban teenagers.

Furthermore, I chose this image because of the prominence of the young woman in the foreground. Mao and his communist ideas substantially changed the role of women in Chinese society. Instead of being the (arguably) suppressed housekeepers of a Confucius society, they began to be increasingly treated equally. This did not mean they were treated better necessarily, the majority of Chinese people all suffered greatly during the Culture Revolution, especially in rural areas were hunger and poverty ran rampant and women’s responsibilities were not merely changed but duplicated. Nonetheless, images such as these posters would likely be very attractive and inspiring to young girls who were just realizing new found freedoms, especially considering the lack of adult persons or chaperones in the representations. This lack of a mature leadership among the students and the Red Guard for instance, is perhaps one of the most notable reasons for the intense violence of the Cultural Revolution. Teenagers are such a volatile group and when combined they can be so easily sparked and swayed. Peer pressure is enough of a driving force under normal circumstances and thus naturally has an even larger influence on a group under stress. I wonder whether Mao was fully aware of how powerful a weapon this group could be when he gave them free reign over the countryside.

Lastly, this poster portrays the Chinese landscape as a beautifully fertile well maintained area. The one depiction of farmland in the image is laid in with perfectly straight lines in an idealized version of rural life representing what urban dwellers must have imagined farm life to be like. This is just one example, but it exemplifies the way most posters of this time aimed to idealize Chinese life and the effects of the revolution inspiring people and students in particular to throw themselves blindly behind an ideal rather than think through the actual process of change and its side effects.

 http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/

I grew up on a farm in rural southwest Virginia without TV or electric heat. My parents believed in letting a child be bored until he/she came up with imaginary toys, playmates and games. My brother and sister are both older and have always been my best friends and my fiercest competition. I went to an alternative private elementary school run largely by my mother. There I learned not excellent math or science skills, but a desire for knowledge and a love of reading. I also discovered the joys of travel and languages. My Spanish teacher became my surrogate mother and took me on the first two of her soon to be annual exchange trips to Bolivia.

After the 8^th grade I went to public high school. I hated it. I spent a summer in Paris learning French as a distraction. I finished my requirements a year early and took my senior year abroad. I spent three months in India, Mexico and Italy. India taught me to understand that there was so much more to the world than the privileged western culture I was born into. I was robbed, crushed and elated over and over again. Mexico reminded me how much I love Latinos even for all their Machismo. Finally, Italy brought me back into the realm of high culture. I developed an intense devotion to intellection debate over good coffee and cigarettes.

I came to Mary Washington because I couldn’t afford to go out of state (UC Berkeley was my first choice) and because I didn’t like any of the other Virginian schools. Most likely it was a rebellion against my brother and sister who had gone to UVA and Tech respectively. Mary Washington has been alternately very frustrating and very useful to me as a student. I created my own major in Chinese studies which was uphill battle from the beginning. But finally, I was allowed to spend all of last year abroad. I spent the first semester at a university in Beijing and the second at a university in Madrid. UMW finally agreed to accept my transfer credits and if all goes well this semester I will graduate with a double major in Spanish and Chinese studies. I don’t know what I will do next. I am working with some connections to see about getting a job translating for the Beijing Olympics this summer. Or I may move to San Francisco or New York and take it from there.

I write this as an introduction and perhaps as an apology, I am taking this course as a way for me to synthesis and work through my experiences and studies of and in China. This is a daunting task. My emotions both of an intellectual and personal variety are complicated and confused. Most days I feel a bit lost. I may, therefore, at times be somewhat aloof and self-absorbed. If this is the case I offer my apologies and hope for your understanding.