Discourse as Cultural Struggle

5. Cultural Value Change in Mainland China’s Commercial Discourse

5 Cultural Value Change in Mainland China’s Commercial Discourse Jieyun Wendy Feng and Doreen Wu Introduction Globalization and consumerism in China In his book 3OCIOLOGY OF THE 'LOBAL 3YSTEM , Sklair (1991) argued that the cultureideology of consumerism is the key for the successful transition of Third-World countries to capitalist modernization. And he defined consumerism according to Wells (1972) as the increase in consumption of the material culture of the developed countries. Over the last two decades, China has undergone significant internal changes along with the external globalization movement. After Mao’s death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping adopted an “open door” policy to improve Chinese people’s living standard, and he initiated the change from a planned economy to a market economy and modernization, though the government also attempted to advocate a “socialist market economy” and “modernization without Westernization” (Wang and Chang 1996). In China’s change from a centrally planned economy to market economy, consumerism is one of the very active driving forces, as the disposable income of many Chinese people has increased by a great margin. While eighty percent of the Chinese population in 1978 earned less than ¥1 per day (World Bank 1998), the annual average disposable income for urban residents in 2004 reached ¥9,422, and the annual average net income for rural residents amounted to ¥2,936 (for details, please refer to http://finance.sina.com.cn). In promoting consumerism and stimulating people’s buying behaviors, advertising has a very important role to play. In the early 1980s, the advertisements in mainland China focused on “production materials” aimed at serving the interests of state-owned work units, and few of them targeted individual consumers. This was the period called “high accumulation for the 74 Jieyun Wendy Feng and Doreen Wu nation, low consumption for the individuals” (Huang 1997, 357). However, when it came to the 1990s and early 2000s, the majority of the advertisements appearing in various media aimed at increasing individual consumption, ranging from health-care products to luxurious villas. Socio-cultural communication and the growth of Internet advertising Leiss, Kline, and Jhally (1990, 5) pointed out that “advertising is not just a business expenditure undertaken in the hope of moving some merchandise off the store shelves, but is rather an integral part of modern culture. Its creation appropriate and transforms a vast range of symbols and ideas.” Examining the discursive practice of advertising provides some indication of the current dynamics in a particular society. Regarding the design and construction of advertisements, past researchers have mainly focused on those using the traditional media, i.e., the content dimension of the ads in the newspaper, magazine, radio, and/or TV media, as these traditional media have been the dominant and useful communication outlets for producing commercials and promoting consumerism. But now a new medium — Web/Internet advertising — has emerged and begun to compete with these conventional means of communication. Although Web advertising is not yet the most dominant mass medium in China, it has been growing at an unprecedented rate. The Internet was first introduced to China in 1994, and by the end of 2003, there were 79,500,000 Internet users, 308,900,000 online computers, and more than 595,550 websites in China, according to the thirteenth release report on China’s Internet development from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) on January 15, 2004. Correspondingly, Internet advertising has been developing very fast through these years. The first Web ad in China appeared in the homepage of the sohu website in July 1997, and in 2003, the total income of Internet advertising in mainland China reached ¥300,000,000,000. Apparently, in China’s move towards consumerism, it is of great theoretical significance to undertake empirical research on the discursive practice of Web ads. Therefore, this chapter attempts to examine the discursive practice of Web advertising in China, investigating how consumerism is promoted and how linguistic-cultural dynamics are reflected and constructed through Web advertisements. Three broad research concerns guide the investigation of this chapter: (1) What is the main target group of Chinese Web advertising? (2) What are the main value appeals used in the Chinese Web ads that reflect and construct the values and preferences of its target audience? (3) What are the main characteristics of the language use in Chinese Web ads that reflect and construct the linguistic practice and preferences of its target audience? Cultural Value...