The discursive construction of identity in chinese english bilingual advertising a critical inquiry 6

The verbal and visual information evokes at least four mental spaces: A JIMNY space, a SUZUKI LIFE space, a blended space of Yue-Ye-Yue-High, and a FOOTBALL MATCH space.. The Yue-Ye-Yue-

This, as designed in Chapter 5, is to be examined by looking at the headlines and slogans in the form of English-only or bilingual parallel within the technological and real estate advertisements Reflected on the particular choice of English words, modern identities of Chinese people are principally articulated in six aspects in the form of orientation -(1) emotion, (2) success, (3) internationalization, (4) innovation, and (5) future As analysis shows below, while these aspects of modern identity perhaps seem as universally available as in other places, in the Chinese context there is some locally situated definition or meaning for some of them In the following discussion, both sides of each aspect will be considered if applicable

In most cases, English is used to activate and present in an explicit way these aspects of modern identity embedded in the meaning of headlines and/or slogans This way of constructing modern identities, compared with its Chinese equivalent in terms of semantic meaning, is much more pertinent and persuasively powerful, given the symbolic

value of English in relation to modernity Sometimes English is also employed to make up semantic nuance or cultural meaning that its Chinese counterpart lacks Yet, the role of English in constructing modern identities is not separably single but often complicated

In the analysis that follows I first examine how English is essentially relied upon for presenting the orientation of emotion and whether Chinese people are experiencing the same tokens of modernity in particular relation to “emotional capitalism” (Illouz 2007)

6.1 Emotion Orientation

It is normally assumed that modernity has created an a-emotional world dominated by rationality (Giddens 1992: 201) But according to Illouz, the culture of capitalism has already fostered an intensely emotional culture, and emotions are “principle characters in the story of capitalism and modernity” (2007: 4) Illouz further demonstrates practically how emotions contribute to individual and group identity formation, and the expression and presentation of the self The significance of emotion to identity construction is in its

“capacity to create new identities” and “mak[ing] the difficult and unnatural appear easy and natural” (Berezin 2001: 84)

Like in countries of late modernity, emotional culture has significantly become one of principle characters in the story of China’s modernity The data, especially among the technological advertisements, privilege the orientation of Chinese people toward emotional world as one of the most visible dimensions of modern identity In most cases, these advertisements suggest direct ways to find a diversity of emotion including amusement, excitement, happiness, passion, pleasure, joy, romance, and surprise The evocation of these aspects of emotion is quantitatively perceptible particularly among the advertisements for auto and watch often conceptualizing the promoted products as the cause or signal of emotions The following headlines and slogans in the form of English-only or bilingual parallel taken at random from them are illustrative of how the choice of

particular English words related closely to these aspects of emotion evokes and presents them explicitly:

Amusement (Delux)1

Big Pleasure (Mitsubishi Motors)

Delighting you always, 感动常在佳能gandong chang zai Jianeng

(lit always being moved at Canon) (Canon)

Driven to Excite (Mitsubishi Motors)

Excitement Guaranteed (Mini Cooper)

Happiness from Accent (Hyundai)

Happy New Year, 纵容自己的时刻到了! zongrong ziji de shike dao le!

(lit It is time to indulge yourself!) (Chevrolet)

I love my view (View Sonic)

激情共享jiqing gongxiang (lit passion shared), Sharing the passion (Panasonic)

激情 · 为奥运而动 jiqing wei ao’yun er dong (lit passion for the Olympics)

Passion for movement (Audi)

Romance in heart,浪漫在心langman zai xin (lit Romance in heart) (Ernest Borel)

Romantic Moment,买表送礼表心意maibiao songli biao xinyi

(lit buy watch to express love) (Ernest Borel)

Sheer Driving Pleasure (BMW)

The Power to Surprise (Kia)

In these headlines and slogans, the use of English (sometimes alongside its Chinese translation) works as “contextualization cues” (Gumperz 1982) that direct the target audiences to reinterpret referential contents it expresses Being the marker of modernity, English is apparently much more highly pertinent than its Chinese counterpart to semantically presenting and activating the list of emotions embedded in these headlines and slogans In other words, the function of English is dual in such cases It not only conveys or generates referential contents, but simultaneously comes to work for the

“decorative” purpose (McArthur 1998)

In constructing this dimension of modern identity, sometimes English is also used for generating semantic nuances that cannot be fulfilled by its Chinese counterpart One

good example is the advertisement for Suzuki Jimny, a mini Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)

by the Suzuki Auto Corporation of Japan.The persuasive power of this advertisement is in its describing the theme of the Suzuki life as exciting and passionate, and the possession of

the Jimny as a means of having this modern life Interpreting what a modern image of emotional orientation this advertisement intends to present and how the use of English within it functions requires a conceptual integration network with several mental spaces Identical elements in each mental space are finally brought into, and partially fused with each other in the blended space

the finding would not have been possible if “pure” CDA, without the aid of frames and blending, had been used

Look now closely at the Suzuki Jimny advertisement illustrated in Figure 6.1

Besides the brand name “JIMNY”, the occurrences of English in this copy are exclusively

in the structural domains of slogan and headline They are the English slogan “Way of life!” below the company name and the emblem in the top right-hand corner, and “High” highlighted inside the headline in the form of intrasentential mixing “越野越High!” yue ye yue High (lit the wilder, the more exciting!) above the sample product The sample product is parking at the football field located oddly at the middle halfway of steep mountains The verbal and visual information evokes at least four mental spaces: A JIMNY space, a SUZUKI LIFE space, a blended space of Yue-Ye-Yue-High, and a FOOTBALL MATCH space These four mental spaces are selected as the input spaces to the conceptual integration network

Allow me to start with the headline where the word High is inserted into the latter

position of the fixed Chinese structure “越…越…” yue…yue… The salience of High is

plain given its italic style and its first letter being capitalized The Chinese structure

yue…yue… is the same as its English counterpart “the more…, the more…” in that both

describe some change or development through comparison In contrast to the simple assumption by the previous studies (i.e., Piller 2001; Lee 2006; Gao 2005) that English is mixed for symbolic function and always plays an important role in identity construction, I following Hougaard (2005) disintegrate the headline into four parts in terms of its

structure (Table 6.1) so as to have a clearer account of the essential role High may have in

the construction of the headline’s meaning What is now apparent is that “野” ye (lit

violent, wild, or robust) becomes the source domain and High, the target domain

The choices of the Chinese word ye as the source domain and the English term

High as the target domain for comparison, notably, are fundamentally strategic for

meaning construction The main reason is that there exist semantic nuances between them and their usual translation equivalents respectively of English and Chinese To be precise,

when reading ye, the viewers may conjure up many conceptual elements, such as

“wildness”, “rudeness”, “violence”, “vigour”, and so on However, its possible English equivalents, either “rude”, “violent”, or “wild”, individually cannot be exhaustive in generating all of these conceptual elements; rather, they have to work jointly in order to

have the same effect as ye intends Similarly, in contrast to its Chinese counterpart “高”

gao (lit high) that refers exclusively to the degree of height when used and interpreted discretely, High in its own right is sufficient to evoke a number of conceptual elements

implicitly related to emotions such as “enthusiasm”, “excitement”, “passion”, and “joy”

As analysis develops later, these conceptual elements activated by the use of High as an instance of “textualization cue” (Chan 2004) but not by gao play an essential role in the formation of emotion orientation

Table 6.1 Segmentation of the headline in the Suzuki Jimny ad

Exciting; happy; passionate,

In the local integration network of the headline, the YE space and the HIGH space

can be combined to create a blend in which being ye causes High It is through this way that the Cause-Effect relation between Frag 2 ye and Frag 4 High is established By virtue

of this vital relation, the conceptual elements “wild”, “violent”, “rude”, and “vigorous” contained in the YE space as the source space become the factors that cause the generation

of the emotions in the HIGH space as the target space In the blended space of Yue-High, cause and effect have been emerged and present each other directly To recognize one is to recognize the other The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend now becomes an

Yue-Ye-input space in the conceptual integration network, other Yue-Ye-input spaces of which are the JIMNY space and the FOOTBALL MATCH space.

The JIMNY space has a schematic SUV conventionally associated with powerfulness and wildness The parking place of the sample product oddly at the middle halfway of mountains is a piece of crucial information visually adding to and strengthening this property of the Jimny But the text body tells us more of this SUV First

of all, the Jimny has high quality based on the phrase “整车原装进口” zhengche yuanzhuang

jinkuo (lit an imported car installed in production place) and the stereotyped perception

among Chinese people of imported products usually being superior in quality Furthermore, the Jimny is metaphorized simultaneously as a spirit2 and a warrior, in light of the two Chinese phrases “都市精灵” doushi jingling (lit cosmopolitan spirit, fairy or elf) and “越野

勇 士” yueye yongshi (lit SUV warrior) just below the brand name and its Chinese

transliteration “吉姆尼” Jimuni Following this, in addition to being powerful and wild, the

properties of the Jimny as a SUV include warrior-like, spirit-like, and high quality

The FOOTBALL MATCH space evoked by the picture of football field, then, has

a schematic image of a team sport played between two teams of eleven players, who are full of energy fighting against their opponents With its stereotypical connection to vigour, wildness, and masculine violence, football match additionally carries over excitement and passion to audiences On this realization, at least the following conceptual elements are contained in this space: fighter-like players, violence, vigour, excitement, passion, and wildness

2

As in the previous discussion of the possible English translation equivalents for the Chinese word “野” ye, the possible counterparts in English for “精灵” jingling might be

“spirit”, “fairy”, or “elf” Despite not being ideal, the term “spirit” is often used

interchangeably with “fairy” and “elf” for translating jingling in China This somewhat

crude simplification is intended not to suggest that there is no difference between the

English terms and jingling in conveying cultural meaning The same is applicable to other

Diagrammed in Figure 6.2, a cross-space connection may first take place between

the Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend and the FOOTBALL MATCH space, because of the shared

conceptual elements of wildness, vigour and violence in both spaces The inner-space

relation of Cause-Effect in the Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend projects to the first local blended

space and will be “exploited to induce a compression for the focus input” (Fauconnier &

Turner 2002: 129) Given this inner-space relation, in the local blend I football players

inferably have the intended effects of causing Chinese audiences to be excited and

passionate

The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend The Football Match space The Jimny space

The blended space I The blended space II

Figure 6.2 A simplified network diagram of the Suzuki Jimny local blends

In the same way, an Identity mapping occurs across the FOOTBALL MATCH

space and the JIMNY space due to the shared information of wildness and powerfulness

(vigour) The fighter-like football players and the warrior-like Jimny are cross-space

counterparts that are fused in the second local blended space, entailing the description of

Players/Warrior Vigorous/Powerful Wild/Wild

Exciting Passionate

Warrior Spirit Powerful Wild Modern High quality

the Jimny with reference to football players Not leastbecause football players may make viewers excited and passionate during football match, the Jimny has the intended effects of evoking corresponding emotions of passion and excitement among the target audiences This emergent inference information is useful to yield a Cause-Effect relation in this local blended space, which can further be compressed into a Property relation within it Hence,

in the local blend II the Jimny is added to the properties of being passionate and exciting which, it must be pointed out, are chiefly derived from its inherent ones of being powerful and wild

The blended space II The Suzuki Life space

The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend The blended space III

Figure 6.3 A simplified network diagram of the Suzuki Jimny blend

In Figure 6.2, solid lines represent the cross-space correspondences that constitute the mapping across the input spaces, dotted lines represent projections between spaces, the

Jimny/Suzuki Wild

Powerful Life Exciting

Passionate

Warrior/Jimny Wild Powerful

Exciting Passionate

Suzuki Life

Ye

High

blend I represents the fact that football players in the local blend I is associated with the

YE source space, and the dashed lines between the emotions of excitement and passion in the local blend II and those in the local blend I represent the fact that the emotions developed from the local blend II is closely related to, or resulted from, the inner-space relation of Cause-Effect yielded inside the local blend I These lines are also applied to the conceptual integration network of other examples

The local blend II now becomes an input space to the final blend, another input of which is the SUZUKI LIFE space triggered through the recontextualization of the English slogan The specific information about the property of Suzuki life, however, cannot be determined if based merely on the slogan itself It has to be inferred and elaborated in the final blend fused with information projected from the local blend II Illustrated in Figure 6.3, a Part-Whole mapping takes place between the local blend II and the SUZUKI LIFE space, considering the metonymy that the Jimny stands for the Suzuki Auto Corporation Elements within the local blend II are selectively projected to the blended space III, the final blend Developed from the blend, being exciting and passionate become the main property of the Suzuki life At the same time, because of the shared information of being wild and powerful by the local blend II and the local Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend, it allows us

to describe ye in terms of the Jimny, or vice versa Differently stated, the Jimny in the

local blend II can be linked to the YE space It becomes inferable for the Jimny to be a

specific example of ye and the Jimny stands for this kind of life In other words, the Suzuki

Jimny advertisement sets an exciting and passionate life as its orientation, and the

possession of a Jimny provides the access to such life

At this moment, I want to foreground the essential role the use of English word

High plays throughout this constructive process As we have seen, the elements

“passionate” and “exciting” projected into the blend from the local blend II are part of the HIGH space Alternatively put, the blend inherits partial structure of the HIGH space The

theme of the Suzuki life emerged from the blend represents a facet of the HIGH space that

is the present focus of attention It is from this point that the conceptualization of the Suzuki life is largely resulted from the selective projection of information contained within the HIGH space To put it more pointedly, the HIGH space is the framing space in the conceptual integration network This captures the fact that the HIGH space is considered

to be more essential than others in terms of its consequence for the production of emotion orientation representative of the Suzuki life Since the HIGH space is connected directly to

the use of High, the orientation toward excitement and passion constructed in this copy is

closely tied up with the mixing of this particular English word It now may conclude with

confidence the significance of High and its strategic position inside the headline From this

evidence, the proposed analytical methods of frame and blending are extremely helpful in

explaining why High is chosen and so positioned for constructing this aspect of modern

identity Without the internalization of frame and blending within CDA, ideologies

embedded in and through the use of High would not have been so easily and thoroughly

revealed

In the Hyundai Veracruz advertisement reproduced in Figure 6.4, Chinese people,

then, are oriented toward enjoyment of drive rediscovered with the aid of GPS (Global Positioning System) technology This is mainly accomplished through the intertextuality

of “Drive your way” as its slogan and the insertion of “GPS” into the text body Drive

your way in its vertical form is situated at the upper right-hand side Being in its

declarative mood, the slogan plainly suggests as the fact driving as “you” please, implying enjoyment and pleasure it causes In contrast to its possible Chinese equivalent “随心所欲驾

驶” sui xin suo yu jiashi (lit Drive as one pleases), the English slogan, more importantly,

projects the viewers as the driver into the space through the possessive form of the person pronoun So we have a specific DRIVING space with “you” as the driver and enjoyment and pleasure as emotional rewards

Figure 6.4 The ad for Hyundai Veracruz

In the Hyundai Veracruz advertisement reproduced in Figure 6.4, Chinese people,

then, are oriented toward enjoyment of drive rediscovered with the aid of GPS (Global Positioning System) technology This is mainly accomplished through the intertextuality

of “Drive your way” as its slogan and the insertion of “GPS” into the text body Drive

your way in its vertical form is situated at the upper right-hand side Being in its

declarative mood, the slogan plainly suggests as the fact driving as “you” please, implying enjoyment and pleasure it causes In contrast to its possible Chinese equivalent “随心所欲驾

驶” sui xin suo yu jiashi (lit Drive as one pleases), the English slogan, more importantly,

projects the viewers as the driver into the space through the possessive form of the person pronoun So we have a specific DRIVING space with “you” as the driver and enjoyment and pleasure as emotional rewards

The headline in Chinese “维拉克斯豪华导航版全新上市” Weilakesi haohua daohang

ban quanxin shangshi (lit The brand-new luxury navigation-installed Veracruz being on

market) announces the launch of a brand-new Veracruz that is defined luxury in the light

of its new equipment of a navigation unit On the ground of it, a VERACRUZ space has a navigation unit as its core property

The installed navigation unit is specified as GPS within the text body through the line mixed with the term “GPS” in bold letters -“维拉克斯搭载全新专用 GPS 导航系统”

Weilakesi dazai quanxin zhuanyong GPS daohang xitong (lit The Veracruz is equipped

with a brand-new special GPS navigation system) Being printed in large size, GPS is most

eye-catching within the text body mixed also with other English terms “CD”, “VCD”,

“DVD”, “MP3”, and “MTV” Instead of using its Chinese counterpart familiar to Chinese

drivers, the use of GPS in English marks significantly the high-tech property of the

Veracruz The term in itself, moreover, elicits a mental scenario of GPS that functions to activate the stereotypical knowledge of GPS in its locating position precisely and directing right way The GPS frame now becomes another input space to the blend The generic elements in the GPS frame, as the following discussion develops, have a direct impact on the production in the blend of enjoyment and pleasure of drive

These three mental spaces -the GPS space, the DRIVING space, and VERACRUZ space -are selected as the inputs to the blend As diagrammed by Figure 6.5,

a cross-space mapping first takes place between the VERACRUZ space and the DRIVING space given the common sense of the Veracruz for drive In the blend we yield a new structure that “you”, the driver, enjoy driving with the new Veracruz, leading to the inference that the promoted vehicle is the cause of enjoyment and pleasure Projected back

to the information of the VERACRUZ space regarding its equipment of a GPS navigator, the association of this cause is built with GPS In the blend, modern technology of GPS develops, and is demonstrated, as a specific means by which enjoyment and pleasure are engendered throughout driving To put it more explicitly, GPS plays an inescapable role in the rediscovery of enjoyment and pleasure of drive

These three mental spaces -the GPS space, the DRIVING space, and VERACRUZ space -are selected as the inputs to the blend As diagrammed by Figure 6.5,

a cross-space mapping first takes place between the VERACRUZ space and the DRIVING space given the common sense of the Veracruz for drive In the blend we yield a new structure that “you”, the driver, enjoy driving with the new Veracruz, leading to the inference that the promoted vehicle is the cause of enjoyment and pleasure Projected back

to the information of the VERACRUZ space regarding its equipment of a GPS navigator, the association of this cause is built with GPS In the blend, modern technology of GPS develops, and is demonstrated, as a specific means by which enjoyment and pleasure are engendered throughout driving To put it more explicitly, GPS plays an inescapable role in the rediscovery of enjoyment and pleasure of drive

The GPS space The Veracruz space The Driving space

The blended space

Figure 6.5 A simplified network diagram of the Hyundai Veracruz blend

Driver (you) Enjoyment Pleasure

Veracruz New Luxury GPS

Veracruz/Driver(you) Enjoyment

GPS Pleasure

The above two analyses must have exemplified the significance of modern technology in constructing the orientation toward emotions, suggesting the salient interrelation between modern technology and the presentation of emotional orientation largely conceptualized through strategic practices of English usage For my purposes, it is crucial to note that the list of emotions including excitement and pleasure presented above are differentiated from those that are predominant in the modern era of the West such as anxiety, competitiveness, indifference, and guilt according to Illouz (2007: 2) Barbalet argues that “Emotions must be understood within the structural relations of power and status which elicit them” (1989: 26) Emotions for Illouz are useful to establish the relationship of the self to culturally-situated others to such an extent that emotions are basic to an understanding of social structures and processes The aspects of emotion discovered in my data actually constitute the essence of Chinese being They are nurtured

by the cultural background, the hierarchy of values, and intellectual concepts

Despite the close relation of modern technology to the production of emotions, this is not intended to declare that modern technology is the sole means whereby Chinese people are oriented toward such socially distinctive emotions Rather, they at the same time are consistently suggested to be independent and self-reliant so as to generate these emotions and acquire this dimension of modern identity This is another aspect of social ideologies accounting for how Chinese people are orientated toward such emotions In recent years the significance of independence and self-reliance is not infrequently reiterated and underscored officially, even though China today has made great progress in almost every field over the past decades With regard to the importance of modern technology in spearheading rapid economic development of China, the Chinese President,

Mr Hu Jintao, in his speech delivered at the 2006 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation has the following statement: “The development of China will largely depend on self and hard work of Chinese people At the same time, China will stick to the fundamental policy of

opening to the world and implement the opening up strategy based on mutual benefit and a

win-win situation” (Xinhua News Online, 17 November 2006) The implication that

President Hu has suggested is faithfully congruent with the dialectic relationship between self-reliance plus hard work and introduction of modern technology from the West Surely, this is another important aspect of political philosophy in China primarily guiding the orientation of Chinese people towards the aspects of emotion

significance of self-reliance, rather than modern technology, in orienting Chinese people toward the emotions of excitement and joy

Despite its largest segment being presented in Chinese, in the copy can be detected the following English words and expressions located across various structural domains:

“DIY-Do it yourself!”, “FIAT”, “Merry Christmas”, “PARTY”, “YOU ARE ALWAYS

IN MY HEART”, and “New Palio Sport” The verbal phrase DIY-Do it yourself evokes an

abstract DIY frame with roles of self-reliant persons and DIY activity Being expressed in English and an instance of intertextuality, the DIY frame bears more heavily on the cultural specialty of self-reliance in the United States than that in China In an individualistic context of America the focus of self-reliance is on the meaning of autonomy, self-fulfilment, and strong will Related to this case, the American DIY subculture usually criticizes modern consumer culture that lays overemphasis on the purchase of commodities as solution to our needs, but encourages people to solve needs with their own hands The expression, thus, is often used to encourage people to create or repair things for themselves without the aid of paid professionals The general information

of DIY activity is specified by the lines in Chinese placed within the space between

DIY-Do it yourself and party, which openly verbalize the activity of maintaining and repairing

vehicles with one’s own hands under professional instructions provided by Fiat Motor Company This specific DIY activity exemplifies how the borders of production and consumption are blurred to the extent that consumers of Fiat cars may become technicians

of them Simply put, “you” in this DIY space are construed simultaneously as a consumer and a technician of the Fiat

Then, the headline constitutive of two separate parts: “十二月二五日菲亚特与您约会”

shi’er yue er’wu ri Feiyate yu nin yuehui (lit Fiat will meet you on December 25) and “菲 亚特的约会” Feiyate de yuehui (lit Fiat’s appointment) proclaims a forthcoming

appointment of Fiat Motor Company with “you”, the viewers indeed, on December 25 An

INVITATION space is thus evoked with roles of inviter (Fiat Motor Company), invitee (“you”), content (appointment), and date (on 25 December) The use of Chinese for the headline presumably works to invite as many participants as possible A CHRISTMAS

space is verbally activated by Merry Christmas alongside the visual images of Santa Claus and gift bags in the upper right-hand corner In contrast to its Chinese translation, Merry

Christmas highlights as core elements of this space the conventional information in the

West of family gathering and celebration during Christmas Day Given the identical element of the date, a space mapping first occurs across the CHRISTMAS space and the INVITATION space, adding to the INVITATION space the new meaning that the appointment with Fiat Motor Company in some sense is like family gathering The viewers who are invited to have an appointment with Fiat Motor Company now become one member of the Fiat family, whereby the solidarity between the viewers and Fiat Motor Company that has already been built up in the INVITATION space is radically augmented

A cross-space mapping further takes place between the DIY space and the INVITATION space In the blend diagrammed by Figure 6.7 the literal content of the appointment inferably refers to the specific activity of DIY car maintenance and repair Projected back to the blended space of INVITATION, the viewers are persuasively invited

to join this DIY activity, so that the orientation of independence and self-reliance is finally yielded in the blend

The use of party tends to distinguish itself from its Chinese counterpart in terms of

cultural implication that emphasizes a form of amusement rather than simply a social gathering only This argument is verbally supported by the last line of the text body just below this English word: “快乐烧烤、激情舞会、互动游戏 …” quale shaokao, jiqing wuhui,

hudong youxi … (lit.: Happy barbecue, passionate dancing party, interactive game…) that

spell out an array of specific activities involving barbecue, dance, and game, whereby Chinese people are oriented toward emotions of excitement, passion, fun, and joy

The DIY space The Invitation space

The blended space

Figure 6.7 A simplified network diagram of the self-reliant orientation blend

The PARTY space now becomes an input to the emotion-orientation blend, another input of which is the INVITATION space This allows us to refer to the mental rewards attained through the appointment with Fiat Motor Company by describing party,

as in this way: the appointment can leave you with an exciting and joyful experience, as shown in Figure 6.8 If realizing the Specific-General relationship between the DIY activity and the appointment, more information can be inferred from this blend In the blend a new structure appears -namely, the DIY activity is expected to be exciting, passionate, and joyful, bringing about the generation of a second meaning that the DIY

activity is the source of excitement and joy From this, we can say that the phrase DIY-Do

Appointment Family gathering Love

You/You Fiat cars/Fiat Motor Co

DIY car maintenance &

repair Appointment Family gathering Love

it yourself continues to have an impact on this process and the emergent meaning from the

blend should not be disregarded

The Party space The Invitation space

The blended space

Figure 6.8 A simplified network diagram of the emotion-orientation blend

The presence of orientation toward excitement, joy and passion in the Fiat

advertisement, to be sure, stems primarily from one’s participation in the DTY activity Differently stated, independence and self-reliance are the prerequisite for the attainment of these emotions in this case The core elements contained in the DIY space of self-reliance and assimilation of technology consumers into creators of it are highly intensified and influential throughout the process of the conceptual integration A dialectic relationship is clear of independence, self-reliance and modern technology to the production and acquisition of such emotions The advertisement implicitly proposes an integration of self-

You Gathering/Family gathering Excitement, passion, fun

& joy Appointment Fiat Motor Co

reliance with the reliance upon modern technology as key to the acquisition of this aspect

of modern identity From the analysis the claim can readily be derived that the

appropriation of DIY-Do it yourself is not the result of cultural imperialism but the

reflexive practice of the country in the face of globalization

6.2 Success Orientation

Aspire to succeed is another omnipresent aspect of modern identity which, according to Meyer (1989), is associated with individualism in the West celebrated on abstract grounds

of fulfilment This section then moves on to analyse the construction of success orientation

I analysed earlier how the Hyundai Veracruzadvertisement orients Chinese people toward enjoyment and pleasure When the specific elements in the GPS frame are projected to the blend, we may elaborate further that GPS enables “you” to be free of concern about being lost or wasting time on your way to destination To be precise, with GPS as helper, a driver of the Veracruz is in full mastery of his or her way to any place, as visually exaggerated by the parking place of the sample product at the peak of mountains These concrete meanings developed within and from the blend are the points that a sense

of success really refers to The Hyundai Veracruz advertisement is a good example illustrating that modern identity has indeed become increasingly performed through a narrative that “combines the claim to emotional satisfaction with the aspiration to self-realization” (Illouz 2007: 4)

Like the previous section, while much of the discussion that follows will be devoted to addressing the discernible ways in which English is used to develop and form this aspect of modern identity, attention is simultaneously paid to the culturally situated ideas of success as well as the means whereby it is able to realized and acquired The presentation of success orientation is surprisingly overwhelming in the data Examples can be effortlessly observed with their headlines or slogans plainly setting such

English words “success”, “victory”, and “win” as the core for presenting their meaning Take, for example, the slogan “Victory In Pajero, 成 功 源 于 帕 杰 罗 chenggong yuanyu

pajielu” (lit Success comes from Pajero) and the headline “灵动 · 欲达则达 lingdong · yudazeda (lit Lingdong can go to anyplace at any time), Dynamic storm, Win whenever

you want” for the Mitsubishi Motors advertisements, and the headline “To make others succeed is to excel!” for the real estate advertisement branded Top East No doubt, the

construction of success orientation in such cases can equally be accomplished through the use of their Chinese equivalents “成 功” chenggong (lit success), “胜 利” shengli (lit

victory), and “赢” ying (lit win), but the use of English seems more pertinent and powerful

just because of its inherent connection to modernity In the same way as the previous examples, English words used here seem more for the decorative purpose than the conveying of referential content

The role of English is almost the same in many other technological advertisements where success orientation is largely constructed through the choice of particular English words that metaphorically put “accomplishment”, “acquisition”, or “change” of something

at the heart of their presentation, as the following headlines and slogans taken from them illustrate:

Access your Dreams (Toshiba)

Exceed your vision (Epson)

Dreams made real (Agilent Technologies)

Fascination Accelerates (Honda)

Go beyond (Land Rover)

Go extra miles,更进一步geng jinyibu (lit further) (Shell)

Go find your wonders (Cannon)

Located the core to grasp the wealth (Lishi)

SHIFT_convention (Nissan)

Among these headlines and slogans, the lexical choice of transitive verbs like “access”,

“accelerate”, “make”, “exceed”, “grasp”, “find”, and “shift”, of the adjective “extra”, and

of the adverb “beyond” cannot simply be taken as just predicating a feature of a single element; instead, they tell us something more important about the web of connections

across spaces in an integration network involving a counterfactual scenario For example,

the choice of access indicates the counterfactual scenario of denial, the use of exceed implies the counterfactual scenario of fall behind, and the use of accelerate suggests the counterfactual scenario of decrease or lessen Alternatively put, the presentation of

success orientation in such advertisements is closely connected to the evocation of a counterfactual scenario, through a striking contrast to which success orientation finally emerges in the blend

Figure 6.9 The ad for Honda CR-V

For an illustration, let us look at the Honda CR-V advertisement given in Figure

6.9 The presentation of success orientation in this copy is primarily reflected on and through simultaneous transformation of the old view of drive into a new one and acquisition of it Look closely at the copy, in addition to the detailed information of contact details and promotion, its textual information is mainly situated in the domains of headline and slogan Here is the slogan “The power of dreams” and the headline

constitutive of the primary in English “Get a New View!” and the secondary in Chinese

“梦想提前实现” mengxiang tiqian shixian (lit the dream realized ahead of schedule)

Below Get a New View, there are two Chinese phrases in much smaller font size:

“略高一筹”luegao yichou (lit a bit higher) and “全新境界” quanxin jingjie (lit a completely

new view) It is basically fundamental to appreciate that quanxin jingjie is roughly equivalent to Get a New View; but the difference between them is still detectable The

former states the state of affairs about the transformation of the previous view into an

entirely new one By contrast, the latter, due to the use of Get, not only lays emphasis on

the dynamic act of catching hold of this new view but, more valuably, also has the effect

of indicating success in doing so in nearest future These aspects of nuanced meaning Get

bears point explicitly to the blend

The Driving space I The Driver space II

The Success-Oriented blend

Figure 6.10 A simplified network diagram of the Success-Oriented blend in Honda ad

A driver New view of drive Dream realized

Aside from this, Get works to build the web of that element’s connections It is

connectable to “实现” shixian (lit realize; get) situated in the secondary headline declaring the realization of one’s dream ahead of schedule Following this, Get coupled with New

simultaneously signals that the new view at issue is likely to be the target of dream Closely related to the product being advertised, the association of this new view can

further be built with driving Based on the immediate analysis, Get a New View evokes a

DRIVING space, within which a driver has his dream realized of a new view of drive At

this point, one point of significance must be stressed; that is, New is opposite to “old” In

understanding how target audiences are oriented toward success, we reply on the

counterfactual scenario of Get a New View, in which a schematic driver is dreaming of a

new view of drive but has not yet made it realized As diagrammed in Figure 6.10, a Disanalogy mapping between them happens, producing a sense of success in the local blended space for the driver having a new view of drive realized

It is necessary to note that Honda CR-V as a compact SUV is distinguished by its amazing power Due to the common knowledge of English as a language for high

technology, Honda’s worldwide slogan the power of dreams indicating “the power that is

dream-oriented” tells more appropriately than its possible Chinese translation that power is the source of dreams In Figure 6.11, the elements of Honda CR-V and Honda CR-V as source of dreams in the frame of HONDA CR-V and those of driver and his or her realized dream of a new view in the local blended space of success orientation are four cross-space counterparts to be fused in the final blend In the blend it is inferable that the amazing power of the product is the direct cause of subverting the old view of drive and transforming it into a new one Developed from and within the blend appears a driver who drives Honda CR-V can successfully have the previous view of drive transformed and acquire the new one

Reproduced in Figure 6.12, the advertisement for LG Xcanvas Full HD TV set,

The Driving space II The Honda space

The blended space

Figure 6.11 A simplified network diagram of the Honda blend

then, is chosen to show how success orientation is built up by being linked to control over

TV program In this advertisement English occurs across many domains But not all information in English, as will be indicated, is necessarily to be projected into the blend for the construction of this aspect of modern identity The insertions of English terms

“XD”, “clear filter”, and “XGA” into the text body imply the product’s high-tech equipment and advanced functions The verbal phrase “TIME YOUR TIME” printed in capitals is located in the primary headline:

左右时间 zuoyou shijian (lit control time)

TIME YOUR TIME

随时暂停随时看 suishi zanting suishi kan (lit pause and watch program at any time)

Honda CR-V Dream-oriented Powerful

A driver

New view of drive

Dream realized

A driver/Honda CR-V New view of drive Dream-oriented Dream realized Powerful

Figure 6.12 The ad for LG Xcanvas TV (I)

It needs to be pointed out that TIME YOUR TIME is the rough translation equivalent of zuoyou shijian Its appearance as part of the headline is significant for

meaning expression One compelling reason is that in contrast to its Chinese counterpart,

TIME YOUR TIME specifying “you” as the very person exercising control over time has

the intended effect of shortening the distance between the advertisement and its viewers

But perhaps more important, the first TIME is used here as a verb, which signals that the

very act of controlling your time might even be measured in terms of time usually precisely up to second As we shall see, this aspect of semantic nuances embedded in the

English verb “time” but lacks in the Chinese verb zuoyou seems to be particularly significant for meaning construction in the blend The use of TIME YOUR TIME evokes a

specific space of CONTROL with roles of actor (“you”), target (time), and means or tool

The abstract target “time” to be controlled is clarified as being associated with TV

program according to the immediate line suishi zanting suishi kan declaring the control

over TV program at any time

English appears also in the secondary headline “LG ‘平 板 电 视’ Watching

differently” LG pingban tianshi Watching differently (lit watch differently with LG full

HD TV sets) that makes a claim to having a particular experience of watching TV with the product being advertised Although printed in small size at the bottom right-hand corner,

the present participle Watching differently is a statement of fact that is more persuasively powerful than its Chinese translation This is connectable in meaning to the line suishi

zanting suishi kan, whereby the product is suggested as the tool to control TV program in

the CONTROL space Displayed on the screen of the sample product lies a golf ball still

on the field, which implies that an on-going TV program might be specified as golf play It

is reasonable to decide that golf play is the specific TV program under control With LG Xcanvas as a tool “you” can control the golf program precisely up to second in the CONTROL space

In addition to the CONTROL space as one input to the blend, at least one more input is needed for understanding and interpreting the construction of success orientation This is a GOLF space activated with the golf play by the young man who looks very skilful in controlling the club and the ball The process of his exerting control over the club is deliberately divided into four broken, successive, motions in sequential order, precisely up to split second in the light of the numbers shown above the young man This seemingly trivial visual information implies vividly the young man’s high skill in controlling golf ball through the club

The immediate discussion lends itself well to suggest further that the CONTROL space and the GOLF space share the same structure, in which a person uses something as a tool to control another thing Hence, a cross-space mapping takes place between them,

which enables the description of the control by “you” over the golf program with the LG Xcanvas in reference to the control by the golf player with the club over ball in the blend

In the same way as the young golf player controls the club so skilfully, “you” can exert control over the golf TV program precisely up to split second, as shown in Figure 6.13 The vivid description of golf play actually provides a striking illustration of how the LG Xcanvas empowers you to control the process of this specific program at any time From

this, it becomes quite clear of the huge difference between TIME and zuoyou in verbally

describing the very act of control

The Control space The Golf space

The blended space

Figure 6.13 A simplified network diagram of the LG Xcanvas I blend

You/Golf player Golf program/Golf ball Xcanvas/Club Successful Skilful

presentation of success that is typified in an orientation toward abstract accomplishment, acquisition, and change of something

In the LG Xcanvas I advertisement, what is of equal significance is that golf in

China as elsewhere is a noble sport conventionally connected to a prosperous and successful life The young player in a sense is the representative of elites in China today Conclusively, the orientation of Chinese people toward success is visually enhanced and reinforced by the social value of golf in the GOLF frame Success, in other words, is connectable to status or prestige in China Truly, while people in the West usually associate success with wealth in relation to western capitalism (Baritz 1989), the concrete substance of success in China is normally linked to socially related things like privilege, status or prestige that give someone an identity In other words, the definition of success takes a somewhat different meaning for Chinese people

The following goes on to investigate specifically how Chinese people are oriented toward privilege, status or prestige through the use of English This is mainly fulfilled through two different ways Firstly, promoted products are defined as available only to a very limited number of people, so that privileges are explicitly suggested A case in point

is the advertisement for JAC cars with the English slogan “Only for you” that apparently distinguishes the target audiences as special Secondly, and more frequently, products are often depicted as the symbol of social status This way of constructing success orientation

is extremely manifest and common in the residential housing advertisements that promise Chinese people the life of moguls or aristocrats in a very direct way or make them socially distinguished The following headlines taken from them mixed with the English words

“caste”, “nobility”, “king”, “princely”, and “royal” must be fairly illustrative:

Caste of surpassing quality, 巅峰身份dianfeng shenfen (lit summit identity) (Star

River)

中国大宅 万乘之尊 zhongguo dazhai wanchengzhun (lit Chinese big house, the

emperor with ten thousand chariots at his command), Chinese villa, the nobility’s class (Beijing Bay)

Exclusively reserved for the deserving few (Bourton-on-the-water)