The discursive construction of identity in chinese english bilingual advertising a critical inquiry 2

CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Two main areas to be covered in this chapter are the literature review of identity study in bilingual advertising, as well as some theoretical and socio-cultural background related to this research topic. The chapter starts out with a critical review of the literature pertinent to the subject of English as a contact language worldwide (Section 2.1) and to the construction of identity (re)presented in the textual form of bilingual advertising (Section 2.2). The former lays emphasis on two major points about the diverse functions of English and its local, situated appropriation. And the latter, by discussing in detail the drawbacks and inadequacy of the theoretical and methodological frameworks the available studies adopted in examining the construction of identity in bilingual advertising, suggests the significance of the social constructionist and poststructuralist views of identity and the need for a more nuanced interpretative methodology. By this, the chapter aims to offer some practical reasons upon which the argument of the next chapter will be grounded to develop an integrative approach to bilingualism and identity located in the particular domain of advertising. Section 2.3 proceeds to discuss the nowadays complex, conflicting identity with the help of Bhabha’s (1994) notion “third space”. It emphasizes the likelihood for identities (re)presented in bilingual advertisements being the consequence of mutual influence of two different languages and their embedded different cultures. Section 2.4 is devoted to defining specifically the terms “code-mixing”, “ideology”, and “power” for the present study. The chapter finally provides in Section 2.5 with an overall description of advertising practice and English situation in contemporary China. 2.1 English as a Contact Language 16 From the very beginning, it seems quite necessary to have an overview of English as a contact language in terms of dimensions of its function and meaning when resettled and exploited in non-English-language advertising. This section is also set to discuss the diverse usage of English in entirely different social, cultural, and political systems of nonAnglophonic countries. 2.1.1 Indexical value of English There is an amazingly sizeable body of literature on language contact phenomenon in advertising in multilingual settings. In these studies attention to English has already been shifted from its label as loan words toward its symbolic function, while its referential meaning may or may not be intended. Commonly thought of as one of the first moving beyond the focus on loan forms to discuss the functions of language mixing in advertising communication, Haarmann (1984), in his groundbreaking work on the use of a number of European languages in the site of Japanese advertising, observed that a foreign language functions mainly for its symbolic meaning by associating it with the wider community's perception of its ethnocultural stereotypes. Compared with the other languages such as French, German and Spanish, English is often highlighted as the first choice of language regularly activating or triggering a wide range of ethno-cultural stereotypes. Associations of advertised products with an ethno-cultural stereotype of English usually include “British’ class”, “the myth of the American West”, and “the youth culture, hip hop rebellion, and street credo of the Black urban U.S. ghetto” (Piller 2003: 175). The use of English as pointing to an ethno-cultural stereotype, however, in no way has been frequently and deeply exploited. The fact of the matter is that a large part of studies in this field are more concerned with its usage in terms of socio-indexical relationship. A number of scholars customarily describe this bilingual practice as a symbol 17 that is linked more often to a social stereotype than to an ethno-cultural one (e.g., Bhatia & Ritchie 2004; Piller 2003; Kolly-Holmes 2005; Takashi 1990a, 1992). More specifically, in addition to its association with general American or British cultures for which it usually stands, English is by and large described fantastically in relation to an array of social concepts, including modernity, progress, global imagery, future, innovation, technological efficiency, internationalization, standardization, fashion, competence, rationality, sophistication, and so on. Pragmatic meanings encoded within and through the use of English in non-English-language advertising have been the main research focus that most of these studies attempt to investigate. Inferably, only if English is used to convey stereotypical associations, it is not necessary, as has been suggested by some empirical studies (e.g., Chesire & Moser 1994; Haarmann 1989), for target audiences to have some knowledge of the English language. It needs to be underlined, which is probably even more important and relevant for the present study, that functions of a specific English word or expression are by no means always identically or uniformly symbolic across entirely different social, cultural and political systems. This has long been the convincing conclusion in the work of Chesire and Moser (1994) that asserts the way of using English in locally situated advertising is unique in every country. In their study of English mixing in print advertisements of Frenchspeaking Switzerland, the scholars reveal two findings of interest. In the first hand, English is not at all used for its symbolic function only. Given a majority of the population in the context of Switzerland has at least some knowledge of English, the simplicity of English words and syntactic structure in most cases of their sample does not exclude the possibility for English to serve referential function instead. In the second hand, the figurative use of English drawing on the special case of pun is not rare. The finding that figurative English usage is one of most frequently employed ways of promotional writing should not be odd particularly for advertising communication. Hence, it is naïve to say that 18 English always functions its symbolic value when used in non-English-language advertising. In the context of Korea, Lee (2006: 61) similarly observes that the use of English in Korean advertising is not merely to serve the attention-getting role or simply to create positive “feeling” regarding modernity and internationalization. What at least follows is that some English words or expressions work referentially for semantic meaning as well in the site of non-English-language advertising. For the time being, it is equally important to make reference to semantic incongruence of certain English words with their putative equivalents in other languages. To account for the pervasive presence of English in some domains including advertising in Japan, Morrow (1987) draws our attention to the semantic discrepancy existing between the English and Japanese languages. For Morrow, the main reason underlying the use of English in Japan is “not because Japanese lacks words or expressions to refer to things, but rather because the loanwords allow speakers to express certain nuances, which would not be expressed by the Japanese word” (1987: 51). Based on an empirical study of English mixing in Chinese newspapers and magazines of Hong Kong, Li lends support to Morrow, arguing that some cases of English usage are attributed to the fact of there being “the lack of a lexicalized equivalent in Chinese” (1996: 61). In order to avoid the loss of fine nuances English can evoke, the use of English in these Chinese newspapers and magazines is relatively more convenient and efficient for meaning expression. In addition to the incongruity in semantics, the culture-specificity of the English language, rather than its abstract and general ethno-cultural stereotypes, is likewise significant for meaning construction in the site of bilingual advertising. The compelling reason is that some English words and expressions are originated, defined, applied, and comprehended against culture-specific characteristics of Anglophone concepts. This especially holds true for cases of using complex abstract English vocabulary, such as terms for emotions, attitudes, values, and social ideals that tends to be highly culture-specific 19 (Goddard 2006; Wierzbicka 1992, 1997). For instance, in talking about emotions, Wierzbicka (1992) notes English words are English representations of emotions, and as such they embody a particular perspective, a particular linguistic and cultural slant. This realization suggests us not to discard the possibility for this type of meaning in terms of culture-specificity about the English language and its speakers in the Inner Circle (Kachru 1986) to be drawn upon for the fulfillment of certain particular functions. Taking as an example the English phrase “You’re welcome” appeared in the Rover advertisement, Kelly-Holmes (2005) presents cogently the possibility for English sometimes “fetished” to such an extent that the allusion to the British/English reputation for good manners is tactically exploited subtly. Yet, with this extremely rare exception noted, the culturespecific value of English surprisingly seems to have been almost completely overlooked or ignored in the literature of bilingualism research in advertising and has yet to be examined and interpreted. The complexity of meaning potential the English language and its usage may have for meaning construction actually becomes a major factor that plausibly demands us not to distinguish so unambiguously the disparate categories of meaning that some English words or expressions may simultaneously convey when deployed as a pair-language in non-English-language advertising. Provided the likelihood of various types of meaning potential English may allude to, convey or generate, this study primarily follows the suggestion by Li (1996) to take the “indexical value” of English as the reason resulting in the mixing of English. The term indexical value is differentiated with Charles Pierce’s “index value”. By indexical value, what I intend to stress is that all meanings including semantic nuance and culture-specificity that emanate from the form of an actual word, or “everything concerned with the conceptualization of the message” (Grace 1981: 24, cited in Li 1996: 27), must be carefully taken into consideration when grappling with intangible motivations underlying the use of English. In this study, the notion of indexical value is 20 adopted to capture the complexity of meaning potential English may convey. These lines of discussion all in the same way point to the equal importance of referential content, semantic nuance, and culture-specificity that an English word or expression may potentially convey, in addition to its symbolic meaning universally defined as modern in the broadest sense. The conclusion to emerge from this suggests one crucial requirement for not dealing with the relationship between English and its meaning potential in a strictly homogeneous way. The complex and unstable feature of meaning relationship actually becomes a major, and probably decisive, factor that invites us not to distinguish so unmistakably the dimensions of indexical value of English in meaning construction. Cognitive linguist Vyvyan Evans probably has a similar picture in mind of indexical value under discussion, when he says “the semantic value associated with a lexical concept has (at least) five dimensions (semantic potential, encapsulation, relational vs. non-relational, temporal structure, and referentiality)” (2006: 509) . The cognitive perspective of meaning, in my opinion, might be exceptionally helpful to solve the problem we analysts may encounter in exploring a variety of dimensions of indexical value of English and their role in constructing identities in the textual form of bilingual advertising. After having discussed at length the possible categories of meaning potential for the English language when resettled and exploited as a pair-language in non-Englishlanguage advertising, I shall now take a further step to discuss the dynamics of this bilingual practice---that is, its local, contextualized social meaning and function. 2.1.2 Diversity of English usage across the world For Evans, “Evidence for this encapsulating function comes from culture-specific lexical concepts which cannot be easily captured in another language” (2006: 510). 21 The occurrence of English across the world is routinely regarded as the consequence of English spread accompanied by the process of globalization. But “the political economy of code choice” (Gal 1988) tells us that the production, circulation, and distribution of English cannot be even in this stratified world (cf. Blommaert 2005; Park & Wee 2009). What seems even more important is that globalization is heatedly discussed, as well as practically demonstrated, in terms of both of its homogeneity and uniformity, and of its heterogeneity and variability. Following this, there are significant differences in the way English is actually used globally, as Strevens (1992) points out. Finally, the spread of English exemplifying cultural relocation in the multilingual and multicultural context of the world is often bi- or multi-directional, whereby cultures and subcultures continuously influence each other and probably engender a new one (e.g., Blommaert 2005; Pakir 2000; Pennycook 2007). In a particular socio-cultural context, it is even possible for English to be highly appropriated for negotiation, contest, subversion, transgression, and other forms of linguistic acts of resistance to the remaking of local culture, as works such as Lee (2004) and Pred (1990) have proved. When coming to discuss the ongoing spread of English as a global language, cognizance also needs to be given to the complex, multifaceted, flexible and ever-changing dynamism of global-local linkages, and the intricate web of interconnection between globalism and localism. It is against this background of globalization that the use of English in question is interpreted as part of both global and local social systems and the outcome of interaction between them. Being situated in different social, cultural, and political contexts, the bilingual phenomenon in advertising of different places cannot be entirely stable or uniform. Rather, with its concomitant innovations this bilingual practice allows a space for reinvention, revision, and hybridization. The highlighting of the creative and innovative aspects of English application is not rare in some empirical studies of bilingual advertising (e.g., Gerritsen et al. 2007). Bhatia (2000, 2001, 2002), who addresses the specific issue of 22 globalization in advertising communication, refers to heterogeneous strategies of English usage across the globe as “glocalization”, a notion discussed extensively by Robertson (1992). As a more productive and optimal fashion, glocalization lays far greater emphasis on cooperation and integration of global diversity over competition and homogenization. The diversity of English usage across the world is ultimately motivated by the interrelations between strategies of language practice and ideologies about this language held in different places. In the discussion of the spread of English across the globe, Park and Wee (2008) make it explicit that language ideologies have strong influence on the symbolic values assigned to language appropriation. Language ideologies, defined by Michael Silverstein in linguistic anthropology, are “sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization of justification of perceived language structure and use” (1979: 193, cited in Kroskrity 2000: 5). The fact that attitudes and beliefs about the English language differ from one nation-level community and/or communicative context to another explains appropriately the caution taken by Blommaert: “‘good’ and statuscarrying English in the periphery may be ‘bad’ and stigma-carrying English in the core of the world system” (2003: 616). In studying the use of English in Dutch TV commercials, Gerritsen and his associates (2000) discover that attitudes toward this language practice, even among young people who are presumed to appreciate English more considerably than the older, are far less positive than usually expected. All the subjects they interviewed display a rather negative attitude toward English. In the way argued by Gerritsen et al (2000: 29), there are two main fundamental reasons---one, the position of English as the main language of communication is neither “super” nor “substandard” in Dutch language community; the other, Dutch people in the process of European unification attaching more value to their native language, a marker of their identity. What is of evidence is that English does not automatically generate positive functions as rosily as advertisers there may anticipate for a connection between products and a modern image. Even when dealing 23 with social meaning of English in terms of symbolic value, we have to be fully conscious of its complexities, instabilities and unpredictability of meaning relations and presumable functions. An inference is readily followed---the broader context needs to be entirely appreciated in any attempt to account for the realization of presumable effects produced primarily through or in relation to the use of English. By this, the bilingual phenomenon in advertising can no longer be simply connected to the global spread of English, but especially relevant to the higher-level social, cultural and political ends of countries where such bilingual advertisements are produced and consumed. Alternatively put, the use of English cannot be purely viewed from the ethnocentric perspective, but to be entangled with entirely new social, cultural and political issues. Above we have come to share the point that the use of English in non-Englishlanguage advertising is a globally present, but locally resonant, cultural practice that is mobilized to negotiate the global-local nexus. Anderson underscores that imagined communities are distinguished “not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the way in which they are imagined” (1983: 15, italics added). The intricate relationship does exist among “style” of English mixing, “ideologies”, and “imagined communities”. Style here is not considered an overarching concept that covers a wide range of linguistic varieties, such as genre, register, and sometimes, social dialects. Rather, it takes Irvine’s (2001) conception of “style” to investigate how the occurrence of English in non-English-language advertising of different places constitutes different “styles” of meaning construction, as well as how these styles construct and represent distinctive social identities (cf. Auer 2005). A group style is significantly meaningful to the social participants when it is considered in “a system of distinction, in which a style contrasts with other possible styles” (Irvine 2001: 22). In such theorization, it once again becomes significant to understand how specific style of English usage fits in ongoing process of local political 24 discourse, under precisely what conditions this style is produced, constructing what specific identities in the site of bilingual advertising. To sum up the discussion of this section, the indexical value of English, first, suggests the desire to look at meaning potential of English and its usage from a cognitive perspective; second, this cross-cultural language contact phenomenon is highly locally contextualized and characterized. Relying upon the arguments over language meaning and social association, it is appropriate for this bilingual phenomenon to be considered in terms of social “meaning potential” (Halliday 1973: 53) that is called up or activated or validated, or undermined or challenged or parodied, in particular discursive frames for particular local effects. This point of view will become even far clearer when the notion of identity largely being the result of advertiser agency and that of bilingualism as a social practice are discussed and elaborated in the following section and in Chapter 3, respectively. These two aspects, it must be kept in mind, are not separable but closely interconnected in producing social meanings and functions of English in the domain of advertising. 2.2 Previous Studies of Identity Construction in Bilingual Advertising This section reviews critically the available studies of identity in the literature of bilingualism research in advertising. Three major aspects---the theoretical perspective, the analytical approach, and meaning construction in the particular genre of advertising---are the topics for thorough discussion. It is argued that the vital weakness of these studies lies in their taking the symbolic value of English as universally modern and always necessarily playing a decisive role in the complete process of meaning construction in contextually situated advertising texts. What they have failed to examine is the dynamic and creative dimension of indexicality and the likelihood for identity to be strategically formed as the consequence of a set of meaning-making elements co-working within a given advertisement. Therefore, their analysis principally guided by this position and the 25 one of the official languages in Hong Kong is often used as a foreign language primarily for formal communication. Lock provides us with a particular commercial that is linguistically expressed fully in English and the product being advertised evident of its foreign origin; however, presentations of the product and the identity for target audiences are metaphorically construed in a visual way as more local than international. While this might be an extreme case, chances are that even a commercial designed monolingually in English bears little or no modern connotation. To deal with the overall organization of meaning production and identity construction in a given bilingual advertisement and to identify or highlight the role of English word(s) in this process may be supported by an intertwined approach that combines a multimodal analysis of semiotics with a lexicogrammatical level of analysis. To sum up the review of literature, the discussion has profoundly outlined some general problems related to the social-indexical perspective of identity and the point-ofview approach to treating an English-mixed slogan and/or a headline as the entrance into reading advertisements and English always as the centre for interpretation. The stagnant model of indexicality is essentially insufficient to account for the dynamics of bilingual practice and the complex sets of pressures and expectations that confront advertisers within the social and institutional environment. This holds the same for the way to simply treat either slogan- or headline-situated English words as the center for interpreting a bilingual advertisement. The shared perception is that identities (re)presented textually in bilingual advertising are strategically produced, not “over there” to be discovered. Needless to say, these points suggest a high desire for the study of identity to draw upon social constructivism taking meaning as an interactional accomplishment, produced, validated and offered, as well as the poststructuralist view of identity that emphasizes the constructive role of discourse. For the aim of a relatively explicit and comprehensive interpretation, as I have 49 suggested above many times, the present study will adopt a cognitive perspective, on basis of which we analysts can delve deeply into the contribution of English to identity formation by looking into its underlying cognitive processing. More arguments in regard to why it is thus proposed will be further developed and clarified in the next chapter. 2.3 Third Space and Identity Identity in late modernity, as suggested earlier, is probably highly hybrid, complex, and conflicting. In discussing identity and what implications the term “hybridity” has to the application of some analytical tools, it is exceedingly necessary to clarify first what this study means by hybridity. This topic is to be discussed by relying on Bhabha’s (1994) notion “third space”. The concept of third space is analytically inspiring for describing the discursive space embracing a hybrid and conflicting identity. Bhabha defines third spaces as “discursive sites or conditions that ensure that the meaning and symbols of culture have no promordial unity or fixity; that even the same signs can be appropriated, translated, and rehistoricized anew” (1994: 37). Third space is a mode of articulation, a way of describing productive, and not merely reflective space that generates new possibilities. In his interview with Rutherford, Bhabha states: For me the importance of hybridity is not to be able to trace two original moments from which the third emerges, rather hybridity to me is the ‘third space’ which enables other positions to emerge. This third space displaces the histories that constitute it, and sets up new structures of authority, new political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through received wisdom. (Rutherford 1990: 211) What follows from these lines is that third space is potentially a resistance site, undermining the polar perception which poses identities as opposite, authentic, ethnically, and racially essentialist entities. The significance of third space is its provision of the place where negotiation takes place, where identity in its complexity, fluidity, and hybridity is 50 constructed and reconstructed, where identity is not this nor that but an in-between with its own quality. Relying on third space, Bhabha is usually devoted to talking about the remarkable relevance of the global-local dialogical interaction to hybrid identity. Importantly, the proposition of third space is analogous to the interactive and dialogical view of the discursive construction of identity. Hybrid identity following the notion of third spaces is a strategy refusing to accept the totalizing binary relations between the dominated and the dominating. This point is shared by Dissanayake, saying that “hybridity can be seen to go with a sense of new-found freedom and self-confidence” especially for people from the Expanding Circle (Kachru 1986) who use English as a vehicle of creative communication (2006: 561). When talking about identity of bilinguals, Hamers and Blanc seem to take the same position: It is important to stress that a bilingual does not develop two parallel identities but integrates his two cultures into a unique identity in which aspects of both his cultures are closely interrelated (cultural interdependence hypothesis); this integration is the result of an interplay between enculturation, acculturation and deculturation processes. (Hamers & Blanc 2000: 239) Relating it to the topic of identity constructed in the site of bilingual advertising primarily through or at least related to the use of English, advertisers, as the previous argument suggests, have the capacity to select, blend, and transform English elements during the constructive process according to the social, cultural and political interests of a particular place. In response to the global-local tension, the appropriation of English bringing alongside it the creative embedding of global meanings embraced by the local medium of advertising most probably yields a third space, within which the local and the global subject are not exclusive alternatives but involve “mutual contamination” (Bhabha 1994: 113-114). Despite not being extensively examined in the area of linguistics, hybrid identity of this sort actually are commonly (re)presented in the textual form of advertising. In this context, both Lazar (2000) and Wu (2008) provide us with a good example. The work of 51 Lazar (2000) is especially significant as an attempt at studying extensively third space for a new representation of parenthood thus historically construed in a national, government advertising campaign promoting family life in Singapore. In accordance with her findings, a complex interplay between dual discourses of gender relations, based on egalitarianism and conservatism respectively, is presented in the Singaporean advertisements through the implicit strategy of “disproportionate coexistence” (Lazar 2000: 395). By disproportionate coexistence, what Lazar intends to underline is the emergence of a new, complexly nuanced parenthood being the consequence of these two potentially contending discourses intertwining intricately and fusing with each other at varying degrees. Lazar (2000, see also 2005) finally concludes that despite the complex and hybrid discourse practices of gender relations, the conservative viewpoint of gender relations is still largely unchallenged and kept intact in the society of Singapore. Through investigating the discursive construction of auto advertisements on the Internet in mainland China, Wu (2008) then demonstrates practically the tendency of the global-local fusion either through verbal (including the use of English) or visual means, or both with various patterns. Wu through this way calls our attention to the emergence in such auto advertisements of “a new Cultural China” that largely results from the blurring cultural boundaries in contemporary China in conjunction with transcultural practices. Even though Wu did not take any further effort to elaborate the notion of a new Cultural China, the attributes of hybridity it bears, as she suggested, are plainly similar to that of third space. Wu’s findings at any rate imply that bilingual advertising can be a site for constructing a third space discursively. In this space, English and its specific cultural and symbolic values, along with Chinese and its entrenched traditionally values, working as a productive or generative factor within the dynamics of the local culture according to the interests of the context, make possible development of a new, in-between, identity, as well as cultural transfer, transformation of traditional identities. The use of English, it follows, 52 offers one of the possible ways in which advertisers construct new, in-between cultural values and ideologies that shape, and are shaped by, synthesis of the global and the local. The discussion regarding either different patterns of the global-local fusion or disproportionate coexistence in advertising texts engenders at least one important implication---that is, the articulation of third space is the result of mutual empowerment of different discourses and their forces. Yet, precisely because her aim was built up merely to investigate the processes as well as products of glocalization in auto advertisements, Wu had no intention to explore how the different patterns contribute to constructing a discursive space where a hybrid identity is normally set up and formed. Lazar (2000: 396) claims explicitly the likelihood for certain conservative and egalitarian values being simultaneously at work even in a single advertisement; but she meanwhile acknowledges the hardness to distinguish one from the other (Lazar 2005: 145) and to decide on the content and amount that are shared for the representation of the new parenthood (ibid.: 159). Regardless of this, one significant conclusion can nevertheless be brought to light about the demand for more sophisticated approach to looking into this complexity and making it known. 2.4 Defining Some Terms 2.4.1 Code-mixing This study adopts the term “code-mixing” as an analytical construct by simply following the position taken in the perspective of discoursal function (e.g., Gafaranga & Torras 2002; Pakir 1989; Tay 1989). The term “code-switching” is used occasionally only when touching upon the relevant literature regarding the alternating use of two or more languages or varieties in conversational setting. Code-mixing is treated here as an umbrella term to encompass any instance of English occurrence, and co-occurrence taking place not only between the same mode of 53 language, but also across the different modes of language and visual image. The significance of this treatment lies in its capability to account for the interaction between and across all meaningful elements, thereby opening up the possibility to explore and interpret whether the construction of meaning and hence of identity in bilingual advertisements is heavily dependent on the English language, the local language or visual image, or in other possible ways. In reference to the between- and across-mode co-occurrences, this definition of code-mixing by itself is still insufficient to catch the complication of English usage in advertising. Sometimes, code-mixing per se belongs to one meaningful code that can be exploited for communication. So this study at the same time is in favor of viewing codemixing itself on many occasions as one form of “communicative code” (Alvarez-Caccamo 1998), so that its practical dynamics can be more unequivocally revealed in relation to the function it has for identity construction. In contrasting the notion of language with that of communicative code, Alvarez-Caccamo who opts for an even more elaborate proposition of code-switching makes this statement, since the respective indexical values of linguistic varieties alone cannot be preassumed, switching of codes has thus less to with the so-called codeswitching, which merely juxtaposes speech varieties, than with the various contrasting ways (including, but not exclusively, language alternations) by which humans selectively expose intentions. (Alvarez-Caccamo 2000: 30-31) What is derivable from these lines is that the notion “code” in two terms of code-mixing and communicative code cannot be equated as usual. The treatment of code-mixing per se as one communicative code primarily lays emphasis on the role of code-mixing presumably serving certain intentions of advertiser. Its significance is obvious for it directs analytical orientation less towards the contrastive role of languages in discoursestructuring than towards a wider range of pragmatic variables during its very practice. Congruent with the reflexive practice of English mixing, this treatment of code-mixing is equivalent to saying that code-mixing can be practically deployed as “contextualization 54 cues” (Gumperz 1982)12 to redefine speech situation, change footing, and recontextualize or reframe (e.g., Alvarez-Caccamo 1996; Rampton 1995, 1998; Stroud 1998). 2.4.2 Ideology Another term in need of clarification is the concept “ideology”. The notion of ideology taken in this context is deliberately an inclusive one. Earlier I introduced the “descriptive” view of ideology in linguistic anthropology as language attitudes and beliefs of social group or community. This idea of ideology is analytically distinct from the “critical” one seeing ideology as a modality of power that CDA (Fairclough 1989, 2003; van Dijk 1993) usually takes. Recent studies of linguistic anthropology, however, have come to take a more sophisticated approach to language uses and beliefs, recognizing that they are also linkable to the relations of power and political arrangements in a society (e.g., Blommaert 1999; Bucholtz & Hall 2004; Woolard 1998b). For instance, Blommaert (2005) proposes to treat indexicality as “ordered” both in the sense of “order of discourse” (Foucault 1972) and that of Silverstein’s (2003) “indexical order”. To cite his own words, “orders of indexicality endow the semiotic process with indexical order in the sense of Silverstein (2003): …. And these, in turn, feed into orders of indexicality, thus creating a dialectics of context and indexicality often captured under ‘micro’ and ‘macro’” (Blommaert 2005: 74, italics origin). As such, the two categories of ideology inferably are not necessarily in opposition to each other, but, instead, always closely interrelated and dialectically constituted. Take as an example, gender, that falls into a culturally and historically organized system of ideas and beliefs, but when gender involves inequality, as it most often does (despite some counterexamples), gender ideologies are seen to reinforce power 12 Contextualization cue covers any verbal and non-verbal sign that helps speakers hint at, or clarify, and listeners to make inferences. Contextualization cues for Gumperz (1982) may include prosodic features, paralinguistic features, choice of code, and particular lexical expressions. 55 structures (Miller 1993). In the field of CDA, Lazar (2005) probably holds the identical or similar position when discussing the role of the nation-state in shaping or reshaping the gender structure in Singapore. … the ‘politics’ involved in gender relations … is double-layered. The represented power dynamic between women and men in families at the micro-level (‘politics’ with a small ‘p’) is embedded within state interventionist practices that (re)articulate the norms of gender relations in the service of achieving national procreationist objectives (‘politics’ with a big ‘P’). (Lazar 2005: 141) When being reflexively appropriated and reworked in locally situated advertising texts, the use of English may reasonably be linked to both notions of ideology, insofar as ideologies are interpreted as means of mediating the manner in which English is used, as well as means for advertiser to reproduce them through the use of English. It might come to say that the relations of power involved during the bilingual practice at the micro-level is embedded within advertiser’s interventionist practices that rearticulate the sets of attitudes and beliefs about English in the service of achieving institutional or community objectives. 2.4.3 Power The present study, meanwhile, takes a broad definition for the term “power”. In the field of discourse analysis (in its widest sense), power is classically reduced to its “ability to define social reality, to impose visions of the world” that are “inscribed in language and enacted in interaction” (Gal 1991: 197). But in the site of bilingual advertising where interactional conflicts take place between two disparate linguistic systems and their cultures, it is suggestive for the concept of power to be taken more with Foucauldian notion of “productive power” than with neo-Marxist notion of power emphasizing the problem of dominance. In other words, power in this study sometimes also refers to a potentially counter-hegemonic or resistant agency on the part of non-Anglophone countries via their own ways of exploiting English to help structure particular social 56 arrangement within and across nation-states. The third way of defining power is largely motivated by the previous observation that language practice in late modernity usually creates favorable circumstances for cultural hybridization and the dialogical attribute of hybridity. Characterized by the reconciliation of differences without one comprising the other and articulating them into another completely new discursive formation, it is fruitful to move beyond the binary of seeing bilingual advertising as a place of control or resistance but render it as the place sometimes for “joint-production” of language power (Flowerdew 1997). 2.5 Advertising and English in Contemporary China The aim of this study, as explicated in the first chapter, is to examine critically the discursive construction of identity in Chinese-English bilingual advertisements produced, circulated, and interpreted in mainland China. In the discussion of Section 2.1, I have already made it clear the necessity for any study of the bilingual phenomenon in question to be grounded heavily on the interplay of this language practice and broad context. Truly, for the study to be conducted social-critically, its analytical results would be more persuasive if grounded much on the interplay of text and context (Fairclough & Wodak 1997), including ethnographic analysis (Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999: 61-62; Fairclough 1985: 759; 2003: 15). Considering these factors, it becomes quite necessary and useful at this juncture to provide some basic knowledge about the specific sociocultural and political context of contemporary China, against which this study is undertaken. A profile of the situations of English as well as the practices of advertising and consumption there is particularly in order. It is to this discussion of socio-political backgrounds that this section turns its attention. 2.5.1 Practices of advertising and consumption 57 To know deeply of advertising industry in contemporary China, it inevitably involves an inquiry of its development on the one hand, and the evolving consumption on the other. The development of advertising is closely tied in with the country’s economic reform and sociopolitical changes. Since China’s reform and opening up started at the end of 1979, advertising industry has been flourishing over the past decades along with the influx of foreign imported commodities. During the past decade, advertising was one of the fastest growing industries there. In respect of advertising spending with $37 billion in 2005, China was ranked third just after Japan and the United States (People’s Daily Online 2006). Today advertisements are ubiquitous in China. And many global brands like CocaCola, HP, Pepsi, Epson, Nokia, Nike and Samsung are already widely known among Chinese consumers. Consumerism has been emerged and developing rapidly in China just before the turn of the twenty-first century and since (Croll 2006; Paek & Pan 2004). As Chinese people become more affluent and sophisticated, they are increasingly seeking intangible values of products they buy and consume. Advertisers of China can no longer settle for hard sell, but have to introduce emotional aspects and images into advertisements in order to stir sentiments favorable to their brand (Cheng 1994; Cheng & Schweitzer 1996). According to the latest research by Chan and Chan (2005) on information content of China’s television advertising, Chinese audiences are usually introduced to the world of personal desires through images of “good” life, beauty, success, happiness, excitement, enjoyment, self-esteem, and so on. They also find that the consumer way of life has already taken off and is spreading fast in the cultural context of China. For male or female and young or old, the acquisition of products is significant in acquiring new individual and collective identities. It is now quite common for Chinese people to take consuming as a means for building up their social status as well as looking for other contentment. Among Chinese consumers is identifiable of an increasing tendency of self-identification through 58 buying and consuming certain products. Apart from this, Chinese consumers traditionally have a high regard for products imported from the West. Most Chinese people, whether old or young, who may have little or no knowledge of English, nevertheless often ready to pay more for obtaining a product bearing a Western brand in English. Yan (1994) attributes this to the traditional stereotype of English as the indicator of high quality for products in China’s culture. Not least because of this consideration (or perhaps for the purpose of exportation), it comes as no surprise to notice the high frequency for local products to be branded in English. Some specific investigations into the use of English in Chinese advertising have manifested practically its effectiveness for persuasion (e.g., Huang 2001; Ye & Qin 2004; Gao 2005). One claim these studies share is that with the aid of English, advertisers can attach to a product a label of modernity and sophistication most Chinese consumer desire for. More interestingly, English in China has become a symbol for people to distinguish their social status and distance themselves from others by claiming a kind of social identity or selfimage in specific terms of consumption values. As a matter of fact, a particular group of consumers, who are well-off and prosperous, but marginalized in their accessibility to positions of statusful power and prestige, especially prefer products branded or advertised in English. Strategies of English mixing may have opened up a space for them to get access to some distinctive membership in society. The discussion so far all seems to imply that practices of advertising as well as cultural values of consumption in contemporary China are almost identical to those in countries of late modernity. This point of view naturally allows us to infer that modernization means westernization in China. Yet, any inference simply grounded on these superficial facts is completely wrong. In China all advertisements must be approved by a government review board and the practice of advertising is subjected to a set of restrictions. Advertisements promoting values inconsistent with Chinese ideals are usually 59 censored. For instance, Coca-Cola withdrew a multimillion dollar campaign featuring a pop singer who had sung Taiwan’s national anthem during the presidential inauguration of Taiwan, because it was felt by the authorities of China that this advertisement would promote dissidence (Erevelles et al. 2002). Inferably, there is still concern that advertising should not undermine or challenge Chinese values. Contemporary cultural production and consumption in China, in a sense, may have less to with western postmodernism than with its own historical shifts in political cultures. 2.5.2 Situations of English Within mainland China, main phases influencing the development of English have been threefold: (1) the transformation from Russian to English in the early 1960s when the relationship with Russia deteriorated; (2) the country’s open-door policy starting at the end of 1979; and (3) China’s accession to WTO at the end of 2001 and Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympics. The last two phases of social and political changes are usually perceived as the key steps in promoting the popularity of English learning among Chinese people (Lam 2002). The status of English in today’s China is unbelievably high. Roughly up to 350 millions of Chinese people are learning English as a foreign language (Gao 2005; Yang 2006). Educational institutions at all levels make great contribution to this process started since the early 1980s. In most large cities, kindergartens offering an English program are popular, because Chinese parents want their children to learn English as early as possible. In September 2001, English was introduced as a compulsory subject for Grade three students in all elementary schools with suitably qualified teachers. The same is in secondary school where English is not only an important compulsory subject, but also one of the main subjects for national college entrance examinations. At the tertiary level, English being a required course is given much more attention. The latest national syllabus 60 (Ministry of Education 2000) specifies four 45-minute lessons each week during the first two years for college students, and another 100 lessons on English for Specific Purposes in the following two years. It is necessary for college students to pass the College English Test (CET) Band IV in their first degree. And English has become one of essential ability that helps a college graduate to get a good job. In addition, among all the Chinese media, English has become a strong language subordinate only to Chinese. A few Englishlanguage newspapers and magazines are published for domestic as well as international consumption. China Central Television Station (CCTV) and many local television stations in large cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou now have regular programs in English. Because of the huge English-knowing population, a relatively large number of Chinese young people have some knowledge of English regardless of diverse degree of proficiency. More and more people particularly in the coastal cities like Shanghai have acquired, or rather, are acquiring a workable knowledge of English. While they cannot be thought of as speakers of the bilingual in strict terms, English has indeed become their second language in their work and life. When examining the use of English in Swiss advertising over one decade ago, Chesire and Moser (1994: 454) claimed the status of English in Switzerland as in between English as a second language and English as a foreign language. The status of English in China today based on the findings is not dissimilar to that in Switzerland then in a few ways. There is the implication that English may sometimes serve as an open reservoir for an array of meanings in certain communicative situations. It entails further that insofar as English words are common and mixed in simple structures in Chinese advertising, most Chinese consumers, especially young ones, could have sufficient knowledge to understand their meanings and intended functions. While policies of China favor English and the general public has the favorable 61 attitude toward it, it is still naïve to infer that all Chinese English learners hold a positive or favorable attitude toward this language. Language attitudes among Chinese English learners are one of “love and hate” (Zhao & Campbell 1995: 382). The motivation of English learning in China’s context is strangely different from people of other developing countries who are often seen as learning English for the increased intercultural contact in the current era of globalization (cf. Dörnyei, Csizér & Németh 2006; Ryan 2006). What is not infrequently discussed is that most Chinese learners of English are not learning this language for international communication but mainly for social and economic mobility within the country (e.g., Zhao & Campbell 1995). This interpretation constitutes the basis for motivation of most Chinese to learn English. Alternatively put, English sometimes is employed by individuals only for display of their social status there. In this respect, it is important to be fully conscious of tensions of English spread coming to the fore in China’s context. The most central dimension of tension viewed in function perspective is the fact that English has become both a powerfully negative threat probably caused by the global spread of English to national identity and cultural tradition, as well as a forcefully positive instrument in the development of China into a powerful global economy. This dilemma has been neatly captured by Adamson (2004: 207) in his describing English as “a desirable evil” for China. The ample evidence for the conflicting theme of attitudes toward English can be observed, for example, in the stipulation of the 1993 English syllabus for junior secondary schools: A foreign language [i.e. English] is an important tool for interacting with other countries and plays an important role in promoting the development of the national and world economy, science and culture. In order to meet the needs of our Open Door Policy and to accelerate socialist modernization, efforts should be made to enable as many as people as possible to acquire command of one or more foreign languages. (1993 English Syllabus, Adamson & Morris 1997: 2) The aims of the 1993 syllabus also include fostering of communication, and the acquisition of knowledge of foreign cultures (Adamson & Morris 1997: 22), aims which 62 were repeated in the revised 2000 English syllabus for junior secondary schools. The learning of English is not in any way about abandoning Chinese, but rather about adding English to one’s repertoire. The Chinese government is concerned about the extent to which English learning and teaching probably harm to the maintenance of politics and cultural identity. Where the Chinese government is concerned, the facility of the English language is needed to serve the instrumental purpose of accessing the culture and technology of the West. At a time China has just joined the WTO, has successfully bode for the 2008 Olympics, and is rapidly growing into a powerful global economy, English has become a necessary medium for it to express its desire for modernity and globalization. Taken together, the discussion in somewhat detail about the practices of consumption in China reveals remarkably the shared ideological nature of English that helps general Chinese consumers to lay claim to a social identity being unavailable to them through their native language. Definitely, this shared ideology, in turn, becomes the background knowledge of the sociocultural and political circumstances broadly supporting the use of English in Chinese advertising. The significance of this observation lies equally in its leading to the implication consistent with the argument of consuming commodities as a way for claiming social identity in China today. Furthermore, the practice of consumption in China suggests that the use of English is by no means determined by the factor of the specific demographics, an echo to the earlier claim that bilingual advertisements not necessarily target exclusively at bilinguals. And, finally, the contradictory theme of attitudes toward English opens up the possibility for two different linguistic systems sometimes to construct identities dialogically, running the full gamut of degrees of association with the English language, from domination to transgression and liberation. Hence, it is highly hypothesizable to find a new kind of discursive identityrepresentation, one that is neither global nor necessarily local, in the site of ChineseEnglish bilingual advertising. 63 Summary In concluding this chapter, I would like to emphasize that a study of identity in relation to the use of English in non-English-language advertising must be situated within a particular social, cultural and political context. The theoretical absence of micro-macro connection, as Piller (2006) herself has already realized, is evident in bilingualism research in advertising. In addition, a study of identity in bilingual advertising must examine how identities are textually constructed in and emerged from interaction between all meaningconveying elements of a bilingual advertisement. The complexity of linguistic-semiotic meanings and the ambiguity of contribution English may have to this process, along with the need for adequate accounting procedures, are the important points having to be fully recognized. Taking this as point of departure, this study draws on the social constructionist and poststructuralist views of identity, treating the use of English as a component as well as a means to build identities. Yet, for a relatively explicit and comprehensive account of the impact English may have on the constructive process, the study at the same time proposes to rely upon sophisticated cognitive tools for an exploration and explanation of identity construction. In the next chapter I continue to strengthen and enrich these points of proposal by developing the use of English in question as social practice and connecting it to conceptual development and manipulation. In addition to this, I will discuss the compatibility of a socio-critical perspective of bilingualism with a cognitive one. 64 [...]... data (Piller 20 00; cited in Piller 20 01) 40 treating English in the domains of headline and slogan as the center of interpretation is analytically inappropriate In generating and interpreting meanings of a bilingual slogan or headline, the crucial role of its structural features about how specific English words are appearing inside these domains is particularly significant and cannot be definitely neglected... her data against the discussion of more than 400 print advertisements (although the corpus of TV commercials was subjected to a quantitative analysis)8 All in all, in cases of an English word(s) being inserted into a slogan and/or a headline, whether or not the English language works as a master or authoritative voice in generating meanings for the slogan and/or headline, thereby the center of interpretation,... bilingual patterns of slogans and headlines To start with, it is impractical to preclude the possibility for advertisers to treat each language in bilingual headlines and slogans as a singular or monolithic whole In his study of fluent German -English bilingual Catalans in Catalonia, Woolard (199 8a) found 43 that the translinguistic practice of switching between German and English had become one of means... underlines the relationship of English s structural position in the domains of slogan and headline to their meaning construction, and hereafter, identity formation and (re)presentation Possible ways English is inserted into slogans and headlines, together with otherwise unpredictable patterns of bilingual headlines and slogans, demonstrate convincingly the invalidity of assuming English as the element always... entrance into any text In addition to rejecting the slogan- and headline-situated English word(s) as the center of interpretation, it is therefore wrong to examine the construction of identity in the site of bilingual advertising by focusing exclusively on a slogan and/or headline as the entrance into examination This observation certainly gives rise to another core issue of meaning construction in advertising. .. outlined some general problems related to the social-indexical perspective of identity and the point-ofview approach to treating an English- mixed slogan and/or a headline as the entrance into reading advertisements and English always as the centre for interpretation The stagnant model of indexicality is essentially insufficient to account for the dynamics of bilingual practice and the complex sets of. .. combine in making the message -is one of its vital components in the field of advertising The idea that reading of an advertisement always starts with its slogan and/or headline is practically incorrect In stark contrast, Kress and van Leeuwen (1996), who underline the primarily visual character of complex, multimodal written texts, explicitly advocate visual, instead of language, as the point of entrance... in Piller The final difference, another point of strength in the work of Lee, is its establishment of a characteristic linkage between the construction of modern identity and 27 globalization Lee argues in greater detail about the likelihood, and, more important, its analytical advantage, to combine the two separate aspects of identity construction and globalization for interlinking the choice of English. .. example, Martin (20 06) labels the appearance of visual images representing American culture in French advertising as “paralanguage code-mixing”; Jung (20 01) and Bhatia and Richie (20 04) investigate the level of mixing at the script level in addition to that at the language level It is equally apparent, however, that they designate a subsidiary position to non-linguistic elements in comparison with language,... traditional sociolinguistic approaches to identity that view the way we “talk” as directly indexing a pre -discursive self in bilingual contexts It now becomes quite clear of the inadequacy of the static socialindexical perspective for examining the construction of modern identity in relation to the use of English in the site of advertising Not least thanks to the indexical-metric performance of English mixing . literature of bilingualism research in advertising. Three major aspects the theoretical perspective, the analytical approach, and meaning construction in the particular genre of advertising are. literature of bilingualism research in advertising and has yet to be examined and interpreted. The complexity of meaning potential the English language and its usage may have for meaning construction. functions of English in the domain of advertising. 2. 2 Previous Studies of Identity Construction in Bilingual Advertising This section reviews critically the available studies of identity in the