The discursive construction of identity in chinese english bilingual advertising a critical inquiry 8

CHAPTER NATIONAL IDENTITY OF CONTEMPORARY CHINA The aim of this chapter is shifted to scrutinize the (re)presentations in the data of contemporary China’s national identity and its attributes. Due to the huge impact of the global spread of English on local culture (Pillipson 1992; Tsuda 1997) and the common sense that native language is a marker of national identity, the occurrence of English in Chinese advertising along with a buoyant wave of global capitalism raises a few crucial questions. The first question is about whether this bilingual practice brings challenge to or undermines China’s sense of national identity, given its status as a relatively linguistically homogeneous nation? Secondly, does China self-redefine for its own transformation with the aid of English as a new linguistic and cultural resource, or does it instead strive for a new order emerging in which differences between nation-states, far from posing obstacles to China, create a situation conductive to the process of assimilation and syncretism? Thirdly, what relations between China and other nation-states are presented? And, finally, what strategies are applied in the use of English to normalize and legitimize national identity of contemporary China? In accordance with the methodological design, the examination of these inquiries is to be conducted by being situated within the technological and real estate advertisements. 8.1 In Search of Modernity and Global Belonging The theme identified of most salient and prevailing in the construction of national identity is the obsessive search for modernity and global belonging. That cannot be too plain if realizing an exhibition of a longing for global cosmopolitanism considering modern 247 identities in the form of orientation that, as we saw, are universal over the world, in spite of some divergence in meaning and means for attainment in the Chinese context. Among these aspects of modern identity, international orientation provides a revealing case to examine the pursuit of China for a sense of global belonging. To make my argument much more pointed, this topic is therefore addressed by focusing exclusively on this aspect of modern identity. In the property advertisements evident of orientating Chinese people toward internationalization is also sensible of China’s attempts to rework its national identity. Returning for a moment to Section 6.3, the construction of this aspect of modern identity is mainly accomplished through the headlines setting the English word “international”, “world”, or “global” as the core of their presentation, and the practice of naming local products with reference to non-local, western entities in English. By the latter, the local properties are specified, determined, identified, and shaped by non-local, western entities, and in this way the construction of international orientation is largely achieved through the intimate relationship between transnational space and identity. Resemblance in name encourages the connection of the local property products to those of foreign, and the local properties in this way are classified and grouped, whereby the general metaphor THE LOCAL PROPERTIES ARE THE VERSION OF FOREIGN ENTITIES is engendered. By opening language to an imaginative world, the metaphorical reference to a foreign “repertoire” provides a semantic ground and foundation for the possibilities of seeing the local properties as foreign. Given English being a global language, the use of English, rather than their Chinese translation, for naming the local properties is surely in China’s favour to search for modernity and global belonging. Similitude in name is often accompanied with similitude in design through visual reference to architectural codes detachable from place and identity in the form of modern apartment, suburban villas, and skyscrapers. The appeal to new housing images and 248 architectural codes definitely develops and reinforces the power of the metaphor. Importantly, western urban artefacts such as suburban villas, alongside other archetypes like skyscrapers and apartment buildings, constitute what King and Kusno (2000) call the “metaphors of modernity”. Such buildings are the architectural manifestation of modernity invested with transnational meanings. What is equally crucial is that architecture like other cultural representations, in the way discussed by Vale (2008), is a reflexive statement of an ideological program consciously symbolizing the political power of a nation which imposes a certain collective identity but not another. To the extent that architecture has long been at the heart of Chinese statecraft (Rowe & Kuan 2002), this way of designing local property products reflects a changing and changed social awareness of collective (national) identity as well as China’s yearning for new, modern presentation of itself. The discursive practice of naming and designing the local properties in the same way as that in the West is a prototypical example presenting a conception of the nation “as a system of cultural significance … [or] representation of social life” whose ideological parameters are increasingly being defined not only in terms of language and ethnicity but in terms of the foreign “other” (Bhabha 1990: 1-2). In this context, it is most worthwhile to point out that the way the advertisers choose from an array of non-local names as well as western architecture for presenting the local property products, based on van Leeuwen’s (1996) argument, indicates the general relations between classification and control over conceptions of reality. But this practice does not at all stem merely from a collective psychological response to the regime of global capitalism, but also from the self-conscious search for modernity and globalization. Embedded within the discursive deployment of western codes is a new articulation of national identity that has become a crucial part of the strategy deployed to highlight the willingness of China to go global. The presentation of a pervasive sense of global belonging fits normally within the normative narrative of displaying the desire of China to join the tendency of globalization, and the aspiration after 249 a global membership on the world stage. Just as Rampton (1995) talks about “crossing” creating new cross-ethnic patterns of identification and Thorne (1993) addresses “gender crossing” that makes possible for individuals seeking to engage in some of activities usually ascribed to the other sex, these advertisements for private property have become a vehicle for global affiliation allowing China to venture outside of its own national boundary to seek inter-national similarity and afterward global belonging. As an additional point, the metaphor THE LOCAL PROPERIES ARE THE VERSION OF FOREIGN ENTITIES like others is not occurred within a cultural vacuum, but essentially motivated by and grounded in cultural attitudes toward the reference points and cultural assumptions about them in the Chinese context. Quinn observes that “(some) particular metaphors are selected by speakers, and are favoured by these speakers, just because they provide satisfying mappings onto already existing cultural understandings” (1991: 65). In this regard I agree with Wee’s (2006: 116) argument that such a metaphor reflecting transcendent metaphysical concerns is not grounded in embodied experience but, specifically, in “the cultural model of modernity” that generally encourages metaphorical comparisons of the local with the West. Truly, during its long history of contact with outside nations, the West had been a historically important positive reference point in China by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and, as such, the blending of western elements into the local property products is not surprising but something most expectable. The recognition of Chinese culture having historically been constituted by adaptability and assimilation generates the argument that this discursive practice itself has become part and parcel of its national identity. As such, it seems a priori likely that the semiotic behaviour of naming and architectural reproduction should be seen as “a series of acts of identity” (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller 1985: 14), through which China reveals its search for both its national identity and social role in the world system. 250 The obsessive search for modernity and global belonging does in no way suggest that contemporary China has given up the protection of its essential uniqueness against capitalistic globalization and homogenization. The conceptual pattern developed by Ricoeur (2003 [1977]) states clearly that the production of a metaphor combines contradictions or differences with similarities or resemblances without reducing one to the other. “In the metaphorical statement”, Ricoeur explains, ‘the similar’ is perceived despite difference, in spite of contradiction. Resemblance, therefore, is the logical category corresponding to the predicative operation in which ‘approximation’ (bringing close) meets the resistance of ‘being distant’. In other words, metaphor displays the work of resemblance because the literal contradiction preserves difference within the metaphorical statement; ‘same’ and ‘different’ are not just mixed together, they also remain opposed. Through the specific trait, enigma lives on in the heart of metaphor. In metaphor, ‘the same’ operates in spite of ‘the different’. (Ricoeur 2003[1977]: 232, italics original) This point of view has the effect of suggesting that the metaphor THE LOCAL PROPERTIES ARE THE VERSION OF FOREIGN ENTITIES should be interpreted from two different angles: similarity, on the one hand, and difference, on the other. As a matter of fact, while being in an attempt to enter the world system featured with the unifying culture, China, far from weakening its commitment to cultural identity, are becoming more and more aware of the particularity of its civilization. As Bhabha (1994) observes, the demand of non-national culture is a demand not necessary for equality but often for recognition of difference, a demand that opens up a difference within dominant culture itself. There is no threat coming from the semiotic practices of transnational space and architecture, but the fact that they have come to be interpreted as an assimilation of foreign elements by Chinese culture, not the other way round, so much so that the country maintains its self-identity regardless of foreign influence. This recognition makes us pay attention to another inquiry of national identity that is basically accomplished through intertextual allusion to or evocation of traditional Chinese culture. 251 8.2 Desiring to be Distinctive Nation is nothing if not constitutive of its distinctive and familiar cultural history and indigenous tradition, and the significance of national identity as a cultural construct is not infrequently stressed (e.g., Renan 1990; Hall 1992). Following this, national identity can be immediately linked to a nation’s past, shared or collective memory, and heritage. This observation becomes an essential factor to interpret different forms of identity involved in conceiving of a nation and distinguishing the nation the kind of nation that it is. As a matter of fact, the construction of a unique nation is frequently gained through allusion in nostalgic disguise, and one of the contemporary, practical means of creating unique identities of a nation is the invention of tradition (Hobsbawrn & Ranger 1983). Behind the nostalgia is an increasing defensive reaction by the nation who sees its identity challenged by the onslaught of unifying culture of world media. The data is not completely exclusive of a continued involvement with China’s distant past and shared memory, either in content or in form. While not being many in number, there are several advertisements having the reference to global tendencies juxtaposed with a recovery of traditional Chinese culture, particularly Confucianism. The revival of Confucianism is a key practice centring round the ideological work applied to recreate the cultural logic behind particular formations of national identity. It is one of ways through which a unique identity of China is sustained and underpinned. In such advertisements the role of English is in opposition to the general assumption of bringing threat to national identity of contemporary China. Instead, either is English occasionally employed to rediscover and/or reinterpret some facets of cultural uniqueness in terms of myth, history, and architectural heritage, or it has no effect on the formation in the blend of national identity. This, however, cannot be easily recognized at first sight based merely on the English-mixed headlines and slogans, but often has to work with an exploration into the process of blending. 252 In discussing modern identities of Chinese people, I have already illustrated the significance of such personal traits as self-reliance, hard work, and effort to make success. The implicit emphasis by the Buick Excelle advertisement (see Figure 6.18) on the Confucian values of hard work and effort for socially upward mobility, notably, resonates with the long-standing brief among Chinese people as regards the correspondence of effort to success: the more efforts and strives being made, the higher chance to become successful. That success, and its attachments to dignity and social prestige, is chiefly gained through hard work and continuous effort, has its origin from the classic Chinese myth “愚公移山” yugong yishan, a story that a fool even moves a hill away. What the myth implicitly underscores is that any aim can turn into reality as long as one sticks to this aim and works hard at it. Importantly, a myth is a narrative that articulates a community’s origin and sense of identity. Through specifying and defining its distinctive social conditions to be successful and become a member of elite groups, the mythic discourse thus rearticulated and represented attributes special qualities to the national community, extends its distinctiveness and draws a boundary. The revivalist myth of the Chinese people being hard working and perseverant, to a great extent, militates against the international sameness. It is meant to be felt that in addition to a picture of how to make success, a unique national identity is simultaneously sought to be constructed in the blend. After pointing out the construction of a unique nation through the allusion to Confucian values, it is necessary to be reminded that the use of IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE itself in this advertisement seems to function nothing in the final blend. In other words, the formation of a unique China in this case is not the result of the use of English only. Then, in the Fiat advertisement (see Figure 6.6), the core information contained in the DIY frame activated by Do it yourself indeed has a deep root in traditional Chinese culture. Alternatively stated, the English phrase is not simply used to direct toward the American value of self-reliance, but also works as an intercultural reference to help 253 conjure up the traditional Chinese value of self-reliance. More precisely, the American value of DIY rearticulated shows correlation with the theme of “自力更生” zili gengsheng (lit. something by replying on one’s own strength, efforts or resources) in semantic meaning. The Chinese slogan zili gengsheng was proposed first as early as in 1940 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Father of Modern China, in his manuscript The True Solution of the Chinese Question. Dr. Sun referred to independence and self-reliance as key to resolving social problems of China at that time. After that, during the historical period of antiJapanese war (1937-1945), Chairman Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, raised it anew but in juxtaposition with “艰苦奋斗” jianku fendou (lit. work hard and perseveringly) as the famous slogan fighting against the Japanese aggressors. Selfreliance and hard work were commonly thought of as the extremely crucial factors for China in winning this national war. Having thus said, the invocation of the American DIY subculture is also connectable to the cognitive model of China’s national spirit of selfreliance. Because of the intrinsic ethnocentric bias of Do it yourself being on par with the Chinese people’s ethnic culture, the suggestion is emerged for this intercultural reference to be rationally perceived as the way reflectively linked to a revitalizing and entrenchment of cultural traditionalism rather than to be condemned as just Americanization or cultural imperialism1. In a sense, the Fiat advertisement may well be taken as a perfect illustration of why the process of reinventing tradition does not only entail the rediscovery and/or reinterpretation of the facets of Chinese history, but evenly entail subtle adaptation and assimilation of concepts from other cultural environments. One point must be stressed here, that is, the persistence of timeless Confucian values is not random but regulated by the strong desire of China for cultural continuity in Nevertheless, this is not meant to say no difference between them. Self-reliance has a different meaning depending on cultural context and the general value orientation. In an individualistic context of America the focus of self-reliance is more on the meaning of autonomy, self-fulfillment, and strong will, while in the more collectivistic context of China responsibilities in and help for the state or the family are of equal importance, as evidenced by the above mentioned historical events. 254 the new era of globalization, ideological transformation, and shifting perceptions. This discursive practice is a response to the keenly felt need to recover a native ground on which cultural identity of China can be securely anchored even in the changing world of late modernity. Implied in it is a gesture toward an alternative construction of modernity, suggesting that China all the same gives tremendous weight to preserving and reaffirming the nation as a distinct collective. Among the real estate advertisements, the pervasive presentation of transnational architecture and space is far from an attempt to drain China of cultural heritage. Instead of blindly copying exotic foreignness-bearing names, “sinicized” names sometimes have been developed for housing projects: 北京 CDB (lit. Beijing CDB) 保利 Cambridge (lit. Baoli Cambridge) 东方 LEHAS (lit. Dongfang LEHAS) 宁波 HOPSCA (lit. Ningbo HOPSCA) The way of placing an extra-localized Chinese name prior to foreign or exotic names clearly carries much localized connotations. Take as an example “北京 CDB” (lit. Beijing CDB). Conceptual blending in Beijing CDB involves a two-sided framework in which the BEIJING space contains a frame for Beijing and the CDB space contains a frame for CDB. In the Beijing-CDB blend, the head concept CDB provides relevant dimensions for attribute (e.g., business, prosperous, city-centred, successful, status, or prestige), while the modifier Beijing provides candidate properties attributable to the head. In the blend, a Beijing CDB is a “CDB” having the properties of the local “Beijingness”. In contrast to the use of CDB in English for achieving its conceptual meanings of modernity and foreignness, wealth and prestige, the expression of Beijing in Chinese for the clarity of its geographical 255 location might be basically grounded on the close association of the Chinese language with the local.2 Figure 8.1 The ad for Beijing Bay villa Additionally, not all the promoted villas are designed in the western styles I have sketched above. Out of twenty villa advertisements, three are designed with traditional Chinese architecture. An appeal to traditional Chinese architecture is a useful discursive practice, by means of which a Chinese cultural community is emerged. The villa branded Having thus said, it needs to be careful not to overstate that such attempts at localizing property products are the effort to repudiate western or foreign influences. 256 Beijing Bay provides a good case for illustration. Given in Figure 8.1, its headline composed of the two syntactically parallel phrases in contrastive size of letters reads, “中国大宅 万乘之尊” Zhongguo Dazhai Wancheng Zhizun (lit. Chinese big house, the emperor with ten thousand chariots at his command) Chinese villa. The nobility’s class. Being in announcing tone, the headline has the effect of labelling the promoted villa two different sets of social attribute, given the juxtaposition of the Chinese nominal compound “中国大宅” zhongguo dazhai (lit. Chinese large house) with the English nominal compound “Chinese villa”. The two different sets of social attribute attached to the promoted villa, as the development of analysis suggests below, are not entirely opposed to each other; on the contrary, they share the dimension of architectural attributes that are emphasized through the rough bilingual parallel. My analysis as usual starts with the headline by focusing on its English part. In the nominal compound Chinese villa, the mapping takes place between the mental spaces of CHINESE and VILLA, and, thereby the attribute of the promoted villa is distinctively stamped with some intrinsic “Chineseness” irrespective of its English form. “Chinese” attribution is illustrated markedly by the sample product tangibly exemplifying the striking traits of traditional Chinese architecture---curing upturned roof, rectangular courtyard, private enclosure, white wall, grey tile, as well as the high and formidable walls separating the handkerchief sized plot securely from others. Basically, these features in relation to architectural legacy of China are also applicable to describing the conventional building of zhongguo dazhai. The uniqueness of zhongguo dazhai in terms of traditional architectural style is enriched by such words appearing in the text body as “檐阁” yange (lit. two-story pavilions), “榭” xie (lit. pavilions or houses on terraces), “长廊” changlang (lit. long porch), and “ 国典山林 ” guodian shanlin (lit. traditional Chinese garden). Thus being said, no matter what social attributes are attached to the promoted villa, the architectural attributes become the shared elements in the local integration network constitutive of the two 257 spaces---CHINESE VILLA and ZHONGGUO DAZHAI---that emphatically defines the promoted villa in the blend. Features of local architectural codes attached to the promoted villa are the product of deliberate cultural reconstruction and maintenance mainly fulfilled through the parodic reworking of traditional Chinese architecture. The regeneration of traditional style of Chinese architecture is a sign of cultural continuity between generations as well as a connection with its past. In the way argued by Coupland, cultural continuity as “an iterative process of performed entextualization” is accompanied with “a process of critical reassessment of what these practices are like and how they define ‘us’, and us relative to others” (2007: 155). If so, the rebirth of traditional Chinese architecture is not so much for itself, but as an effective strategy for China to come to terms with and to respond, critically and creatively, to the dominance of western architectural culture. The principle reason to maintain a sense of cultural uniqueness is to highlight difference in national self-perception within or beyond its territory. All in all, the resurgence of Confucian virtues and traditional architectural style may well be thought of as an exhibition of tremendous faith in China to form the particular ideal of national community. The force driving the renaissance of Confucianism and traditional architecture is a strong current of cultural nationalism. A unique national identity, as Castells (1997) aptly argues, marks the up-surging power of local culture that offers resistance to the centripetal force of capitalist globalization in late modernity. Discursive practice like this is an attempt to see China as a high civilization with a unique place in the world and to “recreate this nation which, integrating the traditional and the modern on a higher level, will again rise to the forefront of world progress” (Hutchinson 1987: 128). Hence, the discursive invention of myth and collective culture and histories, despite not at all being pervasive in the data, maintains ambivalence toward a recovery of traditional culture to establish China’s place in the global politics, serving to entrench new relationships that emerge in an increasingly integrated world. 258 The aspiration of China to having a new, powerful, position on the world stage, then, becomes the next theme of national identity to be discussed. 8.3 Aspiring to be a Powerful Nation In addition to the above two themes of national identity, contemporary China is implicitly constructing itself as a major power in the global economic and political system, seeking to elevate its international status in the new world order. The discursive practice of emphasis on advancing modern technology, discussed in Chapter 6, may well be taken as an instance of China’s initiative in heightening its global position as well as strengthening its economic power. This is simply because high technology is held by the Chinese government as “the focus of competition in comprehensive national strength” (People’s Daily Online, June 2006). Also, the practice of transnational space and architectural codes is roughly meant to build an image of China boosting its international prestige. In a few property advertisements, the portrayal of China as a potentially powerful nation is basically grounded in features associated with the glorious past of itself or others through intertextual allusion. Return for a moment to the Jiangshan Dijing advertisement (see Figure 6.16), the attempt of developmental elites in China to enhance and legitimize their new-found status and social standing chiefly mediated through the use of the English words “CBD”, “king”, “manor”, and “palace” and the Chinese word “帝” di (lit. emperor) can be plausibly extended to the nation-level community. In the blend, the desire of China for a new position on the world stage is emerged as the consequence of retrieving the “glamorous” side of its own history as well as intertextual allusion to the Empire of Britain. A few more examples are found in the property advertisements, the headlines of which are mixed with the English words “royal”, “nobility”, “king”, “princely”, and “caste”: My Royal Life, My Gold Way (Gubei) 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 wancheng zhizun (lit. Chinese big house, the 259 emperor with ten thousand chariots at his command), Chinese villa, the nobility’s class (Beijing Bay) Princely life by Forbidden City (Naga) The great hills and lakes for the king (Lake Valley) These headlines explicitly promote a cognitive model of ROYALTY or NOBILITY. The list of English words mainly works for semantic meanings. The intertextual allusion to social status or prestige activated through the use of English, compared with that of Chinese, is certainly more meaningful considering its being a marker of social status or prestige in the particular context of China. Significantly, the intertextual allusion to social status or prestige is meant to meet not only individual aspiration for high rank and prestige, but also that of the nation. For an example, look again at the Beijing Bay advertisement where the acknowledgement of material possession and advancement of personal status at the current time are designed to be valued only through the past glory. Above I have already discussed how the architectural attributes of the promoted villa point to the presentation of a distinctive national identity for contemporary China. Here are a number of interesting subtleties, however. First of all, the villa in China is the statement of social privilege and social power. The enjoyment of prestige and honour brought along with the villa is reinforced by the phrase The nobility’s class just after Chinese villa. Being expressed in English, the phrase evokes the imagery of the upperclass as well as the aristocratic system existed once in Britain. And generic elements contained in the NOBILITY space include high rank, honour, and privilege. Given the Time relation and the shared inner-space relation of Role-Value, the space of CHINESE VILLA is linked to that of NOBILITY. In the local blend of the English line illustrated in Figure 8.2, the promoted villa becomes the medium stirring the viewers with a tangible nostalgia for an exalted life led by the nobility existent also in the feudal era of China. Turn now to the Chinese part of the headline. In contrast to the villa, dazhai in 260 The Chinese-Villa space The Nobility space The villa The nobility China today Old Britain Social privilege High rank Social power Honor Privilege The villa/The Nobility China today/Old Britain Social privilege/privilege Social power High rank Honor The blended space Figure 8.2 A simplified network diagram of the Chinese -Villa blend China by tradition refers to a large dwelling unit housing families of a few generations. The formation of zhongguo dazhai most likely evokes, for one thing, the collective memories of traditional Chinese family in history, and for another, as noted previously, the imageries of dazhai featured with traditional Chinese architectural styles. The stereotyped view of traditional Chinese family is about a large extended family with several generations and immediate families living under one roof, a self sufficient and self-help institution for its members, providing child care and the care of the elderly. It is worth noting that this kind of family had long lapsed, and family of China today is normally constitutive of three members thanks to the policy of Family Planning. Being culturally associated with prosperity, social prestige and social power, the use of zhongguo dazhai is 261 reminiscent of the legendary status of the upper-class in the feudal era of China. The historical recalling naturally engenders the activation of a collective imagination, surfacing glamour of the past life. Following this, in the ZHONGGUO DAZHAI frame is basically universal of the conceptual elements involving material affluence, family unity, glory, social prestige, and social power. The discourse of social prestige is echoed and further reinforced by the content of text body presented in monolingual Chinese. Imageries activated by such words as “鼎级” dingji (lit. emperor-level)3, “尊享” zunxiang (lit. your enjoyment)4, and “名门” mingmen (lit. illustrious family) are perfectly consistent with the symbolic significance of zhongguo dazhai. While the first guess is that such values appeal only to an extended family in history, this does not turn out to be true. As noted earlier, the close interrelation between the family and the nation is particularly evident in Chinese culture, and the nation-state according to Balibar (1991) derives its collective meaning through creation of “fictive ethnicity” based on family besides school, in which the home is more effective. There is rather a chain of reasoning that leads from the material affluence, family unity, and social prestige of an extended family as a primary social unit to broader consideration of values of national unity, national power, and its splendid age. An IMPERIAL CHINA space is thus triggered. And in the copy is easy to detect a few either visual or verbal clues that are supportive of this assertion. Verbally, this comes out most strikingly in the Chinese idiom wancheng zhizun immediately after zhongguo dazhai that concerns prestige and honour enjoyed by the Emperor of China in the ancient imperial. In parallel to wancheng zhizun, an observation As opposed to its English translation “tripod”, ding “鼎”, a bronze vessel originally for cooking and later on often used in grand ceremonies of commemoration, inauguration, or even mourning since the Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC), is symbol of power in particular relation to China’s national essence and its traditional imperial culture. Zunxiang “尊享” like ding “鼎” is a culture laden expression showing one’s honour to the addressee. 262 of more pertinence is the connection of the promoted villa consciously to imperial buildings only for the Emperor of China. Supporting evidence, too, is not so hard to find by singling out a cluster of Chinese words like “皇脉” huanmai (lit. the royal blood), “宫 纬” gongwei (lit. the royal palaces and wefts), “盛景” shengjing (lit. flourishing scene), and “气吞万里山河” qitun wanli shanhe (lit. imbued with a spirit that conquers mountains and rivers). Significantly, shengjing, at the same time normally connected to the past imperial glories under the dynasties of Tang (618-907) and Song (969-1279), is reminiscent of the flourishing age and past greatness. A remembered past is the source of great pride, and one that creates an enduring sense of China as an exceptional nation. The Zhongguo Dazhai space The Imperial China space The Emperor Dazhai Being honored Feudal China Flourishing age Material affluence Family unity Social prestige Architectural legacy Dazhai The Emperor Feudal China Family unity Social prestige/Being honored Flourishing age Architectural legacy The blended space Figure 8.3 A simplified network diagram of the Zhongguo-Dazhai blend 263 Due to the shared information of social prestige, a possible link takes place between the spaces of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI and IMPERIAL CHINA. In the local blend of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI, the specific conceptual elements contained in the ZHONGGUO DAZHAI frame move beyond the family level and are radically extended to that of the ancient imperial: nation unity, national prestige, and national power, as diagrammed in Figure 8.3. The architectural nostalgia, previously noted, has the same function to inspire a sense of pride and value in China’s architectural legacy that is congruent with the nationalistic mood emerging from the historical recalling of China’s past greatness. Hence, national pride inferably becomes another core conceptual element expectable in the blended space of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI. Developed from the local blend of ZhongguoDazhai mingling with a range of conceptual elements, the past glory of China becomes the source of national power, prestige, and pride. Diagrammed in Figure 8.4, a partial cross-space matching might be taken place between the two local blended spaces of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI and CHINESE VILLA based on the shared inner-space relation of Role-Value and the vital relation of Time. With this essential link, the promoted villa can be described in reference to dazhai, thereby making it convincing to assert the connection of the promoted villa to the historical glory of China. It now becomes clearer that the advertisement, by mining the positive associations of the psycho-cultural deposit of Chinese people, succeeds in triggering feelings of nostalgia, patriotism, and pride. It is essentially crucial to realize that the nostalgia of the past glory and its impact on the activation of a sense of national pride not simply involve some neutral revival of the past but its careful recasting to serve political ends. One compelling reason is that the nostalgia reinstates a dialogue with the past and, inescapably also, with the social and ideological context in which the advertisement is produced and consumed. Hutcheon 264 claims that “nostalgia is less about the past than about the present” (2000: 192), and the power of nostalgia “comes in part from the incompatibility between two different temporal moments, an inadequate present and an idealized past” (ibid.: 193). In somewhat different yet closely relevant way, Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983) suggest to interpret the reduplication of nostalgia as focused not on a glorious past but on its anticipation, images of a great future. In other words, the reduplication of the past glory is not by any means fixed in the past, but subject to reinterpretation as justification for the present and the future. It is with this interpretation that the appeal to collective memory of the past glory should be read. Following this, the recontextualization of the past glory reveals the selfperception of China identifying the symbol-laden villa as the presentation of its power, The blended Zhongguo-Dazhai space The blended Chinese-Villa space The villa Dazhai China today Past glory High rank National power National prestige Honor National pride Privilege The villa/Dazhai China today/Past glory High rank Honor Privilege National power National prestige National pride The blended space Figure 8.4 A simplified network diagram of the Beijing Bay blend 265 prestige and pride, giving connotations of its aspiration to be a new powerful nation on the world stage. The Beijing Bay advertisement testifies how history may become a central practice of self-reflexivity as well as in the reflexivity monitored relations between nationstates. The restoration of the past in the creation of a great future fosters a nationalism that promotes a powerful China as normal. In modern times nationalism as “an expression of a discursive hegemony” (Hall 1997: 4) is crucially important to the genesis and reproduction of national identity in the eyes of Spencer and Wollman (2002). As the centre of the world in the historical past and the imaginary leader of the third world, China feels justified in dreaming this wondrous vision. The demand to be a powerful nation and the demand for a higher position and more voice on the world stage also appear perfectly normal for China today, especially after several decades of successful economic reform and epoch-making development. It seems right to view the reinstatement of the past greatness as largely effectuated by practices of self-reflexivity in need to construct a national image appropriate to the contemporary requirement of an upsurge in Chinese nationalism. Among the technological advertisements, there is one eloquently articulating and presenting Chinese nationalism and its impact on the construction of China as a new powerful nation. This advertisement promotes desktop by China-based Lenovo Group, the largest personal computer manufacturer in the Asia-Pacific region. As reproduced in Figure 8.5, the English word “Yes!” printed in extremely large letters is identified inside the headline in the pair of question-answer: “有一种速度能使企业始终领先一步?” you yizhong sudu neng shi qiye shizhong lingxian yi bu? (lit. Is there a kind of rate that makes enterprises always ahead of competitors?) “Yes! 联想扬天 闪电恢复” Yes! Lianxiang Yangtian shandian huifu (lit. Lenovo ThinkCentre, lightning-speedy restoration) 266 Figure 8.5 The ad for Lenovo desktop Inferably, the term Yes is used as an adverb for a positive reply. The headline highlights the distinctive peculiarity of the product in terms of its speedy rate of processing that is able to make enterprises successful. Within the copy are in addition a large photograph of the running male model and the sample product. Of particular concern, it is Liu Xiang, China’s only world class track and field athlete, who is chosen as the model. Together with a hurdle and athletic track displaying on the screen of the sample product, Liu Xiang’s running and his showing of an index finger easily trigger the image of his winning of the men’s 110-meter hurdles at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The visual clues apparently support the argument that Yes, too, is used here as an independent interjection expressing a strong feeling of joy, pleasure and satisfaction after a victory. This, however, 267 cannot be accomplished with its Chinese equivalent. At this point, the significance of Yes for the activation of this conceptual meaning emerges. What is equally relevant is that sport in China as elsewhere lends itself commonly as both a metonym and metaphor in discourse of nationalism (Bairner 2001). Liu Xiang is an icon of the nation since the 2004 Olympics. The choice of Liu Xiang as the model and his association with sport has a direct impact on the advertisement’s contribution to constructing China as a new powerful global force5. The reason why this guy has meant so much to the country is simply because track and field sports are an arena universally conceived as being quintessentially Western that China never even hoped to be competitive in. Through Liu Xiang’s huge efforts, China has gained a seat in this arena, which has helped to restore the nation’s pride. By accomplishing what seemed to most as impossible, Liu Xiang captures the national imagination and brings a new sense of hope and possibility to China. Of even greater concern, given that sport is frequently described as the symbolic representation of war, in the HURDLE RACE space Liu Xiang is the winner and his western counterparts, losers. The rise of Liu Xiang has become a symbol that China is overtaking its western counterparts on the world stage in the HURDLE RACE space. For the present purpose, it is also useful to consider background knowledge of the successful acquisition by Lenovo of IBM’s PC division in December 2004. This business purchase is normally seen as a symbol that Lenovo is defeating its American rival in the field of technology at least of personal computer in the global market. Thus realized, the promoted desktop itself appears sufficient to evoke a BUSINESS COMPETITION space, within which Lenovo is the winner and IBM, the loser. Given Lenovo being the pride of China, this victory can be extended as that of the nation in the global competition. As mentioned in the previous chapter, in the all advertisements connected with sport Liu Xiang is the only Chinese man chosen as a model. 268 The Hurdle Race space The Business Competition space Competition Race Winner: Lenovo Winner: Liu Xiang Loser: IBM Loser: Western counterparts Race/Competition Liu Xiang/Lenovo Western counterparts IBM The blended space Figure 8.6 A simplified network diagram of the Lenovo blend The sharing of the same organizing frame by the HURDLE RACE space and the BUSINESS COMPETITION space enables us to integrate them, as illustrated in Figure 8.6. In the blend appears an image of “new” China, China’s future, and its reinvention for the world as an economic and social power. Summary Given the way I have discussed about national identities of contemporary China (re)presented in the data, it is perhaps wiser to make two or more observations than attempt to produce conclusions that are neat and clear-cut. The most striking observation to be gleaned from the above analyses is that national identities of China today are less well defined, and more contested. The self/other dichotomy no longer holds the standard to assert or evaluate China’s identity, and the nation has been suffering from a sort of dual 269 identity that constitutes the true Chinese dilemma---a national identity divided against itself. The complex formulation of national identities is closely associated with the existence within the country of an especially mixed pot of identity-shaping influences. Concerns surrounding the impact of globalization, the desire for global universalism, the influence of cultural revivalism, and the force of nationalism underscore this complexity. That is the reason why the drive to go forwards ever deeper into modernity is matched with the temptation to sustain cultural peculiarity. This evidence is also useful to account for the reality that even though national identities of contemporary China are being somewhat “eroded” (Hall 1992: 300) by the growing transnational linguistic and cultural practices, national uniqueness is constantly maintained through the renewal of its cultural aspects of distinction. Even in its attempt to establish an image of a new powerful nation, this is often realized through returning to its past glories in an implicit, indirect way. The representational strategies of syncretism and hybridity manifest as the harmonious blending of ancient traditions and modern attributes have been proven successful for China. To restate Dai, The Chinese dwelling on cosmopolitanism, Eurocentrism, the complex cultural psychology of idolizing the West while searching for indigenous identity, and the display of conscious national resistance and extreme nationalistic fanaticism have always been inextricably entangled. They appear indistinctly within China’s cultural and ideological expression from the last century until today. (Dai 2001: 171) Closely related to this observation, the discourse of China’s identity is a skilfully crafted product of dialogic conversation, assimilation and accommodation, and is being constantly refined and redefined. The subject framing this point is the relationship between modernity and what Bhabha has called “the ideological ambivalence” of the “nation-space” (1990: 4). The empirical findings, furthermore, indicate the contradictory nature of nationalism in contemporary China. While China has a strong commitment to making the 270 country a new power of the world, this nationalist ideology is mixed with, or more correct, fuelled by, a sense of inferiority. Prime evidence is the practice of often privileging western entities as cultural reference and its pervasiveness in the real estate advertisements. The metaphorical referent for naming the local property products is not purely for spatialreferential but bespeaks something of admiration, although it is not unqualified admiration, or unqualified admiration for all. The ambivalence toward the West and indigenous traditions is a typical characteristic of late modernizing societies such as China: the “admiration of the foreigner with strenuous opposition to his domination, consciousness of inferiority of the indigenous tradition with a determination to reassert it strength and individuality” (Rustow 1967: 43, cited in Guo 2004: 127). Interestingly, the making of transnational space primarily illustrates, and more significantly, reinforces, the centreperiphery models along which “value-attributions to the place” are organized (Blommaert 2005: 223, italics original). Seen in this way, it is reasonable to go even further to claim that social inequality existing between China and the West still remains in the world system. But one point, too, has to be borne in mind that China’s resolution to becoming one member of the globe simultaneously stems from the desire to meet the western challenge and to quickly become a leading nation. 271 [...]... dimension of architectural attributes that are emphasized through the rough bilingual parallel My analysis as usual starts with the headline by focusing on its English part In the nominal compound Chinese villa, the mapping takes place between the mental spaces of CHINESE and VILLA, and, thereby the attribute of the promoted villa is distinctively stamped with some intrinsic “Chineseness” irrespective of. .. stirring the viewers with a tangible nostalgia for an exalted life led by the nobility existent also in the feudal era of China Turn now to the Chinese part of the headline In contrast to the villa, dazhai in 260 The Chinese- Villa space The Nobility space The villa The nobility China today Old Britain Social privilege High rank Social power Honor Privilege The villa /The Nobility China today/Old Britain... family of China today is normally constitutive of three members thanks to the policy of Family Planning Being culturally associated with prosperity, social prestige and social power, the use of zhongguo dazhai is 261 reminiscent of the legendary status of the upper-class in the feudal era of China The historical recalling naturally engenders the activation of a collective imagination, surfacing glamour... ZhongguoDazhai mingling with a range of conceptual elements, the past glory of China becomes the source of national power, prestige, and pride Diagrammed in Figure 8. 4, a partial cross-space matching might be taken place between the two local blended spaces of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI and CHINESE VILLA based on the shared inner-space relation of Role-Value and the vital relation of Time With this essential link, the. .. shared information of social prestige, a possible link takes place between the spaces of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI and IMPERIAL CHINA In the local blend of ZHONGGUO DAZHAI, the specific conceptual elements contained in the ZHONGGUO DAZHAI frame move beyond the family level and are radically extended to that of the ancient imperial: nation unity, national prestige, and national power, as diagrammed in Figure 8. 3 The. .. Figure 8. 6 A simplified network diagram of the Lenovo blend The sharing of the same organizing frame by the HURDLE RACE space and the BUSINESS COMPETITION space enables us to integrate them, as illustrated in Figure 8. 6 In the blend appears an image of “new” China, China’s future, and its reinvention for the world as an economic and social power Summary Given the way I have discussed about national identities... selfperception of China identifying the symbol-laden villa as the presentation of its power, The blended Zhongguo-Dazhai space The blended Chinese- Villa space The villa Dazhai China today Past glory High rank National power National prestige Honor National pride Privilege The villa/Dazhai China today/Past glory High rank Honor Privilege National power National prestige National pride The blended space Figure 8. 4... imagery of the upperclass as well as the aristocratic system existed once in Britain And generic elements contained in the NOBILITY space include high rank, honour, and privilege Given the Time relation and the shared inner-space relation of Role-Value, the space of CHINESE VILLA is linked to that of NOBILITY In the local blend of the English line illustrated in Figure 8. 2, the promoted villa becomes the. .. Thus being said, no matter what social attributes are attached to the promoted villa, the architectural attributes become the shared elements in the local integration network constitutive of the two 257 spaces -CHINESE VILLA and ZHONGGUO DAZHAI -that emphatically defines the promoted villa in the blend Features of local architectural codes attached to the promoted villa are the product of deliberate cultural... of cultural nationalism A unique national identity, as Castells (1997) aptly argues, marks the up-surging power of local culture that offers resistance to the centripetal force of capitalist globalization in late modernity Discursive practice like this is an attempt to see China as a high civilization with a unique place in the world and to “recreate this nation which, integrating the traditional and . era of China. The historical recalling naturally engenders the activation of a collective imagination, surfacing glamour of the past life. Following this, in the ZHONGGUO DAZHAI frame is basically. highlight the willingness of China to go global. The presentation of a pervasive sense of global belonging fits normally within the normative narrative of displaying the desire of China to join the. features in relation to architectural legacy of China are also applicable to describing the conventional building of zhongguo dazhai. The uniqueness of zhongguo dazhai in terms of traditional architectural