A Contrastive Study Of Chinese And English Advertisements-A Perspective Of Time Orientation

Advertising plays an important role in business, and attracts more and more concern from people involved in advertising and scholars of different disciplines. However, analyses of advertising from cultural aspects seem far from satisfactory. The present paper attempts to explore advertising from a perspective of time, which is an important aspect of culture, and through a contrastive study between Chinese and English advertisements.Advertising is a kind of vehicle of culture. It is not only economic activity, but also important means for people with different cultural backgrounds to communicate and spread different cultural values. Time is an important element of culture, loaded with cultural connotation. At the same time, it is so closely connected with every aspect of people's lives and always exerts a subtle influence on people's behaviors and communication. Hall (1973), the famous anthropologist holds that time can talk and speaks louder than language. The present study makes an attempt to probe into the effects different time orientations may have on advertising.This thesis adopts five frameworks of time orientation variations to make a contrast between different time orientations of Chinese and westerners. The five frameworks are centered on circular and linear time orientations, past and future time orientations, polychronic and monochronic time orientations, durative and instant time orientations, deductive and inductive time orientations. Based on the frameworks of five different time orientations, the paper selects 47 Chinese and English advertisements and gives a contrastive analysis of them in the light of the five frameworks. It is found that Chinese and English advertisements distinguish each other by a series of differences which reflect their own different time orientations. Firstly, Chinese advertisements tend to adopt a lot of expressions which give an impression that time is in a cycling motion, however, English advertisements reveal an attitude that time is lineal and segmented and is moving from past to future. Secondly, Chinese advertisements always take pride in a long history of the products or encourage younger generation to bear filial piety towards the older generation, English advertisements, however, focus on the younger generation and highly praise the value of the youth. Thirdly, Chinese advertisements often reveal that Chinese people are flexible in dealing with time and always feel time is abundant, but English advertisements demonstrate a view that time is a scarce source and should not be wasted. Fourthly, Chinese advertising language are more static, whereas English advertisements are more energetic and dynamic. Finally, Chinese advertisements choose to present the most important information at last, however, English advertisements always put the most important messages at the beginning.Different time orientations cause distinct features of Chinese advertisements from English advertisements. The present research goes further to find out causes deeply rooted in different cultures. These different orientations originate from their different geographical and climate environment, economic situation, religious beliefs and thinking patterns.The study is aimed at a better understanding of different time orientations and cultures in advertisements, and to offer some suggestions for intercultural advertising practitioners and intercultural communication.