An Aesthetic Contemplation Of Contemporary Chinese Advertising (1979-2015)

Upon hearing the encouraging bugle of the Reform and Opening-up in China in 1978, Chinese commercial advertising, which had been silent for decades, entered the Chinese social stage afresh. After about three decades of development, its total turnover rose from 0.01 billion Chinese yuan in 1979 to 597.34 billion Chinese yuan in 2015, thus making China the second power in the advertisement world, ranking only after the United States of America. As the Chinese society underwent multiple transformations after the Reform and Opening-up, a rather intricate social development status is formed, and tremendous and profound changes take place in the Chinese people's emotions, values, pursuits, life styles and aesthetic taste. The recovery and development of contemporary Chinese advertising follows exactly such a process. Contemporary Chinese advertising, therefore, becomes a very vivid and lively sample for us to observe and analyze the changes in current Chinese aesthetic culture because they provide a subtle record and a clear reflection of the values, pursuits and emotions of the contemporary Chinese people, cater to or lead the changes in their life style and values, and preserve the imprints of various exotic cultures during this transformative period in China.Based on the above assumptions and firmly established on a close study of contemporary Chinese commercial advertising practice from a historical perspective, this dissertation attempts to analyze the culture shock and fusion experienced by contemporary Chinese advertising during radical social transformations as shown in Chinese advertising works, design methods, business practice, and some significant events in the Chinese advertising history, and reveal the clash and fusion of contemporary Chinese advertising with the mainstream consciousness, the traditional culture, modernity, pragmatism and post modernity. Further more, with an analysis of the cultural predicament faced by contemporary Chinese advertising, it also tries to probe into possible ways and strategies for the construction of a unique contemporary Chinese advertising aesthetic culture.Specifically, the dissertation studies the development of the aesthetic culture in contemporary Chinese advertising from six aspects through an integration of history and theory.First, the dissertation analyzes the accommodation and decomposition of the Chinese political consciousness by contemporary Chinese advertising. As an important way of marketing, advertising flourished in China mainland after the Reform and Opening-up and implemented considerable impact on the mainstream consciousness which had been mainly dominated by political ideas before. Through the clever employment of advertising strategies, contemporary Chinese advertising repeatedly broke through the political boundaries and expanded its own realm. Its continuous commercial aestheticization of the mainstream consciousness via such aesthetic symbols as national images and red metaphors and its commercial deconstruction of the political traits of mainstream consciousness via parody and other symbolic methods contribute greatly to the consequent aesthetic integration of Chinese advertising with the mainstream consciousness.Secondly, the dissertation examines the absorption and commercialization of traditional Chinese culture in contemporary Chinese advertising. With the Reform and Opening-up, the traditional culture begins to act as the emotional source for contemporary advertising and helps form its spiritual temperament and aesthetic pursuit through the emotional alteration of historical stories, the nostalgic reminiscence of one's homeland, and the stress on family. Meanwhile, the fragmentized and commercialized employment of traditional culture in advertising renders its spiritual values materialized and dissolved, thus making it lose its traditional idealistic charm to a certain degree.Thirdly, the dissertation analyzes the aesthetic visualization of the modern life in contemporary Chinese advertising. Contemporary Chinese advertising unfolds a wonderful world of plenty of goods to the contemporary Chinese through the construction of such paradigms as magic commodities, rationalized consumption, modern way of life, and new consumption subjects. In this world, people can possess numerous goods, take good care of their body, and follow fashion and celebrities happily to their heart's content. Men can enjoy the liberty of consumption if they are successful whereas women can feel confident and happy because of their consumption. This aesthetic presentation of the consumption-orientated modern life in contemporary advertising fully accommodates the contemporary Chinese people's pursuit of a better material life and greatly improves their sense of dignity. Sadly, however, such presentation also brings contemporary Chinese into the swirl of consumerism at the same time and gives the aesthetic culture of contemporary Chinese advertising a dark side of heavy consumerism.Fourthly, the dissertation dwells on the aesthetic packaging and molding of the plebian consumption in contemporary Chinese advertising. To accommodate the deep influence of pragmatism on the ordinary Chinese consumers who grow mature every day in the market economy, contemporary Chinese advertising adopts a "mirroring" aesthetic presentation of their consumption. And both the cut-in angle and the aesthetic packaging of the advertisements resort to a humanistic and plebian approach, recognizes and advocates the secular life of the common ones, and helps mould a simple and practical attitude towards consumption and life. Such aesthetic presentation enables contemporary advertising to magnify its influence further and the consumption culture advocated in the advertisements permeates into the life all social groups, including the ordinary consumers, which accelerates the aestheticization of their everyday life.Fifthly, the dissertation analyzes the post modern aesthetic styles in contemporary Chinese advertising. The alternative, rebellious and subversive ways of expression in post modern advertisements which originated in the west push the Chinese people's consumption awareness to a deeper level, and value identification and psychological shock become the main information conveyed in the advertisements while information about the goods is rarely mentioned or even avoided. Besides, with the creation of a vague image of modern youth the post modern advertisements in contemporary China shifts contemporary Chinese advertising from individual aesthetic appreciation to individualized expressions of emotions, decomposes authority, rationality and order, and improves the overall structure of the contemporary advertising aesthetic culture.Lastly, the dissertation analyzes the cultural predicament faced by contemporary Chinese advertising and possible ways out of this predicament. For one thing, the dual paradox in advertising aesthetics causes alienation and collective avoidance of advertisements in contemporary people easily. Therefore, the development of contemporary advertising is hindered by the difficulty in the continual exertion of its aesthetic influence. For another, the lack of core cultural force in contemporary Chinese advertising makes it an easy target for cultural conflicts. To escape from this predicament, therefore, it becomes highly necessary for the Chinese advertising to absorb the aesthetic traits in outstanding advertisements produced in such oriental countries as Thailand and Japan, to lift the standards of contemporary Chinese advertising aesthetic culture, and to build the uniqueness in the perceptual resources of contemporary Chinese advertising aesthetic culture.In the conclusion part, the dissertation probes into the possible influence of the hidden advertisements in current new media upon contemporary advertising aesthetics and suggests some further research possibilities in contemporary advertising aesthetics.