An Intercultural Exploration Of Gender Signs In Chinese And American Advertisements

With the development of society and economy, advertisements have become an inseparable part of our life, furthermore, because of the affluent materials and the fierce competitions, advertisements are no longer merely an economic activity, they are more appreciative and narrative, and they also have been endowed with profound culture. As a communication media, advertisements also pass on the values and ideologies to the audience, as a result of which, the modern advertisements have become culture carriers which are influenced by culture, and meantime, transmit culture with various signs. From the semiotic perspective, advertisements are a complex system of signs, and all the elements in the advertisements can be regarded as signs, such as characters, objects, sounds and scenes.The character signs in advertisements are the most figurative and attractive communicating signs and compared with other types of signs, they are more amiable and compatible. According to the feature of gender, the character signs can be divided into female signs and male signs, which together can be called gender signs. Then what are the referential meanings of the gender signs; how are the meanings generated; what differences are there on the application of gender signs in different cultural contexts and why are there such differences? Based on Signifier and Signified Theory, the present study chooses gender signs as the research object and aims at exploring the meaning generative mechanism, the referential meaning of the gender signs in advertising system and the cultural values on different cultural contexts.The signifier and signified theory, as a new methodology as well as a new aspect, has the practical significance in other fields, especially in advertisements and other cultural and artistic phenomenon. The study is on the basis of the signifier and signified theory which is in conformity with the advertising characteristic, and what the advertisers are focusing on is to construct the meaning of the sign by the relationship between signifier and signified. The concepts of signifier and signified can clarify the relationships of objects and reveal the deep meaning implied in objects. They play an important role and work in tandem to form the framework of a sign, which is the foundation and starting point of the semiotic analysis.In the study, we choose some commercial advertisements in China and America which are the representatives in both economy and culture as the sample; we analyze the meaning generative mechanism and the referential meanings of the gender signs in the two culture contexts with the semiotic approach; and with the comparative method, we try to find the unusual manifestations of the gender signs in the two nations, and explore the differences on the application of the gender signs. And moreover we attempt to make a comparison of the cultural values underlying the gender signs in the two nations by content analysis.The research has yielded some significant findings as follows:First, the meaning of gender signs in advertisements is generated by the combination of the constituents of signifier including the gender signs (such as the whole image, the facial expression, behaviors, and dressings) and other elements (such as environment, language, script and voice out of screen) and so on.Second, there are some differences and similarities on the referential meaning of the gender signs in Chinese and American advertisements. As to the differences, on the matter of manifestation, the Chinese are more reserved while the American are more explicit; on the matter of content, the American are more various than the Chinese. And the similarity lies in that there are two extremes in the application of female signs and male signs.Third, there are some cultural values that influence the application of gender signs in Chinese and American advertisements, such as collectivism and individualism, harmony and freedom, hierarchy and so on. The significance of this study is evident. On one hand, the study can extend the application of the theory, making the theories more practical; on the other hand, the study is helpful to enrich the studies on the character signs, and by the studies on the gender signs and the exploration of the cultural values of the gender signs in different cultural contexts, we can make some suggestions on the intercultural advertising which can help to break down the obstacles in intercultural communication.