| At the end of Qing Dynasty, Chinese society suffered big changes which are not only the change of regime but also the change of the social formation. Almost every field of Chinese society has great changes, including policy, economy and culture, that is, Chinese society changes from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society. Modernization is the main theme of the development of China over the past century, therefore, it became a topic which is paid great attention by domestic academia. Scholars always preferred macro narration in the study of modernization, they concerned about the impact of modernization on the policy, economy, military, culture of countries, which may benefit to outline the macro-historical context, but it is easy to lose the details of the history, therefore the present author decides to research the impact of modernization on daily life of ordinary Chinese citizens. The present paper takes the advertisement of Chen Bao as the study texts, the author researches the daily life and social mentality of people in Beijing under modernization at the early Republic of China from the aspects of content and appeals of advertisement. The newspaper is chose for it has great impact in the northern area in the early Republic of China. Advertisement is chosen is because it vividly records the life of the people.The paper is divided into three parts. The first part states the impact of modernization on Chinese society from the whole perspective, which is the introduction of background. The purpose of the introduction is to display the main content of the paper, which is the impact of modernization on the life of people in Beijing. The influence can be divided into two levels, that is, the influence to social life and social mentality. The second part analyzes the content of advertisement in Chen Bao in order to show the new changes of life of people in Beijing in the early Republic of China. The changes have five aspects, that is, new type of education instead of private school, western medicine instead of Chinese medicine, modern legal sense of citizens, banking, securities, insurance as the emergence of modern finance and expanded leisure life. At first glance, these five aspects have nothing new. Even the conclusion can be found out without study. However, based on the systematic and comprehensive analysis of advertisement of Chen Bao, the author can show more details which can enrich the understanding of social life of citizens in the early Republic of China.The third part shows the new changes of social mentality of citizens in Beijing in the early Republic of China according to the analysis of appeals of advertisement of Chen Bao. Rich and powerful mentality has risen up, which reflects the rise of ethnic nationalism which is considered as the basis of modernization. At the same time, people’s view of getting rich has changed a lot. In old society, people always say scholar, farmer, artisan and merchant, which reflect that merchant is at the bottom. However, in the early Republic of China, the citizens do not hide their desire for wealth. Trust is the lubricant of society. However, trust system experiences a collapse and reconstruction for the impact of modern transformation. In addition, facing with modernization, experiencing social transformation and recognizing the huge gap between the Europe and China, citizens show loss, confusion and low self-esteem. Seeking for wealth and power, trust reconstruction, anxiety, confusion and self-esteem are integrated to the unique mentality of Beijing citizens.These are what the author sees from the advertisement of Chen Bao. Advertisement lays out the social life and mentality of Beijing in the early Republic of China with its delicate brushwork. We can see the details from the advertisement. Through the advertisement, the author enters into the courtyard of citizens in the early Republic of China and sees the lives of ordinary people under the age of big changes. |
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