A Semiotic Analysis Of Cultural Signs In Pixar From The Perspective Of Intercultural Communication

With the quick pace of globalization,people of different cultural background have more frequent communication,which makes intercultural communication become increasingly important in life.A film is one of the most effective ways in cross-cultural communication to exchange culture with numerous signs and figures.Nowadays,more and more foreign films are introduced in China,in particular American films,which account for 6 to 7 percent of film outcome in the world,whereas takes up more than 50 percent of showing time of the world.Culture is a type of soft power of a country and values are the core component of culture.The understanding of America's values could facilitate communication between China and America.The animated film,a form of film,exerts immense impacts on spreading culture.As one of the most successful studios in America and beyond,Pixar exerts profound influence on Chinese audience by virtue of its excellent animated technique and compelling story,with considerable audience ranging from children to adults.By analyzing some typical signs in Pixar films,this diachronic research aims to explore cultural connotation,values and some changes on values in the past 24 years.There are mainly three questions in this study.The first question is to probe into cultural connotation of typical signs in Pixar with the help of Peirce's semiotics.Everything could be regarded as a sign if it is composed of representamen,object,and interpretant.Based on Peirce's semiotics,seven types of typical signs could be found in Pixar to explore cultural values.The second is to discuss American values of typical signs based on five of Hofstede's Value dimensions.A sign could reflect its value by human practice.The third is to examine whether some changes on values has taken place based on 24-year Pixar films.The results show that the typical signs in Pixar could express such cultural connotations as the female status,American dream,individualistic heroism,navigation spirit,advanced technology as well as freedom and liberation.In terms of those typical signs,several values,including individualism/collectivism,low power distance,low uncertain avoidance,short-term orientation,as well as masculinity/femininity,are reflected in Pixar films.There are two dimensions where change tendency is obvious.In individualism-colletivism dimension,values in Pixar sort of deviate from the traditional ones.Individualism is still thedominating value while the spirit of collectivism comes to be emphasized.The spirit should have been a feature of collectivistic culture,because,to some certain,it doesn't lay an emphasis on individual success and achievement.In masculinity and femininity,America is a masculine-orientated country.From the perspective of female performance,female figures have come to be more assertive and ambitious with more masculine features.On the other hand,America comes to attach great importance to the relationship between human and nature,which represents the feature of feminine culture.There are no obvious changes in any other three dimensions.What Pixar films demonstrates could make the Chinese people better understand American contemporary values to avoid cultural stereotype.To a certain extent,the research promotes the intercultural communication and understanding among people.