Children's Appearance In Modern Newspaper Advertisements

In modern times,children have added new meanings to the succession of traditional Confucianism and Taoism's conception of childlike innocence.Western concepts such as child center and respect for children have been introduced into China and deepened.The significance and value of children's independence have been discovered.From Liang Qichao's "Youth China Theory" in late Qing Dynasty to the discovery of people in the New Culture Movement,The proposal of "liberating children" and "child orientation" symbolizes the discovery of children in modern China,and children is regarded as the key to the rise and fall of society and the transformation of social culture.Children's appearances mainly exist in print media from ancient Chinese infant play illustration to modern times,and advertisements exist in many print media,and children are the most important visual images except women,and their appearances are complex and diverse in advertisements.In particular,children's appearances in newspaper advertisement are the most representative.With its seventy-seven years' distribution time,influence and its emphasis on advertisements,Shen Bao can serve as a representative of modern Chinese newspaper advertisements,providing sufficient historical data for studying the children's images,and providing a possibility for dynamic observation.This article focuses on the children's appearance in the advertisement image of Shen Bao,tries to comb out the visual image of children in the consumer culture and interprets the modern social culture such as children's view,national outlook and family view behind the children's appearance from the perspective of iconography.First,analyze the children's appearance in the advertisement of Shen Bao from a production perspective;then use three-level theory of Panofsky's iconography to analyze,first describe the children's visual image in advertisement of Shen Bao,and place it in the vertical and horizontal dimensions of history compared with the traditional baby pictures and other types of children's images at the same time;then the children's view,family view and national outlook behind the children's appearance are analyzed,in which reference is made to the French sociologist Philippe Aries and American art historian Anita Schorsch traced the children's history in Europe from the perspective of children's spatial position,appearance features,game toys,and activity scenes in the image.Designed and drawn by professional advertisers,it is aimed at middle and upper-class urban households to promote and sell modern products.The children in the advertisement of Shen Bao are fashionable and prosperous.It reflects the discovery of modern Chinese children and the promotion of the active view of children.It portrays a modern nuclear family centered on children,focusing on health,hygiene and comfort.At the same time,it is used from a business perspective and reflects the relationship between children and national construction since the late Qing Dynasty.