A Comparative Analysis Of The Discourse Ecology Of English And Chinese Food Advertising

Food advertising,one of the most common types of advertising in people's daily lives,has a subtle impact on people's ideas and behaviors,and thus has an impact on the ecosystem.Based on the conceptual blending theory,this thesis conducts an ecological analysis of 104 food advertising discourses in Chinese and English,and finds five hidden non-ecological factors,namely anthropocentrism,consumerism,growthism,surface ecologization and low well-being.Then,in the light of ecosophy,the thesis evaluates and interprets the similarities and differences between non-ecological factors in Chinese and English food advertising discourses.First of all,a large number of food advertising discourses in Chinese and English imply anthropocentrism and consumerism.Anthropocentrism separates human beings from the ecosystem and places them in the position of the dominator,and redefines the intrinsic value of other organisms or inanimate entities by human scale,which violates the principles of “valuing living”,“holism” and “equality”;and consumerism,which has exacerbated some problems such as environmental pollution and resource depletion,etc.,also violates the principles of “valuing living”,“well-being”,“environmental limits” and “sustainability”.Secondly,Chinese food advertising discourses imply more growthism and low well-being,which shows that China's pursuit of economic growth is more urgent,but insufficient supervision of food quality and its production process leads to the low well-being of living beings.Like consumerism,growthism,as one of the causes of some problems such as environmental pollution,resource depletion and interference in the ecological niche,etc.,also violates the principles of “valuing living”,“well-being”,“environmental limits”,“reducing interference” and “sustainability”;low well-being,including the low well-being of human beings and the low well-being of other living things,violates the principles of “valuing living” and “well-being”.Finally,the surface ecologization of English food advertising discourses is more obvious,which shows that public in English-speaking countries pay more attention to ecological issues.This kind of self-deceiving ecologization,however,has led peopleto ignore the real situation of food industry,which has exacerbated these ecological issues.This also violates the principles of “valuing living”,“well-being” and“sustainability”.These five non-ecological factors still remain their impact on people's ideas,so people only pay attention to immediate interests and ignore the current ecological issues.The failure to regard ecological protection as humans' own responsibility is a threat to the sustainable development of humans and other living things.The ideological transformation is an inevitable way for human beings to solve these ecological issues.Ecolinguists' job is to advocate beneficial discourses,resist destructive discourses,and promote the ecological turn of language,which then can affect people's ideas and motivate people to take practical actions to guarantee the sustainable development of the ecosystem.