The siren songs of consumption: An analysis of foreign advertisements in two mainland Chinese newspapers, 1985-1993

Abstract

This paper examines the content and form of foreign advertisements in two prominent Chinese daily newspapers from 1985 to 1993. 1 The study indicates that the quantity of foreign advertising in the Chinese newspapers remained constant during the period under study. With pleasure-seeking and consumption for modernity as their recurring themes, the foreign advertisements mainly focused on advertising consumer goods and employed more attention-getting tactics than Chinese domestic advertisements. This study argues that the rise of consumer culture in China, which involved foreign advertising, signaled the historical reversal of the hyper-politicization of communist ideology during the pre-economic reform era, and that the presence of foreign advertising in China epitomized an increasing influx of Western cultural products in that country.