The discursive construction of identity in chinese english bilingual advertising a critical inquiry 6

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CHAPTER 6


THE CONSTRUCTION OF MODERN IDENTITY FOR
CHINECE PEOPLE



The conception of modern identity, as introduced in the very beginning, represents the
notion of modernity proposed by Giddens (1990) that lays emphasis on cultural
“particularism”, as well as “universalism”, in response to unique social, cultural and
political contexts. Cultural particularism marks a search for new, specific discourses of
modern identity against the western model. The task of this chapter is to investigate the
distinctive features of modern identity constructed for Chinese people in the data, and
discuss the role of English in constructing imagined communities of Chinese people and
ideologies underlying it.
This, as designed in Chapter 5, is to be examined by looking at the headlines and
slogans in the form of English-only or bilingual parallel within the technological and real
estate advertisements. Reflected on the particular choice of English words, modern
identities of Chinese people are principally articulated in six aspects in the form of
orientation (1) emotion, (2) success, (3) internationalization, (4) innovation, and (5)
future. As analysis shows below, while these aspects of modern identity perhaps seem as
universally available as in other places, in the Chinese context there is some locally
situated definition or meaning for some of them. In the following discussion, both sides of
each aspect will be considered if applicable.
In most cases, English is used to activate and present in an explicit way these
aspects of modern identity embedded in the meaning of headlines and/or slogans. This
way of constructing modern identities, compared with its Chinese equivalent in terms of
semantic meaning, is much more pertinent and persuasively powerful, given the symbolic
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value of English in relation to modernity. Sometimes English is also employed to make up
semantic nuance or cultural meaning that its Chinese counterpart lacks. Yet, the role of
English in constructing modern identities is not separably single but often complicated.
In the analysis that follows I first examine how English is essentially relied upon
for presenting the orientation of emotion and whether Chinese people are experiencing the
same tokens of modernity in particular relation to “emotional capitalism” (Illouz 2007).

6.1 Emotion Orientation

It is normally assumed that modernity has created an a-emotional world dominated by
rationality (Giddens 1992: 201). But according to Illouz, the culture of capitalism has
already fostered an intensely emotional culture, and emotions are “principle characters in
the story of capitalism and modernity” (2007: 4). Illouz further demonstrates practically
how emotions contribute to individual and group identity formation, and the expression
and presentation of the self. The significance of emotion to identity construction is in its
“capacity to create new identities” and “mak[ing] the difficult and unnatural appear easy
and natural” (Berezin 2001: 84).
Like in countries of late modernity, emotional culture has significantly become
one of principle characters in the story of China’s modernity. The data, especially among
the technological advertisements, privilege the orientation of Chinese people toward
emotional world as one of the most visible dimensions of modern identity. In most cases,
these advertisements suggest direct ways to find a diversity of emotion including
amusement, excitement, happiness, passion, pleasure, joy, romance, and surprise. The
evocation of these aspects of emotion is quantitatively perceptible particularly among the
advertisements for auto and watch often conceptualizing the promoted products as the
cause or signal of emotions. The following headlines and slogans in the form of English-
only or bilingual parallel taken at random from them are illustrative of how the choice of
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particular English words related closely to these aspects of emotion evokes and presents
them explicitly:

Amusement (Delux)
1

Big Pleasure (Mitsubishi Motors)
Delighting you always,
感动常在佳能

gandong chang zai Jianeng
(lit. always being moved at Canon) (Canon)
Driven to Excite (Mitsubishi Motors)
Excitement Guaranteed (Mini Cooper)
Happiness from Accent (Hyundai)
Happy New Year,
纵容自己的时刻到了
! zongrong ziji de shike dao le!
(lit. It is time to indulge yourself!) (Chevrolet)
I love my view (View Sonic)
激情共享

jiqing gongxiang (lit. passion shared), Sharing the passion (Panasonic)
激情 · 为奥运而动
jiqing wei ao’yun er dong (lit. passion for the Olympics)
Passion for movement (Audi)
Romance in heart,

浪漫在心

langman zai xin

(lit. Romance in heart) (Ernest Borel)

Romantic Moment,

买表送礼表心意

maibiao songli biao xinyi
(lit. buy watch to express love) (Ernest Borel)
Sheer Driving Pleasure (BMW)
The Power to Surprise (Kia)


In these headlines and slogans, the use of English (sometimes alongside its Chinese
translation) works as “contextualization cues” (Gumperz 1982) that direct the target
audiences to reinterpret referential contents it expresses. Being the marker of modernity,
English is apparently much more highly pertinent than its Chinese counterpart to
semantically presenting and activating the list of emotions embedded in these headlines
and slogans. In other words, the function of English is dual in such cases. It not only
conveys or generates referential contents, but simultaneously comes to work for the
“decorative” purpose (McArthur 1998).
In constructing this dimension of modern identity, sometimes English is also used
for generating semantic nuances that cannot be fulfilled by its Chinese counterpart. One
good example is the advertisement for Suzuki Jimny, a mini Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)
by the Suzuki Auto Corporation of Japan.

The persuasive power of this advertisement is in
its describing the theme of the Suzuki life as exciting and passionate, and the possession of

1
Word(s) in the bracket refers to the brand name of the product being advertised.
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the Jimny as a means of having this modern life. Interpreting what a modern image of
emotional orientation this advertisement intends to present and how the use of English
within it functions requires a conceptual integration network with several mental spaces.
Identical elements in each mental space are finally brought into, and partially fused with
each other in the blended space.




Figure 6.1 The ad for Suzuki Jimny


Prior to the very analysis, a point of relevance needs to be added. While I am
always trying to make analysis as appropriately short as possible, this one is deliberately
made in detail with the purpose of providing a far clearer illustration of how the proposed
integrative framework works in exposing the significance of English in constructing
different aspects of modern identity. Attention is simultaneously paid to explaining why
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the finding would not have been possible if “pure” CDA, without the aid of frames and
blending, had been used.
Look now closely at the Suzuki Jimny advertisement illustrated in Figure 6.1.
Besides the brand name “JIMNY”, the occurrences of English in this copy are exclusively
in the structural domains of slogan and headline. They are the English slogan “Way of
life!” below the company name and the emblem in the top right-hand corner, and “High”
highlighted inside the headline in the form of intrasentential mixing “
越野越
High!” yue ye
yue High (lit. the wilder, the more exciting!) above the sample product. The sample
product is parking at the football field located oddly at the middle halfway of steep
mountains. The verbal and visual information evokes at least four mental spaces: A

JIMNY space, a SUZUKI LIFE space, a blended space of Yue-Ye-Yue-High, and a
FOOTBALL MATCH space. These four mental spaces are selected as the input spaces to
the conceptual integration network.
Allow me to start with the headline where the word High is inserted into the latter
position of the fixed Chinese structure “
越…越…
” yue…yue…. The salience of High is
plain given its italic style and its first letter being capitalized. The Chinese structure
yue…yue… is the same as its English counterpart “the more…, the more…” in that both
describe some change or development through comparison. In contrast to the simple
assumption by the previous studies (i.e., Piller 2001; Lee 2006; Gao 2005) that English is
mixed for symbolic function and always plays an important role in identity construction, I
following Hougaard (2005) disintegrate the headline into four parts in terms of its
structure (Table 6.1) so as to have a clearer account of the essential role High may have in
the construction of the headline’s meaning. What is now apparent is that “
野
” ye (lit.
violent, wild, or robust) becomes the source domain and High, the target domain.
The choices of the Chinese word ye as the source domain and the English term
High as the target domain for comparison, notably, are fundamentally strategic for
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meaning construction. The main reason is that there exist semantic nuances between them
and their usual translation equivalents respectively of English and Chinese. To be precise,
when reading ye, the viewers may conjure up many conceptual elements, such as
“wildness”, “rudeness”, “violence”, “vigour”, and so on. However, its possible English
equivalents, either “rude”, “violent”, or “wild”, individually cannot be exhaustive in
generating all of these conceptual elements; rather, they have to work jointly in order to
have the same effect as ye intends. Similarly, in contrast to its Chinese counterpart “
高
”

gao (lit. high) that refers exclusively to the degree of height when used and interpreted
discretely, High in its own right is sufficient to evoke a number of conceptual elements
implicitly related to emotions such as “enthusiasm”, “excitement”, “passion”, and “joy”.
As analysis develops later, these conceptual elements activated by the use of High as an
instance of “textualization cue” (Chan 2004) but not by gao play an essential role in the
formation of emotion orientation.

Table 6.1 Segmentation of the headline in the Suzuki Jimny ad
Frag. 1 Frag. 2 Frag. 3 Frag. 4
越

(yue)
the more

野

(ye)
violent; wild; rude,

越
(yue)
the more

High
Exciting; happy; passionate,


In the local integration network of the headline, the YE space and the HIGH space
can be combined to create a blend in which being ye causes High. It is through this way
that the Cause-Effect relation between Frag. 2 ye and Frag. 4 High is established. By virtue

of this vital relation, the conceptual elements “wild”, “violent”, “rude”, and “vigorous”
contained in the YE space as the source space become the factors that cause the generation
of the emotions in the HIGH space as the target space. In the blended space of Yue-Ye-
Yue-High, cause and effect have been emerged and present each other directly. To
recognize one is to recognize the other. The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend now becomes an
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input space in the conceptual integration network, other input spaces of which are the
JIMNY space and the FOOTBALL MATCH space.

The JIMNY space has a schematic SUV conventionally associated with
powerfulness and wildness. The parking place of the sample product oddly at the middle
halfway of mountains is a piece of crucial information visually adding to and
strengthening this property of the Jimny. But the text body tells us more of this SUV. First
of all, the Jimny has high quality based on the phrase “
整车原装进口
” zhengche yuanzhuang
jinkuo (lit. an imported car installed in production place) and the stereotyped perception
among Chinese people of imported products usually being superior in quality. Furthermore,
the Jimny is metaphorized simultaneously as a spirit
2
and a warrior, in light of the two
Chinese phrases “
都市精灵
” doushi jingling (lit. cosmopolitan spirit, fairy or elf) and “
越野
勇 士
” yueye yongshi (lit. SUV warrior) just below the brand name and its Chinese
transliteration “
吉姆尼
”

Jimuni. Following this, in addition to being powerful and wild, the
properties of the Jimny as a SUV include warrior-like, spirit-like, and high quality.
The FOOTBALL MATCH space evoked by the picture of football field, then, has
a schematic image of a team sport played between two teams of eleven players, who are
full of energy fighting against their opponents. With its stereotypical connection to vigour,
wildness, and masculine violence, football match additionally carries over excitement and
passion to audiences. On this realization, at least the following conceptual elements are
contained in this space: fighter-like players, violence, vigour, excitement, passion, and
wildness.

2
As in the previous discussion of the possible English translation equivalents for the
Chinese word
“
野
”
ye, the possible counterparts in English for

“
精灵
”
jingling might be
“spirit”, “fairy”, or “elf”. Despite not being ideal, the term “spirit” is often used
interchangeably with “fairy” and “elf” for translating jingling in China. This somewhat
crude simplification is intended not to suggest that there is no difference between the
English terms and jingling in conveying cultural meaning. The same is applicable to other
examples literately translating Chinese terms into English, or vice versa.

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Diagrammed in Figure 6.2, a cross-space connection may first take place between
the Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend and the FOOTBALL MATCH space, because of the shared
conceptual elements of wildness, vigour and violence in both spaces. The inner-space
relation of Cause-Effect in the Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend projects to the first local blended
space and will be “exploited to induce a compression for the focus input” (Fauconnier &
Turner 2002: 129). Given this inner-space relation, in the local blend I football players
inferably have the intended effects of causing Chinese audiences to be excited and
passionate.

The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend The Football Match space The Jimny space
The blended space I
The blended space II
Figure 6.2 A simplified network diagram of the Suzuki Jimny local blends


In the same way, an Identity mapping occurs across the FOOTBALL MATCH
space and the JIMNY space due to the shared information of wildness and powerfulness
(vigour). The fighter-like football players and the warrior-like Jimny are cross-space
counterparts that are fused in the second local blended space, entailing the description of
Players/Warrior
Vigorous/Powerful
Wild/Wild

Exciting
Passionate
Ye


High
Players

Vigorous
Wild
Violent
Exciting
Passionate
Warrior
Spirit
Powerful
Wild
Modern
High quality

Players
Vigorous
Wild
Violent

Exciting
Passionate

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the Jimny with reference to football players. Not least because football players may make
viewers excited and passionate during football match, the Jimny has the intended effects of
evoking corresponding emotions of passion and excitement among the target audiences.
This emergent inference information is useful to yield a Cause-Effect relation in this local
blended space, which can further be compressed into a Property relation within it. Hence,
in the local blend II the Jimny is added to the properties of being passionate and exciting
which, it must be pointed out, are chiefly derived from its inherent ones of being powerful
and wild.

The blended space II

The Suzuki Life space


The Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend The blended space III
Figure 6.3 A simplified network diagram of the Suzuki Jimny blend

In Figure 6.2, solid lines represent the cross-space correspondences that constitute
the mapping across the input spaces, dotted lines represent projections between spaces, the
dashed line between Ye in the Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend and football players in the local
Jimny/Suzuki
Wild
Powerful Life

Exciting
Passionate
Warrior/Jimny

Wild

Powerful

Exciting

Passionate

Suzuki

Life
Ye



High

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blend I represents the fact that football players in the local blend I is associated with the
YE source space, and the dashed lines between the emotions of excitement and passion in
the local blend II and those in the local blend I represent the fact that the emotions
developed from the local blend II is closely related to, or resulted from, the inner-space
relation of Cause-Effect yielded inside the local blend I. These lines are also applied to the
conceptual integration network of other examples.
The local blend II now becomes an input space to the final blend, another input of
which is the SUZUKI LIFE space triggered through the recontextualization of the English
slogan. The specific information about the property of Suzuki life, however, cannot be
determined if based merely on the slogan itself. It has to be inferred and elaborated in the
final blend fused with information projected from the local blend II. Illustrated in Figure
6.3, a Part-Whole mapping takes place between the local blend II and the SUZUKI LIFE
space, considering the metonymy that the Jimny stands for the Suzuki Auto Corporation.
Elements within the local blend II are selectively projected to the blended space III, the
final blend. Developed from the blend, being exciting and passionate become the main
property of the Suzuki life. At the same time, because of the shared information of being
wild and powerful by the local blend II and the local Yue-Ye-Yue-High blend, it allows us
to describe ye in terms of the Jimny, or vice versa. Differently stated, the Jimny in the
local blend II can be linked to the YE space. It becomes inferable for the Jimny to be a
specific example of ye and the Jimny stands for this kind of life. In other words, the Suzuki

Jimny advertisement sets an exciting and passionate life as its orientation, and the
possession of a Jimny provides the access to such life.
At this moment, I want to foreground the essential role the use of English word
High plays throughout this constructive process. As we have seen, the elements
“passionate” and “exciting” projected into the blend from the local blend II are part of the
HIGH space. Alternatively put, the blend inherits partial structure of the HIGH space. The
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theme of the Suzuki life emerged from the blend represents a facet of the HIGH space that
is the present focus of attention. It is from this point that the conceptualization of the
Suzuki life is largely resulted from the selective projection of information contained within
the HIGH space. To put it more pointedly, the HIGH space is the framing space in the
conceptual integration network. This captures the fact that the HIGH space is considered
to be more essential than others in terms of its consequence for the production of emotion
orientation representative of the Suzuki life. Since the HIGH space is connected directly to
the use of High, the orientation toward excitement and passion constructed in this copy is
closely tied up with the mixing of this particular English word. It now may conclude with
confidence the significance of High and its strategic position inside the headline. From this
evidence, the proposed analytical methods of frame and blending are extremely helpful in
explaining why High is chosen and so positioned for constructing this aspect of modern
identity. Without the internalization of frame and blending within CDA, ideologies
embedded in and through the use of High would not have been so easily and thoroughly
revealed.
In the Hyundai Veracruz advertisement reproduced in Figure 6.4, Chinese people,
then, are oriented toward enjoyment of drive rediscovered with the aid of GPS (Global
Positioning System) technology. This is mainly accomplished through the intertextuality
of “Drive your way” as its slogan and the insertion of “GPS” into the text body. Drive
your way in its vertical form is situated at the upper right-hand side. Being in its
declarative mood, the slogan plainly suggests as the fact driving as “you” please, implying
enjoyment and pleasure it causes. In contrast to its possible Chinese equivalent “
随心所欲驾

驶
” sui xin suo yu jiashi (lit. Drive as one pleases), the English slogan, more importantly,
projects the viewers as the driver into the space through the possessive form of the second-
person pronoun. So we have a specific DRIVING space with “you” as the driver and
enjoyment and pleasure as emotional rewards.
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Figure 6.4 The ad for Hyundai Veracruz

In the Hyundai Veracruz advertisement reproduced in Figure 6.4, Chinese people,
then, are oriented toward enjoyment of drive rediscovered with the aid of GPS (Global
Positioning System) technology. This is mainly accomplished through the intertextuality
of “Drive your way” as its slogan and the insertion of “GPS” into the text body. Drive
your way in its vertical form is situated at the upper right-hand side. Being in its
declarative mood, the slogan plainly suggests as the fact driving as “you” please, implying
enjoyment and pleasure it causes. In contrast to its possible Chinese equivalent “
随心所欲驾
驶
” sui xin suo yu jiashi (lit. Drive as one pleases), the English slogan, more importantly,
projects the viewers as the driver into the space through the possessive form of the second-
person pronoun. So we have a specific DRIVING space with “you” as the driver and
enjoyment and pleasure as emotional rewards.

The headline in Chinese “
维拉克斯豪华导航版全新上市
” Weilakesi haohua daohang
ban quanxin shangshi (lit. The brand-new luxury navigation-installed Veracruz being on
market) announces the launch of a brand-new Veracruz that is defined luxury in the light
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of its new equipment of a navigation unit. On the ground of it, a VERACRUZ space has a
navigation unit as its core property.
The installed navigation unit is specified as GPS within the text body through the
line mixed with the term “GPS” in bold letters “
维拉克斯搭载全新专用
GPS
导航系统
”
Weilakesi dazai quanxin zhuanyong GPS daohang xitong (lit. The Veracruz is equipped
with a brand-new special GPS navigation system). Being printed in large size, GPS is most
eye-catching within the text body mixed also with other English terms “CD”, “VCD”,
“DVD”, “MP3”, and “MTV”. Instead of using its Chinese counterpart familiar to Chinese
drivers, the use of GPS in English marks significantly the high-tech property of the
Veracruz. The term in itself, moreover, elicits a mental scenario of GPS that functions to
activate the stereotypical knowledge of GPS in its locating position precisely and directing
right way. The GPS frame now becomes another input space to the blend. The generic
elements in the GPS frame, as the following discussion develops, have a direct impact on
the production in the blend of enjoyment and pleasure of drive.
These three mental spaces the GPS space, the DRIVING space, and
VERACRUZ space are selected as the inputs to the blend. As diagrammed by Figure 6.5,
a cross-space mapping first takes place between the VERACRUZ space and the DRIVING
space given the common sense of the Veracruz for drive. In the blend we yield a new
structure that “you”, the driver, enjoy driving with the new Veracruz, leading to the
inference that the promoted vehicle is the cause of enjoyment and pleasure. Projected back
to the information of the VERACRUZ space regarding its equipment of a GPS navigator,
the association of this cause is built with GPS. In the blend, modern technology of GPS
develops, and is demonstrated, as a specific means by which enjoyment and pleasure are
engendered throughout driving. To put it more explicitly, GPS plays an inescapable role in
the rediscovery of enjoyment and pleasure of drive.
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These three mental spaces the GPS space, the DRIVING space, and
VERACRUZ space are selected as the inputs to the blend. As diagrammed by Figure 6.5,
a cross-space mapping first takes place between the VERACRUZ space and the DRIVING
space given the common sense of the Veracruz for drive. In the blend we yield a new
structure that “you”, the driver, enjoy driving with the new Veracruz, leading to the
inference that the promoted vehicle is the cause of enjoyment and pleasure. Projected back
to the information of the VERACRUZ space regarding its equipment of a GPS navigator,
the association of this cause is built with GPS. In the blend, modern technology of GPS
develops, and is demonstrated, as a specific means by which enjoyment and pleasure are
engendered throughout driving. To put it more explicitly, GPS plays an inescapable role in
the rediscovery of enjoyment and pleasure of drive.


The GPS space The Veracruz space The Driving space

The blended space
Figure 6.5 A simplified network diagram of the Hyundai Veracruz blend

Driver (you)
Enjoyment
Pleasure


Veracruz
New
Luxury
GPS

Veracruz/Driver(you)



Enjoyment

GPS Pleasure



Locating
position &
directing
way

Precise &
time-saving
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The above two analyses must have exemplified the significance of modern
technology in constructing the orientation toward emotions, suggesting the salient
interrelation between modern technology and the presentation of emotional orientation
largely conceptualized through strategic practices of English usage. For my purposes, it is
crucial to note that the list of emotions including excitement and pleasure presented above
are differentiated from those that are predominant in the modern era of the West such as
anxiety, competitiveness, indifference, and guilt according to Illouz (2007: 2). Barbalet
argues that “Emotions must be understood within the structural relations of power and
status which elicit them” (1989: 26). Emotions for Illouz are useful to establish the
relationship of the self to culturally-situated others to such an extent that emotions are
basic to an understanding of social structures and processes. The aspects of emotion
discovered in my data actually constitute the essence of Chinese being. They are nurtured

by the cultural background, the hierarchy of values, and intellectual concepts.
Despite the close relation of modern technology to the production of emotions,
this is not intended to declare that modern technology is the sole means whereby Chinese
people are oriented toward such socially distinctive emotions. Rather, they at the same
time are consistently suggested to be independent and self-reliant so as to generate these
emotions and acquire this dimension of modern identity. This is another aspect of social
ideologies accounting for how Chinese people are orientated toward such emotions. In
recent years the significance of independence and self-reliance is not infrequently
reiterated and underscored officially, even though China today has made great progress in
almost every field over the past decades. With regard to the importance of modern
technology in spearheading rapid economic development of China, the Chinese President,
Mr. Hu Jintao, in his speech delivered at the 2006 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation has
the following statement: “The development of China will largely depend on self and hard
work of Chinese people. At the same time, China will stick to the fundamental policy of
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opening to the world and implement the opening up strategy based on mutual benefit and a
win-win situation” (Xinhua News Online, 17 November 2006). The implication that
President Hu has suggested is faithfully congruent with the dialectic relationship between
self-reliance plus hard work and introduction of modern technology from the West. Surely,
this is another important aspect of political philosophy in China primarily guiding the
orientation of Chinese people towards the aspects of emotion.



Figure 6.6 The ad for Fiat Auto


Reflected in the data, it is detectable some proof of positive attitudes that the
country holds toward the value of independence and self-reliance. The Fiat advertisement
presented in Figure 6.6 happens to be a most visible example perfectly highlighting the

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significance of self-reliance, rather than modern technology, in orienting Chinese people
toward the emotions of excitement and joy.
Despite its largest segment being presented in Chinese, in the copy can be detected
the following English words and expressions located across various structural domains:
“DIY-Do it yourself!”, “FIAT”, “Merry Christmas”, “PARTY”, “YOU ARE ALWAYS
IN MY HEART”, and “New Palio Sport”. The verbal phrase DIY-Do it yourself evokes an
abstract DIY frame with roles of self-reliant persons and DIY activity. Being expressed in
English and an instance of intertextuality, the DIY frame bears more heavily on the
cultural specialty of self-reliance in the United States than that in China. In an
individualistic context of America the focus of self-reliance is on the meaning of
autonomy, self-fulfilment, and strong will. Related to this case, the American DIY
subculture usually criticizes modern consumer culture that lays overemphasis on the
purchase of commodities as solution to our needs, but encourages people to solve needs
with their own hands. The expression, thus, is often used to encourage people to create or
repair things for themselves without the aid of paid professionals. The general information
of DIY activity is specified by the lines in Chinese placed within the space between DIY-
Do it yourself and party, which openly verbalize the activity of maintaining and repairing
vehicles with one’s own hands under professional instructions provided by Fiat Motor
Company. This specific DIY activity exemplifies how the borders of production and
consumption are blurred to the extent that consumers of Fiat cars may become technicians
of them. Simply put, “you” in this DIY space are construed simultaneously as a consumer
and a technician of the Fiat.
Then, the headline constitutive of two separate parts: “
十二月二五日菲亚特与您约会
”

shi’er yue er’wu ri Feiyate yu nin yuehui (lit. Fiat will meet you on December 25) and “
菲
亚特的约会

” Feiyate de yuehui

(lit. Fiat’s appointment) proclaims a forthcoming
appointment of Fiat Motor Company with “you”, the viewers indeed, on December 25. An
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INVITATION space is thus evoked with roles of inviter (Fiat Motor Company), invitee
(“you”), content (appointment), and date (on 25 December). The use of Chinese for the
headline presumably works to invite as many participants as possible. A CHRISTMAS
space is verbally activated by Merry Christmas alongside the visual images of Santa Claus
and gift bags in the upper right-hand corner. In contrast to its Chinese translation, Merry
Christmas highlights as core elements of this space the conventional information in the
West of family gathering and celebration during Christmas Day. Given the identical
element of the date, a space mapping first occurs across the CHRISTMAS space and the
INVITATION space, adding to the INVITATION space the new meaning that the
appointment with Fiat Motor Company in some sense is like family gathering. The
viewers who are invited to have an appointment with Fiat Motor Company now become
one member of the Fiat family, whereby the solidarity between the viewers and Fiat Motor
Company that has already been built up in the INVITATION space is radically augmented.
A cross-space mapping further takes place between the DIY space and the
INVITATION space. In the blend diagrammed by Figure 6.7 the literal content of the
appointment inferably refers to the specific activity of DIY car maintenance and repair.
Projected back to the blended space of INVITATION, the viewers are persuasively invited
to join this DIY activity, so that the orientation of independence and self-reliance is finally
yielded in the blend.
The use of party tends to distinguish itself from its Chinese counterpart in terms of
cultural implication that emphasizes a form of amusement rather than simply a social
gathering only. This argument is verbally supported by the last line of the text body just
below this English word: “
快乐烧烤、激情舞会、互动游戏 …
” quale shaokao, jiqing wuhui,

hudong youxi … (lit.: Happy barbecue, passionate dancing party, interactive game…) that
spell out an array of specific activities involving barbecue, dance, and game, whereby
Chinese people are oriented toward emotions of excitement, passion, fun, and joy.
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The DIY space The Invitation space


The blended space
Figure 6.7 A simplified network diagram of the self-reliant orientation blend

The PARTY space now becomes an input to the emotion-orientation blend,
another input of which is the INVITATION space. This allows us to refer to the mental
rewards attained through the appointment with Fiat Motor Company by describing party,
as in this way: the appointment can leave you with an exciting and joyful experience, as
shown in Figure 6.8. If realizing the Specific-General relationship between the DIY
activity and the appointment, more information can be inferred from this blend. In the
blend a new structure appears namely, the DIY activity is expected to be exciting,
passionate, and joyful, bringing about the generation of a second meaning that the DIY
activity is the source of excitement and joy. From this, we can say that the phrase DIY-Do
You

Fiat cars
DIY car maintenance
& repair


You (viewers)
Fiat Motor Co.
Appointment
Family gathering

Love
You/You
Fiat cars/Fiat Motor Co.
DIY car maintenance &
repair
Appointment
Family gathering

Love

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it yourself continues to have an impact on this process and the emergent meaning from the
blend should not be disregarded.


The Party space The Invitation space


The blended space
Figure 6.8 A simplified network diagram of the emotion-orientation blend


The presence of orientation toward excitement, joy and passion in the Fiat
advertisement, to be sure, stems primarily from one’s participation in the DTY activity.
Differently stated, independence and self-reliance are the prerequisite for the attainment of
these emotions in this case. The core elements contained in the DIY space of self-reliance
and assimilation of technology consumers into creators of it are highly intensified and
influential throughout the process of the conceptual integration. A dialectic relationship is
clear of independence, self-reliance and modern technology to the production and

acquisition of such emotions. The advertisement implicitly proposes an integration of self-

Gathering

Excitement, passion,
fun, & joy

You
Family gathering
Appointment
Fiat Motor Co.
You
Gathering/Family gathering
Excitement, passion, fun
& joy
Appointment

Fiat Motor Co.

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reliance with the reliance upon modern technology as key to the acquisition of this aspect
of modern identity. From the analysis the claim can readily be derived that the
appropriation of DIY-Do it yourself is not the result of cultural imperialism but the
reflexive practice of the country in the face of globalization.

6.2 Success Orientation

Aspire to succeed is another omnipresent aspect of modern identity which, according to
Meyer (1989), is associated with individualism in the West celebrated on abstract grounds
of fulfilment. This section then moves on to analyse the construction of success orientation.

I analysed earlier how the Hyundai Veracruz

advertisement orients Chinese people
toward enjoyment and pleasure. When the specific elements in the GPS frame are
projected to the blend, we may elaborate further that GPS enables “you” to be free of
concern about being lost or wasting time on your way to destination. To be precise, with
GPS as helper, a driver of the Veracruz is in full mastery of his or her way to any place, as
visually exaggerated by the parking place of the sample product at the peak of mountains.
These concrete meanings developed within and from the blend are the points that a sense
of success really refers to. The Hyundai Veracruz

advertisement is a good example
illustrating that modern identity has indeed become increasingly performed through a
narrative that “combines the claim to emotional satisfaction with the aspiration to self-
realization” (Illouz 2007: 4).
Like the previous section, while much of the discussion that follows will be
devoted to addressing the discernible ways in which English is used to develop and form
this aspect of modern identity, attention is simultaneously paid to the culturally situated
ideas of success as well as the means whereby it is able to realized and acquired.
The presentation of success orientation is surprisingly overwhelming in the data.
Examples can be effortlessly observed with their headlines or slogans plainly setting such
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English words “success”, “victory”, and “win” as the core for presenting their meaning.
Take, for example, the slogan “Victory In Pajero,
成功源 于帕杰罗
chenggong yuanyu
pajielu” (lit. Success comes from Pajero) and the headline “
灵动 · 欲达则达

lingdong ·

yudazeda (lit. Lingdong can go to anyplace at any time), Dynamic storm, Win whenever
you want” for the Mitsubishi Motors advertisements, and the headline “To make others
succeed is to excel!” for the real estate advertisement branded Top East. No doubt, the
construction of success orientation in such cases can equally be accomplished through the
use of their Chinese equivalents “
成 功
”

chenggong (lit. success), “
胜 利
”

shengli (lit.
victory), and “
赢
” ying (lit. win), but the use of English seems more pertinent and powerful
just because of its inherent connection to modernity. In the same way as the previous
examples, English words used here seem more for the decorative purpose than the
conveying of referential content.
The role of English is almost the same in many other technological advertisements
where success orientation is largely constructed through the choice of particular English
words that metaphorically put “accomplishment”, “acquisition”, or “change” of something
at the heart of their presentation, as the following headlines and slogans taken from them
illustrate:
Access your Dreams (Toshiba)
Exceed your vision (Epson)
Dreams made real (Agilent Technologies)
Fascination Accelerates (Honda)
Go beyond (Land Rover)
Go extra miles,

更进一步

geng jinyibu (lit. further) (Shell)
Go find your wonders (Cannon)
Located the core to grasp the wealth (Lishi)
SHIFT_convention (Nissan)


Among these headlines and slogans, the lexical choice of transitive verbs like “access”,
“accelerate”, “make”, “exceed”, “grasp”, “find”, and “shift”, of the adjective “extra”, and
of the adverb “beyond” cannot simply be taken as just predicating a feature of a single
element; instead, they tell us something more important about the web of connections
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across spaces in an integration network involving a counterfactual scenario. For example,
the choice of access indicates the counterfactual scenario of denial, the use of exceed
implies the counterfactual scenario of fall behind, and the use of accelerate suggests the
counterfactual scenario of decrease or lessen. Alternatively put, the presentation of
success orientation in such advertisements is closely connected to the evocation of a
counterfactual scenario, through a striking contrast to which success orientation finally
emerges in the blend.


Figure 6.9 The ad for Honda CR-V


For an illustration, let us look at the Honda CR-V advertisement given in Figure
6.9. The presentation of success orientation in this copy is primarily reflected on and
through simultaneous transformation of the old view of drive into a new one and
acquisition of it. Look closely at the copy, in addition to the detailed information of

contact details and promotion, its textual information is mainly situated in the domains of
headline and slogan. Here is the slogan “The power of dreams” and the headline
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constitutive of the primary in English “Get a New View!” and the secondary in Chinese
“
梦想提前实现
” mengxiang tiqian shixian (lit. the dream realized ahead of schedule).
Below Get a New View, there are two Chinese phrases in much smaller font size:
“
略高一筹
”

luegao yichou (lit. a bit higher) and “
全新境界
” quanxin jingjie (lit. a completely
new view). It is basically fundamental to appreciate that quanxin jingjie is roughly
equivalent to Get a New View; but the difference between them is still detectable. The
former states the state of affairs about the transformation of the previous view into an
entirely new one. By contrast, the latter, due to the use of Get, not only lays emphasis on
the dynamic act of catching hold of this new view but, more valuably, also has the effect
of indicating success in doing so in nearest future. These aspects of nuanced meaning Get
bears point explicitly to the blend.

The Driving space I The Driver space II

The Success-Oriented blend
Figure 6.10 A simplified network diagram of the Success-Oriented blend in Honda ad

A driver
New view of drive

Dream realized


A driver
Old view of drive
Dream unrealized



Driver/Driver
Old view of drive/New view of drive

Dream realized/Dream unrealized


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Aside from this, Get works to build the web of that element’s connections. It is
connectable to “
实现
” shixian (lit. realize; get) situated in the secondary headline declaring
the realization of one’s dream ahead of schedule. Following this, Get coupled with New
simultaneously signals that the new view at issue is likely to be the target of dream.
Closely related to the product being advertised, the association of this new view can
further be built with driving. Based on the immediate analysis, Get a New View evokes a
DRIVING space, within which a driver has his dream realized of a new view of drive. At
this point, one point of significance must be stressed; that is, New is opposite to “old”. In
understanding how target audiences are oriented toward success, we reply on the
counterfactual scenario of Get a New View, in which a schematic driver is dreaming of a
new view of drive but has not yet made it realized. As diagrammed in Figure 6.10, a

Disanalogy mapping between them happens, producing a sense of success in the local
blended space for the driver having a new view of drive realized.

It is necessary to note that Honda CR-V as a compact SUV is distinguished by
its amazing power. Due to the common knowledge of English as a language for high
technology, Honda’s worldwide slogan the power of dreams indicating “the power that is
dream-oriented” tells more appropriately than its possible Chinese translation that power is
the source of dreams. In Figure 6.11, the elements of Honda CR-V and Honda CR-V as
source of dreams in the frame of HONDA CR-V and those of driver and his or her realized
dream of a new view in the local blended space of success orientation are four cross-space
counterparts to be fused in the final blend. In the blend it is inferable that the amazing
power of the product is the direct cause of subverting the old view of drive and
transforming it into a new one. Developed from and within the blend appears a driver who
drives Honda CR-V can successfully have the previous view of drive transformed and
acquire the new one.
Reproduced in Figure 6.12, the advertisement for LG Xcanvas Full HD TV set,