Master’s Degree in Interpreting and Translation for Publishing and for Special Purposes Final Thesis The concept of civilization (wenming) in Chinese public service advertising (gongyi guanggao): the case studies of Ningbo and Deyang Supervisor Ch. Prof. Paolo Magagnin Assistant supervisor Ch. Prof. Giovanna Puppin Graduand Angela Saccaro Matricolation number 852152 Academic Year 2018 / 2019 Abstract The present thesis analyzes the development and transmission of the Chinese concept of civilization (wenming) in Chinese public service advertising (gongyi guanggao). This work intends to underline how the concept of civilization is conveyed and employed in modern China, and how its meaning and implications aim to improve its citizens behavior. The first chapter consists in a general overview on the public service advertising category where its boundaries, history and definitions are presented in a global perspective. In the second chapter the focus shifts to Chinese public service advertising, providing an insight into its evolution and employment, and its involvement with the political scene of the country through the years. Following these considerations, a discussion on the roots of the concept of civilization, its implications, and the use of the term “wenming” in the political discourse will be held. In the last chapter a brief survey of the approach that will be employed for the analysis of the case studies will be presented. The campaigns that are taken into consideration were launched by the cities of Ningbo, in Zhejiang province, and Deyang, in Sichuan province. Keywords: wenming, civilization, gongyi guanggao, Chinese advertising, PSA. 摘要 本文论文分析了在中国的公益广告中，发展和传播过程中国文明的含义。旨在强调文明概念 在现代中国的传播和运用，以及它的含义和含义是如何改善公民行为的。 第一章，包括对公共服务广告类别的总体概述，以及从全球的角度来阐述其历史和定 义。随着这些结论，能够更好地了解公益广告的产生过程，简要的说明由市场营销创造的社 会广告，进行引导人民行为的方法。 第二章，重点转向中国。首先介绍 20 世纪到现在中国与商业广告关系，而后深入了 解公益广告演变和当今发展情况，以及这些年来公益广告在国家政治舞台上的参与。 第三章，探讨‘文明’这个概念的起源和含义。从中国出现文明的时候到它如今的含 义与使用。以及讨论‘文明’这个词在政治话语中的含义与如何使用。 第四章，为了更好的理解公益广告中的‘文明’与政治的关系，进行了两个案例研 究分析。简要地介绍分析了所采用的方法和分析的结果。 分析的两个研究案例是浙江省宁波市和四川省德阳市发布的公益广告。 2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 摘要 2 Introduction 4 1 Public Service Advertising: An Overview 7 1.1 What is Public Service Advertising? 7 1.2 Public Service Advertising in a global perspective 18 1.2.1 The United States of America 18 1.2.2 Italy 19 1.3 Social Marketing 20 2 The Evolution of Chinese Advertising 24 2.1 A Brief History of Chinese Commercial Advertising 24 2.2 History of Chinese Public Service Advertising 30 3 Civilization with Chinese Characteristics 45 4 Case Studies: Ningbo and Deyang 70 4.1 Corpus and Methodology 70 4.2 The Ningbo Campaign 76 4.3 The Deyang Campaign 80 The Ningbo Campaign - Figures 87 The Deyang Campaign - Figures 92 Conclusions 97 References 102 Online Sources 114 3 Introduction We have seen and heard public service advertising (PSA) since we were children, in any kind of media communication system: on TV, in the newspapers, on the radio, on posters hung in our cities. PSA made us think of and re-evaluate certain aspects of our lifestyle or behaviors, sometimes even without realizing they were the reason why we had such thoughts. Yet how many times did we actually pay close attention to those messages or the way they were delivered, both with words and images? How many times did we ask ourselves: what is a PSA, and what lies underneath this means? Public service advertising is a form of communication that might help in identifying a country’s important issues or the topics the national debate focuses on, but its relevance is often overlooked. This kind of advertising might go unnoticed in many countries but China, where the cities are covered with hundreds of posters advocating the importance of a righteous behavior, and the necessity to contribute to the formation of a prosperous country. It is probably because of the posters’ colorful and joyful appearance that they catch the eye of foreigners and tourists, who, sometimes unaware of the socio-political context that generated these ads, curiously glance at them. The idea for this work has had the same approach, as the initial astonishment of marveled eyes that slowly turned into the will to understand the dynamics and the implications hidden behind those posters hung in all the Chinese cities. Chinese PSA, which go by the name gongyi guanggao 公益广告, present different features than other countries’ better known public service advertising; these dissimilarities are rooted in the country’s past and its political history, to whom the public service advertising practice is closely linked. While the visual component of the posters draws its characteristics from Chinese traditional art, the messages they convey are more akin to the political discourse, as they spread information about governmental policies and attempt to influence the citizens’ behavior towards certain topics. Following these premises, it is evident how gongyi guanggao constitute an important communication means for the ruling class, thus assuming, in some campaigns, what are considered propagandistic features. Amidst the main topics featured in Chinese PSA, a concept has emerged in the last decades: ‘civilization.’ In the years that followed the end of the Mao-era, the increasing importance ‘civilization’ has assumed in the country’s political and social discourse has been mirrored by PSA, that have been used since then to sensitize the population on this matter. 4 The concept of ‘civilization,’ in Chinese wenming 文明, was introduced into the country at the end of the XIX century as a foreign importation; the term had thus assumed a negative connotation, as it was often related to the Western’s colonization of China that happened consequently. Since its introduction in the country, wenming had been part of the national debate on the need for China to enter the international scene and establish itself as a powerful, modern country. As the argumentations on the topic developed, the concept of ‘civilization’ itself started being molded and re-evaluated to follow the needs of the ruling class and its power discourse. This process of assessment of the term has led to its present formulation, which encompasses more than one implication. The development of this idea on a political discourse level has been followed by its employment in the governmental policies, and both had been reflected in PSA, that had the role to further legitimize the authority and build consensus among the population. It is starting from these assumptions that the present work pursues the goal to underline the close relationship between the Chinese governance and gongyi guanggao, with a focus on the ‘civilization’ topic, which has had an important role in the country since the 1980s. In order to better comprehend the outcomes of the historical survey, two case studies will be presented: the public service advertising campaign of Ningbo city, in Zhejiang, and the campaign of Deyang, in Sichuan. The two campaigns have been chosen because of their evident adherence to the governance policies, and for the local features they present, to observe how national measures are transposed into smaller realities. The choice of focusing on advertisements published on governmental websites has also been determined by the particular period of time in which the present work has been developed: due to the extraordinary international situation the access to various offline resources has been significantly limited. In the first chapter, the public service advertising domain is defined and distinguished from other non-profit forms of advertising. Then, a brief history of the development of the practice in the United States and in Italy is presented, in order to provide a benchmark for the Chinese context illustrated in the second chapter. The last section of the first chapter presents an introduction to social marketing, the application of marketing techniques to the social communications domain, and is employed in the production of public service advertisement. The second chapter focuses on China, firstly providing a brief history of the country’s complex relationship with commercial advertising through the years and then, in the second part, illustrating the historical development of the gongyi guanggao practice. In order to provide a more exhaustive overview on the present situation of the country’s public service advertising, the main regulations and laws concerning PSA are illustrated. 5 The third chapter presents a survey on the development of the concept of ‘civilization’ and of its employment by the Chinese governance through the years. Starting from the introduction of the term wenming into the country and of the debate that it generated, the chapter proceeds with an overview on the main political connections and implications of the term under the leaderships that succeeded to Mao, namely Deng, Jiang, Hu, and Xi, until present implications of ‘civilization’ in political and social policies are discussed. In the last chapter the corpus and the methodology framework employed for the analysis are illustrated, providing a contextualization of the work. Finally, the two campaigns are analyzed with both a semiotic and a discursive approach, also considering the visual and textual metaphors that recur in the advertisements. In the conclusions, general considerations on the outcomes of the work are illustrated, highlighting the elements that connect the representation of wenming in gongyi guanggao and the close relationship this term has with the Chinese domestic soft power discourse. 6 1 Public Service Advertising: An Overview 1.1 What is Public Service1 Advertising? Although the definition of public service advertising (PSA) might seem simple, finding a proper description defining the main features and the rules this category must abide to, is not easy at all. Any kind of definition would not be exhaustive or clear enough, unless one first takes a step back and analyzes the greater picture Public Service Advertising is framed in. As the name suggests, Public Service Advertisements (PSA) are a form of advertising, 2 but a substantial difference between the two main areas included in the word advertising needs to be marked.