Advertising and Consumer Culture in China

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Chinese advertising as an industry, a discourse and profession in China’s search for modernity and cultural globalization. It compares and contrasts the advertising practices of Chinese advertising agencies and foreign advertising agencies, and Chinese brands and foreign brands, with a particular focus on the newest digital advertising practices in the post WTO era.

Based on extensive interviews, participant observation, and a critical analysis of secondary data, Li offers an engaging analysis of the transformation of Chinese advertising in the past three decades in Post-Mao China. Drawing upon theories of political economy, media, and cultural studies, her analysis offers most significant insights in advertising and consumer culture as well as the economic, social, political, and cultural transformations in China.

The book is essential for students and scholars of communication, media, cultural studies and international business, and all those interested in cultural globalization and China.

Map

Chronology

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One: Modernity, Cultural Globalization, and Chinese Advertising

Chapter Two: The Development of Advertising in China

Chapter Three: Chinese Advertising Agencies: Dancing with Chains?

Chapter Four: Branding Chinese Products: Between Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism

Chapter Five: Chinese Sportswear Brand Li-Ning: Selling a Cosmo-Patriotic Image

Chapter Six: Controversial Advertising in China

Chapter Seven: From Mass Marketing to Participatory Advertising in the Digital Age

Conclusion and Reflection

Notes

References

Index

"Advertising and Consumer Culture in China delivers up-to-the-minute coverage of the development of advertising in China, including its latest incarnations on the Internet and smart phones. But this is a study of much more than a single Chinese industry struggling to survive in a globally competitive market. Hongmei Li also provides a critical window onto contemporary China's economy, society, and people's aspirations."
Karl Gerth, University of California, San Diego, and author of As China Goes, So Goes the World

"A brilliant book! Li has done an excellent job of tracing the sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and technological elements that are contributing to the growth of consumer culture in China today. It is required reading for advertising professionals as well as students of advertising in Asia."
Katherine Frith, Southern Illinois University Hongmei Li is Associate Professor of Strategic Communication at Miami University