Paper 2
Due: Friday, Nov. 3, 5 pm, my office, Vollum 312
Length and Format: 5-7 pages, double-spaced, 1 inch margins
all around, 12 point fonts. Please spellcheck and number your pages! Essays
should be well-organized, with a clear thesis or argument that is 1) articulated
in the first or second paragraphs, 2) supported by evidence from readings,
and 3) reconsidered and fleshed out in a conclusion.
Evaluation: I will evaluate and respond to papers based
on (in order of priority):
- Degree to which you respond to the assignment and incorporate ideas and issues from class materials in your discussion;
- Extent to which you demonstrate clear understanding of basic terms presented in the course;
- the creativity and originality of your ideas
- The clarity of your organization and writing
Topic: In the past few weeks we have been considering
the consequences for ordinary people and for the Chinese state of the
shift to a state-sponsored form of market economy in which new forms of
mass communication have been increasingly put to the service of commercial
interests (which both intersect and conflict with those of the state).
We have also considered the concomitant emergence of consumption as a
key practice through which citizens both assert identities and participate
in "modernity".
This exercise is a chance to think through some of the issues raised by
these readings by focusing on advertising as an extremely important form
of communication and medium for the construction and contestation of various
subjectivities and agents of power. Drawing on insights from previous
readings, and those offered by theorists from week 8 (Williams, Fowles,
Barme, Notar, Dutton, Fraser), analyze the messages and cultural politics
of one or a group of advertisements included in the "Transnational
China Project Image Archive".
You can choose Public advertising, Outdoor commercial ads, or
Subway ads:
Public Ads:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/chinapolads.html
- Read the text (very short) and Choose a city or the Three gorges dam project images; These images are already translated.
Outdoor commercial ads:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/chinaads.html
- Read the text and choose either goods or businesses
- These images are not translated. You will need to choose one and email me the link by Monday, Oct. 23 so we can translate them.
Subway ads:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~tnchina/subwayads/subwayads.htm
- Read the text and choose either Beijing or Shanghai
- These images are not translated. You will need to choose one and email me the link by Monday, Oct. 23 so we can translate them.
Consider specifically:
- How would you decipher and contextualize these images? Think about your chosen ad(s) in terms of some of the questions Fowles raises about their contexts, their aesthetics and their implications.
- What are the main messages here (remember that not all messages are intended by ads' creators!)
- What seem to be its goals? It's intended audiences?
- What vision or fantasy do they hold out for types of subjectivities and practices: consumption, imagined communities, consumer identities, modernities, agencies?
- What relationships to the sociopolitical contexts of the time can you discern, speculate about?