CULTURAL VALUES IN ADVERTISEMENTS TO THE CHINESE X-GENERATION Promoting Modernity and Individualism

A content analysis of 463 ads examined the cultural values—modernity, tradition, individualism, and collectivism—promoted in Chinese advertising. Results indicate that both modernity and individualism values predominate in current Chinese advertising. These values are more pervasive in magazine advertisements, which target the Chinese XGeneration (aged 18–35 years with high education and income), than in television commercials, which are aimed at the mass market. In contrast, collectivism and tradition values are found to be more pervasive on television than in magazine ads. These findings reveal the role of advertising in helping shape new values among the X-Generation, as well as reflecting existing values among the mainstream Chinese market. In addition, product characteristics (personal use versus shared products) are found to affect the degree of individualism and collectivism values manifested in ads. The implications for future research on the impact of cultural values in advertising are discussed. rising middle-class in China, aged 18 to 35—and they are the future (TIME Asia 2000). As shown in this prototypical profile, the Chinese X-Generation represents a special demographic group that is becoming more culturally adapted to both China and the West (Ong 1998). The Chinese X-Generation is partly the product of Chinese modernization and global marketing. These young adults live in the cities in which there are growing numbers of international contacts, networks, and organizations (Hermans and Kempen 1998). Geographically, most of these cities are located along the east coast of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Qingdao, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xiamen, and Shenzhen. In terms of marketing strategies, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are generally positioned as the primary markets because of their influence on their neighboring cities. Members of the Chinese X-Generation typically work at local offices established by multinational companies in these cities, in which people from different cultural origins encounter one another. Economically, these 18– 35-year-olds make more money than their parents and have more disposable income (China: X-Gen Study 1996). To be competent working at multinational companies and enhance their competitive edge, most have at least an associate’s degree and a good mastery of the English language. These geographic, economic, and educational characteristics of the Chinese X-Generation put them in a position to be more influenced by Chinese modernization and provide more opportunities for exposure to other cultures. In addition, an extensive exposure to mass media and advertising accounts for the Chinese X-Generation’s cultural 22 The Journal of Advertising adaptation. Most multinational companies in China market their brands toward these young urban adults, and these brands tend to emphasize more Western values in their advertising (e.g., Cheng and Schweitzer 1996). Consumer research has provided evidence that these multinational companies’ advertising values are well reflected in their brand users’ profiles. For example, consumer profiles of eight toothpaste brands in China, including both joint venture and domestic, were investigated by International Market Insight (Modern Advertising 1999). The results show that the primary users of Crest toothpaste are younger and more affluent than those of domestic brands such as Blue Sky. Crest users were also found to be more career-oriented, open to different values, and less conservative than domestic brand users. In general, these young urban adults were found to be more receptive to advertising communication and to welcome Western values and ideals. They liked to try new brands, believed a famous brand could improve their image, liked to buy foreign goods even if they were more expensive, and generally regarded advertising as part of modern life (Marketing Week 1998). As such, these young urban adults represent the context in which cultural change is likely to be the most rapid and have the greatest long-term impact. In other words, the Chinese X-Generation exists not only as a profitable market, but also as a force that determines the cultural orientation of China’s future (China: X-Gen Study 1996). This picture of the X-Generation may present a sharp contrast to the conventional view of China and the Chinese presented by Hsu (1953, 1981). In this view, Chinese living standards are rather low, Confucian and collectivistic values dominate society, and people tend to be humble or moderate. This still holds true for China and the Chinese in general, that is, for the mass market. The mass market in China is very large and diverse. The primary force of this market is located in rural areas, where 71% of the Chinese population lives (China Statistical Yearbook 1997). The great penetration of televisions in rural areas (84%; Gallup 1997) suggests that this mass market is not isolated from the influence of mass media. Demographically, it consists of all age groups, including children, youth, adults, and elderly people, and, to some extent, the Chinese X-Generation. However, the mass market is dominated by more conservative forces, such as generations of Chinese over 40 years of age and people from rural China. These differences between the X-Generation and the mass market have not been addressed in advertising studies because China is normally treated in research as a single market (cf. Ji and McNeal 2001 for an important exception). Because of the important differences between the X-Generation and the mass market in China, as well as the economic and cultural implications of the X-Generation, we examine the values that advertising to these markets reflects by comparing the X-Generation context to the mass market context. That is, the degree to which cultural values reflected in the X-Generation market deviate from those of the mainstream signifies the role of advertising in reshaping cultural values in China. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS Two categories of existing literature have studied cultural values in the advertising context. One stream of literature has focused on modernity as a consumption value that has been promoted in Chinese society, and the other has applied the individualism and collectivism framework (Hofstede 1980) in content analyzing advertisements. Consumption Values in Chinese Ads: Modernity and Tradition As noted, previous studies of advertising in China viewed it as a single market without any differentiation, and accordingly, research on Chinese advertisements only examined consumption or cultural values at one level: the mass market. Several content analyses have been conducted to understand the social and cultural consequences of advertising in China since 1979 (Chan 1995; Cheng 1994; Cheng and Schweitzer 1996; Czepiec 1994; Lin 2001; Rice and Lu 1988; Swanson 1996; Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989; Zhou and Belk 1993). Starting in 1979, China began its modernization under “economic reform” and “open policy” (Cheng 1994, p. 169). The Chinese advertising industry revived immediately after the enactment of these new policies, which put it in a position to play an important role in promoting Chinese modernization. Previous content analyses captured two phases in the development of Chinese advertisements between 1979 and 2001. During the first phase, they identified key utilitarian appeals in Chinese advertisements and documented the movement from utilitarian to hedonistic appeals (Chan 1995; Czepiec 1993; Resnik and Stern 1977; Rice and Lu 1988; Swanson 1996; Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989). Utilitarian appeals involved satisfying basic physiological needs, whereas hedonistic appeals involved fun, gratification, and pleasure (Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989). In the second phase, studies identified primary cultural values reflected in Chinese advertising at symbolic and emotional levels and described a “melting pot” of cultural values, namely, the notion of Chinese advertising incorporating Western and Eastern and modernity and tradition values (Cheng 1994; Cheng and Schweitzer 1996; Lin 2001). Modernity values in these studies usually were operationalized as the notion of being new, contemporary, up-to-date, and ahead of the times, whereas tradition values were operationalized as respecting the past, customs, and conventions and venerating the quality of being historical, time-honored, and legendary. The “melting pot” metaphor vividly expressed the coex-