Environmental Public Service Advertising (PSA) “with ...

China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X

[email protected] 26

Environmental Public Service Advertising (PSA) “with

Chinese Elements”: A Visual Semiotic Analysis of Localized

WWF Print Campaigns in Mainland China*

Giovanna Puppin, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Abstract: This article examines environmental public service announcements, or eco-

PSAs, as increasingly crucial yet under-investigated tools for environmental

communication in mainland China. Following an overview of existing gaps in the literature

on both visual and localized forms of environmental communication, it evaluates the birth,

development and new trends of Chinese eco-PSAs. It then explains the process of data

collection and the methodology employed, which is visual semiotic analysis. The corpus

consists of seven print eco-PSAs, sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), that

employ “Chinese elements” as the main creative strategy. Findings show that these eco-

PSAs use a range of culturally loaded elements (from folk art and idioms to inanimate

objects, from Chinese characters to animal symbols) as intertextual references or visual

metaphors to promote awareness of animal protection, ecological protection and resource

saving, as well as reinforcing national culture. This contribution opens up new directions

in researching visual environmental communication in a global context and presents new

empirical findings demonstrating that, in Chinese eco-PSAs, local culture still matters.

[Giovanna Puppin. Environmental Public Service Advertising (PSA) “with Chinese

Elements”: A Visual Semiotic Analysis of Localized WWF Print Campaigns in

Mainland China. China Media Research, 16(3):26-48]3

Keywords: Chinese eco-PSAs, Chinese elements, environmental communication,

intertextuality, visual metaphor, visual semiotic analysis, WWF campaigns

The Ubiquitous Green: A Synchronic Snapshot of Eco-PSAs in Contemporary

Mainland China

In 2019, in the busiest international airports of mainland China, it was quite common

to encounter huge billboards, sponsored by the global conservation organization WildAid,

prompting travellers to stop the trafficking of elephant ivory. They sometimes featured the

famous retired NBA player Yao Ming – Wildlife Ambassador since 2006. Their public

display was made possible with the support of the General Administration of China

Customs (GACC) (see Figure 1). In April 2019, to celebrate Earth Day, the World Wildlife

Fund (WWF) collaborated with Tencent Comic – China’s largest online animation

platform – to launch a 12-episode story on the sustainable lifestyles of two cartoon

characters known as Happy Virus Huang (IP image of the actor Huang Bo) and Panda

Gentleman. This initiative was advertised through QR code posters in Beijing metro

stations (see Figure 2). From 1 July 2019, new advertising banners started to appear on the

streetlights surrounding Jing’an Temple (one of Shanghai’s top tourist attractions). Their

aim was to educate local residents on the newly introduced waste and recycling rules and,

interestingly, they also displayed the logo of the nearby Joinbuy City Plaza (see Figure

3).The list of examples could be much longer, but it suffices to make the main point clear:

environmental public service announcements, or eco-PSAs (huanbao gongyi guanggao),

mailto:[email protected]



have become crucial in disseminating environmental messages in China and are now so

ubiquitous that it is no longer possible for them to go unnoticed.

Figure 1. WildAid Billboard Against Ivory Trafficking (Beijing International Airport, June

2019). (Source: The Author)

Figure 2. WWF Poster Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles (Beijing Tube Station, June

2019). (Source: The Author)




Figure 3. Banner Educating on Waste Recycling (Jing’an District, Shanghai, June 2019).

(Source: The Author)

The above snapshot of recent eco-PSA campaigns illustrates some of the creative

strategies that Chinese PSAs, in general, have developed in the last few decades, such as

the portrayal of domestic celebrities (Landsberger, 2009), the use of animated characters

(Eberhardt, 2015) and the appropriation of cultural elements (Puppin, 2018a). Today, the

production of eco-PSAs is still closely linked to the Chinese government and authorities,

confirming their role as alternative means to promote the dominant ideology (Cheng &

Chan, 2009), but it also involves collaborations with enterprises (Stockmann, 2011), as

well as environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) (Eberhardt, 2015). By

acting as cultural translators of forms, practices and languages of global environmentalism,

ENGOs play a crucial role (Yang, 2009).

The theoretical standpoint of this article is an acknowledgement that “global concepts

of environment and environmental change are always localized in particular socio-political

and cultural contexts” (Burningham & O’Brien, 1994, p. 914), and that “visualizing the

environment in order to comprehend it is a constitutive aspect of making the environment

meaningful” (Doyle, 2009, p. 285). Given the importance of localization and visualization

processes in environmental communication, the underpinning research questions are: How

do international ENGOs use eco-PSAs to address the shared global goal of environmental

protection in a localized way in contemporary China? Is Chinese culture visually invoked

and, if so, how?

To answer these questions, this study investigates the persistence of the local in the

global through the analysis of a corpus of print eco-PSAs sponsored by the WWF that

deploy so-called “Chinese elements” (Zhongguo yuansu). These elements embody the

spirit of Chinese culture, which is evoked through unique and distinctive images, folk art

and customs that are easily recognized and identified with pride by Chinese people – such

as the dragon, the Great Wall, blue-and-white porcelain, calligraphy, etc. (Zhu, 2010). As




the first international ENGO to be active in China and much involved in the creation of

eco-PSAs, the WWF proved to be an ideal sponsor on which to conduct a case study.

After reviewing the existing literature on environmental communication, with a focus

on its visual and localized forms, this article provides a critical account of the birth,

development and recent trends of Chinese eco-PSAs. It then introduces the data collection

process and the research method. Subsequently, it conducts a visual semiotic analysis of a

corpus of print eco-PSAs from the WWF that deploy Chinese elements as the main creative

strategy. Lastly, it recaps on the main contribution, highlights its limits and makes

suggestions for future research.

China’s Green Mission: Exploring the Visual and the Local in Chinese Eco-PSAs

The omnipresence of eco-PSAs in China mirrors the efforts of the Chinese Party-State

to address the disastrous impact that the country’s rapid economic growth has had on the

environment starting from the end of 1978, when Deng Xiaoping initiated the reforms and

opening-up policy (Shapiro, 2012). The country is now at the centre of global attention

(and concerns) and is under pressure to tackle its increasingly alarming environmental

problems. Being aware that China is globally portrayed both “as a reckless polluter and as

an emerging leader” (Zhang & Barr, 2013, p. 5), the Chinese leadership acknowledged that

improving the country’s reputation for environmental protection had to start “at home”.

During the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (NCCPC) in 2007,

former President Hu Jintao introduced the concept of “ecological civilization construction”

(shengtai wenming jianshe), which started to gain increasing importance in China’s Five-

year Plans (Zhang & Barr, 2013). Current President Xi Jinping is also prioritizing eco-

civilization as a key component of the country’s future development, and an indispensable

tool for economic, political, cultural and social progress, even incorporating it into the

Constitution of China (People.cn, 2018). It should come as no surprise if the Chinese

leadership started to look at eco-PSAs as attractive communication and promotional tools

in the country’s “green mission”.

Nonetheless, Chinese eco-PSAs are not only the prerogative of the government: they

involve a plurality of actors from China’s emerging green sphere (Yang & Calhoun, 2007).

Here, multiple stakeholders – the State, ENGOs, enterprises, media outlets and civil society

– interact and engage offline and online, providing access to new policy approaches,

technologies and funding opportunities (Economy, 2004). In particular, international

ENGOs have a great influence on China’s environmental policies (Volpe, 2017).

Whilst a number of scholarly contributions have investigated ENGOs’ communication

initiatives in China (Dai, Zeng, & Wang, 2017) and their embracing of new media and

digital technologies (Yang, Kang & Wang, 2019), as well as their construction of

environmental issues on official websites (Heinz, Cheng & Inuzuka, 2007), there are

currently no English-language studies investigating the environmental messages they

promote to the domestic audience. This lack of interest aligns with the limited scholarship

on eco-PSAs in general, which mostly investigates their role in shaping the public’s

attitudes and behaviours towards environmental issues from a social psychology

perspective (Krajewski, Schumacher, & Dalrymple, 2019). Only a few studies focus on

eco-PSAs’ textual features by employing interpretative qualitative methods, such as critical

discourse analysis (Aswad, 2019) or visual semiotic analysis (Doyle, 2007; Jones, 1997;

Peverini, 2014). This article extends the latter strand of research and, by examining the

eco-PSAs from the WWF in the Chinese context, is the first of its kind.




Another research gap is the traditional scant attention paid to visual representations of

environmental issues (Dobrin & Morey, 2009). As images proved to be crucial in the social

construction of environmental issues, by providing “a kind of cognitive short cut

compressing a complex argument into one that is easily comprehensible and ethically

stimulating” (Hannigan, 2014, p. 69), this research gap started to be filled by scholars from

different backgrounds (Culloty et al., 2019). Recent findings have shown a tendency

“toward abstraction or decontextualization of images from specific identifiable geographic

or cultural environments to generic, iconic or ‘representative’ global environments”

(Hansen & Machin, 2013, p. 158). One of the objectives of this study is precisely to explore

whether the loss of geographical or cultural context of eco-images also happens in the

Chinese context.

Some scholars have also lamented the lack of studies assessing whether advertising

discourses of the environment are becoming universal as a result of globalization, or if they

are nationally or culturally specific, especially in non-Western countries (Hansen, 2019).

The few studies on China have investigated environmental and green advertising of cars

and eco-friendly products, often in comparison with the US (Li, 2016; Xue & Zhou, 2012).

Findings show the coexistence and even the distortion of Chinese and Western values, as

well as the presence of the global in the local, exemplified by the emergence of

neoliberalism, individualism and a desire for status symbols in the Chinese context. It is

worth remembering that commercial advertising in China has historically been considered

a Western product and hence resisted, and that the country is determined to develop its own

advertising “with Chinese characteristics”, rather than becoming a mirror image of the

West (Puppin, forthcoming). To challenge the dominant interpretative paradigm and go

beyond predictable findings related to the tendency to glocalize, this article takes into

account the specificities of China by examining an ongoing national advertising trend: the

development of “creative advertising with Chinese elements” (Zhongguo yuansu chuangyi

guanggao). This trend emerged as a response to China’s entry into the World Trade

Organization (WTO) in 2001 and the gradual liberalization of its advertising market, and

it “has been employed from both a protectionist and a nationalist perspective: on the one

hand, embracing the challenges set by the big multinationals and, on the other hand,

reasserting China’s legitimacy to use symbols of its own culture” (Puppin, 2014, p. 192).

Subsequently, Chinese elements have been widely employed by advertising creatives in

both commercial and PSA campaigns (Guo & Hao, 2010). As PSAs are considered to be

the bearers of cultural authenticity and national identity in China (Puppin, 2018a), they

appeared as an original and pristine advertising genre to seek culturally specific

constructions and representation of environmental issues. Paradoxically, the few Chinese-

language studies on the WWF’s eco-PSAs employing qualitative textual methods have

tended to focus on campaigns launched globally (Yuan 2013; Wang, 2019), rather than

national campaigns using Chinese elements, despite the latter constituting a localized

creative strategy worth academic attention.

Paving the Way for Creativity: Birth, Development, New Trends

of Chinese Eco-PSAs

The first eco-PSA to be broadcast in China was the TV PSA “Save Water” (Jieyue

yongshui), jointly sponsored by Guiyang Television and the local Office for Water Saving

in 1986, in order to raise awareness after a long period of drought. Its broadcast marked

the origins of modern PSA campaigns in the country (Gao, 1999). Since then, eco-PSAs




have become an increasingly important category, addressing a variety of themes from

animal and plant protection to resource saving; from water and soil preservation to urban

environmental protection (Zhang, 2004). Their main objectives include transmitting

environmental knowledge, enhancing ecological awareness and encouraging

environmental behaviour; among the most common sponsors are the government and its

ministries, international and domestic ENGOs, as well as enterprises (Gao, 2016).

Chinese eco-PSAs are defined as crucial tools in eco-civilization construction, but also

as capable of correcting the misleading power of commercial advertising, which stimulates

consumption habits by concealing their disastrous effects on the environment (Song, 2015).

As a result, eco-PSAs are endowed with the duty to stimulate rational and healthy

consumption, promote a green lifestyle and eco-friendly products, and are officially praised

in comparison to their commercial counterparts thanks to their environmental ethics.

Despite this radical difference, commercial and public service advertising are both

protagonists of the Chinese authorities’ call to improve creative quality, e.g., by

encouraging domestic advertising agencies to participate in global advertising

competitions, such as the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (Puppin,

forthcoming). In particular, the creativity of eco-PSAs started to improve after 2008, as a

result of the environmental priorities set by the Beijing Olympics. International recognition

soon followed: the same year, the campaign “Target Practice” (Sheji xunlian), created by

Ogilvy Beijing for the WWF to raise awareness of animal extinction, was awarded a

Bronze Lion at Cannes. In 2009, “Landscape” (Shanshui hua), commissioned by the China

Environmental Protection Foundation (CEPF) for JWT Shanghai, won a Silver and a

Bronze Lion (Puppin, 2019). The following year, “Green Pedestrian Crossing” (Lüse

buxing), created by DDB Shanghai for the CEPF to tackle traffic pollution, allowed China

to bring home its first Gold Lion. Noticeably, all the above award-winning agencies are

transnational advertising agencies (TNAAs), which operate in China as either majority

stakes joint-ventures (JVs) with local Chinese agencies or as wholly owned agencies

(Cheng, 2010), thus blurring the boundaries between local and international creativity.

The astonishing rise of digital and mobile media in China brought significant

improvements to eco-PSAs. The content is less propagandistic and closer to people’s daily

lives, and the language is more lively and entertaining. The audience plays an important

role in their production thanks to user-generated content (UGC). The range of media

includes Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Mobile commerce (M-commerce) and public

screens, as well as mobile and social media. The new formats of micro-movies and 3-D

animation are extremely popular among the younger generation (Gao, 2016).

Nevertheless, Chinese eco-PSAs are still conventionally supported by the

government’s (co)sponsorship of nationwide campaigns, competitions and awards (Liu,

2010). In 2016, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and the State

Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) launched a

competition to build a “Beautiful China” (Meili Zhongguo) (gov.cn., 2016), which became

indispensable for the ecological civilization construction – a clear sign that the relationship

between the Party-state, its environmental priorities and the production of eco-PSAs is

increasingly strong.

Research Method

This study reviewed all the eco-PSAs from the WWF included in the public service

category of the International Advertising Institute (IAI) China Advertising Works Yearbook




(IAI Zhongguo guanggao zuopin nianjian) – retitled in 2016 as IAI Advertising Works and

Digital Marketing Yearbook (IAI guanggao zuopin yu shuzi yingxiao nianjian) – published

from 2000 to 2019, a total of 20 volumes. The selection was restricted to print campaigns

that met these criteria: the WWF logo was visible; the WWF name appeared as the client

in the credits; the visual layout reflected the use of Chinese elements as the most salient

creative strategy.

Chinese elements were identified as visual signs that are distinguishable as

Chinese and “that can be understood and accepted by the majority of Chinese people

and are vivid, distinct and easy in the delivery of themes and emotions” (Zhu, 2010,

p. 34). Chinese characters were considered to be Chinese elements only when used

creatively as a dominant part of the visual, not simply their appearance in verbal

messages.

The corpus comprises seven eco-PSAs that are organized and analyzed according to

the categories of Chinese elements they use in the visual, as follows: “Folk art and idioms”;

“Inanimate objects”; “Chinese characters”; “Symbolic animals”.

The visual analysis conducted here is inspired by semiotics. The latter is a valuable

research method for examining advertisements and unpacking their meaning and

signifying practices, as it allows in-depth critical readings of both verbal and visual

language, the promotional strategies they use and the ideology they promote (Beasley

& Danesi, 2002; Williamson, 1978). Nonetheless, only a few scholarly contributions

have examined eco-PSAs by means of visual semiotics, focusing on animal protection

(Jones, 1997), climate change (Doyle, 2007) and a variety of environmental themes

(Peverini, 2014).

Heeding Culloty et al.’s (2019) call to integrate theories and methodologies of

visual meaning into empirical research on visual environmental communication, the

visual analysis draws on the semiotic work carried out by Roland Barthes (1964/1977;

1972/2000). It proceeds according to different levels of meaning: denotation (or

descriptive level), connotation (or association level) and mythology (or ideological

level). Particular attention is paid to the organization of Chinese elements on the

paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes, the interplay between visual and verbal language

and the role of rhetorical devices in the meaning-making process, as well as the

cultural implications for the domestic audience. The analysis also engages with the

existing broader literature on eco-PSAs to assess if, beyond the use of Chinese

elements, the other recurrent strategies and appeals are similar to those employed in

environmental campaigns launched in geographical and cultural contexts other than

China.

Analysis of the WWF’s Eco-PSAs “with Chinese Elements”

Folk art and idioms

The first campaign in this category was produced by Hangzhou Zhisheng Advertising

Co., Ltd. The three executions (see Figure 4) portray an antelope (Figure 4.1), a spotted

deer (Figure 4.2) and a panda (Figure 4.3). The animals are represented via stylized images,

in red on a white background, and are accompanied by a short verbal message; the WWF

logo is in the bottom right corner. The headline proclaims: “If you are not careful, it could

lead it to death!” (Yi ci shishou, zu yi shi ta zhiming!). The strategic positioning of the

headline directs the viewer’s attention towards the neck of each animal, which presents a

lethal cut that will inevitably kill it.




Figure 4. Animal Protection: Paper-Cutting

Figure 4.1. “Antelope” (Lingyang pian)

Figure 4.2. “Spotted Deer” (Meihualu pian)

Figure 4.3. “Panda” (Xiongmao pian). (Source: IAI China Advertising Works Yearbook

2008, p. 494)




To fully understand this campaign on animal protection, one has to recognize the

Chinese element in it, which is paper-cutting (jianzhi). This distinctive folk art of China

recurs frequently in localized advertising (Guo & Hao, 2010). Paper-cutting relies on

simple tools, such as paper and a pair of scissors, but can create beautiful hand-made

decorations. These originally symbolized a good harvest and were used for ornamental

purposes during Chinese New Year, but nowadays are considered to bring auspiciousness

more generally, and often given as gifts (Wu, 2015).

The animals portrayed here, though, are not among the mainstream paper-cut motifs,

which portray animals with auspicious connotations (Wang, 2013) or the 12 animals of the

Chinese zodiac. These animals were selected on the paradigmatic level as they all belong

to species that are native to China, and are vulnerable to extinction. On the connotational

level, this choice makes the issue of animal protection more local and urgent.

On the syntagmatic level, the combination of these animals and paper-cutting has

important implications. Paper-cutting requires attention and concentration, as quality in

artworks can only be achieved with precise lines and cuts. This creative choice transposes

the connotations of the fragility associated with this folk art to the referent system

(Williamson, 1978) of vulnerable endangered wildlife, conveying the idea of a difficult

harmony between ecosystems. On the ideological level, paper-cuttings are human artefacts

and, therefore, the campaign conveys a human conceptualization of the extinction of these

species, in which humans are empowered and animals are objectified, in an anthropocentric

fashion.

Despite its aesthetic and artistic value, the campaign does not provide any practical

solution to the problem of animal extinction. Furthermore, the choice of portraying animals

in an abstract and figurative way might not be effective in prompting environmental action

by the audience.

The second campaign, entitled “Old Meaning, New Reading” (Guyi xinjie), was

created by Beijing Intercom International Communication Group. It comprises three

executions, each of which follows this layout: the WWF logo; a verbal message; and a

drawing. All of these elements are rendered in black on a sepia background.

Figure 5. “Old Meaning, New Reading” (Guyi xinjie pian)




Figure 5.1. New “Killing Two Hawks with One Arrow”

Figure 5.2. New “Using Straw Boats to Borrow Arrows”

Figure 5.3. New “Grinding an Iron Rod into a Needle”. (Source: IAI China Advertising

Works Yearbook 2012, p. 406)

The first execution depicts two men from ancient times on horses, in the lower left

corner. One of them is shooting an arrow towards two hawks flying near a tree trunk, on

the opposite side. The copy states: “The story of ‘Killing two hawks with one arrow’ tells

us: using effectively is a form of skill” (“Yijianshuangdiao” de gushi gaosu women:

youxiao liyong shi yizhong benling) (Figure 5.1). The visual and verbal intertextual

reference alludes to a Chinese idiom, or chengyu. Chengyus normally occur as fixed four-

character structures, which became established by usage and whose meaning cannot be

understood literally. They are learnt through language acquisition in school and are widely

used by educated Chinese. They are a crucial part of Chinese traditional culture, as they

usually refer to folk stories, literature and historical events (Meng, 2007). The main

protagonists here are Zhangsun Cheng, an expert archer of the Sui Dynasty (581–619 A.D.),




and his friend. The legend says that one day they went hunting and Zhangsun’s friend

asked him if he could shoot two hawks that were flying in the air with just one arrow.

Zhangsun smiled and effortlessly accomplished the mission. This chengyu is used to

express the ability to use one method to obtain a double achievement, i.e., “To kill two

birds with one stone”.

The second execution portrays two male figures in traditional clothes, drinking inside

a boat’s cabin being attacked with a storm of arrows. The Chinese characters indicating

two proper names – Zhuge Liang and Lu Su – are placed vertically next to each protagonist.

The copy states: “The story of ‘Using straw boats to borrow arrows’ tells us: reusing is a

form of wisdom” (“Caochuanjiejian” de gushi gaosu women: chongfu liyong shi yizhong

zhihui) (Figure 5.2). This chengyu originated from an episode in the Romance of the Three

Kingdoms – one of China’s Four Great Classic Novels. It illustrates the military strategist

Zhuge Liang sailing on the Yangtze River through a morning fog to capture 100,000

arrows from a rival general, Cao Cao, in order to fulfil a request made to him by his chief

military commander, Zhou Yu. Zhuge Liang prepared some boats, each manned by a few

soldiers and filled with human-like figures made of straw and hay. Before dawn, they sailed

towards Cao Cao’s camp and the soldiers were ordered to play drums and imitate the sound

of an attack. Cao Cao and his troops, whose vision was obscured by the thick fog, fired

volleys of arrows, which got stuck in the enemies’ straw boats and figures. In the meantime,

Zhuge Liang and his advisor Lu Su were enjoying drinks in one of the cabins. Within three

days, Zhuge Liang managed to collect 100,000 arrows, and thus kept his pledge to Zhou

Yu. This chengyu expresses the ability to use the strength and power of others for one's

own ends.

The third and last execution of this campaign (Figure 5.3) portrays an old woman, who

is bent down looking busy. In front of her stands a child, who is questioning her about

something, as evinced by his raised index finger. The copy states: “The story of ‘Grinding

an iron rod into a needle’ tells us: using something big for a small purpose is a form of

waste” (“Tiechuchengzhen” de gushi gaosu women: dacai xiaoyong shi yizhong langfei).

The allusion here is to another chengyu featuring a young Li Bai, one of China’s most

famous poets from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 A.D.). When he was a child, he didn’t like

to study, so one day he sneaked out from school and went to play. He bumped into an

elderly woman who was grinding an iron rod. When he asked her what she was doing, the

old woman replied that she was making a sewing needle. Li Bai was very surprised and

kept questioning her, while she patiently explained that, as long as she persisted without

giving up, she would achieve her intent. Li Bai understood the lesson and hurried back to

school, promising to study hard. This chengyu is used to encourage people to be determined

in what they do in order to achieve all their endeavours and, ultimately, succeed.

The Chinese elements of this campaign are obviously chengyus, with their words and

images being referred to through direct citations. The Chinese audience is familiar with the

story behind each idiom, but will also recognize the visuals: they appropriate the original

drawings of each chengyu story’s most salient scene printed on the covers of serial pictures

(lianhuan hua) (Shen, 2001), which originally also featured chengyus. Evincibly, these

verbal and visual citations have to be understood as forms of intertextuality, defined as

“the co-presence of other texts in the ad” (Beasley & Danesi, 2002, p. 110). Here, the

original signification system – i.e., the morals of these chengyus stories – is extended in a

creative way into the target domain (Forceville, 1996) of resource-saving and waste

reduction.




Grasping this unexpected environmental twist – a “new reading”, as proclaimed in the

campaign title – relies on the cultural competence of the reader, exemplifying how “the

interpretation of a text’s subtextual signification system is anchored in both the interpreter

and in the specific culture in which the interpretation takes place” (Beasley & Danesi, 2002,

p. 68). This campaign prompts the viewer to identify culturally with the environmental

cause being promoted. One possible reading on the ideological level is that China’s

environmental ethics are embedded in the national cultural heritage through chengyus – a

second-order semiological system, or myth (Barthes, 1972/2000), that is newly created to

manufacture China’s historical legacy on resource saving.

Inanimate Objects

The first campaign in this category was produced by Jinjuan Media & Technology Co.

Ltd., in Hefei. It consists of three executions, whose layout is occupied by a black and

white picture of an animal (see Figure 6): a black bear (Figure 6.1), an antelope (Figure

6.2), and a rhesus monkey (Figure 6.3). Superimposed on these visuals are some pairs of

chopsticks, which are positioned vertically and equidistant from the others. On the right-

hand side, the verbal messages are typed vertically in white, to emerge more sharply from

the black background, and they close with the WWF logo. The headlines are very similar

in all the executions. The first recites: “Every year, tens of thousands of black bears are

killed to satisfy humans’ appetite for delicacies. Save them!” (Mei nian, you shiwan zhi

heixiong yinwei ren de koufuzhiyu er sangsheng. Jiu jiu tamen!). The second claims:

“Every year, tens of thousands of antelopes are killed to satisfy humans’ appetite for

delicacies. Save them!” (Mei nian, you shiwan zhi lingyang yinwei ren de koufuzhiyu er

sangsheng. Jiu jiu tamen!). And the third: “Every year, nearly a thousand rhesus monkeys

are killed to satisfy humans’ appetite for delicacies. Save them!” (Mei nian, you jin qian

zhi mihou yinwei ren de koufuzhiyu er sangsheng. Jiu jiu tamen!). The first part of the

headline, which works as an anchorage (Barthes, 1964/1977), raises concerns over the

alarming extinction rate of the species portrayed and reveals the cause of their death: their

meat is considered a delicacy in China. The second part is a plea for help, an implicit appeal

to the audience to stop eating these animals and, by doing so, keep them alive.

Figure 6. Animal Protection: Animals Behind Bars




Figure 6.1. “Black Bear” (Heixiong pian)

Figure 6.2. “Antelope” (Lingyang pian)

Figure 6.3. “Rhesus Monkey” (Mihou pian). (Source: IAI China Advertising Works

Yearbook 2006, p. 488)

“Chopsticks” (kuaizi), the key Chinese elements in this campaign, are the most

common form of cutlery in the country, but also a powerful symbol of Chinese culture

(Wang, 2015). In recent years, their use in advertising campaigns has increasingly become

canonized: exemplary campaigns using them as carriers of Chinese culture have been

praised (Puppin, 2018a), whilst those that use them unconventionally – if not

inappropriately – have been deemed offensive (Puppin, 2018b). On the paradigmatic level,

chopsticks were chosen for two reasons. First, their shape is very similar to that of bars (be

they cage bars, prison bars or zoo bars), and therefore they act as a visual metaphor –

“chopsticks are bars”. The association between these two terms is new, making this visual

metaphor unconventional and, thus, both creative and effective (Forceville, 1996).

Secondly, chopsticks are tools used by the Chinese to eat these animals and, therefore, they

metonymically stand for the implied cause of their death. The signifier “chopsticks” picks

up an unusual negative connotation and creates a sense of pity and guilt in the viewer: by

seeing the animals behind bars waiting for an inescapable end, they become spectators of




their death. The use of chopsticks makes the extinction of local species even more

culturally relevant, and potentially more effective for the domestic audience.

The visual style is very different from the eco-PSAs on animal protection examined

earlier (see Figure 4); in this campaign, animals are represented via photographic images,

which connote a sense of reality. These visuals are disturbing, as the animals show deep

sadness in their eyes and facial expressions. The existing literature on eco-PSAs identifies

this as an explicit portrayal of animal suffering, which is a recurrent strategy in the category

of animal protection (Jones, 1997). Despite being presented through close-ups, the animals

do not create any contact with the viewer: their gaze is almost empty and directed

somewhere else, to connote emotional detachment.

The second eco-PSA is part of a campaign entitled “High Temperature in the City”

(Chengshi gaowen pian), produced by Beijing Topsun Advertising. From the black

background, three elements emerge: an ambiguous graphic image occupying most of the

layout; a verbal message; the WWF logo. The chromatic choice includes white, grey and

yellow. The headline claims: “The whole city is hot…” (Quan cheng re…), whilst the next

sentence explains: “In seeing more and more car parks, just like piles of steamers, I realize

it can just continue to be hot…” (Kandao yuelaiyue duo de tingchechang, xiang yi ge ge

zhenglong, wo mingbai zhi neng jixu re…). Evincibly, this eco-PSA aims to create

awareness of the greenhouse effect and, more generally, global warming (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Car Parks in the Hot City. (Source: IAI China Advertising Works Yearbook

2014, p. 377)

The Chinese elements here are two piles of “steamers” (zhenglong), which stand as a

visual metaphor for car parks. This metaphor is hard to grasp, as it features two visually

present terms: only by reading the anchoring verbal message can the viewer decide that car

parks are the metaphor’s primary subject, whilst the steamers are the secondary subject

(Forceville, 1996). On the denotational level, steamers are cooking utensils widely used in




China and traditionally made of bamboo; they cook food by exploiting the hot steam of

boiling water. Their main feature of “being hot” is creatively transferred to the primary

subject of the verbal message – car parks. It should come as no surprise that the

combination of these two visual elements is unusual, as climate change is an environmental

issue that has “no ready-made metaphors” (Ungar, 2000, p. 305). Chinese steamers usually

contain buns, which are white and round-shaped. To increase the visual impact of this

metaphor, the buns have been graphically altered to resemble cars, whose headlights look

like eyes, peeking outside the steamers in a creepy and threatening way.

The visual is very symbolic, which is typical when the environmental problem to be

tackled is invisible (e.g., global warming), and its representation becomes an obstacle

(Doyle, 2007). The combination, with its dull colours and disturbing verbal message,

conveys the idea of increasingly hot, unbearable and claustrophobic urban living. This is

identifiable as one of the low-fear appeal strategies that are commonly used in climate

change eco-PSAs, as they have proved effective in encouraging pro-environmental

behaviour (Chen, 2016). Nevertheless, the reader is here constructed as a passive victim of

global warming, with no solution or space for agency. Furthermore, only the choice of the

first person as the narrative voice (“I”), with whom the viewer can identify, adds a touch

of personality to the aseptic future scenario envisioned by this campaign.

Chinese Characters

The first eco-PSA in this category was produced by the agency Huode Chuangyi

Guanli, in Shenzhen. The visual depicts a white background with a walking tiger, whose

body is not made up of bold stripes – as in the case of real tigers – but components of

Chinese characters, in typographic style. Some of them are clearly distinguishable as

radicals/characters dan (dawn), wang (king), li (strength) and wu (noon); and strokes pie

(left-falling stroke), gou (hook stroke), dian (dot stroke) etc.; some others have been

flipped vertically, such as shi (corpse) and xi (sunset), whilst others are not identifiable.

This chaotic and illogic disposition is meaningless in linguistic terms. The slogan, which

is highlighted in yellow in the lower right corner, claims: “Protect ecology, protect national

prestige” (baohu shengtai, baohu guoti) and closes with the WWF logo (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. “Tiger” (laohu pian). (Source: IAI China Advertising Works Yearbook 2014, p.

353)




This eco-PSA evolves around the components of Chinese characters (Hanzi), which

are commonly acknowledged as the most important Chinese elements in advertising, as

they embody the essence of Chinese culture (Bo, 2009). The message of this eco-PSA is

neither straightforward nor obvious. The headline is quite blunt, as it follows the standard

symmetrical structure of a Chinese slogan: repetition of the same verb (“protect”),

followed by “ecology” and “national prestige”, respectively. This parallelism implies that

protection of the ecology is linked to the protection of national prestige in a symbiotic

relationship. If we interpret the verbal message as an example of relay (Barthes,

1964/1977), the analogy becomes clearer: the tiger is a metonymy for ecology, and the

strokes and radicals of Chinese characters are metonymies for national prestige. The most

logical decoding is that, just as the strokes and radicals of Chinese characters making up

the tiger’s body do not make any sense on their own, similarly, the national prestige of

China would not be complete without ecological protection. This interpretation is

supported by the lexical choice of guoti: despite its first meaning in current usage being

“state system”, it is used here in its traditional, archaic meaning, which indicates the

country’s dignity and honour.

This call to protect the ecology invokes nationalism via the rejuvenation of traditional

cultural heritage and appeals to the collective consciousness of all Chinese citizens.

Interestingly, the theme of this campaign is not indicated in the Yearbook, as it has a dual

purpose: promoting environmental protection and safeguarding national prestige.

The second eco-PSA was created by Beijing Topsun Advertising. The visual depicts

some stylized waves, in the upper part, followed by the shape of a long-beaked dolphin, in

a central position. Both elements are composed of Chinese characters organized in a logical

sequence, which constitute the verbal message. Below, the slogan closes with the WWF

logo. The background is brown kraft wrapping paper (see Figure 9).

Figure 9. White-Finned Dolphin. (Source: IAI China Advertising Works Yearbook 2014,

p. 384)




The opening verbal message, written in the shape of waves, states: “Findings from an

expedition in 1990: 200 exemplars remaining; findings in 1997: less than 50; number

discovered in 1998: only 7 remaining; findings from an expedition by six countries and

with almost 40 experts in 2006: none” (1990 nian diaocha jieguo: shengyu 200 tou; 1997

nian diaocha jieguo: shaoyu 50 tou; 1998 nian faxian shuliang: zhi shengxia 7 tou; 2006

nian liu guo jin 40 kexuejia diaocha jieguo: 0 tou). The copy written inside the animal

shape claims: “Do you still remember me? Without you realizing it, I became extinct. The

white-finned dolphin, ‘Goddess of the Yangtze’, was already declared functionally extinct

in August 2007” (Ni hai jide wo ma? Zai ni mei fajue shi wo momo de xiaoshi le. “Chang

Jiang nüshen” baijitun yi xuangao gongneng xing xiaomie ba yue 2007). The closing

slogan states: “On 8 August 2007, the Yangtze River dolphin was officially declared

functionally extinct” (2007 nian 8 yue 8 ri Chang Jiang baijitun zhengshi xuangao

gongneng xing xiaomie).

In this eco-PSA, Chinese characters creatively compose the copy in the shape of a

baijitun, or Yangtze River dolphin, whose natural habitat is widely held as the cradle of

Chinese civilization. The cultural significance of the baijitun is amplified by its mythical

origins. According to legend, there was once a kind-hearted girl who lived with her

stepfather. He was an evil man and, one day, while they were crossing the river, he tried

to take advantage of her. She escaped by plunging into the Yangtze and transformed herself

into a beautiful dolphin. This is why the baijitun became known as the “Goddess of the

Yangtze” (Turvey, 2008).

The opening verbal message draws upon scientific evidence of the baijitun’s

disappearance by recalling an international expedition led by the WWF that failed to spot

any baijitun, and declared it extinct (Panda.org, 2006). The rhetorical question of the copy

subtly blames the reader for having forgotten about the baijitun. Interestingly, the animal

speaks in the first person: this is an example of anthropomorphism, a strategy that gives

human traits to animals, and it is widely used in animal protection eco-PSAs (Aswad, 2019).

The animal addresses the reader as “you” – a technique known as appellation (Williamson,

1978) – further touching a cord with the audience and creating a sense of guilt and regret.

Even the kraft wrapping paper that composes the background, with its crumples and

stains, connotes the idea of something past, forgotten, lost. Given the cultural significance

of the baijitun, the main implication on the ideological level is that, with its extinction, a

piece of Chinese cultural heritage is forever lost.

Symbolic Animals

The eco-PSA “Husband and Wife” (Fuqi pian) was produced by the agency Shanghai

E-tong Space. The visual is a colour picture of a natural scene: in the foreground, a male

Mandarin duck, with its bright colours and elaborate plumage, is resting on a log by the

river; in the near background, swimming in blue water, is a second duck. The latter is

actually absent from the scene, as its image was deleted with a basic Photoshop technique,

leaving its body shape filled with white. Whilst the aesthetic result is debatable, the impact

of its absence is quite striking. The headline poses the rhetorical question: “Who can bear

such cutting pain?” (Qiefu zhitong shei neng chengshou), whilst the following copy

explains: “When a wild animal is killed, it is not just the animal itself that suffers. Its

partner also loses its beloved one. Who can bear such pain?” (Shasi yige yesheng dongwu

shou shanghai de bujinjin shi bei lieshazhe benshen, tamen de pei’ou jiang shiqu airen,

zheyang de tong, shei neng chengshou?) (see Figure 10).




Figure 10. “Husband and Wife” (Fuqi pian). (Source: IAI China Advertising Works

Yearbook 2007, p. 44)

The effectiveness of this campaign relies on the paradigmatic choice of a couple of

Mandarin ducks (yuanyang) as its key Chinese elements. These waterfowl are native to

China and, due to their inseparability, are considered symbols of marital happiness

(Eberhard, 1986). This specific cultural meaning is consolidated thanks to Chinese folklore,

poetry and literature, the most representative examples of which are the over-a-thousand-

year-old romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the poem “Chang’an, Thoughts on

Antiquity” by Lu Zhaolin from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 A.D.), and the popular fiction

of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies School in the first half of the 20th century (Perry,

1981). This symbol of conjugal affection also recurs in Chinese art: the scene of two

Mandarin ducks playing in the water (yuanyang xishui) is an auspicious pattern used in

traditional Chinese weddings.

This visual is another example of the portrayal of animal suffering, this time implicit

(Jones, 1997). Anthropomorphism is constructed in the verbal message: animals are like

humans not only because they are in emotional loving relationships (“husband and wife”,

as in the campaign title), but also because they too suffer when they lose their loved one.

This is clearly an emotional appeal that heightens the connection between humans and

animals, thus arising empathy in the viewer. The second Mandarin duck is evidently a

female of the same species – “the wife”. Her absence is intentionally made noticeable

through the advertising technique of subtraction (Goldenberg, Levan, Mazursky, &

Solomon, 2009), which removes essential elements from the layout to, paradoxically, add

something; in this case, a sense of absence, loneliness and pain.




Conclusion

This article departs from the understanding that eco-PSAs are now ubiquitous in China,

but have not yet received appropriate academic attention. It heeds the scholarly call for

more contributions taking into account visual representations of environmental issues in

non-Western contexts (Hansen, 2019; Hansen & Machin, 2013). Its purpose was to

investigate the specificities and cultural significance of China’s eco-PSAs by looking at an

ongoing trend in national advertising: the persistence of localized cultural elements – so-

called “Chinese elements” – despite the omologizing effect of globalization.

Embarking on a search for the local in the global, this article examined eco-PSAs

sponsored by the WWF that use Chinese elements as the most salient creative strategy in

their visuals. Although the WWF is a transnational organization working mostly on global

issues, the empirical findings show that it is adept at employing local cultural elements.

This would not be possible without strict collaboration with the domestic advertising

agencies that produced all the eco-PSAs of the corpus analyzed here. After all, the revival

of Chinese elements emerged as a strategy to contrast what are considered to be the

detrimental effects of globalization on Chinese culture, starting from the assumption that

the Chinese know best how to use their own cultural symbols (Puppin, 2014). The WWF

also proved to be keen to address local environmental issues, as it is mirrored in the themes

of the eco-PSAs analyzed here, especially those on animal protection. The latter was the

predominant environmental issue addressed by these eco-PSAs, in perfect alignment with

the WWF’s mission, followed by resource saving and ecological protection.

The Chinese elements used in the visuals of these eco-PSAs derive their specific

localized and culturally loaded meanings by association, via either intertextual references

or conventional or newly created metaphors, with elements from the realms of folk art and

idioms, inanimate objects, Chinese characters and symbolic animals. By employing

specific cultural elements that are well-known to the domestic audience, these eco-PSAs

facilitated a more direct engagement with thoughts about the environment, the threats to

both animals and humans, the future human condition etc. In particular, Chinese elements

grouped in the categories “Folk art and idioms”, “Chinese characters” and “Symbolic

animals” were used strategically and creatively to communicate a unique cultural

positioning of China in the realm of environmental protection via the (re)appropriation of

traditional culture. In this way, they also aim to reinforce national identity. The category

“Inanimate objects” is peculiar, as both of the two eco-PSAs included in it created new,

unconventional visual metaphors, which have not entered common usage yet, and therefore

are not that straightforward in terms of decoding.

This article expands existing research on visual representations of environmental issues

with specific references to the Chinese context. The visual semiotic analysis provides new

original empirical findings demonstrating that culture still matters in promoting a common

global goal, such as environmental protection. Despite the contribution to existing

scholarship, it should be highlighted that this corpus of eco-PSAs is still too limited to

understand the extent to which Chinese elements are used as a creative strategy by

international ENGOs. Future research would need to include both global ENGOs (e.g.,

WildAid and Greenpeace) and domestic ones (e.g., the CEPF) in order to extend the sample

and make it more representative. A further suggestion for future research would require an

evaluation of whether the use of Chinese elements in eco-PSAs for the domestic audience

is more effective in influencing environmental attitudes and behaviours.




Lastly, this article demonstrates that only an in-depth engagement with Chinese-

language eco-PSAs can make the persistence of the local in the global an accessible and

visible phenomenon to the international scholarly community. In this sense, language

constitutes an issue. This is why the contributions of scholars from Chinese Studies would

be extremely valuable in enriching the academic discussion on visual environmental

communication in China.

* This work, and fieldwork in China to collect data, was supported by the Arts and

Humanities Research Council (UK-China Creative Industries Partnership Development

Grant, 2019) and the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of

Leicester (Cluster Research Development Fund, 2019).

Correspondence to:

Giovanna Puppin, Ph.D.

School of Media, Communication and Sociology

University of Leicester (UK)

LE1 7JA (UK)

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

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