Environmental Public Service Advertising (PSA) "with Chinese Elements": A Visual Semiotic Analysis of Localized WWF Print Campaigns in Mainland China
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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),
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X 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) editor@chinamediaresearch.net 27
China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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.
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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
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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
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
(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.
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X 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) editor@chinamediaresearch.net 33
China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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)
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China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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.),
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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.
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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
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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
editor@chinamediaresearch.net 38China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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
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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)
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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)
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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).
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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.
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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.
editor@chinamediaresearch.net 44China Media Research, 16(3), April 2020 ISSN: 1556-889X
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: g.puppin@le.ac.uk / giovannapuppin@gmail.com
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