Reflections of Cultural Values: A Content Analysis of Chinese Magazine Advertisements From 1982 and 1992

This article, through content analysing a total of 572 Chinese magazine advertisements from 1982 and 1992, identifies ‘modernity’, ‘technology’ and ‘quality’ as three predominant cultural values manifest in Chinese advertising over the past ten years. Although advertisements for imported products were found to be the pace-setter for these three dominant values, their ‘leadership’ is being challenged by advertisements for joint venture products.This study also gauges the value changes in Chinese advertising. Results indicate that while the values less frequently used in 1992 advertisements are utilitarian in nature and centring around product quality, the values increasing in their occurrences are more symbolic and suggestive of human emotions. The group of symbolic values consists of those from eastern as well as western culture.