Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture [Hardcover]

Jing Wang (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674026802 | ISBN-13: 978-0674026803 | Publication Date: January 31, 2008

One part riveting account of fieldwork and one part rigorous academic study, Brand New China offers a unique perspective on the advertising and marketing culture of China. Jing Wang's experiences in the disparate worlds of Beijing advertising agencies and the U.S. academy allow her to share a unique perspective on China during its accelerated reintegration into the global market system.

Brand New China offers a detailed, penetrating, and up-to-date portrayal of branding and advertising in contemporary China. Wang takes us inside an advertising agency to show the influence of American branding theories and models. She also examines the impact of new media practices on Chinese advertising, deliberates on the convergence of grassroots creative culture and viral marketing strategies, samples successful advertising campaigns, provides practical insights about Chinese consumer segments, and offers methodological reflections on pop culture and advertising research.

This book unveils a "brand new" China that is under the sway of the ideology of global partnership while struggling not to become a mirror image of the United States. Wang takes on the task of showing where Western thinking works in China, where it does not, and, perhaps most important, where it creates opportunities for cross-fertilization.

Thanks to its combination of engaging vignettes from the advertising world and thorough research that contextualizes these vignettes, Brand New China will be of interest to industry participants, students of popular culture, and the general reading public interested in learning about a rapidly transforming Chinese society.

(20080218)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book will find a readership among industry participants, students of China, and academic researchers of China's rapidly emerging consumer culture. There are few persons better qualified than Jing Wang to speak about China's cultural reforms, and Brand New China fills a gap in the literature.
--Michael Keane, author of Created in China: the Great New Leap Forward (20080305)

Few have gone as far as Jing Wang in combining marketing research with cultural analysis, and no other author has provided as detailed, penetrating, and up-to-date a portrayal of the processes of transnational advertising and marketing in China. Brand New China is a fast-paced and fascinating book.
--Yuezhi Zhao, author of Communication in China: Political Economy, Power and Conflict (20090306)

In Brand New China, Jing Wang uses Chinese advertising as an optic through which to scrutinize this tension between Eastern and Western approaches to the market...Her book is a thoroughly enjoyable and well-written tour d'horizon of branding and advertising strategy.
--John Feffer (The Nation )

Brand New China uses the methodology and perspectives of cultural analysis to produce a detailed study of branding and advertising in China...The book is original, well researched and based on a wide-ranging appreciation of both popular and literary Chinese culture.
--Delia Davin (Times Higher Education Supplement )

Brand New China blurs the line between storytelling and statistical analysis, making for an interesting, complex read...Think of Freakonomics crossed with your freshman year anthropology textbook crossed with a business meeting--no-nonsense, analytical, and frequently surprising...Wang brings China forth as an individualistic consumer culture that may shock Western readers with both its idiosyncrasies and parallels to Western markets. She offers insight on what is today an immensely important piece of the international puzzle, and cleverly pulls together the psychological and traditional elements of commercial culture to create a well-rounded, illuminating read.
--Rachel Smucker (popmatters.com )

This book is not only important to professionals and scholars with an interest in China--Brand New China will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the future of advertising.
--Christina Spurgeon (International Journal of Advertising )

About the Author

Jing Wang is S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture at MIT, Chair of the International Advisory Board of Creative Commons China Mainland, and the author of High Culture Fever and The Story of Stone.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674026802
• ISBN-13: 978-0674026803
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,290,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful examination of marketing in China, June 23, 2008

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture (Hardcover)

This is a hybrid book, part academic treatise and part business report. Although her practical experience in the world of advertising is minimal (consisting of several summers spent working in an ad agency in China), professor Jing Wang has applied her academic skills to study advertising in China. Her book does not speak primarily to advertising practitioners as much as to her fellow academics. Much of her content will also interest media professionals - if they can stay the course through her interesting, but somewhat disorganized professorial prose. getAbstract finds that Wang is at her best when relating anecdotes about advertising successes and failures in the Chinese market. She also shines when providing cultural insights that show how and why Western marketers have failed in the Middle Kingdom. Wang speaks with almost glowing anticipation of what the Olympics might achieve on behalf of "Brand China." Though published in 2008, her book clearly went to press before the earthquake, the fresh controversy over Tibet and the demonstrations that brought a new kind of attention to the Chinese Olympics.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an exquisite account of modern-day chinese advertising and consumer culture, February 4, 2011

By 

sinologist - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture (Paperback)

I was surprised that a cultural studies critic can produce a book that is so much fun to read and so creative in its treatment of topics that most humanities academics are not equipped to talk about. Unlike most books that recycle a single thesis in every chapter, this book grips your attention from the beginning to end. Every chapter opens up a new terrain. I learned a great deal about contemporary China (not just about Chinese consumers and advertising) from those intriguing stories and analyses. The author's attempt of breaking out of the methodological confines of his field is quite admirable. I believe that he's quite successful at that. He convinced me that pop culture studies can reinvent itself by taking the vantage point of the business world seriously. The stories in this book are playfully told, the language succinct and witty, and the analysis unpredictable but masterfully delivered. I would imagine that Jing Wang is a rebel of some kind in his field. A very smart book.

5.0 out of 5 stars surprisingly informative and fun to read, May 10, 2011

By 

Peter M - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture (Paperback)

As a lay reader curious about contemporary China, I was quite surprised by how accessible this book is. Some chapters are a bit difficult to navigate, but the chapters on cell phone, the bobos (which is so much fun!), and the one about Haier are a wonderful read. It was recommended to me by a marketing friend. I thoroughly enjoyed it.