The Use of Western Brands in Asserting Chinese National Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID2221082
AuthorsLily Dong (0000-0001-9944-3319), Lily C Dong (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Kelly Tian (0000-0002-9354-620X, The University of Queensland)
Year2009
Volume36
Issue3
Pages504-523
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Consumer Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0093-5301 • E-ISSN: 1537-5277
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1086/598970
OpenAlexW2144623665
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited31

Chinese consumers employ Western brands to assert competing versions of Chinese national identity. These uses emerged from findings that Chinese form meanings of Western brands, drawing from select historical national narratives of East-West relations: the West as liberator and Western brands as instruments of democratization; the West as oppressor and Western brands as instruments of domination; the West as subjugated and Western brands, by their own subjugation, as symbolically erasing China's past humiliations; and the West as partner and Western brands as instruments of economic progress. Our emergent theory elaborates processes by which Western brands are shaped by macrolevel, sociohistorical forces to motivate consumers' responses to them as political action tied to nation making

Action (physics) · Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · China · Democracy · Democratization · Identity (music) · Literature · Narrative · National identity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Gender Studies · Globalization and Cultural Identity · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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