Anxieties of modernity: A semiotic analysis of globalization images in China

The images of globalization one encounters in China today signify the anguished anxiety of the Chinese for modernity. This article proposes a four-level model of semiotic analysis for interpreting ubiquitous images of globalization in China. The author argues that every image of globalization encountered in China signifies to viewers at the following levels: first, transmission of the informational message; second, signaling of the desire of consumerism; third, pointing to the presence of TNC (transnational capital); fourth, speaking to the Chinese drive for modernity. While the first level is where one locates neutral, self-evident information, all of the other levels deal with ideology or ideological symbolism; hence, the terms for the following analysis: the informational, the consumerism-symbolic, the TNC-symbolic, and the CAM-symbolic (Chinese Anxiety for Modernity).