The Female Images in the Print Advertisements during the Japanese Colonial Period in Taiwan: A Pictorial Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

Japan had colonized Taiwan for fifty years (1895-1945). During the Japanese Occupation, Japanese immigrants imported the idea of advertising and the practice of mass production brought by the industrial revolution and modern commercial practices to Taiwan. From the tremendous political, social and economic changes, the modern advertising business gradually emerged in Taiwan. As the Japanese businessmen set up agencies and branch offices in order to sell products to Taiwan, Japanese advertising design was also introduced to and appeared on Taiwan's mass media. Very few researchers, however, have investigated the advertisements or the female images on advertisements during the Japanese colonial period. Among them, these research results appear to be data collecting and reports that are lacking in a systematic method of analysis and a theoretical ground of interpretation. Therefore, the present study intends to appropriate the analytical models of pictorial semiotics in order to decipher the female images and social status represented in the print advertisements during the Japanese colonial period. The present study will also try to depict the cultural, social and political power struggles embedded in the commercial design. We hope to integrate principles of advertising with semiotics, so as to shed new light on the textual analysis and cultural studies, and to enrich the scholarship of advertising histories in Asia. The present study expects to create a dialogue between communication studies and historical studies, based on the axis of gender politics.