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China in Symbolic Communication
What kinds of human individuals, events, things and commodities can best repre-
sent China? How have those representative symbols evolved in Chinese history?
How have they been highlighted, disseminated and accepted?
In this book, a full range of symbols and seemingly discrete social phenomena,
hidden in diverse fields of Chinese society, are given lucid explanations based on
the interdisciplinary theories of semiotics and communication. It studies the evo-
lution of classic Chinese symbols through history and investigates the root causes
for the communication of negative Chinese images in modern times. Besides, this
book explicates the pattern of interaction between groups communication and
mass communication in the Chinese society by exploring the different paths of
transmutation and communication for the symbol of the “APEC Blue.” How the
image of China is constructed via non-government symbols is also addressed. By
pointing out that classic semiotics has been reduced to an embarrassing dilemma
of “a severe lack of historical sense,” this book seeks to make Western semiotic
findings bear closely on Chinese social reality and accomplish an updated contri-
bution to this academic discipline.
This book will appeal to scholars and students of semiotics and communication.
Readers who are interested in modern Chinese society will also benefit from it.
Sui Yan is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Commu-

nication University of China. His main research fields include semiotic theories
of communication, Internet communication and media culture.
China Perspectives series
The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by

leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-related
themes. It covers Humanities and Social Sciences, Education, Media and Psy-
chology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.
This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for inter-
national readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective, give insights
into cutting-edge academic thinking in China and inspire researchers globally.
For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/series/CPH
Up to now, titles in media communication include
The Patterns of Symbolic Communication

Sui Yan
China in Symbolic Communication

Sui Yan
History of Chinese Journalism and Communication

Zhao Yunze, Sun Ping
Propaganda
Ideas, Discourses and its Legitimation
Liu Hailong
China in Symbolic
Communication
Sui Yan
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Sui Yan
The right of Sui Yan to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-08911-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10942-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is published with financial support from Chinese Fund for
the Humanities and Social Sciences
Translated by Qian Kunqiang
Contents
List of figures vi
The distorted symbols about China viii
1 The metalanguage’s mechanism of communicating

the whole via the part and the strategy of corporate
communication 1
2 The semantic multiplicity of symbolic signification:

the evolution of classic Chinese symbols through history 48
3 The selectivity of symbolic signifiers: the root cause of the

communication of negative Chinese images in modern times 60
4 The metalanguage’s mechanism of communicating the whole

via the part: how the image of China is constructed via non-
government symbols 76
5 The mechanism of synergic communication between two

systems of signifiers: the international communication of
the Chinese media 93
6 The “APEC blue”: the transmutation of symbols from mass

communication to group communication 105
7 The characteristics of strong symbols and their power of

communication 115
Conclusion 123
Postscript 124
Bibliography 125
Index 126
Figures
1.1 A Symbolic Signification Diagram of Corporate Identity 6

1.2 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Quanjude’s VI 10
1.3 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of McDonald’s VI 10
1.4 The Communication Mechanism of Connotative Signification
about Haier Group’s MI 12
1.5 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Haidilao’s
Service Image 13
1.6 The Communication Mechanism of the Connotative Signification
of the Image of Haier Employees 19
1.7 The Mechanism of Metalanguage Communication of the Image
of Haier Employees 23
1.8 The Mechanism of Metalanguage Communication 23
1.11 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth about the Image
of Haier Employees 25
1.12 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth of Advertising 28
1.13 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth of Logo 28
1.14 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth of Steve Jobs’s Image 28
1.15 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myths of Apple Products 28
1.16 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth of an Apple
Experiential Store 29
1.17 The Mechanism of Communicating the Myth of Marketing 29
1.18 The Mechanism of Communicating the Resonance of Apple’s
Connotateurs 30
1.19 The Communication Mechanism of Meaning Transplanting in
Connotateurs 38
1.20 The Communication Mechanism of Connotateurs in Which Social
Properties are Transplanted onto a Corporation or its Products 39
1.21 The Communication Mechanism of Nippon Paint’s Connotative
Signification According to the Intent of the Encoder 43
1.22 The Communication Mechanism of Nippon Paint’s Connotative
Signification According to the Interpretation of Some Decoders 43
Figures vii
1.23 The Communication Mechanism of Connotative Signification
of M-Zone Endorsed by Jay Zhou 44
2.1 The Ancient Silk Road’s Connotative Signification 53
2.2 The New Silk Road’s Connotative Signification 54
2.3 Confucius’ Connotative Signification through Feudal Dynasties 55
2.4 Confucius’ Connotative Signification during the Reign of
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 56
2.5 Confucius’ Connotative Signification during the Constitutional
Reform Movement in the Qing Dynasty 57
2.6 Confucius’ Connotative Signification during the New
Cultural Movement 57
2.7 Confucius’ Connotative Signification during the Cultural
Revolution Period 58
2.8 Confucius’ Connotative Signification during the Contemporary
Period 59
4.1 The Connotative Signification of the Volunteers during
the Wenchuan Earthquake Relief 82
4.2 The Merging between the Connotative Signification of
the Wenchuan Earthquake Volunteers and the Metalanguage 83
4.3 The Connotative Signification of the “Kwan-yin with
One Thousand Hands” 85
4.4 The Merging between the Connotative Signification of the
“Kwan-yin with One Thousand Hands” and the Metalanguage 86
The distorted symbols about China
Preface to the English edition

In the mid- and late 1990s, my job required me to travel all over the world to have
academic exchanges with my international counterparts, taking me to dozens of
countries in five major continents. At that time, I was young, enthusiastic, curious
and energetic, and no matter where I was, whether on board of the plane or the
train, or in a restaurant, at a tourist resort or simply on the street, I was most eager
to strike a conversation with anyone whom I found to be citizens other than the
Chinese. In full confidence and pride, I would identify myself as a Chinese, and I
would ask the other partner of conversation, “What do you know about China?”
However, to my disappointment, most of the answers I received were confined to
“the Great Wall,” “silk,” “Chairman Mao,” “Premier Zhou,” “Chiang Kai-Shek,”
“Deng,” “Dr. Sun Yat-sen” or “The Last Emperor” (a 1987 British-Italian epic
biographical film about the life of Puyi, the last emperor of China, produced by
Jeremy Thomas and directed by Bertolucci). What made me most dismayed was
that a large number of people answered, “Almost nothing.” To this same question
which I kept raising for dozens and even over a hundred times, the most surpris-
ing one I received was “Genghis Khan,” the founder and Great Khan (Emperor)
of the Mongol Empire. Of course, despite my disappointment and frustration, I
would endeavor to give long accounts, albeit my broken English, about the culture
of China, a country of over 5,000 years of history and with a territory of over 9.6
million square kilometers. Although my conversation partners would invariably
be stunned by my accounts, I remained as exasperated as ever by one essential
fact – whereas most Chinese people know so much about the art, literature, his-
tory, social revolutions, distinguished individuals, science and technology of the
Western world, our Western counterparts tend to have such a pathetically limited
knowledge or even total ignorance about the Chinese history and about the reali-
ties of the Chinese society.
Prior to my travel to any of the western countries, I was most favorably
impressed by Australia among all the Western countries. That was because, as an
undergraduate, I had the chance to be exposed to the instructions of several Aus-
tralian professors and develop very wonderful impressions and fond memories.
As a matter of fact, those professors were the only people I knew from Australia,
and such a limited number of people could by no means represent the totality
The distorted symbols about China ix
of that country. Nevertheless, why was it possible that those several Australian
professors could leave me such wonderful impressions about the overall image
of Australia? It was only after I started to take up the study of semiotics that I
came to realize that, although a proportion can never be equated with the whole,
that proportion is sufficient to represent the whole. This relationship of repre-
sentation is what is often called the metalanguage system, one of the important
ways in which mankind arrives at an understanding about the world. In semiotics,
we also call it a form of metonymy, the mechanism of generalization or gestalt
psychology.
During one of my travels, I was on board a plane of Singapore Airlines. The
passenger next to my seat was prevented from listening to music due to a techni-
cal disorder in her earphone. She asked a stewardess to help her fix the earphone.
When the stewardess herself failed, she offered to let the passenger fill out a form
to claim compensations, informing the passenger that she would in the due course
receive 50 U.S. dollars as the sum of compensations. A proffered compensation of
50 U.S. dollars, it soon became the tale of the journey among all the passengers
on that flight. Indeed, 50 dollars did not amount to much, but this minimal cost
undoubtedly succeeded in producing a cognitive and communicative effect far
more significant than that produced by any exorbitant advertisement or publicity
video clip. Ever since this experience, whenever opportunities presented them-
selves for me to take an international flight, my first priority would be to choose
the Singapore Airlines. That particular flight which I took, along with that minor
incident during that flight, sowed the seed of an unswerving trust, deep inside me,
in that particular airline company, in that particular country it belongs to and in
the people of that country who created that airline company. As I delved into my
research on semiotics, I achieved yet another epiphany – that an ordinary indi-
vidual or a minor incident could be turned into a powerful and “colossal” symbol
with which to communicate vital meanings about a given corporate organization,
a given sector, a given country and even a given nation.
While in Venice, wandering around in a residential compound, I came into
a dead end inadvertently. Before I turned around to make my departure, I took
another look at that small and quiet lane. It was a lane as ordinary as any other lane,
neat and orderly. What truly surprised and impressed me was that I found a vase
fastened to a wall, and there was a fresh flower in it! The moment I saw the flower,
I no longer held my visa and my wallet tightly in my hands. That was my very first
visit to Europe, and, due to cultural and ideological differences, I had always had
some kind of fear of a Western country since my childhood. But, exactly at that
moment, all my feelings of estrangement and misgivings were dissipated, replaced
by the friendliness, cordiality and trust brought about by that unassuming flower.
I stood there motionless for a considerable while, reflecting as I stared at the fresh
flower. I wondered: who could be that person who would go to such great lengths
as to place a new flower into the vase every single day, in a lane of dead end which
was virtually deserted and deprived of its normal function of passage? What would
be that person’s attitude toward life? Could that person be a beautiful young girl,
an affectionate married woman or simply a senior citizen who managed to hobble
along on crutches? As my speculations turned into imaginations, the symbolic
x The distorted symbols about China
value of the flower loomed large in my mind – that insignificant, small flower on
the wall of a dead-end lane came to acquire a symbolic value far exceeding that
of a carefully selected noble flower that represents a city or a nation. To me, that
flower on the wall, compared with the so-called municipal flower or the national
flower, possessed far greater “power of cultivation,” as George Gerbner would call
it. The emotional impact produced by that flower could be legitimately regarded as
what Joseph S. Nye called “soft power” in every sense of that phrase. Of course,
Europe, which went through two unprecedented world wars, was far too compli-
cated to be represented by just one single flower. Nevertheless, the understanding
that we reach about Europe could be as simple as it is complicated. This is fully in
keeping with the laws underlying the communication and the reception of symbols.
Symbolic communication, then, is a fundamental way of human cognition that is
congruent with the man’s intellectual habit of interpretative simplification. Apart
from certain general rules, it is informed by many hidden tricks.
On September 2, 2012, on a plane carrying 200 passengers from Zurich to Bei-
jing, two Chinese passengers had a violent fight due to a seat dispute and, after six
hours in the air, the plane had to turn back to Zurich Airport. This incident triggered
extensive heated discussions about the conduct of the Chinese people, in response
to the question of “whether every Chinse person represents China.” A survey
released in 2008 by Blue Ocean Network International Communication Company
(BON-ICC) indicated that, regarding the question “what do Americans believe is
the symbol that best represents China?” the reply given by 34% of the interviewees
was “rice.” Obviously, it was quite absurd that “rice” was taken to be the symbol
that could best stand for China. Similarly, it would be equally absurd to regard the
two people involved in the seat fight as representing all the Chinese people. How-
ever, as has been pointed out, to infer about the whole on the basis of the part is one
of the fundamental ways of human cognition. This pattern of cognition is necessary
because it is indeed a tall order for all human individuals to understand the world
in a “comprehensive, objective and historically dialectical manner.” Then, since
we have to acknowledge that man will continue to be dictated by the cognitive
habit of using the part to represent the whole, are we prepared to allow “rice” and
the two fighters involved in the seat dispute to represent China and all the Chinese
people? Is such a way of representation justified, objective and true? In the exceed-
ingly long history of China and in the richly colorful and diverse Chinese society,
what indeed are some of the most representative individuals, artifacts, events and
commodities that can be the proper symbols for truly representing China? Admit-
tedly, it is very important to create history, but isn’t it equally important to have
history properly represented? If we acknowledge that both the “Great Wall” and
“Yao Ming” are symbols that can represent China, we may well ask which of those
two categories of symbols can produce more poignant communication effect and
how those most typical symbols have evolved and have come to be highlighted,
communicated and accepted. Those are precisely the questions that this book seeks
to reflect on and to tentatively explore through an in-depth study of the signifying
relationships and communication mechanisms of symbols.
Sui Yan
September, 2015
1 The metalanguage’s mechanism
of communicating the whole
via the part and the strategy of
corporate communication
What is meant by metalanguage? Metalanguage is filled with tricks of “uttering”

but is often accepted as “truth” as a result of habitual conditioning. It exists in the
texts of theoretical discourse in the ivory towers of academic institutions, but it
also lies deep hidden in the real-world life of human beings. It permeates our life.
New Zealand is often acclaimed as a picturesque, garden-like country. My
wonderful memories of this beautiful country originate not from its fascinating
landscape, but from my encounter with an old couple of New Zealand. A few
years ago, outside a supermarket in Auckland, my car bumped into their car, and I
was entirely responsible for the accident. Looking at the damaged car and at me,
a traveler from a foreign country who was in great consternation and remorse,
the old woman said, calmly and quietly, “That’s life.” The old gentleman added,
with the same imperturbability, “Life is tough.” After we exchanged our relevant
information to ensure that the insurance company would make all the neces-
sary compensations, we bade farewell to one another, and the old couple, most
good-humoredly, wished me and my friends a pleasant journey. As it turned out,
our post-accident journey did appear very pleasant, just as the old couple had
wished, because my friends and I started constructing our trust and all the beauti-
ful feelings about New Zealand and about the people in this country based on our
encounter with an ordinary couple whom we had never met up until that point.
Although this old couple could not be equated with the country itself and with all
the people in that country, they still allowed me to imagine about how the people
in the country feel and react toward life – their philosophy and attitude toward
life. The trust that they helped me build up about the country and its people is
much more compelling and enduring than the trust that could be developed by any
other possible means, such as the authority of the New Zealand government or the
country’s material affluence.
On September 2012, two Chinese passengers on a flight from Zurich to Bei-
jing had a violent physical fight due to their disputes over seats. The plane was
forced to return to the airport in Zurich. The event triggered heated discussions
among Chinese netizens. “You have disgraced yourselves high up into the sky!
Couldn’t you two guys ‘save some face’ for your fellow countrymen?”1 “As your
countrymen, we definitely feel disgraced and ashamed.”2 There were long lists of
such similar comments on the Internet. Some media even bluntly pointed out that
“every Chinese citizen is a spokesperson for the national image of China”3 and
that “this is a damaging event on China’s international image.”4 To think about
it, could those two Chinese passengers really put all the Chinese people to shame
and disgrace? Statistically, we know that those two passengers could by no means
represent all the Chinese people, but in reality, in the context of international dis-
course, the behavior of the two Chinese passengers is sufficient to allow people
in other countries to associate those two people with the possible behavior of the
rest of the Chinese people and to arrive at extrapolations and generalizations. The
tendency to generalize based on isolated cases applies equally to what happened
during an incident involving the disputes of sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.
According to some commentators, “The Japanese NHK reported that, in a restau-
rant in the close vicinity of the Bund in Shanghai, when a Chinese person found
a Japanese person having noodles and speaking Japanese in the restaurant, he
simply approached and assaulted the Japanese person. If the incident as reported
by NHK was true, it only reflected the conduct of a limited number of Chinese
people. But when reported by NHK, it would shape the Japanese people’s impres-
sion about the behavior of the Chinese people as a whole.”5
“Du bist Deutschland!” (“You Are Germany!”) is a highly acclaimed public-
ity video clip aimed at projecting the national image of Germany. In this photo-
graphic narrative, executed in less than two minutes, the importance of individuals
is highlighted to the fullest extent. Although every single ordinary person is as
insignificant as a grain of sand on the beach, when placed within particular con-
texts, each individual becomes a representative of the entire country. Just as the
words in the video clip go, “You are what is so wonderful about Germany. You are
the other. You are Germany!”
Can a single individual or a small group of people represent all the people in
a country? In the light of rigorous, logical reasoning, such a hypothesis might
not be valid. But it is virtually impossible either that, in order to understand the
whole, one must know each and every single component of this whole. Several
cases described in the foregoing paragraphs precisely testify to an unquestionable
fact – that human beings have long been accustomed to extrapolating about the
overall attributes of an object on the basis of the individual traits or characteristics
of that object and to conveying the full information of an object by presenting
only a small portion of it.6 Two Chinese proverbs, that “one can know the explicit
by seeing the implicit” and that “a fallen leaf tells all about the autumn,” bear
out such a truth. In communication practices, it is precisely this pattern of cogni-
tion and perception that allows the meaning to be constructed, communicated
and transmitted and evolves into another mechanism of producing meaning that
is most vital in the communication of signs – “the mechanism of metalanguage.”
The phenomenon of metalanguage informs not only the process of constructing
and communicating national images; the construction of the city image, the corpo-
rate image and the personal image also resorts to the metalanguage mechanism to
establish new meanings, produce consensus of opinions and create certain myths.
The metalanguage’s mechanism of communicating 3
In the present-day world where consumerism is ubiquitous, people are surrounded
by a kaleidoscopic variety of new-fangled marketing strategies in their daily lives.
Even within the limited space of an elevator, one cannot avoid being bombarded
by the advertising launched by all kinds of corporate organizations. It is from such
an infinite amount of fragmented advertising information that the image or the
identity of a corporate organization comes to be developed and accepted, consti-
tuting a critical force in business competitions and dominating people’s judgment
about that corporate organization and its products. In view of those factors, this
chapter intends to focus on the construction of corporate identity as the object of
analysis and to re-examine the mechanism of metalanguage via various forms of
communication practices.
“The shaping of the corporate identity is like building a bird’s nest, using bits
and pieces of whatever materials that one can lay hands on. Never underrate those
bits and pieces because they constitute the solid building blocks of the corporate
identity.”7
If this is the truth, then all those bits and pieces that one can find anywhere
within a corporation, no matter how trivial they might seem, such as a facial
expression or a minor action on the part of an employee, are sufficient to pro-
duce an impact on the overall corporate identity. Such a mode of perception, to
speculate about the whole picture based on discrete details or to infer about the
whole according to individual parts, is a pretty common pattern in our everyday
life, although this mode is inevitably accompanied by partiality and incomplete-
ness. This is because it is almost impossible for people to be exposed to all the
component parts that constitute the totality of an object. As a result, they have no
alternative but to extrapolate about the whole based on the information about the
component parts. This practice has already evolved into a mental pattern which
people have long become accustomed to, a pattern which is often called the gestalt
psychology of human cognition. From a semiotic perspective, it is exactly due to
the driving force of gestalt psychology that metalanguage’s mechanism of gener-
ating meaning comes to be established, making it possible for the new meaning to
be communicated, for the world to be reshaped, and for the mythology to be told.
In this chapter, we are least interested in analyzing, from the marketing perspec-
tive, the principles for planning corporate identity, the process of shaping corpo-
rate identity and the related evaluation system. Rather, we intend to use “symbol”
as a point of entry to investigate how so many fragmented symbols combine to
construct, present and disseminate corporate identity and to uncover the under-
lying rationale for the insightful proposition that “details determine the extent
of success in corporate communication.” Based on this, we will examine how
to establish effective relationship of symbolic signification in order to enhance
the communication effect. Meanwhile, we will further propose the idea of cross-
cultural communication of the corporate identity so as to enable the audience from
different domains of symbols to reach, when they are confronted with the same
symbols, relatively unified understanding about those symbols and to avoid varia-
tions in decoding symbols in the actual communication process.
1.1 Reflections on corporate identity and the perspective
of semiotic cognition
Is there such a thing as “corporate identity” in our world?
On entering any of the McDonald’s restaurants worldwide, one cannot fail to
be impressed by the stylish decoration emphasized by the red-and-yellow color
scheme, the clean windows and tables that make up a congenial environment, relax-
ing and pleasant music, warm and hospitable services, not sumptuous but speedy
and convenient snacks consisting of hamburgers and potato chips. In a flash of
seconds, all those elements serve to imprint the corporate identity of the McDon-
ald’s in the consumer’s heart and mind. The case of the McDonald’s proves that
“corporate identity” is by no means an abstract concept; it is something real, visible
and tangible, something which exists in the daily life of ordinary people. As long as
the public enters a relationship with any manifestations of a given corporate orga-
nization, they would form some sort of impression about that organization and then
reach a certain judgment and evaluation. In this process, corporate identity comes
to be established. In this sense, we can say that corporate identity does really exist.
Meanwhile, a corporate organization’s efforts to set up a corporate identity system
(CIS, consisting of three sub-systems of corporate mind identity (MI) system, cor-
porate behavior identity (BI) system and corporate visual identity (VI) system) also
testifies to the fact that corporate identity is something that can be identified and
perceived. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that corporate identity does exist.
But the fact is that, although corporate identity exists in the human world just
like concepts of beauty and vogue, it is not the kind of objective existence that
is constant and independent of the subjective will of the human beings. This is
because no identity or image comes into existence of its own accord; it exists in
the perception by the subject of the object. This leads to the fact that, temporal,
spatial and contextual dimensions being different, the perceivers would come up
with conflicting perceptions and evaluations even regarding the same organiza-
tion and corporate identity would mean quite different things to different people.
Even within the same spatiotemporal dimensions, different people with differ-
ent status, positions and cultural backgrounds would interpret corporate identity
differently. More importantly, as the denotation of the concept “corporate orga-
nization” is infinitely extensible, this means that the structure of the corporate
identity is open and dynamic and that all specific and real details related to this
structure are inexhaustible, uncontrollable and unpredictable. Hence, corpo-
rate identity exists in the intangible consciousness of human beings, without an
objective physical vehicle that is definite, complete and unified. In this sense,
we can also say that corporate identity does not really exist; at least, it does not
possess an absolute objective existence. Therefore, strictly speaking, corporate
identity possesses an existence which is both subjective and objective.
The purpose of undertaking those philosophical speculations is to bring cor-
porate identity into the conceptual framework of the semiotic logic – to examine
the formation and communication mechanisms of “identity” or “image” from
the perspective of semiotic theory. In this way, our discussions of a whole range
of issues concerning “identity” or “image,” such as corporate identity, national
image, racial identity, city image, will not simply be confined to empirical anal-
ysis on the tactical level, but will penetrate into the inner texture of the matter
and rise to theoretical explorations on the level of communication mechanism.
1.1.1 Corporate identity: existence and non-existence

John Fiske points out that “[f]or communication to take place I have to create a mes-
sage out of signs.”8 It can thus be concluded that the communication of an image
or identity is entirely inseparable from all sorts of information carried by symbols.
According to Roland Barthes’s definition and understanding of the sign, “any system
of signification9 comprises a plane of expression (E) and a plane of content (C) and
the signification coincides with the relation (R) of the two planes: ERC.”10 There-
fore, in order for a symbol to communicate meaning, it must necessarily possess the
objective signifier (E) and the subjective signified (C). In the symbolic communica-
tion of “corporate identity,” there also involves both objective facts and subjective
judgments, each of which is indispensable. This duality perfectly corresponds to the
duality of both subjectivity and objectivity inherent in an image or identity.
When asked about the corporate identity of Haier Group, a leading Chinese
manufacturer of electrical appliances which has gone global, different inter-
viewees would definitely give different answers. Some of those answers might
be “very people-oriented,” “very professional,” “very fashionable,” “excellent
service” and even “pretty good” or “not so good”. All those perceptions about
the corporate identity are based on certain messages conveyed by the enterprise
as the premise for making the judgments, and they all incorporate, implicitly,
certain subjective judgments about the enterprise. A judgment of “very profes-
sional” might be the result of a purchase experience that the consumer had with
an employee of Haier, in which the employee demonstrated very strong profes-
sional qualities. An assessment of “excellent service” might be the outcome
of an experience in which the consumer purchased a product of problematic
quality but enjoyed wonderful service when consulting the after-sale person-
nel. On the other hand, an appraisal of “not so good” might be a judgment that
the public reach after reading some reports that have a negative impact on the
enterprise. Therefore, any verdict about corporate identity does not come from
nowhere. It is a judgment, extrapolation and evaluation that the public make on
the basis of some sort of information. As shown in Fig. 1.1, the objective facts
(E) and subjective judgment (C) jointly constitute a corporate identity and a
symbolic signification system (ERC) establishes a complete corporate identity.
1.1.2 Symbols as basic media in human cognition of corporate identity

An understanding about the essential nature of “image” or “identity” is nec-
essary before we delve deeper into our discussions about corporate identity.
Today, people have shown much greater concern with “image” or “identity”
Corporate Identity
E: Expression Plane, Objective Facts R C: Content Plane, Subjective Judgment
E1 A certain Haier employee R1 “Very professional” C1
E2 A certain service R2 “Excellent service” C2
E3 A certain news report R3 “Good” or “not so good” C3
Figure 1.1 A Symbolic Signification Diagram of Corporate Identity
than ever before. “Looking around, we will become acutely aware that we are
surrounded by ‘images.’ In this sense, we can say that the age of information
is essentially an age of images.”11 On a fundamental level, images can include
“personal image,”, “corporate image” and “city image.” On a higher level,
images can encompass “the image of a country” and the “the image of a nation.”
In an age in which images have been soliciting rapidly increasing attention, we
may well ask what is actually meant by “image” and why people are so addicted
to images.
The term “image” has been variously defined. According to one definition,
an image means “the form or appearance, that specific and concrete configura-
tion or feature that evokes people’s mental and emotional activities.”12 Image
has also been defined as “the totality of the cognitive information that people
have acquired about a given person or object,” and “it is the cognitive informa-
tion that one has gathered about an object, rather than the object itself.”13 Of
those two different definitions, the former focuses on the objective existence
of the image whereas the latter emphasizes the subjective information of cog-
nition that a human individual develops regarding the image. Here the author
believes that an image cannot exist in isolation, independent of the objective
object itself; nor can it be separated from the evaluation which the cognitive
subject forms concerning the object. This means that an image can be divided
into two levels. It possesses a form which is the external manifestation of the
object, while it possesses a substance which is the inner meaning of that object.
Form and substance are as inseparable as the two sides of a coin. Like the signi-
fier and the signified of the sign, they are mutually dependent, and they exist in
close companionship.
As pointed above, the communication of information necessarily depends on
the media that carry the information and signs are exactly the media that carry
the information. A sign consists of not only a signifier which has a tangible form
but also a signified, a meaning which can be communicated. It is this signified,
the meaning or the message that is conveyed by a sign, which influences peo-
ple’s cognition and judgment of an image. As a result, the cognition of an image
becomes the cognition of a sign or a set of signs. A great diversity of signs consti-
tutes the basic media with which people gain cognition about images. Together,
they form a kaleidoscopic world of images that convey abundant information
that serves as a crucial basis for the public to make judgments and choose their
course of action.
It can thus be inferred that a corporate identity also consists of two levels – the
level of form and the level of substance. Various objective appearances related
to a corporate organization make up the form, which is the system of signifi-
ers contained in the symbol of that organization. The evaluation that the public
make with respect to those appearances forms the substance, which is the system
of signifieds conveyed by the symbol of that organization. Then, in what form
should the sign which presents the corporate image be presented? In addition,
what mechanism of symbolic communication should an organization resort to in
order to communicate its corporate identity? Those are the questions that will be
addressed one by one in the following sections.
1.1.3 Corporate symbols as basic media for communicating

corporate identity
Any detail that is related to an enterprise has the possibility of sending out some
kind of message and becoming a symbol closely connected with the corporate
image. It may even become a decisive factor in determining the corporate image.
The public tends to evaluate the image of a corporate organization on the basis of
a particular detail or a certain number of details with which they are most famil-
iar or about which they have the deepest impressions. Therefore, that organiza-
tion’s product quality, service quality, the VI of a brand, celebrity endorsement,
advertising or even the words and the actions of a company manager or employee
would be used by the public as a key index for assessing the organization’s cor-
porate image. It is those seemingly fragmentary “bits and pieces,” the specific
details, that combine with the public’s evaluation of a corporate organization to
form the totality of a corporate identity. It can thus be safely asserted that the
corporate image “consists of all the qualities and special features demonstrated by
an enterprise in all its undertakings. The image represents a general condition of
its corporate culture and is the impression and the appraisal by the general public
about that particular enterprise.”14 It is an overall image incorporating a multitude
of both “objective images” and “objective images.”
From the semiotic perspective, the “objective images” as discussed here refer
to all the physical forms in which the overall corporate image is presented. More
specifically, they are the tangible forms of expression of the corporate image or the
corporate image’s signifying system. On the other hand, the “subjective images”
refer to the judgment and all the meanings that the public has derived from a cor-
porate organization. Such images are the substances of the overall image, which
can also be understood as the signified system of the corporate image. In the
understanding of the corporate image, the presence of the signifier is bound to
produce a certain kind of signified whereas the production of the signified must
necessarily depend on a certain signifier. As two sides of the same coin, they two
form an indivisible symbolic whole and jointly constitute the corporate image.
In the following sections, instead of listing all the details of a corporate image,
the author intends to apply relevant theories of semiotics to chart out, based on
the analysis of some typical cases, the paths regarding how the public develop
perceptions about the corporate image and the underlying rules involved in the
process.
1.2 Corporate image presented in a fragmentary manner

“Auchan not only participates in the Earth Hour Campaign in which electric lights
will be switched off but also pledges to plant 2,000 trees in China in 2011. Our
plastic bag is 100% disposable, made of environmentally-friendly stone papers.
To save our environment, you are encouraged to make repeated use of this plastic
shopping bag.” Those are the words of a slogan printed by Beijing Auchan Super-
market on its plastic shopping bags, and the entire slogan is printed in green.
When the public catch sight of this detail, they would very likely develop con-
siderable appreciation of the environmental awareness of Auchan Supermarket
and form the judgment that it is a corporate organization which “demonstrates
social responsibility by advocating environmental protection.” As a result, the
corporate identity or image of Auchan Supermarket is established. For Auchan,
an item as ordinary as a shopping bag is capable of conveying a rich amount of
information and an important message, helping build up the corporate image
whenever and wherever the public sees the shopping bag. We can thus conclude
that any detail, minute as it is, can be a significant vehicle for symbolic com-
munication. This justifies our above-mentioned assertion that “details determine
the extent of success in corporate communication.” Every detail can become a
symbol which carries rich implications and although each individual detail may
seem insignificant, when all such useful details come together, they can become
crucial factors powerful enough to impact on the overall corporate image. These
symbols can be the name of a company’s products, the identification sign of its
brand, trademark, a particular person or attitude that represents the company, a
story or the corporate religion, a concept and an envisioned scenario, what the
employees do and say or even the cleanness of the environment – whether dust
can be found being accumulated in a certain corner inside a chain store. Every
single detail can come to constitute a symbol that conveys the corporate image.
The key point is that it is impossible for us to list all the details as they are pres-
ent in all possible spatial and temporal dimensions. The fact that such details
exist but are impossible to be exhaustively presented determines that they can
only be presented in a fragmentary manner. In a word, fragmentation means all
the details are enormous in quantity, discrete, random and chaotic, without any
discernible rules to follow.
Although a corporate image is a comprehensive identity composed of a multi-
tude of details, those details cannot be presented to the public simultaneously in
spatial and temporal dimensions. In different situations, the public is exposed to
the signs that individually or partially convey information about an enterprise,
which enable the public to gradually form a comprehensive assessment about that
enterprise. Different types of symbols are scattered in the image-forming space in
a fragmented fashion, delivering information about a relevant corporate organiza-
tion and reflecting manifold aspects of its corporate image. The result is that the
public’s perception about the corporate image is turned into a perception about the
corporate identity (CI).
1.2.1 Fragmented visual identity: outward appearances of products,

brand name and logo
Conventional research on CIS divides the CI into three major components –VI,
BI and MI. Among those three components, the most striking one that tends to
capture public attention is undoubtedly VI, which most directly appeals to human
sensory perception. This category of identity carries important information which,
when made accessible to the public, becomes a symbol with strong distinguishing
characteristics that project diverse facets of the corporate identity.
“Quanjude” and “McDonald’s” are two most prestigious brands that respec-
tively belong to China Quanjude Group and American McDonald’s Corporation.
It can even be claimed that, in a certain sense, the CIs of those two major brands
are equivalent to the CIs of those two leading enterprises. Nevertheless, the trade-
marks of those two brands, the furnishing styles of their restaurants, products,
employees and service patterns all constitute fragmentary details that combine
to create the VI of each company. Each VI projects a totally different corporate
image in the perception of the public. The logos of those two enterprises, their
store furnishing, product appearances and employee images are visible and tan-
gible objective presences. They are also the signifying system of the corporate
symbol. As to the messages that those VIs convey and the impressions that are
created in the mind of the public, those factors constitute the signified system of
the corporate symbol.
“Quanjude” is a Chinese time-honored hospitality brand which has been
operating for over a century, providing hospitality services with distinctive Chi-
nese traditions. Traditional Chinese cultural elements underlie the image design
of its trademark, the furnishing design of its restaurants, the dressing code of
the employees and even all the tableware. All those combine to form a uni-
form signifying system. Based on those symbolic signifiers, the public forms
their perception about Quanjude as a hospitality brand, and such evaluations as
“antique-flavored, magnificent, exquisite and elegant” belong to the system of the
signified that showcases the enterprise’s image. Similarly, the corporate image of
McDonald’s is also manifested in various visual identification signs. The most
eye-catching letter “M” in golden yellow is set in the background color of red.
The logo is extremely striking and conspicuous. Inside a McDonald’s restaurant,
the warm-toned lamplight gives off a pleasant feeling while the color scheme
for the tables and the chairs is bright and simple, and well-trained employees
in uniforms work very skillfully. All those factors combine to form the system
of signifiers in the symbolic presentation of the corporate image. With this sys-
tem of signifiers comes the system of the signified, consisting of such comments
about McDonald’s as “fashionable and modern, professional and high-quality,
hospitable and considerate.” As shown in Fig. 1.2 and Fig. 1.3, such qualities as
“antique-flavored, magnificent, exquisite and elegant” about Quanjude and such
qualities as “fashionable and modern, professional and high-quality, hospitable
and considerate” about McDonald’s are the meanings signified by signifier E1,
which is the sign of the corporate image. However, they do not really constitute
the signified C1 of each sign’s denotative signification, but are the signified C2
of the sign’s connotative signification. It is precisely the signified of the sign’s
connotative signification that forms the public’s subjective evaluation about an
enterprise, which contributes to the buildup of a complete CI.
Therefore, in a certain sense, the communication of a CI is exactly the commu-
nication of the signified of the connotation contained in the sign of an enterprise.
E2 R2 C2
antique-flavored, magnificent,
exquisite and elegant
E1 R1 C1
Quanjude’s logo, restaurants, and
employees
Figure 1.2 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Quanjude’s VI
E2 R2 C2
“Fashionable and modern,
professional and high-quality,
hospitable and considerate
E1 R1 C1
McDonald’s logo, restaurants, and
employees
Figure 1.3 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of McDonald’s VI

This reinforces the idea that corporate image is not something that has an absolute
objective existence. Rather, such an image is a kind of existence that contains a
certain extent of subjective judgment. As to how the public can extrapolate about
the overall corporate image based on the partial information about the sign of an
enterprise, it is something to be further discussed in the following sections.
1.2.2 Fragmented MI – a story (an anecdote) and a concept

A visual sign can most directly reveal much about the corporate image and it
belongs to the tangible part of a corporate image. Apart from that, stories or events
related to an enterprise can also become the symbols that carry the corporate image
and convey important messages. The only thing is that in such cases the signifier of
a sign is a narrative text with discourse as its vehicle. The story itself becomes the
signifier of a sign. The particular creed, attitude or assessment about an enterprise
that the public interpret from the story constitutes the signified of the sign.
For any enterprise, there tend to be some extremely important events or memo-
rable experiences in the process of its development. It is highly possible for the
enterprise to derive certain important tenets or values from those extraordinary
past events, which go into the making of the unique corporate image. In 1985, the
“smashing the refrigerators” incident by Haier Corporation was an exceedingly
sensational event and that seemingly “incredible” story helped forge Haier’s ulti-
mate idea about quality control – “the better of the best”. When a customer filed a
complaint about the quality of a certain refrigerator produced by Haier, Haier CEO
Zhang Ruimin ordered an immediate general investigation of all the refrigerators
in the warehouses and found 76 to be below quality standard. In order to eliminate
the possibility of producing any poor-quality products in the future, Zhang Ruimin
made an incredible decision which surprised all the Haier employees. He personally
carried a heavy hammer and took the lead in smashing all the remaining refrigera-
tors that were below the quality standards. At that time, the price of a refrigerator
was tantamount to the two-year salary of an average employee at Haier. However,
by insisting that “all flawed products are good-for-nothing products,” Zhang Rui-
min instituted the most stringent standards of quality control over all Haier prod-
ucts, which also came to constitute the corporate philosophy that Haier has since
been observing. Several years after the refrigerator-smashing event, Haier emerged
as the No. 1 refrigerator manufacturing brand in China and fought its way into the
rank of the leading brands in the world. Even up till now, the story still makes all the
staff members of Haier particularly proud. From this interesting story, the public can
interpret the principle and the value that Haier pursues as a corporate organization
and can conceive about the rigorous professional attitude that Haier’s top manage-
ment maintains regarding their products. This will definitely lead to the enhanced
trust on the part of the public in the quality of all the Haier products. As a result, the
corporate image of Haier as a manufacturer of “credibility, rigorousness and excel-
lent quality” has come to develop in the mind of the consumers.
From the semiotic perspective, a story can become a symbol which show-
cases the image of a certain corporate organization. This story can be presented
either in the form of a written narrative or in the form of a speech. Both the writ-
ten narrative and the speech are the signifiers of the symbol whereas the content
in them is the signified of the symbol. However, on the basis of the original
story, the public can make associations and derive other meanings beyond the
story itself. The meanings thus derived become the signified in the significa-
tion scheme on a higher level, that is, the signified of the symbol’s connotative
signification. Those meanings tend to acquire a certain degree of social dimen-
sions and exemplify a corporate organization’s social identity. This is illustrated
in Fig. 1.4:
E2 R2 C2
Haier’s credibility,
rigorousness, and
excellent quality
E1 R1 C1
A written narrative or a The content of the
speech about Haier narrativeor speech
refrigerators
Figure 1.4 The Communication Mechanism of Connotative Signification about Haier

Group’s MI
Here, the written narrative or the speech with which to relate the story about
Haier is represented as E1, the signifier of the symbol. What the story is about is
represented as C1, the signified of the denotative signification. Such meanings as
“credibility, rigorousness and excellent quality” that the public derive from the
story are represented as C2, the signified of the sign (which is either a written or
oral text) on the level of connotative signification. Hence, to a certain degree, the
key to the communication of a corporate image lies in the communication of the
signified of the connotative signification, whose ultimate effect is the establish-
ment of isology between the signifier and the signified.15 This is the subject that
will be treated in detail in the following sections.
1.2.3 Fragmented behavior identity – a person and a service

The symbol that can epitomize the corporate image can be a story, but it can also
be a particular person. Just as William Henry Gates is the soul of Microsoft, Steve
Jobs was the soul of Apple Inc. Both of them have become the hallmark figures
in disseminating their corporate images and their legendary lives are inextricably
intertwined with the highly charismatic corporate images. Here, Bill Gates and
Steve Jobs can serve as icons whose speech, behavior and even physical appear-
ances become signifiers. The inspirations and the moral strength that the public
derives from them constitute the signified. The CEO of a company is not the
only person who can exert an important influence on its corporate image; any
staff member of a company can have an impact on the overall image of that com-
pany. When a deliveryman of a certain company of dairy products offers to help
choose the floor number inside an elevator for other passengers and hands over,
in all politeness, his name cards printed with English translation, the passengers
in the elevator would naturally associate his personal qualities with the profes-
sional qualities of the company which he represents. At that particular moment,
the deliveryman is a symbol that showcases the corporate image, conveying such
important meanings as “civilized, professional, modern, and high-quality.” If we
can borrow a line from “Du bist Deutschland!” (“You Are Germany!”) that we
mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, we can also say “You Are Haier!”
“You Are Apple!” “You Are Microsoft!” “You Are . . .”
Apart from this, the pattern of service of an enterprise can also constitute a
common symbol for showcasing the corporate image. The public’s understanding
about Haidilao, a hot pot hospitality firm with chain restaurants across China, is
primarily focused on the restaurant’s unique services, “the services that no one
from the planet Earth can resist.”16 All the restaurants are so popular that, during
meal time, potential customers always have to wait for some time before they
can be ushered to their tables. While waiting, potential customers can enjoy free
refreshments, manicure, shoe-shining and entertainments like KTV. If you are a
pregnant woman, you will be provided with a back cushion or a pillow to recline
upon; if you wear glasses, you will be provided with a fabric with which to clean
your glasses. The restrooms are equipped with a complete set of cleansing agents.
All the waiters and waitresses work with high morale. In addition, on the Inter-
net there are widespread hearsays, real or exaggerated, about how incredible and
unparalleled the services are at Haidilao restaurants. Such a plethora of details
make up the fragments of the symbol about its corporate image. In this case about
Haidilao, the services that the public feel they can experience is the signifier of the
symbol, whereas the meanings conveyed by the symbol and the evaluations that
the public make are the signified of the symbol. As shown in Fig. 1.5, the free ser-
vice of KTV and manicure provided by Haidilao function as signifier E1, whereas
the public’s evaluations of Haidilao as “trendy and people-oriented” serve as the
signified of the connotation C2. E1 and C2 combine to constitute Haidilao’s cor-
porate image; this combination of signification represented as [(E1R1C1) R2C2]
jointly constructs the corporate image.
E2 R2 C2
Trendy and people-
oriented
E1 R1 C1
free services of a certain kind of service
manicure and KTV and entertainment
Figure 1.5 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Haidilao’s Service Image

1.2.4 Fragmented presentation and strong symbolic effect
Among a considerable number of fragmented symbols, the symbol which exerts
the greatest impact on the general public is the strong symbol that spreads the cor-
porate image. Those strong symbols range from McDonald’s double-arched “M”
in golden yellow, the all-smile services by Haidilao, Steve Jobs as the legendary
leader of Apple Inc., “sincerity forever” as Haier’s corporate religion and Chanel
No. 5 as a source of eternal and classical enchantment to Dabao Company’s ever-so-
familiar advertisement slogan “Hi, Dabao, see you every day!” Although there
is an abundance of symbols that can represent a particular corporate image, it is
unlikely that this image would be shattered into fragments impossible to be identi-
fied because of its fragmentary presentation. On the contrary, there will develop
an image which will become generally recognized by the public, an image which
possesses relative stability. This stability is the result of the communication of the
strong symbol. A strong symbol is usually the symbol which an enterprise makes
the most strenuous efforts to communicate to the public. It is also an incarna-
tion of that enterprise’s core competitiveness. Therefore, although the symbols
which can communicate a corporate image may be fragmentary, each enterprise
possesses some symbols which can make the most profound impressions on the
mind of the public. Those impressive symbols showcase an enterprise’s unique
charisma from a multiplicity of perspectives and present its distinctive image.
1.3 The openness and instability of corporate image

The meaning of the concept “enterprise” can be extended infinitely. Any exter-
nal manifestation related to an enterprise is part of that enterprise. Administrators,
employees, factory workshops, technology, products, stores or shops, the environ-
ment, the hygienic conditions, services, advertising and marketing, news coverage,
breaking news, such a rich variety of elements jointly make up the concept “enter-
prise.” According to this line of reasoning, the specific symbols which showcase
the corporate image can be infinitely proliferated. It is true that the CIS is tradition-
ally divided into three parts, namely, an enterprise’s business philosophy, known
as MI, codes of behavior known, as BI, and visual communication, known as VI.17
Nevertheless, in the actual communication practice, each part of the corporate
symbol is virtually inexhaustible. This means that the corporate image can be pro-
jected only in a fragmentary fashion. As just the society is in constant development
and progression, a corporate image is equally dynamic and is in constant change in
accordance with changing times and circumstances. It undergoes constant modifi-
cations and innovations as political and economic conditions change. As a result,
in order to meet the changing needs, an enterprise would keep generating new sym-
bols. It may also impart new meaning or create new signifieds for the same signi-
fier. It may even choose a more appropriate signifier to express the same signified.
Those are also the preconditions for the construction, updating and expansion of
the corporate image. This determines, all the more forcefully, that the presentation
of the corporate image cannot be accomplished in a holistic manner. The public can
perceive an enterprise only on the basis of an overwhelming plethora of informa-
tion fragments. Those fragments of the corporate symbol might seem inconsequen-
tial, but in special circumstances, they will be sufficient to become the building
blocks that significantly impact the corporate image in its entirety.
1.3.1 Evolution of corporate symbol’s system of signifiers –

the non-arbitrary transfer of the signifying relationship
In the autumn of 2012, Brad Pitt, the celebrated movie star who was nearly 50 years
old, became the first male brand spokesperson of Chanel No. 5. As soon as the
news was released, people in the fashion community was immediately fascinated,
creating a new round of heated coveting for Chanel products. From Marilyn Mon-
roe through Catherine Deneuve to Brad Pitt, each celebrity endorser has con-
tributed to the communication of the brand image of Chanel No. 5, constructing
the myth of sexiness that is exclusively that of Chanel and magnetizing fashion-
chasers to the product in idolization and worship. As a perfume, Chanel No. 5
has remained the same in aroma but with the product image played out by differ-
ent brand spokespersons, the same perfume has been exerting different appeals
of sexiness. In accordance with this mechanism, we can experience Chanel’s
image appeal today from the endorsement by Brad Pitt, but it is highly prob-
able that tomorrow he would be replaced by another celebrity. In the context of
mass culture in which celebrities are produced in quick successions, celebrities
are produced in large quantities like products on an assembly line. Of course, each
celebrity has his or her unique style and an enterprise would replace the “signi-
fier” of its products any time it wants by finding the most influential and the most
commercially valuable celebrity endorser. In this way, more charismatic “signi-
fied” can be effectively communicated.
It is true that the brand endorser or spokesperson can be adjusted or changed
at any time, but other signifiers like the logo of a brand, its packing, and the
corporate symbol are also subject to constant change and adjustment. The infi-
nite extensibility of the symbolic system determines that its system of signifiers
cannot be self-enclosed, static or fixed. Instead, it is diverse, open and dynamic.
While the signified remains constant, an enterprise can change its signifier in
accordance with the needs of the social development, the changes in the public’s
aesthetic taste and a full range of other, related factors. All these are designed to
arrive at the optimal communication effect. Take Apple Inc. as an example; its
logo is constantly renewed, and its products are constantly upgraded, generating
a long line of products ranging from iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone4S,
iPhone5 and so on. All these are illustrative of the changes that are continuously
happening in the company’s system of signifiers.
The purpose of introducing changes into the system of signifiers is either
to bring the signifier ever so closer to the signified or to convey a new signi-
fied, that is, the meaning. Those changes are designed to create new relation-
ships of signification in the particular ideological framework of the general
public. They represent purposeful and non-random choices, or what might be
called “motivated” choices. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand Saussure has already
pointed out that, for any sign of language, “arbitrariness” constitutes the most
fundamental principle of the combination between the signifier and the signi-
fied, a relationship that is conventional and unverifiable. But when we examine
the evolution of the corporate symbols, the marriage between the signifier and
the signified has obviously violated this principle of arbitrariness. In developing
corporate symbols, a whole set of regulations has been artificially established,
which subsumes a multitude of historical, social, economic and cultural fac-
tors and forcibly creates a new “relationship of contract.” As a matter of fact,
Saussure was sensitive enough to perceive the mandatory nature inherent in
a linguistic sign, stating that “the signifier, though to all appearances freely
chosen with respect to the idea that it represents, is fixed, not free, with respect
to the linguistic community that uses it.”18 Even for the seemingly naturally
formed signs of language, a fixed and mandatory element exists. For the cor-
porate symbols which are much more highly socialized, the mandatory nature
is all the more salient. The truth is that, under the publicity impact of the mass
media, such a kind of mandatory nature and motivation has been camouflaged
in the lyrical narratives of advertising so that, for all categories of symbols, the
process of expressing meaning has become so natural, spontaneous and persua-
sive, totally beyond any reasonable doubt.
1.3.2 Corporate image is dynamic and subject to change

The system of signifiers for a corporate symbol is open and richly diverse, so is
its system of the signifieds. Due to differences in temporal and spatial conditions,
the signifier of the same symbol may generate totally different meanings and con-
vey different signifieds. This implies that, even within the same temporal and
spatial dimensions, the differences in the backgrounds of the public may result
in different interpretations of the same signifier. For example, “Moutai Wine,”
one of the most expensive white wines in China, has always been an important
symbol for its manufacturer, Kweichow Moutai Company Limited. Throughout
history, the wine as a signifier has never changed – its ingredients, its manufactur-
ing technology and its quality have all remained constant. But the signified, the
social meaning that the wine conveys, has remarkably changed, from its original
meaning of “a type of wine of very high quality” to “a luxury commodity which
stands for a certain social class and status.” Because of this, the corporate image
of the manufacturer has also changed, projected as a high-end enterprise engaged
in the production of luxury commodities. But as an increasing number of cases of
fake wine are reported, there have emerged many new social commentaries about
this luxury commodity, which have been incorporated as the new signified of the
Moutai Wine as a commercial brand.
Precisely because both the system of the signifier and the system of the signi-
fied of a corporate symbol are open, the corporate image is capable of dynamic
changes. As a dominant agent, an enterprise can change the public’s past impres-
sions and judgments about itself and develop a more appealing corporate image
which is more closely geared to the present-day social needs by altering its own
objective conditions and utilizing various kinds of communication channels.
It is precisely this possibility of change that makes it an enduring undertaking
to an enterprise to maintain and improve its corporate image. To develop and
maintain a positive corporate image is by no means an easy task, because such
an image could be devastated overnight due to the failure of even the slightest
detail. As pointed above, the symbols that convey a corporate image can be infi-
nite in number, composed of a great number of specific details. Every detail can
become a crucial symbol that produces a defining impact on the corporate image
and any negligence in a single detail may negatively impact the entire corporate
image. This is what might be called “the whole may be altered by even the minut-
est detail.” The reason is that, for the public, the negligence of the detail that an
individual witnesses or experiences might make up the whole of his perception
about a particular enterprise. It may also set him imagining that the enterprise can
be marred by flaws in a number of other aspects. In other words, such negligence
may act as a typical symbol that the individual may use to generalize about the
enterprise and to derive a negative meaning, the signified, that could damage the
overall image of the enterprise. It may even be possible that a crisis might be gen-
erated for the reputation of the enterprise. Although a judgment that infers about
the whole based on a particular detail might suffer from a certain degree of sub-
jective partiality, this is nevertheless one of the fundamental ways of how human
beings think, and its efficacy has been demonstrated since antiquity.
Any medium that is related to an enterprise can become a symbol capable of
producing an impact on the corporate image. No one can quantify the exact num-
ber of symbols or what kind of corporate image has been conveyed by those
symbols, nor is it possible for anyone to predict what kind of symbols would
emerge in the future and what image could be communicated by such symbols.
Any positive or negative media reports about an enterprise, any specific person
or incident, or even any particular catch phrase that has temporarily gained wide
currency could all turn into fragmentary symbols that produce a certain impact
on the corporate image at any time. The impact produced by melamine on the
reputation of Sanlu Group, a major manufacturer of dairy products in China’s
Hebei Province, is a case in point. Prior to 2008, the corporate image of Sanlu
Group was not in any way associated with the chemical substance melamine. But
after Sanlu Group’s baby-formula milk powder was discovered to have contained
the hazardous melamine, this chemical substance soon became an overwhelming
corporate symbol of Sanlu Group and even today the majority of the public still
retain negative conceptions about the corporation due to the lingering aftermaths
of the melamine incident. The same is true about the impact produced by Guo
Meimei on the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC). Guo used to be an ordinary
young lady, with nothing to do with RCSC. In no way could she ever become a
symbol of RCSC. However, in the wake of the so-called “Guo Meimei Incident,”
in which she showed off her extremely expensive car and various luxury com-
modities and claimed to be an official of RCSC, “Guo Meimei” became part of
the symbolic representation of RCSC, generating many negative ramifications
that dealt a severe blow to the image of RCSC as a non-profit charity organization
and fatally jeopardized its reputation. Faced with such a horrendous crisis, RCSC
made desperate efforts to rebuild its image through various measures of public
relations in order to regain the public’s confidence.
All the foregoing analyses should convince us that the development of the cor-
porate image is an endless endeavor for any enterprise. Any change caused by a
fragment of the symbol could affect the overall image of an enterprise. It is only
through constant maintenance and innovation that a corporate organization can
maximize the brand effects, economic effects and social effects as a result of its
improved image.
1.4 To make generalizations based on particulars via

metalanguage mechanism as a discourse strategy in
the communication of corporate image
1.4.1 Corporate image communication follows the progression

from naturalization mechanism to generalization mechanism
“From the present-day perspective, an image is an asset; it is something that is
convertible into commodity which the manipulator contrives with all ingenu-
ity.”19 Amidst an overabundance of information fragments, the entire process
of making the public notice, accept and resonate with a particular corporate
image and turning the enterprise into a symbol that can enhance value becomes
a process of producing modern myth. Beneath many seemingly natural pro-
cesses of image identification, there underlie highly socialized value judgment,
aesthetic standards, and ethical and moral principles and various forms of ide-
ology. To gain an insight into the underlying rules at work, it is necessary for
us to examine all the mysteries involved in the process by investigating the
inherent mechanism governing the communication of symbols. “As a discourse
strategy, a myth encompasses two layers, namely, the connotative significa-
tion and the metalanguage. Connotative signification is constructed by means
of metaphor whereas metalanguage depends on metonym for its fulfillment.
Connotation/metaphor constitutes the underlying mechanism of naturalization
whereas metalanguage/metonym is the behind-the-scene manipulation by gen-
eralization.”20 In the following section, the author intends to analyze, with these
two layers of discourse strategy as a theoretical framework, how the corporate
image is turned into myth.
From a semiotic perspective, a positive corporate image depends on the ability
for a corporate symbol to convey a meaning, the signified, that strongly appeals to
the public. But the fact is that this meaning which is conveyed is not the signified
of the symbol’s denotation but the highly socialized underlying meaning, that is,
the signified of the connotation.
When a consumer buys an electrical appliance of the Haier brand, a certain
employee of Haier Group would go to the customer’s home to offer installation
service. This employee’s code of behavior, service attitude and professional skills
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merchant aids him by furnishing him with all the necessaries. For this
reason an unstinted care should be bestowed upon them, for as the
soul cannot exist without a body, even so the soldier cannot get
along without the merchant; nor can the merchant get along without
the soldier. A country expands through the profession of war, and is
beautified through commerce. Consequently the merchants must be
protected against offenders, so that they receive not the least insult
from government officials. Many unthinking people disdain the
merchants, loathe them and offend them without provocation, and
yet there is no condition of life which can get along without the
merchant.
But the merchants must be guarded not only against outside
offenders: they must not interfere with each other as well, and men
from other ranks must not enter the merchant guild and thus cause
them no end of disturbance. Commerce should be free, so that they
themselves may be benefited and the interests of his Imperial
Highness be guarded.
If commerce were free for the Russian merchants, and neither
men from other ranks nor foreigners would in the least impair the
commerce of Russians, the revenue would be increased. I am of the
opinion that without changing the duties, the revenue would be
doubled or trebled, whereas now the greater half is lost through the
traders from the other ranks.
If a person belonging to some other rank, whether he be senator,
or officer, or nobleman, or government official, or clerical, or peasant,
should wish to carry on commerce, let him leave his former rank and
join the merchant guild, and trade in a straightforward manner, and
not by stealth, and pay his duties and other merchant taxes, and let
him never again do anything by stealth, as before, without consent of
the Merchant Commander, and escape the paying of imposts.
Every rank must behave in such a manner as not to sin before
God and do wrong before the Tsar; and they should live as is their
profession: if one be a soldier, let him be a soldier, and if he have
another vocation, let him devote himself entirely to that vocation.
Our Lord Himself has said: No man can serve two masters. So let
the soldier, or man of another rank, stay in his profession, and let
him not enter into another rank, for if he devote himself to
commerce, he will curtail his military duties. The Lord Himself has
said: Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. And St.
Paul the apostle has said that no soldier can find favour with his
captain who meddles with commerce. There is a popular saw which
says, Choose one or the other, war or commerce.
For these reasons it does not behoove the soldier or man of
another rank to trade. If, however, he have a desire to become a
merchant, let him join the guild.
If there be no prohibition for external merchants, from the ranks of
the nobles, officers or peasants, the merchants will not be able to
become enriched, and it will not be possible for the revenue to be
increased.
... At the present time boyárs, noblemen and their people, soldiers
and peasants carry on commerce, without paying any tax, and many
merchants carry on trade in their names, and pay no tax. Not half the
revenue is collected, nor ever can be collected, if commerce is not to
be made free from the nobles and officials, since many mighty
people have taken to trade, and some who are not themselves
powerful but are not subject to the magistrate.
I know, for example, one case in a Nóvgorod county where there
are a hundred or two of merchant-peasants, and who do not pay a
farthing’s worth of taxes. And if a collector, seeing them, tries to
collect the revenue, the gentry take the peasant’s part and send the
collector away more dead than alive, and the government officers
look on, and dare not interfere. And there are some wealthy men,
who have some five or six hundred peasants carrying on such illicit
trade, and pay not a farthing to the Great Tsar. If all be arranged as I
have proposed, commerce will awaken as if from a dream.
It is a very bad custom the merchant people have, to do each
other wrong by cheating each other. Both foreigners and Russians
are in the habit of showing good-looking wares that are badly made
within or filled up with bad stuff; or bad wares are mixed with wares
of a good quality and are sold as if of good quality, taking for them an
unfair price, and greatly deceiving inexperienced people. They give
wrong weights and measures, deceive in price, and do not think all
that to be a sin, although they cause so much injustice to the
inexperienced. Yet those who deceive are in the end ruined through
their own iniquity, and become impoverished.
... In order to establish justice in the Merchant Rows, let there be
appointed hundred-men and fifty-men and ten-men, and over the
shop where there is an hundred-man let there be nailed a round
board, painted white, so that it can be easily seen, and on that board
let there be written “hundred-man.” Do the same with the shop of the
fifty-man and ten-man, so that those who purchase any goods may
know where to show their wares, if they should want to find out
whether they have received the right weight, or measure, or whether
the wares are good or bad, and whether they have paid the correct
price for them.
If a merchant have received more than the worth of the wares, let
him be fined a dime or two for every unfair kopek, and let him be
beaten with rods or a whip, that he may not do so again in the future;
and if he repeat his offence, let the fine and punishment be
increased.
But if one give wrong measure and weight, or sell different goods
from what the buyer demanded, and give him inferior goods, let his
punishment be much more severe, and the fine be ten times the
price of the goods.
And if an hundred-man, or fifty-man, or ten-man be guilty of such a
transgression, let the fine for the ten-man be tenfold, for the fifty-man
fiftyfold, and for the hundred-man hundredfold, and let the
punishment be with the knout, as many strokes as may be decided
upon. The hundred-men and fifty-men should receive very stringent
instructions to watch without relenting the ten-men and not to be
indulgent to them, but to fear the law like fire, lest their
transgressions reach the ears of high personages. And the ten-men
should watch all the shops under their charge, and see to it that no
inferior wares are adulterated by the admixture of better material, but
that they are sold such as they are, the good wares as good wares,
the mediocre as mediocre, and the poor as poor, and that right
weights and measures be given, and that the prices be not raised on
the goods, and that there be no adulterations. Let only the right price
be asked, and let them measure foreign stuffs, brocade, calamanco
and silks from the first end, and not from the last. And no matter what
buyer there come, whether rich or poor, whether experienced or
inexperienced, let them all be treated in the same fair manner, and
let there not a kopek be added to the price of one rouble or ten
roubles.
Whatever fine is to be collected should be collected by the
hundred-men, without delay, on the day the offence has been
committed. All the fines ought to be entered in a ledger which should
be reported every month in the proper office. No transaction, neither
great nor small, should take place with the foreigners who frequent
the fairs, without the permission of the Chief Commander of the
Merchant Guild. Whoever dares to sell even a rouble’s worth of
goods to these foreigners without the permission of the Chief
Commander shall be fined a hundredfold, a hundred roubles for
every rouble sold, and the punishment shall be administered with the
knout, as many strokes as may be decreed, that they should
remember them and never do so again.
FROM THE CHAPTER “ON THE PEASANTRY”
Much might be added to the protection of the peasantry if their

houses were rebuilt so that they could live more freely and
peacefully; for much damage is done to them through overcrowding:
if one man’s house take fire, the whole village is threatened, and
frequently not a single house is left. This leads to endless poverty. If
they had not been so much crowded in their settlements, they would
not be so easily ruined. It is against this ruin that they ought to be
protected. Let them build their houses farther from each other, nor
join yard to yard, but with intervals, a few houses in a lot; the streets
ought to be wide, where there is sufficient space, not less than two
hundred feet in width; where the space is crowded, not less than one
hundred feet in width. In this way, if there should be a fire, all the
neighbours would run to put it out: there being intervals between the
houses, it would be easy to reach them from all sides, and as there
would be little danger for the neighbouring houses, the peasants
would not rush, as before, to save their own possessions, but would
aid their unfortunate neighbour. As the settlements are now
arranged, it is utterly impossible for the neighbours to bring aid; they
rush for their own, which they cannot all save, but generally lose
everything they have. Thus they are ruined and become
impoverished.
Not a small degree of annoyance is caused the peasants from not
having literate people among them. There are many villages of
twenty or thirty houses that have not a single man that can read; if
any come to them with an ukase, or without an ukase, pretending to
have one, they believe him, and suffer damages; for they are all
blind,—they see nothing and understand nothing. They are not able
to dispute with the people that pretend having ukases, and they
frequently pay unwarranted taxes to them. To guard the peasants
from such losses, it seems to me, they ought to be compelled to
send their children of ten years and less to some subdeacon to be
instructed how to read and write. I think it would not be a bad thing if
the smallest village were not without a literate man, so there ought to
be a strict law compelling the peasants to have their children
instructed for three or four years. And there ought to be a severe
punishment for those who do not have their children taught anything
for four years, or who do not have them instructed at all as they grow
up.
Having learned to read and write, they will not only conduct more
intelligently the affairs of their masters, but they will be also useful in
the Government, being eligible as hundred-men and fifty-men, and
no one would abuse them and mulct them for nothing.
Feofán (in private life Eleázar) Prokopóvich.
(1681-1763.)
Peter the Great’s reforms were not so much the beginning
of a new movement, as the accomplishment of a mental
ferment which was taking place in Russia towards the end of
the seventeenth century, and they were successful and
permanent in the degree that he made use of persons who
were already in sympathy with Western culture. The most
important of these was Feofán Prokopóvich. Prokopóvich
studied in the schools of Kíev, then became a Uniat and
continued his studies in Poland, then went to Rome and
entered the College of St. Athanasius, which had been
established for the purpose of a Catholic propaganda among
the Greeks and Slavs of the Eastern Church. There he
distinguished himself for his brilliant learning, which included
a thorough knowledge of the classics. He returned to Russia
in 1702, renounced his Uniat affiliations and became a
teacher in the Kíev Academy. Here he composed a text-book
on the art of poetry and a tragi-comedy, Vladímir, which was
played by the students of the Academy. Peter I. met Feofán in
1709, after the victory at Poltáva, when the latter received him
in Kíev with a panegyric. In 1716 he was called to St.
Petersburg, where, during the absence of Peter, he employed
his oratorical powers to advocate the Emperor’s reforms. The
following year he was made bishop of Nóvgorod. The
following year he was entrusted with reforming the
government of the Church, which he did by his famous
Spiritual Reglement, a work that breathes the most
enlightened liberalism. One of the chief changes introduced
by this Reglement was the abandonment of the all-powerful
Patriarchate, and the substitution for it of the Holy Synod, of
which he became the ruling spirit. After the death of Peter the
Great, his enemies swooped down upon him, but, having
passed the school of the Jesuits, he was an adept at
diplomacy and intrigue, and paid them back in their own coin.
However, Prokopóvich is remembered for the enormous good
he did, for his prodigious learning, to which many foreigners
who visited Russia are witnesses, but especially for
encouraging scholarship and literature. Tatíshchev and
Kantemír were his friends, and upon the appearance of
Kantemír’s first satire (see p. 223), he was the first to hail his
promising talent.
There is a translation of Prokopóvich’s Catechism under the
title, The Russian Catechism, composed and published by
order of the Czar [Peter I. Translated from the Russian by J.
T. Philipps], London [1723], second edition 1725.
FROM “THE SPIRITUAL REGLEMENT”

OF INSTRUCTION
It is known to the whole world how weak and impotent the Russian
army was when it had no regular instruction, and how incomparably
its strength was increased and became great and terrible when our
august monarch, his Imperial Highness Peter the First, instructed it
in a proper manner. The same is true of architecture, medicine,
political government, and all other affairs.
But, most of all, that is true of the government of the Church: when
there is not the light of instruction, the Church cannot have any good
conduct, and impossibly can there be avoided disorder and
superstitions that deserve a great deal of ridicule, as well as strife,
and most foolish heresies.
Many foolishly assert that instruction is the cause of heresy. But
the heretics of ancient days, the Valentinians, Manichæans,
Catharists, Euchites, Donatists and others, whose stupid acts are
described by Irenæus, Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodoret and others,
raved, not through instruction, but through arrogant foolishness. And
did not our own dissenters rave so deliriously through their lack of
culture, and ignorance? Though there are some heresiarchs, such
as were Arius, Nestorius and a few others, yet their heresies arose
not through instruction, but from an imperfect understanding of the
Holy Writ, and they grew and were strengthened through malice and
false pride which did not permit them to change their wrong opinion
after they had discovered the truth, and against their conscience.
And though their instruction gave them the power to use sophisms,
that is, cunning proofs of their elucubrations, yet he who would want
to ascribe this evil simply to instruction would be compelled to say
that where a physician poisons a patient, his knowledge of medicine
was the cause thereof, and where a soldier valiantly and cunningly
strikes down the enemy, military art is the cause of killing. And when
we look through history, as through a telescope, at the past ages, we
shall discover more evil in the Dark Ages than in those that were
enlightened through culture. The bishops were not so arrogant
before the fifth century as they were afterwards, especially the
bishops of Rome and Constantinople, because before there was
learning, and afterwards it grew less. If learning were dangerous to
the Church and State, the best Christians would not study
themselves, and would forbid others to study; but we see that all our
ancient teachers studied not only the Holy Writ, but also profane
philosophy. Besides many others, the most famous pillars of the
Church have advocated profane learning, namely: Basil the Great in
his instruction to the studying youths, Chrysostom in his books on
monastic life, Gregory the Theologue in his sermon on Julian the
Apostate. I should have a great deal to say, if I were to dwell on this
alone.
Good and thorough instruction is the root and seed and foundation
of all usefulness, both for the fatherland and the Church. There is,
however, a kind of instruction which does not deserve that name,
though it is deemed by certain clever but not well-informed men to
be the real instruction.
Many are in the habit of asking in what schools such and such an
one has been educated? When they hear that he has been in
rhetoric, philosophy and theology, they are prone to place him very
high, for the sake of those names, but in that they frequently err, for
not all get good instruction from good teachers, one on account of
his dulness, another on account of his laziness; how much is that the
case when the teacher is little, or not at all, proficient in his subject!
It is important to know that from the sixth to the fifteenth century,
that is, for nine hundred years, all learning in Europe was of a very
meagre and imperfect character, so that we see in the authors who
wrote at that time great sharpness of wit, but small enlightenment.
With the fifteenth century there began to appear better-informed and
more skilful teachers, and by degrees many academies acquired a
greater importance than in those ancient Augustan times; many
other schools, on the contrary, stuck fast in their ancient slime,
preserving, indeed, the names of rhetoric, philosophy and other
sciences, but in reality having none of them. Different causes have
led to this, but space does not permit their mention here.
People who have received, so to say, an empty and fantastic
education in these institutions are generally more stupid than those
who have received none at all. Being themselves in the dark, they
deem themselves to be perfect, and imagining that they have
learned all that there is to be learned, neither have the desire, nor
think it worth while to read books and study more. On the other
hand, a man who has received the proper schooling is never
satisfied with his knowledge, and never stops learning, even though
he has passed the age of Methuselah.
But this is the greatest misfortune: the above-mentioned
imperfectly instructed people are not only useless, but also very
harmful to society, State and Church. They humble themselves
beyond necessity before the authorities, attempting through cunning
to appropriate to themselves favours, and crawl into higher places.
They hate people of the same standing as themselves, and if anyone
is praised for his learning, they use their utmost endeavour to
depreciate and denounce him before the people and authorities.
They are prone to take part in rebellions, hoping to gain advantages
for themselves through them. When they take to theological
discussions, they cannot help falling into heresies, for, being
ignorant, they easily fall into error, after which they will not change
the opinion they have uttered, for fear of appearing not to have
known all. But wise men have this proverb: “It is the property of a
wise man to change his opinion.”
FUNERAL SERMON ON PETER THE GREAT
What is this, and what have we lived to see, O Russians? What

are we doing now? We are burying Peter the Great! Is it not a
dream? Not a vision of the night? Oh, what a real sorrow! Oh, what
certain bitter reality! Contrary to all expectations and hopes he has
ended his life who has been the cause of our innumerable
benefactions and joys, who has resuscitated Russia as if from the
dead, and has raised it to great power and glory, nay, has begot it
and brought it up, he the true father of his country, whom for his
deserts all the good sons of Russia wished to be immortal, and
whom, on account of his youth and bodily strength, they had hoped
to see many years alive. O dire calamity! He has ended his life just
as he was beginning to live after his labours, unrest, sorrows,
calamities, after so many and varied deaths.
We see well how we have angered Thee, O Lord, and how long
we have tempted Thy long-suffering! O we unfortunate and unworthy
people! O the infinitude of our sins! He who does not see that is
blind. He who sees it and does not confess is turned to stone in his
heartlessness. But why should we increase our woes and heart-pain,
which we ought rather attempt to allay? But if we are to mention his
great talents, acts and works we shall only be stung more severely
by the loss of our good man, and we shall sob aloud. Only in a
lethargy, or some deathlike sleep, could we at all forget our so sad
loss. What a great and what a good man we have lost!
O Russia, this Samson of yours came to you when no one in the
world had expected him, and when he appeared the whole world
marvelled. He found you weak in power, and to conform with his
name he made you of stone and adamant. He found an army
dangerous at home, weak in the field and scorned by the foe, and he
gave his country a useful army that is terrible to the enemy, and
everywhere renowned and glorious. He defended his country, and at
the same time returned to it the lands that had been taken away from
it, and increased it by the acquisition of new provinces. When he
crushed those who rose against us, he at the same time broke the
strength of our ill-wishers and subdued their spirits, and, closing up
the lips of envy, compelled the whole world to proclaim glorious
things of himself.
O Russia, he was your first Japheth, who had accomplished a
deed unheard of in your annals, having introduced the building and
sailing of ships. He gave you a new fleet that, to the wonderment of
the world and surpassing all expectation, was in no way inferior to
much older fleets, and he opened for you a path to all the ends of the
earth, and spread your power and glory to the extreme corners of the
ocean, to the limits of your usefulness, to the limits which justice had
placed; and the might of your dominion, which heretofore was firm
on land, he has now made strong and permanent upon the sea.
O Russia, he is your Moses! Are not his laws like a firm protection
of truth, and like unbreakable fetters of wrong-doing? And are not his
statutes clear, a light upon your path? And are not the high ruling
Senate and the many special institutions of his so many lights in the
search of advantage, the warding off of harm, the safety of the
peaceful, and the unmasking of the wrongdoers? He has verily left
us in doubt whether he is more to be praised for being loved and
cherished by the good and simple-hearted, or for being hated by
unrepenting flatterers and rascals.
O Russia, he is your Solomon, who has received from the Lord his
very great reason and wisdom. Have we not sufficient testimony
thereof in the many philosophic arts, which he himself practised and
many subjects introduced under his supervision, and in the many
cunning industrial arts which have never before been heard of
among us? And he also introduced the chins[126] and degrees, and
civil order, and decent manners in daily intercourse, and the rules of
acceptable habits and customs, and now we see and admire the
external appearance and internal worth of our country, which from
within and without is far superior to what it was in former years.
He is also, O Russian Church, your David and Constantine. The
synodal government is his creation, and its written and oral
instructions were his care. Oh, how often his heart was heavy when
he saw the ignorance in the path of salvation! How great his zeal
was against superstition and deceptive simulations, and the
senseless, hostile and destructive heresy amongst us! How great
was his desire and endeavour to see more learning among the
clergy, and a greater godliness and more decent worship in the
people!
But, O renowned man! Can we in a short sermon mention all his
glory? The present sorrow and grief which compels us to shed tears
and sigh does not allow of an extended speech. Perhaps in time this
thorn that stings our hearts will be dulled, and then we will speak at
greater length of his deeds and virtues, though we shall never be
able sufficiently to praise him according to his worth. To-day, though
we are only making a short mention of him and, as it were, are only
touching the hems of his garments, we, poor unfortunate people,
see, O hearers, who has left us and whom we have lost.
Let us not, O Russians, faint with sorrow and grief, for the great
monarch and our father has not left us in a bad plight. He has left us,
but not poor and necessitous: the immeasurable wealth of his power
and glory, which has been realised by his above-mentioned deeds, is
with us. Russia will be such as he has made it; he has made it an
object of love to the good, and it will be loved; he has made it terrible
to the enemy, and terrible it will remain; he has made it glorious
throughout the whole world, and it will not cease to be glorious. He
has left us religious, civil and military institutions. He has left us, and
his body will decay, but his spirit will stay.
Above all, in leaving this temporal world, he has not left us
orphaned. How could we, indeed, call ourselves orphaned when we
see his legacy to the throne, his real helpmate in life, a ruler like him
after his demise, you, most gracious and autocrat Empress, great
heroine and monarch, and mother of all the Russias? The whole
world is a witness that your sex does not prevent your being like
Peter the Great. Who does not know your wisdom as a ruler, and
your motherly womanliness, and your natural God-given talents?
And all this took place and was confirmed in you not merely through
your association with so great a monarch, but also in your
communion with his wisdom, labours and various calamities. He,
having tried you during a series of years, like gold in the crucible,
deemed it insufficient to have you as a cohabiter of his bed, but
made you also the heir to his crown, and power, and throne. How
can we help hoping that you will confirm what he has done, will
create anew what he has left undone and will keep all in good
condition? Only, O valiant soul, try to overcome this unendurable
calamity which has been intensified by the loss of your most beloved
daughter, and which, like a severe wound, has been torn beyond
measure by this new sting. And as you have been seen by all ever
present with Peter of glorious deeds, an incessant companion in all
his labours and troubles, so try even now to be such in this your very
bitter loss.
And you, noble assembly, of all ranks and degrees, sons of
Russia, with your faithfulness and obedience console your Empress
and mother. Console yourselves also, seeing the undoubted signs of
Peter’s spirit in your Empress, and that not all of Peter has passed
away. Then let us bow before our Lord who has thus visited us,
praying Him, the God of mercy and father of all consolation, to wipe
the unrestrained tears of her Highness, our most autocratic
Empress, and her precious blood, her daughters, grandchildren,
nieces and all the high family, and to soothe the grief of their hearts
with His gracious care, and to console us all in His mercy.
O Russia, seeing what a great man has left you, see also how
great he has left you. Amen!
FOOTNOTES:
[126] There are fourteen rank distinctions, called “chins,” in

Russia; they are acquired through service only, independently of
birth.
Vasíli Nikítich Tatíshchev. (1686-1750.)
Tatíshchev was one of the most distinguished and
intelligent friends of the reforms of Peter the Great. Having
studied first at Moscow and then in Germany, he was
attached to the Berg-und-Manufaktur-Kolleg (Department of
Mining and Manufactures). The president of the institution
pointed out to Peter the Great the necessity for a geography
of the empire, and this task was entrusted to Tatíshchev. In
the course of his work, the latter was induced to make a
thorough study of old historical documents, of which he
discovered a large number. Several of the chronicles he
mentions and had access to have not been preserved, and
later historians have to rely on the statements made by
Tatíshchev for some important historical information. In 1720
he was sent to Siberia for the purpose of prospecting for
copper and silver and establishing various plants. Then began
a laborious career, in a large variety of capacities, among
them that of Governor of Astrakhán. The years 1724-26 he
passed in Sweden, where he cultivated the acquaintance of
Swedish scholars and made a study of foreign sources of
Russian history. Thus Tatíshchev had ample opportunities for
becoming the first historiographer of Russia. His History of
Russia, which was published in the reign of Catherine the
Great, shows an intimate knowledge of the philosophical
systems of Descartes and Tomasius, and the political systems
of Christian Wolff, Puffendorf and Hugo Grotius, as well as
Machiavelli and Locke. He was opposed to a political
supremacy of the Church even more decidedly than
Prokopóvich, the author of the Spiritual Reglement (see p.
211). It is an interesting fact that when Tatíshchev found no
sympathy for his History in St. Petersburg, he corresponded
with a friend in England for the purpose of having it published
in English by the Royal Society at London, but there could not
be found an Englishman who was competent to undertake the
translation. Of his other works, his Spiritual Testament and
Instruction to my Son Evgráf, though replete with liberal
views, is the last in the long chain of Instructions in which the
older period abounds, such as the Instruction of Vladímir
Monomákh (p. 50), and the Domostróy of Sylvester (p. 126). It
has been translated into English: The Testament of B.
Tatischef, translated from the Russian manuscript by J.
Martinof, Paris, 1860.
FROM THE “RUSSIAN HISTORY”
One ought not to discuss the usefulness of history, for everybody

can see and feel it; but as some are not accustomed to see things
clearly and discuss them in detail, and often through their perverted
understanding make the useful to appear as harmful and the harmful
as useful, and consequently transgress in their acts and deeds (as
indeed I have heard such people, to my disgust, talk loud of the
uselessness of history), I deemed it proper to give a short review of
it.
To begin with, history is nothing else than the recounting of past
acts and occurrences, good and bad; for all that we have
experienced in recent or long-passed days through our senses of
hearing, seeing and feeling, or that we reproduce by our memory, is
really history, and it teaches us, whether through our acts or those of
others, to emulate the good and beware of the evil. For example,
when I recollect that I saw yesterday a fisherman who had been
catching fish and had had a certain success in it, I naturally receive
in my mind an impulse to do likewise; or if I saw yesterday a thief or
some other criminal, who had been sentenced to a severe
punishment or death, terror will naturally keep me from committing
such an act as would cause my utter ruin. All the histories we read
act upon us in the same manner: the deeds of ancient days are
represented to us so vividly that we seem to have seen and felt them
ourselves.
For this reason we may say that no man, no condition of life, no
profession, science, nor government, much less a single individual,
can be perfect, wise and useful without a knowledge of the same.
For example, let us take the sciences. The first and greatest of them
all is theology, that is, the science of God, His all-wisdom,
almightiness, which alone leads us to future bliss, and so forth. Now,
no theologian can be called wise who does not know the ancient
divine acts which have been revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures,
and when, with whom and why there have been disputes about
certain dogmas and articles of faith, or when and why this has been
established and that discarded; why certain statutes and orders of
the ancient Church have been changed, discontinued, and new ones
introduced; consequently he must know divine and church history, as
well as civil history, as Huet, the famous French theologian, has
sufficiently pointed out.
The second science is jurisprudence, which teaches proper
conduct and our duties to God, ourselves and our neighbours, in
order to acquire peace of body and soul. No jurist can be called wise
who does not know former interpretations and discussions of natural
and civil laws. And how can a judge pass right judgment if he does
not know the origin and application of old and new laws? Indeed, he
must know the history of the laws.
The third is medicine, or leechcraft, which science consists in the
art of preserving health, and bringing back the lost health, or in
preventing the disease from spreading. All this depends on history,
for the physician must gain his knowledge from the ancients, must
know what is the cause of diseases, what medicine and treatment to
give, what the property and strength of each medicine is, all of which
no man could find out in a hundred years through his own
experience and investigation. But to experiment on the sick is a
dangerous matter, from which they could easily be ruined, though
this is not infrequently the case with certain ignoramuses. I shall not
mention many other parts of philosophy, but I may summarise by
saying that all philosophy is based on history and supported by it, for
all the right and wrong and faulty opinions which we find with the
ancients are history as regards our knowledge, and form the basis
for our corrections.
Statesmanship is composed of three different parts: of the internal
government, or economy, external relations, and military affairs. All
three demand not less history than the other sciences, and without it
cannot be perfect. Thus, in political economy it is necessary to know
what has caused ruin in former days: how it has been warded off or
minimised; what have been the favourable influences; how obtained
and preserved, so that the present and future may be wisely judged
in the light of that knowledge. On account of this wisdom, the ancient
Romans represented their god Janus with two faces, for he knew
perfectly the past, and from its examples wisely judged the future.
For the administration of foreign affairs it is necessary to know not
only one’s own country, but also other governments: what conditions
they have formerly been in; what has brought about changes in
them; what states they are in now; with whom they have had
disputes and wars, and for what; what treaties have been made and
confirmed with them, in order to proceed intelligently in the acts at
hand.
For military leaders it is very important to know by what device and
cunning great forces of the enemy have been vanquished, or kept
from victory, and so forth, as we see Alexander the Great having
held Homer’s books on the Trojan war in great respect, and having
been instructed by them. For this reason many great generals have
described their own acts and those of others. Of these the most
illustrious example is Julius Cæsar, who has described his wars, that
future generals might after him use his acts for their own examples,
and many famous generals on land and on the sea have followed in
his footsteps by writing of their exploits. Many great rulers have
either themselves written of their acts, or have ordered expert people
to write of them, not only that their memory should live in glory, but
that their descendants should have examples to follow.
As regards the usefulness of Russian history it must be remarked,
that, as is the case with all other histories, the knowledge of one’s
own history and geography is more important for any nation or
region than that of foreign histories; at the same time it must be kept
in mind that without the knowledge of foreign histories, one’s own is
not clear and sufficient: 1. That the writer of contemporary history
cannot know all the external influences for good and bad; 2. That the
writers are frequently compelled, out of fear, to suppress, or change,
or modify some very important circumstances of contemporary
history; 3. That from passion, love, or hatred, they describe quite
differently from what were the actual occurrences, and that the facts
are frequently related more correctly and in detail by outsiders. Thus,
in my present work, the first part, dealing with the Russian antiquity,
has mainly been drawn from foreign sources for lack of native
writers, and in the other parts many errors and lacunæ have been
corrected and filled out from foreign sources. European historians
accuse us of having no old history, and of knowing nothing of our
antiquity, simply because they do not know what historians we
possess, and though some have made a few extracts, or have
translated from them a passage here and there, others, thinking that
we have no better ones than those quoted, despise them. Some of
our own ignorant writers agree with them, while those who do not
wish to trouble themselves by looking into the ancient sources or
who do not understand the text, have, ostensibly to give a better
explanation, but in reality to hide the truth, invented fables of their
own and thus have obscured the real facts as told by the ancients,
as, for example, in the case of the foundation of Kíev, and that of
Nóvgorod by Slavén, and so forth.
I wish to say here emphatically that all the famous European
historians will not be able to know or tell anything correctly of many
of our antiquities, no matter what their efforts in Russian history may
be, if they do not read our sources,—for example, of the many
nations who have existed here in ancient days, as the Amazons,
Alans, Huns, Avars, Cimbrians and Cimmerians; nor do they know
anything of the Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs, their tribes, origin,
habitations and migrations, or of the anciently famous large cities of
the Essedonians, Archipeans, Cumanians, etc., where they have
lived, and what their present names are; but all this they could find
out through a study of Russian history. This history is not only of use
to us Russians, but also to the whole learned world, in order that by
it the fables and lies invented by our enemies, the Poles and others,
for the sake of disparaging our ancestors, may be laid bare and
contradicted.
Such is the usefulness of history. But everybody ought to know,
and this is easily perceived, that history describes not only customs,
deeds and occurrences, but also the consequences resulting from
them, namely, that the wise, just, kind, brave, constant and faithful
are rewarded with honour, glory and well-being, while the vicious,
foolish, evildoers, avaricious, cowardly, perverse and faithless will
gain eternal dishonour, shame and insult: from which all may learn
how desirable it is to obtain the first and avoid the second.
Prince Antiókh (Antiochus) Kantemír. (1708-
1744.)
Antiókh Kantemír was not a Russian by birth. His father,
Demetrius, had for a number of years been hospodar of
Moldavia. Harassed by the intrigues of a rival at
Constantinople, he emigrated with four thousand of his
Moldavians to Russia, where he arrived after the unfortunate
Prut expedition, in 1711. Himself one of the most
accomplished scholars and linguists of Europe, he with the
aid of his cultivated Greek wife bestowed the minutest care on
the education of his six children.
Having arrived in Russia in his third year, Antiókh acquired
Russian as his mother tongue, though he also spoke fluently
six or seven other languages, and was well versed in Latin
and ancient Greek. By education, however, he was anything
but a Russian, and his sympathies were naturally directed
towards the most extreme reformatory tendencies which
Peter the Great advocated for the State and Feofán
Prokopóvich for the Church; both of them were not slow in
recognising his unusual talents. In 1732 Empress Anna
appointed him ambassador to the Court of St. James, and in
1738 he was transferred to Paris, where he passed his short
life in communion with Maupertuis, Montesquieu, Abbé
Guasco, and others. Besides a few shorter poems and
imitations and translations of Anacreon, and an unfinished
ode on the death of Peter the Great, Kantemír composed ten
satires, of which the one below is the first. It is on these
satires that his reputation mainly rests. In style, they are
imitations of Boileau and Horace, though never slavish. His
language is not always free from Gallicisms, but otherwise it
represents the first successful attempt to introduce colloquial
Russian into poetry. The chief value of the satires,
independently of their literary perfection, lay in their powerful

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China in Symbolic Communication 1st

Edition Sui Yan

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Sui Yan is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Commu-

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by

The Patterns of Symbolic Communication

China in Symbolic Communication

History of Chinese Journalism and Communication

Typeset in Times New Roman

1 The metalanguage’s mechanism of communicating

2 The semantic multiplicity of symbolic signification:

3 The selectivity of symbolic signifiers: the root cause of the

4 The metalanguage’s mechanism of communicating the whole

5 The mechanism of synergic communication between two

6 The “APEC blue”: the transmutation of symbols from mass

7 The characteristics of strong symbols and their power of

1.1 A Symbolic Signification Diagram of Corporate Identity 6

Preface to the English edition

What is meant by metalanguage? Metalanguage is filled with tricks of “uttering”

1.1.1 Corporate identity: existence and non-existence

1.1.2 Symbols as basic media in human cognition of corporate identity

E: Expression Plane, Objective Facts R C: Content Plane, Subjective Judgment

E1 A certain Haier employee R1 “Very professional” C1

E2 A certain service R2 “Excellent service” C2

E3 A certain news report R3 “Good” or “not so good” C3

Figure 1.1 A Symbolic Signification Diagram of Corporate Identity

1.1.3 Corporate symbols as basic media for communicating

1.2 Corporate image presented in a fragmentary manner

1.2.1 Fragmented visual identity: outward appearances of products,

Figure 1.2 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Quanjude’s VI

Figure 1.3 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of McDonald’s VI

1.2.2 Fragmented MI – a story (an anecdote) and a concept

Figure 1.4 The Communication Mechanism of Connotative Signification about Haier

1.2.3 Fragmented behavior identity – a person and a service

Figure 1.5 The Connotative Communication Mechanism of Haidilao’s Service Image

1.3 The openness and instability of corporate image

1.3.1 Evolution of corporate symbol’s system of signifiers –

1.3.2 Corporate image is dynamic and subject to change

1.4 To make generalizations based on particulars via

1.4.1 Corporate image communication follows the progression

FROM THE CHAPTER “ON THE PEASANTRY”

Much might be added to the protection of the peasantry if their

FROM “THE SPIRITUAL REGLEMENT”

FUNERAL SERMON ON PETER THE GREAT

What is this, and what have we lived to see, O Russians? What

[126] There are fourteen rank distinctions, called “chins,” in

FROM THE “RUSSIAN HISTORY”

One ought not to discuss the usefulness of history, for everybody

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