Bilingual Advertising in Melbourne Chinatown

Abstract

This paper explores the function of bilingual advertising by analyzing a case study of bilingual advertising in the Chinatown of Melbourne, Australia. The use of bilingual advertising in an immigrant setting differentiates itself from those in Asian settings where English is not used by dominant proportion of speakers in the society, and this phenomenon has its significance from a sociolinguistic perspective. In this paper, I will adopt the concept of “linguistic landscape” to discuss in detail the general functions of bilingual advertising. By integrating the theories into my case study, I aim to demonstrate how the Chinese and English versions of bilingual advertisements in Melbourne’s Chinatown differ in literal meaning, and to explain why they are designed this way.

A Panorama of Linguistic Landscape Studies

“…As it is difficult to control, the linguistic landscape is not usually taken into consideration as part of study abroad experiences. An exception was a study by Chen (2014), who reflected on the linguistic landscape of bilingual Chinese-English advertisements in Melbourne's Chinatown, during her stay abroad as an exchange student. More recently, Lomicka and Ducate (2019) included some linguistic landscape tasks for American students on a study abroad trip to Paris and Berlin, and Maxim (2020) studied American students in Vienna (see Section 10.2.2).…”

A Study on Presuppositions in Chinese and English Advertising Slogans with Big Data Analysis

“…Therefore, Lam also demonstrated understanding the cultural differences is very essential in producing successful advertising slogan s [26] . Chen examined the function of bilingual advertising in the Chinatown of Melbourne, Australia [10] . She indicated that the Chinese versions of bilingual advertisements were often very culturally-oriented, while the English version function mainly as the introduction to present central features of the products and services.…”