The Representation of Gender in Contemporary Chinese Television Advertising: An Analysis of Content, Meaning, and Production

This thesis examines how gender is portrayed in Chinese television commercials and how these representations reflect the social and cultural contexts of their production and the institutional practices of advertising production personnel. To date, while there have been a plethora of studies on gender representation in advertising in western contexts only limited attention has been given to Chinese advertising portrayals of gender. This study, therefore, explores particular ways in which femininity and masculinity are discursively constructed, and how this process, in turn, contributes to reinforcing and/or challenging certain gender ideologies, in particular those found in Chinese Confucian culture. The study is unique in its approach to Chinese television advertising in that it combines methods from textual analysis (quantitative content analysis, semiotic analysis and critical discourse analysis) and empirical research (interview). A sample of 679 television commercials was collected and analysed in this investigation. Content analysis was initially applied to identify recurrent patterns and characteristics of gender representation which, in turn, formed the basis for in-depth semiotic and discourse analysis. Specific signs, images, codes, discourses and myths were subsequently discussed. The study also included semi-structured interviews with 26 Chinese advertising personnel in order to understand their multiple dispositions toward gender and their actual experiences of depicting female and male characters in the creative process. Several main findings emerged from this study. The portrayal of gender in Chinese television commercials is complex because it embodies a series of simultaneously conflicting and complementary discourses on what constitute femininity and masculinity. The results of the content analysis revealed that the representation of gender in this study’s sample still remains stereotypical in terms of the different distribution of the sexes across product category, role, dress, age, credibility and voice-over. By focusing on the constructs of gender in domestic, occupational and recreational contexts, the use of semiotic and discourse analysis revealed that Chinese television advertising not only portrays women and men in line with the significant aspects embedded in both Chinese and western patriarchal traditions, but is also constitutive of cultural shifts in gender ideologies through highlighting modern (western) values. In addition, the interview findings yielded support for the conclusions of textual analysis, demonstrating that the process of advertising production is significantly influenced by traditional and modern gender values, the restriction of advertising regulations, client expectations, and the professionals’ divergent perceptions of gender and their assumptions about the audience

What Powered the Optical Transient AT2017gfo Associated with GW170817?

The groundbreaking discovery of the optical transient AT2017gfo associated with GW170817 opens a unique opportunity to study the physics of double neutron star (NS) mergers. We argue that the standard interpretation of AT2017gfo as being powered by radioactive decay of r-process elements faces the challenge of simultaneously accounting for the peak luminosity and peak time of the event, as it is not easy to achieve the required high mass, and especially the low opacity of the ejecta required to fit the data. A plausible solution would be to invoke an additional energy source, which is probably provided by the merger product. We consider energy injection from two types of the merger products: (1) a post-merger black hole powered by fallback accretion; and (2) a long-lived NS remnant. The former case can only account for the early emission of AT2017gfo, with the late emission still powered by radioactive decay. In the latter case, both early- and late-emission components can be well interpreted as due to energy injection from a spinning-down NS, with the required mass and opacity of the ejecta components well consistent with known numerical simulation results. We suggest that there is a strong indication that the merger product of GW170817 is a long-lived (supramassive or even permanently stable), low magnetic field NS. The result provides a stringent constraint on the equations of state of NSs

Phase Transition of Finite Size Quark Droplets with Isospin Chemical Potential in the Nanbu--Jona-Lasinio Model

Making use of the NJL model and the multiple reflection expansion pproximation, we study the phase transition of the finite size droplet with u and d quarks. We find that the dynamical masses of u, d quarks are different, and the chiral symmetry can be restored at different critical radii for u, d quark. It rovides a clue to understand the effective nucleon mass splitting in nuclear matter. Meanwhile, it shows that the maximal isospin chemical potential at zero temperature is much smaller than the mass of pion in free space.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Physical Review

Three-dimensional super-resolution correlation-differential confocal microscopy with nanometer axial focusing accuracy

We present a correlation-differential confocal microscopy (CDCM), a novel method that can simultaneously improve the three-dimensional spatial resolution and axial focusing accuracy of confocal microscopy (CM). CDCM divides the CM imaging light path into two paths, where the detectors are before and after the focus with an equal axial offset in opposite directions. Then, the light intensity signals received from the two paths are processed by the correlation product and differential subtraction to improve the CM spatial resolution and axial focusing accuracy, respectively. Theoretical analyses and preliminary experiments indicate that, for the excitation wavelength of λ = 405 nm, numerical aperture of NA = 0.95, and the normalized axial offset of uM = 5.21, the CDCM resolution is improved by more than 20% and more than 30% in the lateral and axial directions, respectively, compared with that of the CM. Also, the axial focusing resolution important for the imaging of sample surface profiles is improved to 1 nm