Soft Drinks and Liquor

Home Up A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization

 

In the advertisement for Coca Cola to the right, the name "Coca Cola" was translated into four Chinese characters that sound similar and mean "delicious and fun."

Compare this image with the BAT cigarette calendar [shown below in this Teacher's Guide]. 

What might account for the change in dress and pose?

 

 

 

 

 

 
Coca Cola poster from the 1920s
SOURCE:  Yi Bin et. al., Lao Shanghai guanggao (Shanghai: Shanghai huabao she, 1995), p. 72.

 

Advertisement calendar for BAT 
Ng Chun Bong, Cheuk Pak Tong, et al., comps., Chinese Women and Modernity: Calendar Posters of the 1910s to 1930s (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1996), pl. 1.

To the left is an advertisement for Grande, Price, & Co. from 1934.

According to a 1930 article in the magazine The Modern Lady, it is improper for a lady to sit with her legs crossed.  

Look carefully at the picture. 

What are some other signs of "un-ladylike" behavior?  How can we tell she is not alone?

 

ANSWER:  There are two glasses.

 

 

 

Poster advertising liquor

SOURCE:  Yi Bin et. al., Lao Shanghai guanggao (Shanghai: Shanghai huabao she, 1995), p. 90.

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