An investigation of martial arts tropes in British advertising from the 1960s-1990s: issues of aesthetics and authenticity in action

Chan, Sally

An investigation of martial arts tropes in British advertising from the 1960s-1990s: issues of aesthetics and authenticity in action

Lists

Chan, Sally (2024) An investigation of martial arts tropes in British advertising from the 1960s-1990s: issues of aesthetics and authenticity in action. Doctoral thesis, University of West London.

Preview

PDF (PDF/A)
An investigation of martial arts tropes in British advertising from the 1960s-1990s_ Sally Chan_Sept 2025_accessible.pdf - Submitted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (8MB) | Preview

Official URL: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14392

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how martial arts tropes have been utilised in historical British advertising from the 1960s to the 1990s. The research identifies key themes relating to how martial arts are deployed as a creative means of promoting brands within the context of race relations in Britain. Race and media representational discourse are considered in the context of racial/colonial ideologies surrounding the Chinese in Britain, thereby extending the study to cultural production. For example, modern television commercials featuring a mixed Chinese/non-Chinese cast will be discussed in the context of cultural capitalism. As such this research also contributes to debates surrounding martial arts aesthetics as indicators of cultural authenticity and appropriation. By focusing on how this population has been depicted in film and television as a starting point for the inquiry, it is hoped that further understanding of martial arts aesthetics and authenticity in martial arts depictions or the representational commodification of martial arts will fuel interest in future research in this area.
The study utilises an interdisciplinary approach whereby ethical visual representational frameworks in advertising and martial arts aesthetics in film and television are used to understand the degree of exoticisation and exclusion of the Chinese during the period 1960s-1990s. In the case of advertising, both iconic and racialised imageries that were used to depict martial arts aesthetics have been considered as part of this study.
Through the paradigm of post-structuralist hermeneutics, and following Foucauldian ideology, I have utilised a critical visual analysis of TV and print advertisements, as well as of racial and martial arts discourse in documentaries and published media, to identify cases of martial arts tropes that either authenticate, mirror, or caricature the Chinese as ‘the Other’. These range from ‘yellow face’ with its negative connotations to ‘yellow mask’ with its nationalist Chinese references. Case studies of brands that have utilised a martial arts aesthetic, and its commodification by brands in their messages, form the basis of my analysis.
This thesis contributes to critical debates surrounding the use of martial arts representations in British advertising through its cultural and colonial history, focusing on how the Chinese as a silent minority have been mis- or un- represented or constructed in early advertising. The study also maps the use of martial arts aesthetics as a means by which cultural production and commodification are used in advertising.
The foundation of the study is discussed in this thesis, with Chapter 1 providing the rationale and aims of the study, and the contextual background to Britain’s relationship with the Far East, and thereby Chinese and martial arts portrayals on screen. Chapter 2 provides the theoretical underpinning for the study, building on critical race and media studies by focusing on concepts developed with respect to the visual representation, commodification and authentication of martial arts and recurrent tropes in advertising. Detailed methodological considerations for the study are discussed in Chapter 3 before this thesis presents a selection of case studies as evidence of advertising during the 1960s and 1970s in Chapter 4, and 1980s and 1990s in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 aligns the findings from the preceding evidence chapters to support the proposed authenticated aesthetics in advertising framework. Chapter 7 concludes the thesis with theoretical and practical implications for the advertising profession or those in the business of representational practices.