Ford F150 amongst Geopolitical tension between China and America
“America’s Truck — Built Ford Tough” Featuring a two-tone 1983 ford F150 on top of a mountain of logs, this advertisement appeals to American buyers by showcasing the truck’s ability to conquer a challenging terrain due to the instability nature of the logs. This instability directly speaks to what American’s view of their surrounding: treacherous and unreliable. Hsu argues the American society is built on a premise that people must be self-reliant and outperform others, therefore the “rugged individualist is driven to treat all other human beings as things to be manipulated, coerced or eliminated if they happen to get in the way of his forward march” (Hirschman 2003). Therefore, in this individualistic mindset, the other human beings became obstacles while the lifeless objects: cars and guns (except for dogs) became his only companion to march forward. Not only does the utilitarian side of the ford F150 excel in this aspect, but the owner is even happier when they see the many cultural emphases specific to America in details such as gun rack option on the rear window and American Flag shaped into the center console.
However, the truck tells a different story across the Pacific Ocean. Introduced into the Chinese gray market starting in the 2012 model year, the truck starts at an eye-popping $50000 premium over the American model. Despite the ridiculously high price tag, the truck appeals to many nouveau riche Chinese buyers due to the rising individualism from decades of a top-down American obsession.
Most cultural policies have delayed effects, and this obsession is no exception. 10 years after Carter and Deng agreed on cultural exchange (1979), the elites in the CCP started to exhibit a singular interest in America by funding western theories and specifically, America’s international relations. In doing so, the scholars identified America’s bottom line, not as material interests but American values, and many are convinced “America will always view non-democratic states as ‘outsiders’ and potential threats to the liberal order, no matter how deep pragmatic day-to-day engagement may become” (Lee 2010). The incompatible fundamental values create a sense of fear among the Chinese elites and completely disproves the theory of the peaceful transition from hegemonic US power to many equally great nations. Therefore, the Chinese political elite opted to portray the US as favorable domestically to avoid igniting the fuse of full-on Sino-America cold war, instead, they focused on improving the economy and infrastructures.
In the process of superlative rates of economic growth, the elite in China had outpaced the average, achieving the salary level of the global elite, leaving huge wealth gaps not compatible with socialism. In fact, the elite “uses their international exposure, … to reinforce their high status” (Paul 2021). To put it in another way, the Chinese elites want to be seen as the global elite, not only economically, but showing the quality or ideology of the global elite as well. The most obvious difference is the individualism among the global elites. Naturally, many viewed the United States as the “beacon of liberal democracy” and a “shining city upon a hill,” (Li 2021). The state got an American frenzy: English replaced Russian as the foreign language, and college students rush to watch the Batman and Terminator. In this cultural assimilation, individualism rise to the top and people adopted the value “legitimization of desire” showcasing self-interest rather than suppressing one’s voice for group harmony (Li 2019). In other words, it means downplaying the traditional Chinese value of humbleness and screaming “I am different!” and not worrying about offending others. Therefore, a huge American pickup truck is perfect due to its road essence. The tremendous size of the truck simply pushes some small cars to make way for it, and the weight of the truck ensures the owner’s safety if they crash on smaller cars. While a black Mercedes sedan isn’t exactly humble, many new elites prefer this outspoken king-of-the-road presence of the road-hogging truck. Although remember, this is due to the non-existent luxury pickup truck segment in China. An elite in America who wants to appeal to individualistic values would not do the same because pickup trucks are prevalent in America.
However, despite the success of the Ford F150 among the elites, it could not expand toward a larger consumer base in China due to one identity: It’s made in America. After the Trump administration turned up the dial on China-bashing by claiming Beijing is “weaponizing” Chinese students enrolled in the US; Employing phrases such as “Chinese virus” and other Sinophobia terms; as well as insulting the Chinese cultural heritage, the people quickly turned around on their favorable views of America. No matter how much Chinese people fancied American values and the American lifestyle, the patriotic value still prevails by a large margin if entered in a head-to-head competition. The U.S. — China Trade Tracker’s study shows the “unfavourability of U.S. companies amongst the surveyed Chinese consumers” reached 42 percent and 41 percent claimed, “to have veered away from US products on account of tariff increases” (Jingdaily, 2019). This value of unfavourability is significant because it is only third to Chinese sentiment toward geopolitical rivalry: Japan (43 percent) and South Korea (47 percent), which shows the devastating effect on America’s premiere image in China following Washington’s hawkish stance. By deeming the century-old cultural exchange program worthless and randomly insulting the self-esteem of many young Chinese, Washington alienates those who previously acted as the major proponent of Americanization in China. As a result, the previous chic of Americanization is no longer acceptable. However, due to the long period of cultural exchange, although the sign of Americanization must be gone, the actual values such as individualism are here to stay. They simply would change names.
Such is the case of the Great Wall Cannon pickup. Emphasizing its rugged ability, the advertisement positions the pickup next to Mount Everest. This is similar to the ford advertisement’s setting of a log cutting scene. Even the slogan of helping the national climbing team measure the height of mount Everest resembles Ford’s “get to the top” emphasis. While the ford advertisement appeals by expressing the American value of rugged work, the Great Wall brings out Chinese national pride in the highest mountain in the world.
Therefore, we can clearly see in the advertisement language as well as from the general appearance of the Great Wall Cannon, it definitely carries some American Full-size pickup vibe. Despite the nationalism cover, it is an Americanized vehicle. Yet it quickly became the number one seller in the pickup segment, racking up 200,000 sales within the first few months, opening up the new segment to many Chinese families. Due to the geopolitical tensions, the Chinese consumers turn away as soon as they heard something is made in America, yet they don’t even realize the hottest cake on the Chinese pickup market screams traditional American values.
Work Cited
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. “Men, dogs, guns, and cars: The semiotics of rugged individualism.” Journal of Advertising, vol. 32, no. 1, spring 2003, pp. 9+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A100727911/GPS?u=usocal_main&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d888b4a0. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.
Lee, John. “An Exceptional Obsession — the American Interest.” The American Interest, May 2010, www.the-american-interest.com/2010/05/01/an-exceptional-obsession/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.
Li, Cheng. “How Washington’s Hawkish China Policy Alienates Young Chinese.” Brookings, Brookings, 4 Nov. 2021, www.brookings.edu/opinions/how-washingtons-hawkish-china-policy-alienates-young-chinese/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.
Segal, Paul. “Inequality and the Chinese Elite: Between International Convergence and National Divergence.” The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 72, no. 3, 10 May 2021, pp. 531–542, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468–4446.12851, 10.1111/1468–4446.12851. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.
Shuhao, Li. “The Rise of Individualism among Chinese Youth: A Conversation with Yan Yunxiang.” US-China Today, 2019, uschinatoday.org/qa/2019/01/22/questions-about-the-rise-of-individualism-among-chinese-youth-in-the-post-mao-era-qa-with-dr-yan-yunxiang/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.
“Will Anti-American Sentiment from the Trade War Hurt Luxury Brands?” Jing Daily, 27 June 2019, jingdaily.com/anti-american-sentiment/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.
