semiotics and election

Poster： Daphne Wang at 13:16:52 12/9/97 from c550-22.svdcc.fju.edu.tw
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從Semiotics看台北縣縣長選舉之宣傳
This on-line journal is about semiotics and election. During the election, every candidate would use a lot of propaganda, especially posters and flags, to impress the electorate. If we study the posters and flags they create, we will find many interesting things. Here, I will take Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), Su Chen-chang (蘇貞昌), and Chou Chuan's(周荃)propaganda for examples. I only choose these three because they come from different parties. Although Lin and Chou has left their parties; however, we can still see that they are influenced by their respective parties on their propaganda. Another reason for me to choose these three is that their propaganda uses more semiotics.
First of all, I want to introduce my interpretation about Lin's propaganda. I will start from talking about the flags he uses. When he finds that he was going to lose comparing to his opponents, he starts to use red flags with white words "搶救台北縣，搶救林志嘉" on them. The red color implies the emergent situation, and the white words on the red flags are so obvious that they can easily get people's attention. Then, I will talk about the features of Lin's posters. When we look at his posters, we can see three basic colors: red, white and blue. Red and white are used in the background; blue is the color of his suit. Among the three basic colors, blue and white are the colors of KMT's party flag. Thus, these two colors can let us associate him with his original party, KMT. Beside the three basic colors, Lin also adds several neat checks behind his kind portrait. The green checks may show his characteristics such as pure, peaceful and steady. Thus, through these apparent colors and checks, Lin makes up his style and identity.
Next, I would like to interpret Su's propaganda. He does make good use of semiotics. On Su's elective flags, he uses a special sign: a bulb with smile and light. The bulb makes us think of Su's baldhead. The smile tells us that Su is a kind person. Furthermore, the light of this bulb shows us his active and powerful characteristics. I think he uses the personalized sign successfully. In addition to the sign, Su uses a different way to present his posters from others. On his poster, we can also see his friendly portrait. However, the background of his posters is quite different from Lin's. He puts a picture of the prosperous Taipei County. It may mean that he promises to give us a bright future. He also uses green color on his posters, but I think his purpose is somewhat different from Lin's. Su uses green on the posters mostly because he belongs to 民進黨. When we see the green color, we can aptly identify him with his party.
Last, I will take the only female candidate, Chou Chuan's, propaganda as an example. On her flags and posters, there are two features. One is that she wants to show her feminine characteristics; the other is that she wants to be distinct from the New Party. I want to begin with analyzing her flags. Her flags are pretty simple. There are only two white characters, 周荃, on the red cloth. Although the design is very simple, we can read lots of information from it. First of all, the red color means luck and feminine in Chinese culture. Second, the color and simplified design can easily attract people's attention. Third, we may say that she has too limited money to make colorful flags. It may evoke people's sympathy for her. After interpreting the flags, I would like to talk about her posters. She has a very creative slogan on the poster - 孕育新台北. Because of her sex, she purposely uses the pregnant characteristic as her feature. Besides, she uses her profile, instead of the front portrait, to distinguish from other male candidates. The posters show her motherhood and feministic identity together. There is another important thing to mention that she does not put any yellow things on her propaganda. From this point, we can realize that she does not want to be related to the New Party any more.
From above brief interpretation, I want to conclude with two viewpoints. First, the candidates' propaganda is like commercials. Those candidates sell themselves as good products and want to impress electorate as well as possible. Second, although they use similar semiotics, we can have our own ways to interpret. For example, the same color on different candidates' propaganda may result in extremely different understanding.

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>> 從Semiotics看台北縣縣長選舉之宣傳

>> This on-line journal is about semiotics and election.  During the election, every candidate would use a lot of propaganda, especially posters and flags, to impress the electorate.  If we study the posters and flags they create, we will find many interesting things.  Here, I will take Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), Su Chen-chang (蘇貞昌), and Chou Chuan's(周荃)propaganda for examples.  I only choose these three because they come from different parties.  Although Lin and Chou has left their parties; however, we can still see that they are influenced by their respective parties on their propaganda.  Another reason for me to choose these three is that their propaganda uses more semiotics.

>> First of all, I want to introduce my interpretation about Lin's propaganda.  I will start from talking about the flags he uses.  When he finds that he was going to lose comparing to his opponents, he starts to use red flags with white words "搶救台北縣，搶救林志嘉" on them.  The red color implies the emergent situation, and the white words on the red flags are so obvious that they can easily get people's attention.  Then, I will talk about the features of Lin's posters.  When we look at his posters, we can see three basic colors: red, white and blue.  Red and white are used in the background; blue is the color of his suit.  Among the three basic colors, blue and white are the colors of KMT's party flag.  Thus, these two colors can let us associate him with his original party, KMT.  Beside the three basic colors, Lin also adds several neat checks behind his kind portrait.  The green checks may show his characteristics such as pure, peaceful and steady.  Thus, through these apparent colors and checks, Lin makes up his style and identity.

>> Next, I would like to interpret Su's propaganda.  He does make good use of semiotics.  On Su's elective flags, he uses a special sign: a bulb with smile and light.  The bulb makes us think of Su's baldhead.  The smile tells us that Su is a kind person.  Furthermore, the light of this bulb shows us his active and powerful characteristics.  I think he uses the personalized sign successfully.  In addition to the sign, Su uses a different way to present his posters from others.  On his poster, we can also see his friendly portrait.  However, the background of his posters is quite different from Lin's.   He puts a picture of the prosperous Taipei County.  It may mean that he promises to give us a bright future.  He also uses green color on his posters, but I think his purpose is somewhat different from Lin's.  Su uses green on the posters mostly because he belongs to 民進黨.  When we see the green color, we can aptly identify him with his party.

>> Last, I will take the only female candidate, Chou Chuan's, propaganda as an example.  On her flags and posters, there are two features.  One is that she wants to show her feminine characteristics; the other is that she wants to be distinct from the New Party.  I want to begin with analyzing her flags.  Her flags are pretty simple.  There are only two white characters, 周荃, on the red cloth.  Although the design is very simple, we can read lots of information from it.  First of all, the red color means luck and feminine in Chinese culture.  Second, the color and simplified design can easily attract people's attention.  Third, we may say that she has too limited money to make colorful flags.  It may evoke people's sympathy for her.  After interpreting the flags, I would like to talk about her posters.  She has a very creative slogan on the poster - 孕育新台北.  Because of her sex, she purposely uses the pregnant characteristic as her feature.  Besides, she uses her profile, instead of the front portrait, to distinguish from other male candidates.  The posters show her motherhood and feministic identity together.  There is another important thing to mention that she does not put any yellow things on her propaganda.  From this point, we can realize that she does not want to be related to the New Party any more.

>> From above brief interpretation, I want to conclude with two viewpoints.  First, the candidates' propaganda is like commercials.  Those candidates sell themselves as good products and want to impress electorate as well as possible.  Second, although they use similar semiotics, we can have our own ways to interpret.  For example, the same color on different candidates' propaganda may result in extremely different understanding.

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