The Visual Rhetoric Practices of Pharmaceutical Advertisements in Republican-Era Newspapers: An Examination Based on The Eastern Times (1921-1939)

Abstract

As visual historical materials reflecting socio-cultural changes, pharmaceutical advertisements in modern newspapers possess unique research value. This study focuses on the text-image pharmaceutical advertisements in The Eastern Times from 1921 to 1939. Drawing on visual rhetoric theory and adopting the constructed week sampling method, it analyzes the construction strategies of their visual discourse and their socio-cultural implications. The findings reveal that the advertisements formed a comprehensive visual persuasion system: they used metaphor and metonymy to establish perceptions of drug efficacy, framed health within an ethical domestic sphere, and drove consumption via emotional strategies. These practices also participated in shaping social conceptions, manifested in the daily translation of medical knowledge, the symbolic consumption of national identity, and the visual production of the “New Woman” image. The research demonstrates that pharmaceutical advertisements in The Eastern Times were not merely commercial vehicles but also crucial visual texts for observing the transformations in conceptions of the body, nation, and gender during the Republican era.