| In recent years, with the development and popularization of network technology, moreand more singles resort to the online dating sites to post personal advertisements, in the hopeof finding their Mr. Right or Ms. Right. Compared with traditional media, the Internet is moreconvenient and has much more potential readers.In order to realize the ultimate purpose of persuading the interested and eligible readersto contact them, the advertisers tend to manipulate the organization and contents of the textsto make their advertisements more attractive. Therefore, online dating advertisements havedeveloped their distinctive characteristics in structures and contents, which the presentresearch is intended to find out.Meanwhile, as a social activity, online dating advertising is inevitably influenced by theculture, social values and thinking patterns of the specific community. Accordingly, althoughbelonging to the same genre, Chinese and American online dating ads differ in their contentsdue to different views about mate-selecting and marriage. Therefore, the author sets out toprobe into the differences between Chinese and American online dating ads in their contents,and account for the major ones from a socio-cultural point of view.In the present research, the author conducts a cross-cultural analysis of 50 Chineseonline dating advertisements and 50 American online dating advertisements collectedrandomly from Jiayuan.com and Match.com respectively, by applying the models of moveanalysis proposed by Swales and Bhatia. It is found that the online dating advertisement is aspecial type of genre with its distinctive structure composed of seven moves altogether,among which Move 3 and Move 4 include 14 and 11 subordinate steps respectively. TheAmerican and Chinese advertisers adopt similar move structures except that Step 1 and Step14 of Move 3 are absent in the texts written by the latter. According to the frequencies of eachmove, it is concluded that in both American and Chinese ads, only Move 3 is obligatory, while the others are optional. Besides, as the most frequently applied ones, Move 3, Move 4 andMove 5 are identified to be the core moves of this genre. As for the move sequences, onlinedating ads demonstrate more diversified and complicated move patterns than traditionalprinted ones, because of more space for variation. Based on the detailed analysis of the movesand steps, some differences are detected in terms of the four groups: American females,American males, Chinese females and Chinese males. The author investigates the underlyingfactors contributing to the major differences from three perspectives: the views aboutmarriage and family, the criteria of choosing the partner and the expectations for the rolesplayed by the male and the female in a relationship.The present research is intended to extend the application of move analysis approach tomore diversified genres apart from research papers and commercial advertisements. Besides,the findings of the present study are aimed at providing some valuable information of today’sgenerations’views about mate-selecting and marriage, and helping us gain an insight into thedifferences between Chinese and American cultures, thus facilitating cross-culturalcommunication. Moreover, the present exploration in the field of genre analysis is hoped to beof some implications for reading and writing instruction in ESL classroom. |
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