Signs & Media

The bilingual journalSigns & Media has been published for nine years, and the new English version adheres to its successful model of the last ten years and continues to publish on the following fields:

Semiotic thinking in Chinese philosophy, especially on the Namists, Moists, Daoists, Confucianists in the Pre-Imperial China, on the Yin-Yang School of the Han Dynasty, on theVijñāptimātratā Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, on the Mentalists of Song & Ming Dynasties, and on Zen Buddhism in the last thousand years.

Semiotics and media pragmatics today. The journal emphasizes on such important social practices as fandom, cosmetics, body-building, culinary art, computer games, juvenile hobbies, affordable luxury, ScreenPage and handheld terminals, eco-conscious commodities and everyday life in the digital age.

The journal has been making special efforts in turning semiotics and media studies into subjects of philosophical speculations, so that they could shake off the stereotype of “tool-kit” for human sciences. A series of debates have been organized on the relations between Saussurean heritage and Peircean tradition, between semiotics and Husserlian phenomenology, between semiotics and Marxist cultural critique, between semiotics and cognitive theories, and on the code-transmutation of meta-signs. We shall persist those serious debates on all issues that bear significance to the life of meaning in today’s world.

The Journal, established in 2008 by Prof. Henry Yiheng Zhao（赵毅衡）, started as and still is today a half-yearly, bi-lingual academic journal concentrating on semiotic and media studies. The journal has won high reputation among Chinese and western readers. Since 2017 it has been indexed by CSSCI, and its citation rate ranks No. 1 among Chinese journals in communication studies. Now we are trying to revamp the journal into two versions: a purely Chinese publication published and distributed in mainland China, and a purely English publication published and distributed internationally, so that it could win global influence.

The journaltargets atpost-doctoral students andscholars ofsemiotics, linguistics, narratology, media studies, and may especially appeal to those who are interested in Chinese philosophy, Chinese cultural studies today and Chinese perspectives on the new media.

The articles of the journal have been posted on the website of ISMS (The Institute of Semiotics & Media Studies), the most influential website on semiotics in China (http://www.semiotics.net.cn/), and shared via Wechat and Microblog with the public. Its successful model of peer-review, experienced polishing, as well as its promotional activities will be followed and further developed to win international audience for the journal. It features a book review column in each issue, which introduces and makes comments on newly-published related books, and an annual report on the development of the discipline, both gaining continuing popularity among the readers.