Linguocultural parameters of the influence exercised by St. Petersburg’s image in online restaurant advertising on the Chinese linguistic identity

This article presents the results of a study on the linguistic means used to shape St. Petersburg’s image in online restaurant advertising aimed at the Chinese audience. The advertising texts were collected from the official websites of ten Chinese restaurants in St. Petersburg and analyzed by the discursive, linguocultural, and linguopragmatic methods. The analysis revealed the main linguistic strategies and tactics of shaping St. Petersburg’s image, among which the central ones are the appeal to Chinese cultural heritage and the promotion of cultural synthesis, authenticity, and exclusive gastronomic experience. All these strategies were found to be implemented through a wide range of linguistic means, including lexical units with spatial semantics, markers of the city’s settings and characteristics, and tropes. The findings suggest that the multiculturalism of St. Petersburg is reflected not only in its physical urban space but also in the virtual environment constructed through specific linguistic means, thus contributing to the development of intercultural communication theory, linguoculturology, marketing linguistics, and place branding.