Mainstream Culture Refocused: Television Drama, Society, and the Production of Meaning in Reform-Era China

233 Pages·2010·2.41 MB·English

by  Zhong Xueping

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Mainstream Culture Refocused

Mainstream Culture
Refocused
Television Drama, Society, and the Production
of Meaning in Reform-Era China
Zhong XuEPing
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
© 2010 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhong, Xueping.
Mainstream culture refocused : television drama, society, and the
production of meaning in reform-era China / Zhong Xueping.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3417-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8248-3469-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Television plays, Chinese—History and criticism. 2. Television—
Social aspects—China. 3. Popular culture—China. I. Title.
PL2368.T44Z46 2010
791.45'70951—dc22
2010010583
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by University of Hawai‘i Press production staff
Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
To the memory of
Charles Nelson (1925–2008):
mentor and friend

Contents
ix Acknowledgments
IntroduCtIon
1 Mainstream Culture Refocused: Toward an Understanding
of Chinese Television Drama
Chapter one
28 Looking through the Negatives: Filmic-Televisual
Intertextuality and Ideological Renegotiations
Chapter two
47 Re-collecting “History” on Television: “Emperor
Dramas,” National Identity, and the Question
of Historical Consciousness
Chapter three
73 In Whose Name? “Anticorruption Dramas” and Their
Ideological Implications
Chapter Four
97 Beyond Romance: “Youth Drama,” Social Change, and
the Postrevolution Search for Idealism
Chapter FIve
123 Also beyond Romance: Women, Desire, and the Ideology
of Happiness in “Family-Marriage Drama”
Chapter SIx
144 Listening to Popular Poetics: Watching Songs Composed
for Television Dramas
viii : ContentS
162 Epilogue: Intellectuals, Mainstream Culture,
and Social Transformation
165 Notes
193 Glossary
197 Filmography
201 Bibliography
215 Index
acknowledgments
The idea of writing a book on Chinese television drama began to take root in
the year 2000, when a Chinese-television-related conference was held at Tufts
University. I thank a former colleague, Wang Qingping, for proposing and orga-
nizing the conference. I would also like to thank my colleagues, especially Vida
Johnson and Christiane Romero, of the Department of German, Russian, and
Asian Languages and Literatures of Tufts University for making the conference
possible and for actively participating in welcoming the Chinese delegation at
the conference.
I am also grateful to my colleague Mingquan Wang for his untiring willing-
ness to help me troubleshoot computer-related problems.
An American Council of Learned Societies research grant as well as a sum-
mer faculty research grant and other research grants from Tufts University
made it possible for me to make several trips to China. Invited talks and presen-
tations were good opportunities for me to flesh out ideas and questions about
how to approach what proved to be a challenging project. I thank Yomi Braester
for inviting me to a conference on visuality at the University of Washington,
Hong Zhang for asking me to give a talk on the phenomenon of Chinese televi-
sion drama at Colby College, Zhang Zhen for having me give a talk on “history
drama” at New York University, Chris Berry for inviting me to join a panel at
the Association for Asian Studies on Chinese television drama, Paul Festa for
the opportunity to present the chapter on television songs at a workshop on
popular culture in Asia at Harvard University, and Wang Ban and Ching Kwan
Lee for inviting me to present the chapter on anticorruption drama at a confer-
ence held at University of Michigan.
Many colleagues and friends have been, in various ways, inspirational over
the years in confirming the importance of this project. Thanks are therefore
due to Cai Rong, Cao Tianyu, Chen Huifen, Claire Conceison, Huang Zhen,
Haiyan Lee, Lin Chun, Liao Kebin, Lu Yan, Wang Ban, and Ye Weili. I must
also thank the two anonymous readers of the manuscript for this book for their
constructive comments and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to Pamela