Brand-new lifestyle: consumer-oriented programmes on Chinese television

Abstract

This article studies the growth of the consumer-oriented genre in Chinese television and examines the role of television in the construction of new class identities. The author discusses three kinds of programmes of this genre — market trend guides, `scam warning' reports, and skill-focused lifestyle programmes, providing case studies for each type. These developments indicate that television is playing an important role in the dynamics of class stratification in China through the creation of new cultural capital and the segmentation of audiences along socioeconomic lines. Although television has always been a part of the effort in building a homogenized national culture in China's modernization process, it is now contributing to the formation of class subjectivities and reinforcing the increasingly visible class divisions in society.