The Making of New Middle-Class, Independent, Cosmopolitan Subjects in Taiwan’s Public Service Children’s Travel TV

Abstract

<p>本研究對臺灣公共電視《下課花路米》的旅遊實境節目〈小小背包客〉裡的兒少旅人影像進行批判論述分析，檢視臺灣公視的主體建構論述。本研究指出，〈小小背包客〉的影像所建構的當代臺灣兒少主體，構連新自由主義全球化下臺灣公視和新中產階級家庭的教養與教育意識形態。這些移動的小小旅人影像，企圖創造更加個體化、個人主義和獨立自主的主體：在旅遊中學習能力並實踐「全心投入的世界人」（dedicated cosmopolitanism）。相較於2010年代的中國大陸與2000年代臺灣實境節目強調傳統家長主義與新自由主義進取自我，〈小小背包客〉鼓勵更加西化的、民主平等的大人與小孩關係，並淡化競爭性個人主義。</p> <p> </p><p>This article examines the discourses of subject-making in Taiwan’s Public TV Service (PTS) via a critical discourse analysis of images of child tourists who travel internationally as tour guides in Little Backpackers (小小背包客系列, PTS, 2018-2021), a reality-based travel series in PTS’s children’s TV Show Follow Me Go! (下課花路米, PTS, 2001-2021). The article approaches the images of the traveling children as a discursive construction of contemporary Taiwanese children’s subjects articulating the parenting and educating ideology of the PTS and Taiwan’s new middle-class families in the era of neoliberal globalization. The little tourists’ mobility functions to create more individualized, individualistic, and independent subjectivities. They learn skills when traveling and practice dedicated cosmopolitanism. In contrast to commercial reality TV shows in the 2010s’ China and 2000s’ Taiwan that emphasize traditional paternalism and neoliberal enterprising self, the Little Backpackers promotes more Westernized democratic relations between adults and children, while downplaying competitive individualism.</p> <p> </p>