Transnational circulation of Chinese language television dramas

Abstract

In the late 1990s, a wave of dynasty drama serials began to dominate primetime dramatic programming in People's Republic of China (PRC) television, which soon created a viewing frenzy among Chinese audiences around the world. Together with Taiwan's idol drama and Hong Kong's martial arts sagas and contemporary social mobility dramas, by the early 2000s, PRC's dynasty drama had saturated a pan-Chinese media market. Using transnational dramas from the three Chinese language media production centers as a springboard, this article explores two issues concerning the global circulation of Chinese language television dramas: the forces conducive to their transnational circulation and its cultural and economic impact. It utilizes the framework of the `cultural-linguistic market' to analyze the factors enabling the formation of a Chinese cultural-linguistic media and the products viable for the market. It further entertains the question of how the emergence of a Chinese cultural-linguistic market, together with other cultural-linguistic markets, complicates the power dynamic of global cultural flow.