Transnational Circulation of Chinese Language Television Dramas

In the late 1990s, a wave of dynasty drama serials began to dominate primetimedramatic programming in People’s Republic of China (PRC) television, whichsoon created a viewing frenzy among Chinese audiences around the world.Together with Taiwan’s idol drama and Hong Kong’s martial arts sagas andcontemporary social mobility dramas, by the early 2000s, PRC’s dynasty dramahad saturated a pan-Chinese media market. Using transnational dramas from thethree Chinese language media production centers as a springboard, this articleexplores two issues concerning the global circulation of Chinese language televisiondramas: the forces conducive to their transnational circulation and its cultural andeconomic impact. It utilizes the framework of the ‘cultural-linguistic market’ toanalyze the factors enabling the formation of a Chinese cultural-linguistic mediaand the products viable for the market. It further entertains the question of how theemergence of a Chinese cultural-linguistic market, together with other cultural-linguistic markets, complicates the power dynamic of global cultural flow.