Transplanting korean wave into china's reality television under the statist nationalism

Abstract

In recent years, many reality television formats have been transplanted into China and have become top-ranked shows under the influence of the Korean Wave. In order to unravel the complexity of propaganda in popular culture, this thesis focuses on analyzing China's adaptation of transnational television formats in central and private stations. I excavate how China tries to unify the nation and build the party-state's hegemonic status by way of disseminating political messages in popular media, as well as the state's governance of the influences of globalization and foreign ideas in domestic productions. I also put forth that foreign ideas conveyed in recent formats shed light on issues in China such as class and ethnicity, audiences' ambivalent reception of propagandist programs, and the exportation of China's formats. The genre of reality TV, including production and reception, discloses tension and collaboration between state and commercial TV, the local and the global, and within the Chinese community.