Abstract
While it is relatively easy to be suspicious of the quality of state-controlled television programming in China, there is still much to be said about how it responds to historical and ideological contexts at the local to the global level. This provides the framework of Lauren Gorfinkel’s succinct, informative and accessible book Chinese Television and National Identity Construction which focuses on popular music-entertainment programming and opens up the topic of identity politics in Mainland China and beyond.
In her introduction, Gorfinkel lays the historical groundwork for understanding the cultural politics and the construction of Chinese identity under the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by focusing on three frames of reference: multi-ethnic China, Greater China and civilisational China. Geographically driven and conceptualised as concentric circles, multi-ethnic China refers to the PRC’s official recognition of 56 nationalities within the Mainland; Greater China extends to the two Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Taiwan; and civilisational China examines citizens of other nations who nevertheless have demonstrated their attraction to Chinese culture with their active participation in music-entertainment programmes. The underlying link between each frame of reference is the PRC’s continued effort to maintain a unified vision of Chinese society and it is from this perspective that Gorfinkel’s study is positioned. The geographical framework, while it does not necessarily promise new insights, enables a nuanced interpretation that points to variations in control and censorship.
The book examines the following questions in relation to music-entertainment programmes: How is Chinese identity constructed? What are the roles of words, images and music in creating the sense of a unified Chinese nation? How are cultural and ‘ethnic’ others marked? Chapter two provides a historical overview of musical culture under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which facilitates an understanding of the political, commercial and artistic moments that inspired music-entertainment television. The framework of this historical analysis focuses on music-entertainment shows from 2008 to 2016. This includes the 4-year leadership under Hu Jintao’s moralistically coded ideology ‘Harmonious Society’, and the 4 years under Xi Jinping’s globally inspired format of the ‘China Dream’ that introduced shows such as The Voice, X Factor and I am a Singer to China.
Chapter three shifts from an analysis of music-entertainment under party ideology to the operational and ideological structure of television stations within China. Here, Gorfinkel aptly points out that music-entertainment television deserves more scholarly attention as ‘zongyi, (“comprehensive arts and entertainment” or “variety shows”)’ (p. 53) is one of the most popular and highly rated genres on Chinese television. This leads to a discussion of popular programmes (both the most-watched and longest-running) within the most dominant television station China Central Television (CCTV) and its competing provincial satellite stations and lower tiered channels including foreign-owned television stations in China. By drawing examples from popular shows and structuring the book’s organisation around television stations, Gorfinkel identifies the politics surrounding CCTV’s favoured status by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) and the unfair advantage it has in the market. This is best articulated in the example of the hugely popular singing contest Super Girl which aired on Hunan Satellite Television but was affected by SAPPRFT’s oscillating regulations which led to its eventual cancellation.
Chapter four provides the closest textual analysis by considering three main styles of multi-ethnic Chinese folk music: hardened or orthodox national, softer yuanshengtai (‘original ecology’ or primitive) and ethno-pop. This chapter serves to highlight the significant use of the colour red in performances, the formation of dancers and the camera’s framing of various ethnicities in the government’s sustained efforts to ‘spread the message of a multi-ethnic unity and support for the nation under the CCP’ (p. 91). The close textual analysis of specific programmes helps to demonstrate how the CCP’s cultural power responds to satellite television stations, to minority culture, to political irony and to cross-cultural and linguistic difference. It raises interesting points regarding the limitations posed by the CCP’s oversight, the inconsistencies in its drive to assert political ideology and the self-censorship which has emerged from this kind of controlled regulatory system.
Greater China is the focus of chapter five and illustrates a trend in the government’s efforts to ‘construct a sense of solidarity’ (p. 122) through popular music and culture. Here, carefully chosen singers become messengers for an ideological drive for unity and positive relations between Mainland China and Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Taiwan and for ethnic Chinese populations further abroad. Recognising how music plays a pivotal role in the marketing of a collective consciousness, Gorfinkel provides examples of performances by Chinese pop stars and ‘ordinary’ people who have helped to create this sense of unified harmony. The focus on two or three performances enables an understanding of both the ideological intentions and the current uncertainties in the relationship between the Mainland and other East Asian locations (particularly Taiwan and Hong Kong). The analysis also shows how, in each location to which a programme travels, its aim is to project an image of a revitalised China to the Chinese public.
The final chapter is dedicated to examining how foreigners are framed within this nation-building and harmonising structure. The stage becomes the contact zone for articulating the foreigner’s fascination with learning about China’s rich culture, including its primitive folk arts. Here, exotic minorities become acceptable in an effort to show Chinese openness and diversity.
Some effort is made to include the impact of online-viewership in music-entertainment programmes but this is somewhat sparse, indicating a gap in research. At times, the analysis of CCTV draws from interviews by anonymous individuals who have worked for the state-sanctioned television station but, although this complements the study, it does not produce any more illuminating findings. This may be because this methodological approach has already been examined at length in Ying Zhu’s insider account of CCTV and its greatest competitor Hunan Satellite Television (2013). But, although it doesn’t aim to break significant new ground in Chinese television, this book is valuable for showing how an examination of songs and performance in popular culture enhances our understanding of the CCP’s most current construction of Chinese identity both in Mainland China and abroad.