There are two kinds of TV stations on mainland China – Chinese Central Television (CCTV) channels of which there are easily a dozen, and all of the others. For most of the day, there is not much difference between them; CCTV stations tend to specialize in something like movies, peking opera, or documentaries, while the other stations are more likely to have soap operas and game shows. Except, for half an hour between seven and seven thirty pm, every channel shows CCTV 1 news – every channel except CCTV channels.
The news itself I cannot give a detailed account of. Aside from a few names, like Hu Jintao, and a few common words like afternoon (xiawu) and work (gongzuo) and CCTV, I can't understand the commentary. What I can understand is the imagery. Lots of flags, political figures busily at work*, and a large sickle and hammer figure prominently on the screen. Ballet dancers perform in the United States, while singers do a translated Mama Mia for a Chinese audience. On the local news show, African children sing in Chinese. Children compete on the local news station on 'red' contests, doing various communist related activities, like racing to pick up apples. Aside from this very patriotic half an hour (an hour if you count the local news) this channel will show a romantic drama taking place during the Han Dynasty**, and a dating game show***. Commercials will sell makeup and moisturizer. A soccer team whose goalie appears to be a frail classical beauty, will pass around Snickers bars and the beauty will turn into a young man who is no longer hungry. Babies will wear disposable diapers, and cell phones will play one's favorite music. A hansom father takes his son to KFC for dinner while mom is out of town. A young woman chews a piece of Winterfresh gum her father gave her, and magically is transported back home to visit. I have picked mostly American brands to talk about in order that my American readers will quickly be able to imagine the advertising landscape, but Chinese brands also have very similar commercials.
A great deal can be learned about people and their perceptions by looking at media and advertisements. My father taught me this in high school with subway billboards. It was latter emphasized by Professor Paul Scott at Kansai Gaidai when he would show and discus films in political science classes, both fiction and documentary. Rob LaFleur at Beloit put it the most articulately: “the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.”
China seems to be telling itself two very different stories. There is a story about socialist ideals that are genuinely valued and respected. It includes things like technological development and cultural and global respect. But there is a much newer, sleeker story that, though it does not contradict, has a very different tone. It is a story that does not quite match the outside world in Kaifeng, but is being beamed into ever person's television set. And in the outside world stores, new city policies, the use of decorative English on every kind of product, move reality closer to that sleeker image every day. It is one thing to read about this in the newspaper or for class. Here it is really happening right in front of my eyes in front of my TV screen.
I can really only describe this by using an anecdote. Two years ago I visited a friend who's parents live just outside Jinan in Shandong province. One day we were watching a television program dramatizing Mao Zedong's battle with the Guomindang (KMT)**** for control of China and the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Without warning or pause, as is quite common, the show cut to a commercial.
*date 10/17/11 TV showing politiburo.
**MeiRenShinJi was for a while my favorite show to watch. I learned how to say 'shut up' (zhukou), your royal highness to the queen mother (taihouniania), and what to say when you are about to be killed or if another man is with your lover (buyao, literally 'do not want'). It also was a good thing to chat about with other girls my age.
***My father has informed me that according the the New York Times, these dating game shows are a governmental concern because they do not promote approved social values. But they are everywhere on the dial, and I've had a large number of people ask me if I've watched them.
****There are two romanization systems for Chinese. One of them, Pinyin, was developed by The People's Republic of China. The other, Wade-Giles, is still used by Taiwan and other areas. Using Wade-Giles, Guomindang is Kuomintang. Using pinyin, Kuomintang is Guomindang. One of them is showing up as a spelling error on my computer, but both are in my Apple Dictionary application.
Afterward: In a conversation that is referenced in my post about the Nanjing Massacre memorial, William and I talked about the time it takes to process the ideas that form around what one sees when one travels. This is one of the contrasts I've noticed when I did my post about our different blogs – different people wait different periods after an event, and post with different frequency. This post was originally started in October during a week when I was sick. I wish I could say the fact I hadn't worked on it since then was intentional, but I kept meaning to go back to it and edit it and finnish it, but I didn't until now.
Also, bonus points to anyone who can spot the B-52s reference in the title.
No comments:
Post a Comment