TELEVISING CHINESENESS

When it comes to gender-based expectations, Chinese TV audiences are increasingly flexible: quasi-homoerotic “Danmei” TV shows and foreign series with sympathetic female rebel characters are watched by billions. But at the same time, producers and screenwriters rely on conservative templates: TV stations have been discouraged from platforming “sissy” men, while the ideal Chinese heroine seems to be one who becomes a good mother or wife. Here, Professor Geng Song of the University of Hong Kong tries to plug an important research gap: Drawing on extensive interviews with Chinese audiences from a wide variety of backgrounds,Televising Chinesenessexamines how nationality and gender roles in mainstream Chinese TV have been constructed—and how they in turn construct Chinese people.