Xueping Zhong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834173
- eISBN:
- 9780824870010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834173.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter examines the rise of Chinese dramas about dynastic emperors. These dramas have become an important subcategory of “history drama” on television. It argues that emperor dramas and ...
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This chapter examines the rise of Chinese dramas about dynastic emperors. These dramas have become an important subcategory of “history drama” on television. It argues that emperor dramas and critical responses to them reflect the changing and contradictory nature of contemporary Chinese mainstream culture, especially of its uncertainty about how to reaffirm China’s own historical agency, fully acknowledge its own historical choices, and examine their successes and failures without subscribing to either a postmodern nihilistic cynicism or a simple-minded nationalism. At the same time, emperor dramas, their popular reception, the debates about them, and various other related intellectual concerns continue to constitute the complexity of and agency within mainstream culture. In this sense, the emperor dramas, like the other subgenres studied in this book, function as “open-ended” texts that invite both cultural and historical readings not only into the texts themselves, but also into the social, economic, cultural, and political realities of market-reform-era China.Less
This chapter examines the rise of Chinese dramas about dynastic emperors. These dramas have become an important subcategory of “history drama” on television. It argues that emperor dramas and critical responses to them reflect the changing and contradictory nature of contemporary Chinese mainstream culture, especially of its uncertainty about how to reaffirm China’s own historical agency, fully acknowledge its own historical choices, and examine their successes and failures without subscribing to either a postmodern nihilistic cynicism or a simple-minded nationalism. At the same time, emperor dramas, their popular reception, the debates about them, and various other related intellectual concerns continue to constitute the complexity of and agency within mainstream culture. In this sense, the emperor dramas, like the other subgenres studied in this book, function as “open-ended” texts that invite both cultural and historical readings not only into the texts themselves, but also into the social, economic, cultural, and political realities of market-reform-era China.
Robin Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719073106
- eISBN:
- 9781781701119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719073106.003.0017
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Taking a retrospective, long view of television-drama history, it appears that programmes which have been perceived to be of exceptional quality, canonical even, have typically emerged under ...
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Taking a retrospective, long view of television-drama history, it appears that programmes which have been perceived to be of exceptional quality, canonical even, have typically emerged under circumstances in which the ‘creatives’ have had either exceptional control over the production process or an unusual level of commitment to it. This chapter sketches the political economy of TV3 bringing out, by stark comparison with the circumstances of TVI a changed approach to marketing and products. The account shows how, in the context of the postmodern economy and extended development of digital technologies, horizontally and vertically integrated media conglomerates have risen to dominance. National media companies and institutions have needed to respond, typically by means of commercial growth and merger. National regulatory bodies have been obliged to deregulate to reposition home industries and facilitate change but may need to continue to steer through regulation to ensure the maintenance of diversity and to meet local needs.Less
Taking a retrospective, long view of television-drama history, it appears that programmes which have been perceived to be of exceptional quality, canonical even, have typically emerged under circumstances in which the ‘creatives’ have had either exceptional control over the production process or an unusual level of commitment to it. This chapter sketches the political economy of TV3 bringing out, by stark comparison with the circumstances of TVI a changed approach to marketing and products. The account shows how, in the context of the postmodern economy and extended development of digital technologies, horizontally and vertically integrated media conglomerates have risen to dominance. National media companies and institutions have needed to respond, typically by means of commercial growth and merger. National regulatory bodies have been obliged to deregulate to reposition home industries and facilitate change but may need to continue to steer through regulation to ensure the maintenance of diversity and to meet local needs.
Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are ...
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This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are noted. It was written originally for the puppets and first performed on the twenty-eighth day of the First (lunar) Month of 1771 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka. Today, the play is occasionally mounted in all or most of its five acts with their numerous scenes, but it is best known for the often performed scene known simply as “The Mountains” (Yama No Dan) that concludes act 3.Less
This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are noted. It was written originally for the puppets and first performed on the twenty-eighth day of the First (lunar) Month of 1771 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka. Today, the play is occasionally mounted in all or most of its five acts with their numerous scenes, but it is best known for the often performed scene known simply as “The Mountains” (Yama No Dan) that concludes act 3.
