Enfermedades Cardiovasculares

The 1980s‟ generation is the first since 1949 to have been born and brought up, essentially, to take the market capitalist road but still under official socialist political supervision. In practice, this has generated significant tensions and contradictions

between their oscillating desires for didacticism v. escapism, realism v. fantasy, which, as I noted in the last chapter, have been a recurring feature of students‟ engagement with entertainment media. My students attempted to resolve these tensions satisfactorily in ways that corresponded with their own interests, needs and aspirations, often making reference to the notion that some forms of escapism are themselves in some respects didactic – „good for learning English‟ being the simplest justification at hand.¹ When probed a little further, students frequently suggested that foreign entertainment also provided a form of education that parents and teachers could not, or would not, provide that was not only „more fun‟, keeping them amused and engaged, but also a direct link to the middle class lifestyle which they and, with qualifications, their parents – and by extension, the authorities – aspired for them.²

Key among these aspirational resources were US drama series, from ‘Friends’

(1994-2004) to ‘Sex and the City’ (1998-2004), ‘Desperate Housewives’ (2004-), ‘Prison Break’ (2005-2009), and latterly, ‘Heroes’ (2006-2010), among others, each breaking like surf on the consciousness of a generation of Chinese students viewing in their dorms.

A number of Chinese researchers have noted this „hidden fashion‟ (yinmi liuxing) (W.

Wen & Wang, 2008, p. 275) and offered some analyses of the possible reasons behind its

1 English is a compulsory part of all students‟ education and a key component of university entrance exams, postgraduate course selection tests and often part of selection procedures for many job opportunities (G. Hu, 2002, p. 30; Lo Bianco, 2009, pp. 192, 199). Not surprisingly, films and TV series are a popular means of learning. Video extracts accompanied by glossaries and commentaries are a feature of the English language learning section of ‘China Daily’ online, for instance

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/language_tips/auvideo/audio_film.html; accessed 2^nd Oct. 2010). DVD is also useful as English subtitles are often provided.

2 The way in which bi-lingualism is a selling point for elite private schools that have sprouted up in China also testifies to the degree to which an internationalized flavour to education is a means of establishing a new middle class ethos not only among those who can afford to do so, but also spreading to those who aspire to such a lifestyle (S. H. Donald & Yi, 2008, pp. 74-79). As Liu Fengshu suggests, Chinese parents, especially with the one-child policy, are very focused on education and higher education in particular, not significantly because of Confucian priorities, but because of strong competition in society (2008, pp. 193-194). See also, Fong (2004, pp. 98-99).

success and its limits. But unlike some foreign reportage which has highlighted the extent of state ideological control on foreign imports ("'Desperate Housewives' Airs in China", 2005; Osnos, 2007), domestic comment has tended to focus on issues of cultural

compatibility (L. Li, 2006; H. Liu, 2006, pp. 14-15; Zhou, 2005) or, in more didactic mode, calling attention to the highly professional and market-sensitive US production processes which Chinese producers could learn from (Hou, 2008, p. 59; L. Zhu, 2008, pp.

102-103). So far, however, with the exception of Wang and Wen‟s (2008) hybrid questionnaire and interview study, there has been little actual audience research on this theme.³

As Chinese commentators have noted, such drama series generate a sense of cumulative anticipation not only through their content but via the seasonal and episodic nature of their form (Hua, 2007, p. 69; Zhou, 2005). In China, this is overlaid with an extra dimension of allure as most have not been publicly broadcast, giving them the surreptitious, yet personalised quality of a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon (W. Wen

& Wang, 2008, p. 277). Among my interviewees, a ‘Sex and the City’ fan recalled, for instance, how her interest in the series was initially sparked by a stream of enthusiastic text messages from her friend during a TOEFL⁴ preparation class: „she was quite excited about [...] the sex and the fashion – we didn‟t have much access to it when we were in high school, and it had to be imagined, really‟ (Ren Shuying – Int. 17). As such, the popular spread of foreign series is part of the self-organised, below-the-surface nature of aspects of young people‟s everyday lives, exemplified, in this instance, by the online translation groups who compete to supply prompt and accurate subtitles. As I noted in chapter two, Kelly Hu described Chinese downloading practices in terms of guerrilla-style underground activities (K. Hu, 2005, pp. 182-184), implying a Foucauldian-guerrilla-style instance of counter-cultural tactical resistance to identities imposed by commercial or national forces, even if participants are themselves unaware of this. But transgressive practices are not always as straightforwardly transgressive as they might seem and as Zizek has suggested, postmodern hedonistic enjoyment has a disciplinary dimension with corresponding political implications. As I shall argue in what follows, through their

3 Wang and Wen state that they analysed 230 questionnaires and conducted 10 follow-up interviews (2008, p. 276) among what appear to have been a mix of students and employees, but no further details are given.

4 Test of English as a Foreign Language – often required for application to foreign universities.

access to US dramas in particular, the new generation of students has created a shortcut to a „First World‟ vision of life which provides a rich yield of what might be termed

„didactic escapism‟ that helps resolve some of the tensions generated by China‟s hybrid, post-socialist developmental path.

Yuppie Ethnography

The long-running popular US sitcom ‘Friends’ (1994-2004), depicting the ups and downs of six young „twenty-somethings‟ in New York, was the first series students normally mentioned as impacting upon their viewing. As one second year boy I interviewed put it,

„it is famous in the United States [and] you can watch [it] with the excuse you are trying to learn English‟ (Zhao Sijing – Int. 10). He had started watching in his first year of university, but with otherwise more intellectual tastes, had become „totally bored‟.

Among my small group interviews with second year students, some girls mentioned watching ‘Friends’ when they were in junior high school and remained more appreciative.

As one explained, „[it] give[s] you a lot of laughing time and shows you some aspects of American life‟ (Qian Xiaoyan – G1/1), though she had now moved on to other

programmes. In another group, a girl professed to having initially found it „fresh‟ but had got tired of it after a few series as she felt it contained „nothing serious‟ (Peng Jiwei – G3/4). So although it remained well-known and popular, to some extent, it also

functioned as the lowest common denominator of the genre. Considered light, palatable viewing – „acceptably funny‟ as another girl put it (Lang Wenyu – Em. 11) – it did not have the edge of violent conflict or taboo-stretching frankness provided by other more controversial dramas such as ‘Sex and the City’ (1998-2004). That said, although CCTV had considered broadcasting the series in 2004, a news interview given by Qin Mingxin of its international department flagged up the broadcaster‟s dilemma. The sexual

openness of the six friends „cannot be generally accepted by Chinese audiences yet‟, he argued, and some of the jokes and slang were difficult to convey in Chinese. However, making cuts, he explained, was problematic as this would interfere with the continuity of the plot and, moreover, as most young people had already seen episodes of the series and

„feel quite passionate about it‟ they might object to the censorship ("Lost in Translation:

Friends may fail to show in China", 2004).

CCTV‟s reasoning seems, on the face of things, a little odd. Unless positing a generation gap between the somewhat more abstract general „Chinese audiences‟ who cannot accept the series and actual „young people‟ who are already fans, the need for censoring what was already acknowledged to be widely available is not immediately obvious (Moser, 2006).⁵ Admittedly, DVD and downloading audiences tend to consist of younger, more educated viewers (W. Wen & Wang, 2008, pp. 276-277) and yet, among my interviewees, it was clear that their judgement of the series‟ light-hearted

inoffensiveness was made retrospectively after a period of adjustment during which it had indeed seemed somewhat „vulgar‟ (Zhang Jie – Int. 14) and, at times, rather perplexing.

Similarly, in Chen Yanru‟s essay-based research into students‟ internet use, which I mentioned in chapter two, girls also often admitted that they found ‘Friends’ to be rather too sexually liberal and chaotic at first, but later, after further viewing, came to accept it as the natural pursuit of one‟s own desires (2009, p. 35). The traditionally rather negative and selfish connotations of individualism in China meant that the more positive version on view in ‘Friends’ therefore seemed to provide a window into how American

individualism is practised in everyday life, with individualist behaviour involving not just the pursuit of self-interest, but also the practice of self-reliance and respect for others‟

choices and so on, as Sun‟s and Wang‟s analyses of the series suggest (X. Sun, 2008, p.

253; C. Wang, 2008, p. 78). Chen Yanru proposes that for the post-1980s generation, widely regarded in China as being unprecedentedly individualistic, an American style

„pursuit of happiness‟ might seem to be quite compatible with a Chinese identity (Y.

Chen, 2009, p. 35).⁶ As one of my e-mail respondents suggested, such series „can satisfy our imagination [about] developed countries, about people‟s life, ideas etc‟ (Cai Minjia – Em. 10). Another, a third year girl from Minzu University, put it this way: „By watching [‘Friends’], we feel we‟re experiencing the same life‟ (Fang Liu – Em. 9).

Nevertheless, this identification with the life portrayed in the series did not mean that it was necessarily close to students‟ own lives. In fact, it was evident from some of

5 The logic behind such censorship is something that will be examined in greater detail in chapter seven, in relation to the film ‘Mission: Impossible III’.

6 Yan Yunxiang reports that even in rural China, where previous socialist policies had also stigmatized

„individualism‟ as self-interest (rather than self-reliance), the new reform policies have meant that individualist behaviour (gexing) has now been legitimized by some rural youth as modern, though rather more self-interestedly, in order to extract dowry money from parents and in-laws (Y. Yan, 2005, pp. 653-655).

my respondents that watching ‘Friends’ required them to undergo a kind of initial apprenticeship during which the action might seem both exaggerated and inscrutable, with the „canned laughter‟ ringing in students‟ ears, but without them getting the joke.⁷ A girl who enjoyed the series told me that when she first started watching „I didn‟t know why they laugh [...because] the lifestyle is very different‟ and the acting was more „crazy‟

than in Chinese series (Zhu Shuangru – Int. 16). Such experiences could, in fact, border on the humiliating: as another interviewee admitted, „when I first watched it I really couldn‟t bear the laughs – it makes me like an idiot‟ (Ren Shuying – Int. 17). In other circumstances, this inability to fathom the other‟s humour might have produced a feeling of profound alienation and unease, or worse, at how another culture expresses its

pleasures and enjoyment.⁸ And yet, in contemporary China, under the influence of developmental ideology and its successive slogans and catchphrases – „four modernisations‟, „opening up‟, „getting on track‟, „peaceful rise‟⁹ – the potential

antagonism is, for the most part, sublimated so that the unsettling challenge of difference is generally interpreted more benignly. Arguably, what this signals, in microcosm, is how the sense of historic exclusion from the developed „premiere league‟ of nations is

overcome, and consequently, how a sense of elite membership is gained once the dramatic or in this case, comic idiom, has been mastered. In that respect, it is part of the desire for „self-globalisation‟ that I discussed in chapter three.

For some, a sense of membership could even be enhanced or „upgraded‟ by using their wider knowledge of American society to question the series‟ portrayal of a sexually liberal America as exaggerated and „stereotypical‟: as one of my more intellectual

interviewees put it, „not everyone I know says that, but I also read other newspapers and I

7 Canned laughter is perhaps a signal that one ought to be laughing and can be seen as a pointer to the way desire and enjoyment, like fashion consciousness, is dependent on others‟ desires (Zizek, 1989a, p. 35).

8 In spite of the lightness of the material, it is here that we perhaps come close to one of the key ingredients of nationalist and racist sentiment, not based, as is sometimes supposed, on the belief that others are necessarily biologically inferior, but rather, on the fear that „the other‟ is challenging the cultural basis of one‟s own way of life, particularly through the way another group structures and ritualises its desires differently (Balibar, 2007, pp. 84-86; Zizek, 1991, p. 165)

9 The „four modernisations‟ originated with Chou En-lai in the 1970s (Mackerras, McMillen, & Watson, 1998, pp. 130-131); „opening up‟ was associated with Deng Xiaoping‟s pro-market policies in the 1980s (Dillon, 2009, p. 18); „getting on track with the international community‟ emerged under Jiang Zemin in the 1990s as part of pre-WTO membership preparations (Guthrie, 1999, p. 151); „peaceful rise‟ or latterly

„peaceful development‟ attempted to reassure the West in the 2000s that China‟s growing economic strength constituted no threat (S. Guo, 2006, pp. 1-2).

know people in America are criticising it‟ (Zhao Sijing – Int. 10). Indeed, despite the emphasis on the series‟ individualism expressed through its jokes, antics and mildly taboo behaviour, when I asked him to explain its appeal to students, he complained that „a typical Chinese [thing is] when something is popular [...] a large number of people will follow suit‟ – a point that Zhang Tongdao made in his study of television viewing in college dorms, in spite of students‟ insistence to the contrary (2003, pp. 247, 249). But if

‘Friends’ is conceived as part of an apprenticeship in individualism, saying one had passed through the stage of watching the series was in itself perhaps a way of asserting individuality.

The degree to which my respondents believed US series reflected real life is a complex topic which I will return to later, but as the above interviewee suggested, students generally took American society to be „open‟,¹⁰ meaning sexually liberal. When I asked a group of four second year girls why they said ‘Friends’ was „fresh‟, it was this aspect of „openness‟ that they felt distinguished it from their own society:

Peng Jiwei (G3/4): „[In ‘Friends’] they‟re very relaxed; you see they can have sex with anyone‟.

[General laughter]

Xie Qimei (G3/3): „That‟s quite different from Chinese tradition‟.

Similarly, when I posed the same question to another small group, a girl remarked how the characters [...] fall in love with somebody so fast [...] (Xin Yongqi – G1/2). But openness, in a wider sense, also referred to the way American culture was seen as allowing people full vent to their opinions, emotions and desires. Explaining why she thought US series were popular, one of my e-mail respondents pointed to how „the culture emphasizes energy and individualism, which I think works [with] all the young people‟ (Lang Wenyu – Em. 11). An essay writer on the same topic was more specific, suggesting that such series reflected „what we would like to do when we are impulsive‟

(Lu Yue – E7/21). This goes some way to explaining the appeal of ‘Friends’, despite my initial supposition that student relationships and dormitory-style living arrangements

10 „kaifang’; „开放‟.

already appeared to be very close and familiar in a way that might make the series‟

appeal seem rather superfluous. In spite of upgraded accommodation on many campuses, students still generally live between four and six to a dorm,¹¹ often attend the same classes, and are led and guided by elected class „monitors‟ (head monitor and study monitor) who relay a stream of events, prizes, quizzes, speech contests, exam news and instructions, all of which reinforce the social bond of „classmate‟ to create an enforced togetherness far beyond the term‟s significance in English.

There was wide agreement among my group interviewees that ‘Friends’ presented a fresh individualist lifestyle, full of „kidding around...quite different from our daily life‟

(Qian Xiaoyan – G1/1). In contrast to a Chinese sense of togetherness which was still largely underpinned by necessity, ‘Friends’ presented an idealised, liberal social world without fear of injury, judgement or pressure where sensitive topics are not taboo and can be spoken of non-didactically: „[...] the relationship between the friends is what I am looking for because they really trust each other but somehow they laugh at each other but [...] don‟t want to hurt each other, just have fun‟ (Xu Ruoyun – G3/2). For some, the series even reflected their recollection of when they were in high school which, though pressurised, was nevertheless able to sustain teasing and banter that they now felt they lacked. But above all, it seemed that what students specifically appreciated about

‘Friends’ was its cool, easy depiction of an alternative idealised „young professional‟ ego in its „real life‟ setting, beyond the tighter plot specificities of a Hollywood film, in which the characters‟ friendships offered a vision of closeness predicated upon individualistic openness.

In that sense, the series had an underlying quasi-anthropological appeal and was part of the „aspirational didacticism‟ I referred to in the last chapter. Of course, my student viewers were well aware they were not dealing here with unmediated

documentary reality, and as already noted, some were inclined to apply critical scepticism to what they saw. As a group interview member put it, „you cannot expect so many dramatic things in your life‟ (Qian Xiaoyan – G1/1). Nevertheless, she believed that real life leaked through the fiction, revealing nuggets of ordinary American reality, even if not strictly realistic:

11 Living off campus, unless at the parental home, is officially frowned upon, though it sometimes occurs.

„[...] the way they like to go out and go to the seashore and camp on holidays and the way they share their apartment and discuss the troubles they have in their work, their personal life, their girlfriends, their boyfriends...there is still some part of the truth reflected in it...but more drama added‟ (Qian Xiaoyan – G1/1).

Rather than seeing through the drama, with the scepticism shown by my interviewee above (Zhao Sijing – Int 10), some students instead preferred to look past it to the lifestyle presumed to lie behind. As a result, it is possible to begin to see why students‟

belief, noted in chapter four, that Westerners were more imaginative and creative often corresponded not with any supposed limitations of the Chinese imaginative capacity, nor necessarily on political restrictions, but on the constraints of Chinese reality – for

instance, where camping holidays were a rarity or the notion of a Chinese „road movie‟

was still implausible when most people „don‟t have the money to experience that kind of life‟ (Sun Lin – Int. 12).

Discussion Forums

Viewers of US dramas in China are said to be predominantly in their twenties or thirties and higher educated (W. Wen & Wang, 2008, p. 276) and although Wang and Wen in their audience survey have suggested that the popularity of American dramas in the PRC is predominantly a word-of mouth phenomenon (2008, p. 277), the degree of interest such series generate can also be judged by the extent of references to them in weekly lifestyle and current affairs magazines (see S. Chen & Liu, 2006; J. Lin, 2006) as well as in online media. To know them is to be within the circle of those „connected‟ Chinese who are imaginatively globalised and, as noted with ‘Friends’, there is a strong

informative element to this, reflected in the myriad discussion topics raised on bulletin boards and net forums dedicated to such drama series.

Although many of my informants made their viewing choices according to their friends‟ recommendations or in some cases in film magazines, they also looked for reviews online, particularly downloading sites themselves. One student, for instance, said she would browse users‟ opinions and ratings before choosing what to view (Yang