“Bitch is So Bitch”: Making Sense of Audience Responses to Global Counterflow of Chinese TV Series

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Global Communication and Social Change Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The subject globalization and its influence on the audience is by no means a new research topic, particularly those that examines the influence of the West or the U.S. on the rest of the world. Not many studies have considered the audiences from the exportation side, and their view on the process of globalization. Thus, this paper asks the fundamental question, “How do audiences feel when their cultural products are exported into another country?” By using the case of memes that circulated in response to the news that a Chinese TV series The Legend of Zhenhuan is going to enter the U.S. market, this paper examines the cultural expectations that Chinese audiences place on their cultural exports. The analysis reveals a complicated case of cultural works that simultaneously arouse anxiety about China’s complicated culture and its impossibility to translate well in the global market, and reliefs them through self-mockery and satire. This paper argues that the process of globalization not only impacts the importing countries but the exporters as well. Through the examination of the audience’s expectations for global cultural expansion, this paper shows that there are many more nuanced cultural undercurrents that motivate or dissuade a country to enter the global market other than the spread of power or ideology.

Author

• Xianwei Wu, University of Iowa