Televising Chineseness : gender, nation, and subjectivity /

Song (Chinese, Univ. of Hong Kong) convincingly maps how Chinese state media conditions its audience to guard its national identity. As Song points out in this interdisciplinary volume, even seemingly innocuous soap operas on CCTV contain a hidden agenda to promote a "Chineseness" that acts as a cultural justification for political sovereignty and expansion. Today, the Communist Party promotes a masculine image using the subliminal seduction of entertainment, and its recent political posturing over Taiwan is a prime example of that ideology in action. However, Song's study has unresolved issues: How does China account for its growing diaspora? Song argues that this top-down indoctrination through propaganda shortchanges a complex network of power negotiation and identity construction and takes a special jab at nonnegotiable gender identity in a nation that does not tolerate femininity in young boys. For example, China has a long way to go before it accepts gay marriage, but that is only one aspect of a complex web of images the propaganda industry targets. In drawing attention to the many contradictions in Chinese media and politics, Song weaves an interesting, though incomplete, study of gender and national identity in contemporary China. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Undergraduates through faculty and general readers. --Keming Liu, CUNY