Entertainment and Politics in Contemporary China

By: Jingsi Christina Wu

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Synopsis: As the rest of the world continues to pay keen attention to developments in China's politics, economy, and culture, this book advances research about China by providing an updated narrative of its entertainment life in the beginning of China's 21st century. Readers will gain insights about fascinating new developments in contemporary Chinese popular culture, including its reality television, family dramas centered around younger generations' life struggles, and social media. Furthermore, it will be the first book to apply the theoretical innovation of an aesthetic public sphere in examining closely the linkages between China's political life and activities in the country's culture sphere. As the concepts of public sphere and democracy largely took root in the West, this book argues that the case study of China promises valuable insights about entertainment's role in the formation of citizenship and building of a civil society, which remains a site of great contention in Western theories and empirical efforts.