With China’s growing national strength and influence, Chinese elements are increasingly being included in American films and TV shows, a phenomenon that cannot be overlooked. How China is featured in American TV series, one of the most representative cultural products of American society, values, and ideologies, largely reflects mainstream U.S. views about China’s political system, social issues, models of economic development, and its rising international status.
Growing popularity of China
China has been gaining higher exposure in three ways. Firstly, the appearance of actors and actresses of Chinese origin has increased. Stereotypes of Chinese, like the murderous Dr. Fu Manchu or the benevolent and heroic detective Charlie Chen, have been replaced by a new generation of Chinese-Americans, like Lucy Liu, making the Chinese more modern and diversified in their looks, character, and values. Though largely supporting roles or extras, the Chinese characters are not limited to domestic servants, laundry workers, waiters, and other physical laborers. Chinese faces are seen in forensic laboratories, research institutions, and government offices, as well as other places which require expertise and professional skills. Secondly, product placement of Chinese brands has been increasing. These brands appear in hot shows like “The Big Bang Theory,” “Homeland,” and many others. Today, proactive Chinese companies and manufacturers are making contact with American producers and screenwriters in the hope of getting higher exposure for their brands. Thirdly, China-related plots are increasingly blended into main story lines. But this blending has also revealed the mainstream prejudice and misunderstanding of China and its culture among American producers and screenwriters, which have been manifested in a number of TV series.
Shu jiang yao zhu—mysterious Chinese tattoos
The four Chinese characters “Shu (mouse), jiang (ginger), yao (a Chinese surname), zhu (pig)” tattooed on the protagonist’s body in “Arrow” looks exotic to Americans but is meaningless in Chinese eyes. The protagonist’s Chinese tutor, and tattoos of Chinese characters, add a mysterious oriental taste to the show, but appear neither Chinese nor oriental to the Chinese audience. In season four of “Bones”, a girl is killed for a ghost marriage between her and a dead Chinese-American male and the two are buried together. The ancient Chinese practice of ghost marriage is regarded by many Americans as a popular custom in today’s China. This exciting plot makes the story more mysterious and thrilling, but also leaves the impression of a barbarous, backward, and brutal China. Such abuse and distortion of Chinese elements and culture are not uncommon in American TV series.
“If sent back to China, She will work as a slave in Shanghai.”
This was what Gabrielle said in season three of “Desperate Housewives” of her maid, an illegal immigrant. To use the “slave” in today’s China is really absurd, let alone in Shanghai, one of the most dynamic and open cities in China. Gabrielle further talked about Chinese society and politics, speaking of Shanghai as a poor and remote place, criticizing China’s lack of freedom and democracy, believing that repatriation from America to China would be like falling from paradise into hell. China in the eyes of many Americans is impoverished and secluded without democracy or freedom.
“The Chinese! Someone has to stop them!”
In the twelfth season of South Park, the plump boy Eric Cartmen had a nightmare the night he watched the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the dream he saw numerous Chinese beating drums at the same tempo, their eyes blazing with something close to evil. The scared Eric cried out “the Chinese are gonna occupy the whole world. They have two billion men, and are growing in economy, science and technology. America is gonna be defeated by them.” South Park used a naive boy’s character to articulate Americans’ most politically incorrect views and fears. The rise of China has fueled the so-called “China threat” theory. Eric’s nightmare reflected something in the American subconscious: what Americans fear most is not an economically strong China, but a highly uniform and collectivist country without any individuality. The development model and values underpinning the rapidly growing Chinese economy is in conflict with the American value system.
American shows’ Chinese audience
In 1979, the year China and the United States established diplomatic relations, Mr. Deng Xiaoping wound up his visit to the U.S. with a number of agreements on bilateral cultural exchange. The next year, China Central Television, a state-run TV station introduced “The Man From Atlantis”, the first ever American TV series in China. In 1980, Garrison’s Gorillas, the second American show imported into China, was broadcast until its sixteenth episode, when it was suspended, regarded as a farcical drama without any art value. Thirty years have passed since then and the Chinese no longer need to wait for whatever is broadcast on television, but are rather free to choose what to watch with all the freedom that the Internet has offered .
Unlike U.S.-China co-productions and Chinese-targeted movies, American TV shows are produced for mainstream audiences in American society, not for avid Chinese viewers closely following American shows. Under China’s censorship system, foreign TV series from the U.S. in particular, have been spread widely not only on the Internet, but also outside Chinese state-owned media outlets, mainly among university students and middle-class white-collars who are usually well-educated and have independent views and broad visions. Their understanding of American society and values comes largely from what they see on American TV shows. These sensitive audiences can identify clashes between Eastern and Western cultures and are critical of misinterpretation of and prejudice towards Chinese elements in American shows. Their criticisms are not so much out of blind patriotism and narrow nationalism as out of the sense of absurdity after seeing Chinese culture being misinterpreted and distorted.
Fictional representations of China are one way of increasing understanding between the Chinese and American people. Yet, we should not forget that TV shows are a form of modern art, which rely on fabrication and exaggeration. Exchange, understanding, and trust between the two nations should be based on sincerity, goodwill, and inclusiveness.
Ji Yixin, research fellow at Center for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Studies, SIIS.
