重建帝國﹕歷史正劇與中國當代民族主義在大眾文化中的新的表現形式 (Rebuilding the Empire: Historical TV Drama and the New Expressive Form of Cultural Nationalism)

Main Article Content

Shuyu Kong

Abstract

This paper explores the discourse of cultural nationalism and its recent articulation in historical TV dramas (Lishi ju): TV serials set in the Chinese imperial past and depicting court politics and the private lives of imperial families. First, I briefly survey the recent resurgence of historical drama on the TV screen, especially comparing two different ways of representing history: “history light” (xishuo) and “history orthodox” (zhengju). While history light, a new genre strongly influenced by the costume dramas imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan, emphasizes the entertainment values of popular culture and adopts a postmodern attitude towards history, history orthodox renews the pedagogical tradition and the moralistic narrative of historical drama in modern China since the May Fourth enlightenment movement. I then focus on TV dramas in the history orthodox mode and their ideological messages, examining two representative works by Hu Mei: Yongzheng Dynasty (Yongzheng wangchao, 1999) and The Great Emperor Wu of Han (Hanwu dadi, 2005). While drawing attention to the various narrative strategies, intertextualities and audio-visual styles employed in these dramas to represent the glorious national history and portray a strong leader (the emperor) as national hero, I also provide a contextual analysis of the production and circulation of these two dramas as well as the critical and media response to them, to reveal the social agencies and social formation of these dramas behind the screen. I suggest that the revisionist reframing of the past in historical TV drama reflects a new nationalist historical consciousness and cultural identity borne out of China’s rapid rise and aspirations to become an economic and political superpower.

Article Details

Section
Special Issue Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Author Biography

Shuyu Kong, University of Sydney

Dr Kong Shuyu lectures at the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney. She conducts research on contemporary Chinese literature and culture. He book Consuming Literature: Best Sellers and the Commercialization of Literary Production in Contemporary China was published by Stanford University in 2005.