1
China’s TV program import 1958-1988: Towards the internationalization of television?
JUNHAO HONG
Department of Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1091, U. S.A.
Abstract. This paper illustrates the change in China’s TV program import over the past 30 years from 1958 to 1988 - before, during and after the Cultural Revolution. The emphasis is placed on the reform period in the 1980s. The study indicates that, along with the globalization of television, many changes have occurred in China’s TV program import channel, import purpose, import criterion, import format and import category. The paper provides descriptions, interpretations and analyses of what has happened in China’s TV program importation, why these changes occurred and what these changes meant. The author concludes that the China’s reform policies - open-door policy, decentralization policy and pluralism policy - were the fundamental factors for the changes.
Introduction The television field has been, perhaps, the most prominent in discussions of international expansion and cultural impact (McAnany, 1986). Recently, the internationalization of television has become a global trend. Although the extent of this process in different countries varies, it has been happening almost everywhere, including those countries such as China which have been isolated from the West for many years (Ganley & Ganley, 1989). Before the 1980s, there were few imported industrial products in China, and far less imported cultural products, except those from the former socialist countries. Moreover, the importation of cultural products from the West, which was often described as a place of riots, crimes and poverty (Chang, 1989), was very rare. This ban on importation was especially true for television programs, unless there was something in the programs which could be used to expose the &dquo;sick social system&dquo; of the West, thereby supporting the stereotype.
2
Nevertheless, in
China’s importation of TV programs has and considerably. As in many other countries, this expanded quickly process in China has brought about changes not only in media practice and people’s lives at different organizational, content, funding, and reception levels, but in society as well (Negrine & Papathanassopolous, 1991). Katz and Wedell point out that &dquo;buying programs abroad is one of the most important indicators of the character of a television system&dquo; (1977: 155), since it is often related to the political environment, regulatory restrictions, cultural/ideological consideration, as well as economic issues. Therefore, the change in China’s importation of TV programs is of great significance, because it is a virtual reflection of changes in China’s contemporary recent years,
history. A variety of factors have contributed to this dramatic change: some political, some economic, some ideological, and some having to do with the motivation and attitudes of key decision-makers (Tortzen, 1990). But the essential one is a change in media policy. Over the past 30 years from the emergence of television in China in 1958 pro-democracy movement in 1989, China’s television and its importation of foreign programs roughly went through three phases: 1) 1958-1966, the period before the Cultural Revolution; 2) 1966-1976, the period during the Cultural Revolution; and 3) 1978-1988, the period after the Cultural Revolution, known as the &dquo;Ten-Year Reform.&dquo; This paper will discuss the following questions: What policies regarding the importation of TV programs prevailed in each of the three phases? What policy changes have occurred? Why and how did these changes occur? While all three phases will be examined, the emphasis will be placed on the reform period in the 1980s. To better understand these unprecedented changes, a brief illustration of China’s television system and its recent development will ... also be provided. < to the student
China’s TV: its short
history, rapid growth, and unique system
-
When China started television broadcasting in 1958, it had only two TV stations (Beijing and Shanghai). By the end of the 1970s, there were still only a total of 30 TV stations (Zhuang, 1984). But during the reform period in the 1980s, the number of program-originating TV stations proliferated from 52 in 1983, to 422 in 1988, and an additional 811 transmitting stations and relay stations have since been constructed. By 1992, there were a total
3 of 600 TV stations in the country, creating a four-level TV network 4 - one national station, 30 provincial ones, and 295 regional and 350 local (Radio and Television Information, 1989; People’s Daily, Nov. 20, 1992, p. 3). In April 1984, China launched its first experimental communication satellite. With the construction of 3,500 telecommunications relay installations, TV programs reached the most remote areas, such as Tibet and Xingjiang. By the end of 1987, the transmission ability had reached 78 percent of China’s total population. (Li, 1991; The Launch of A New Asian Era, 1990). While importing up-to-date TV equipment and facilities from Japan, West Germany and the US, China has also quickly developed its own broadcasting technology capacity, and by 1990, 90 percent of the country’s transmission facilities were manufactured by China itself (People’s Daily, Oct. 26, 1991, p. 3). The most remarkable change, however, has been the explosion of TV ownership. In 1960, the ratio was one TV set per 70,000 people. Ten years later, it was one per 16,400. By 1980, it was one per 280, and in 1988, it became one in 7.5 people, gaining a 35-fold increase in less than ten years (People’s Daily, Oct. 2, 1989, p. 3). The latest statistics about TV ownership revealed that by the end of 1992, China had 260 million TV sets, almost one set for every four people with about another one million TV sets being sold each month. Statistically, every Chinese family now owns a TV set. (People’s Daily, Nov. 20, 1992, p. 3). As Lull ( 1991 ) observes, the 1980s represented what Womark calls the &dquo;third wave&dquo; of electronic media development in China - a period when nearly every family bought a TV set a phenomenon that is similar to what happened in the United States in the 1950s. As for the size of audience, by the end of the 1980s the estimated viewers had reached 70 percent of the total population, 800 million people; 93 percent of the urban population and 33 percent of the rural population with sets (China becomes a TV giant, 1992; Chen & Er, 1989; Goldstein, 1989; Westlake, 1988). By 1992, China’s television regularly commanded prime-time audiences of 75 percent of the population; 90 percent in most urban centers and 50 percent in rural areas. There is no license fee or direct charge for television, and all TV stations are state-owned and sponsored by the government. Nevertheless, television channels available to ordinary people have increased rapidly. In the mid1980s, an average of two channels were available even in China’s major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and one channel or less was available in the majority of the country. But in the early 1990s, more than four channels could be chosen by viewers in Beijing and Shanghai, and two to
-
4
.
three channels have become available nationwide. In October, 1992, CCTV (China Central Television Station, China’s only national network) opened its fourth channel, covering Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as the whole mainland (CCTV Begins Broadcasting Channel 4, 1992). Due to the availability of more channels, specialization of programs for channels have become possible. For instance, among Shanghai Television’s four channels, one focuses on news and entertainment programs, one focuses on marketing/financial information and sports programs, another specializes in education programs, both social education such as law information and health problems knowledge education such as various college courses, and a fourth features programs from other countries - documentaries as well as entertainment shows. The technological advancement has remarkably enhanced TV production capacity, resulting in an increase of broadcasting hours as well as the quantity of programming. For instance, in the 1950s when the Chinese government started television broadcasting, only two TV plays were produced each year. During the 1960s and 1970s, fewer than a dozen were made every year. Nevertheless, it has quickly catapulted during the reform period of the 1980s. In 1988, 800 TV plays were produced, and by 1990 the number jumped to 1,500. In just two years, the number of plays produced more than tripled to 5,000 in 1992 (People’s Daily, Sept. 14, 1989, p. 4, Oct. 9, 1991, p. 8, Nov. 20, 1992, p. 3). China has also made great efforts to strengthen its news service. For example, since March 1993, CCTV’s news service broadcasts 11 times per day, compared to only three times (noon, evening and nightly news, respectively) before. According to Weiguang Yang, President of CCTV, the increase in news service is to &dquo;suit the new situation of the open-door policy, cater to the need of China’s modernization campaign, and meet the demand of the audience&dquo; (CCTV Will Increase News Shows, 1993). China’s television system is different from those in most other countries, either Western or socialist, because the country’s television is controlled through two committees - the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Radio-Television-Film Ministry of the State Council. It may be difficult to distinguish between the Party’s control and the government’s control, since the government is virtually controlled by the Party. However, technological, regulatory and administrative affairs are generally the concern of the government, and programming content and themes are decided by the Party. The Party committees at different levels all have a propaganda department taking care
5 of media institutions. Therefore, China’s television is under the direct leadership and control of the Party and run by the government, as is every other media institution in the country. As for importing foreign TV programs, including those from Hong Kong, only the national TV network - China Central Television Station (CCTV) was allowed to import programs for about 20 years. No other TV stations, municipal, regional and local as well, were allowed to contact foreign TV companies. The purpose was easier governmental control and less screen &dquo;contamination.&dquo; This situation remained unchanged until the beginning of the 1980s.
Import from 1958 to 1966: quantitatively limited and politically and ideologically oriented From 1958 to 1966, China’s TV production capability was low, equipment and facilities were simple, and broadcasting hours and transmitting scales were limited. Usually, daily broadcasting time was around three hours. The programs consisted of three categories: 1) news programs; 2) entertainment programs; and 3) education programs. The news programs were primarily activity reportage of Party leaders and government officials, as well as stories of economic progress (Howkins, 1982; Bishop, 1989; Chang, 1989). Education programs were of two types; social education, such as those about ethics and public health, and the other was for formal education courses, e.g., mathematics and engineering. Although entertainment programming occupied most of the broadcasting hours, there were not many &dquo;real&dquo; entertainment shows on the screen. As Pool remarks, &dquo;To produce top quality mass programming takes an amount of capital, a collection of specialized personnel, and production expertise&dquo; (1977: 148). Lacking these conditions, the majority of the entertainment programs were old films, except an occasional opera broadcast live. Imported programs were seldom seen, and most of them were from the former Soviet Union and some Eastern European countries, such as East Germany and then-Czechoslovakia which at that time were capable of exporting TV programs. The reason for this phenomenon stemmed from the Party’s general guideline. After the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, it established the &dquo;socialist revolution and reconstruction&dquo; principle, insisting that those tasks be conducted under the self-reliance policy set by Mao Zedong, the founder and late Chairman of the Chinese Com’
