American TV Blockbuster in China

American TV Blockbuster in China

In contemporary China, people are profoundly influenced by western culture in every respect of their lives---South Korea dressing fad, romantic lifestyle of Paris, Japanese Cartoon and electronic gadgets, footballing fever-pitch from South America and so on. One more country worthy to be mentioned, except all of the countries listed above, is the United States. With its cutting-edge techonology, systematic political tradition freatured in democracy, as well as all-embracing modern culture, Uncle Sam is incessantly imposing a profound and extensive impact on Chinese youngsters’ lives. In this report, I will place my emphasise on one aspect of the impact by specifically elaborating on American TV serise, the general understanding of American TV serise, the reasons of its ever-growing popularity as well as striking features of it. A questionnair was conducted beforehand to back up this report and provide statistical data.

【What is American TV serise?】

American TV serise is genrally considered as the films with 20--30 episodes a season broadcasted by different TV stations in the USA. Some cases in point like Big Bang Theory on CBS, Friends on NBC, Desperate Wives on ABC as well as Prisonbreak on FOX. If you subdivide the American TV serise in another prespective, they can be also categorized as TV Drama like Lost, Action Films like Presonbreak, Situational Comedy like Good Luck Charlie, Reality Show like Celebrity Apprentice and Fantasy Show like Vampire Dairy. Most American TV serises boast better envision to the fiture, bold imagination, extraordinary sense of humor and gripping plot with endless twists and turns.

In early 1980s, the first American TV serise named The Man From Atlantis travelled all the way across the Pacific Ocean and landed on China. This is the first American TV program ever broadcasted in mainland China and it proved to have been such a huge boom. For the first time in the history, Chinese people unprecedentedly obtained a glimpse into this mysterious nation who had been labeled by Chinese authority as imperial superpower, stupid yankee of prominent nose and snobbish trouble maker all around the world. However, the first arrival of American TV serise swiftly proved its popularity on the other side of the Pacific and was offocially consented to be televised in China on national scale.

【The analysis of the questionnair】

The mass influx of American TV serise undoubtedly intrude on the development of home-made TV programs with all its innovative ideas, exceptional creativity and unique originality. While Uncle Sam’s products enjoy its heyday of selling in China, some of the indigenous films and movies continue its downward spiral and get big share of the market way out of hand. And this big share of the market consists millions Chinese students.

We conducted our questionnair by sampling 275 university students (35% of them are boys and 65% girls) all across the nation with different majors and asking their attitudes towards American TV serise. The result of the questionnair turned out to be pretty much similar to what we have previously expected.

Accroding to the questionnair, among all the American TV fans, more than 31% of the students whose major are related to science claimed that they love watching American TV serise, followed by over 22% of students majoring in management, 18% of students majoring in language, and approximately 5% to 9% of the students of art, medical, computer as well as other majors. Among all these questioners, more than 45% of the them stated that they spend about no more than 3 hours a day watching American TV programs while there are still around 12% of students claimed that they even indulge in the TV serise for more than 10 hours per day.

It is never explained why students are so obessed with those American stuff, but one thing is for sure--different students perceived the American TV serise in different aspect and thus they show varied preferences under the same abstract fondness. Therefore, to be specific, the evidential statistics from our questionnair indicates that 85% of 275 students are fond of watching different kinds of TV serises and among those American TV fans, somewhere around 66% of them prefer sitcoms such as Big Bang Theory and Friends, outnumbering 46% of students who take a pleasure in action films like Prisonbreak, 40% of students are infatuated with fatasy films like Vampire Dairy and 32% of students fancying drama.

【Why American TV serises are so popular?】

Everything happens for a reason. Since American TV serise is gainning mounting attention and popularity in China, we might as well have a in-depth analysis about it so as to draw the experience valuable to boost our relevant industry. So based on what we have learned from the questionnair, college students privided us with their own standpoint explaining why American TV serise can be such a booming success.

Initially, students expressed their favor on the incomparable sense of humor. Compared with American TV serise, Chinese TV episodes tend to be less hilarious and drag people into great confusion and boredom. Those who are expected to alleviate the pent-up pressure or chase away boredom by watching TV may very likely feel even more stressed out and ended up feeling revolted about the show.

Secondly, some of the surveyed students told us that some Chinese TV episodes are monotonous in story, ill-recorded in affect and undesirable in the choice of actors and actress. On the other hand, the American counterparts told us a clear-lined story with fresh words, well-planned structure, bold imagination and different kinds of hints and foreshadowing all across the show, making it an magnet for the mass audience.

Thirdly, the questionnair illustrates that some students, especially students who are major in English attempt to improve their comprehensive ability in listening, speaking and understanding in American culture by means of watching American TV serises. Some of them clearly stated that they care nothing about the story itself, they solely pay attention to to what extent is the show being able to effectively enable them to become a better speaker and thus become a English savvy in the future.

【Conclusion】

From what I have mentioned above, I hope you have learned some information we accumulated throughout the process of conducting our questionnair. At the end of the day, it has been undeniable a fact that American TV serise is penatrating into many different groups of people, from college students to house wives, from elementary kids to the middle-aged and even senior citizens. What our questionnair has covered was only part of the story, with China becoming more open to the outside world and more compatible with other cultures, more American influence and western presence will be felt. At that time, you may be hard-pressed to single out which ONE is your best TV serise and which culture attracts you most. Anyway, different cultures ought to coexist with each other and be shared all mankind.