The Internationalization of Chinese Television: 1978–1991

This chapter examines the internationalization of Chinese television during the early reform period (1978–1991), defined as a state-initiated process of assimilating and reconfiguring globally diffused cultural forms through interstate and inter-organizational exchanges to strengthen the national television sector. It traces this transformation through three dimensions: the transformation of state television governance; the impact of state policies on ownership, market structure, management practices, production values, and program content; and the interplay between state policy and various power factors, with Western states and international organizations as the primary external influences alongside market forces and reform-minded producers. Drawing on interviews and documentary research at national, provincial, and local television stations, the chapter argues that state policy retained its structural primacy amid pluralized influences, even as competing influences gathered momentum. It challenges media imperialism assumptions of Westernization by demonstrating how foreign cultural forms were “glocalised” by internal power factors, while tracing Chinese television's evolving role from an official mouthpiece to a multi-faceted social institution engaged with economic reform.