Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Chapter One Introduction: Cultural Governance and Chinese TV Drama Series -- Chapter Two The State and Its Officials in TV Dramas -- Chapter Three Securing the State: Law Enforcement and Military Action -- Chapter Four Justifying the State: Political Legitimacy and Accountability -- Chapter Five Creating the Political Discourses of TV Dramas -- Chapter Six The Chinese Television Drama Audience -- Chapter Seven Government Regulations and Censorship Mechanisms -- Chapter Eight Chinese Perceptions of Television’s Function and Influence -- Chapter Nine Conclusion: Chinese TV Discourses and the Factors of Their Production -- Glossary of Technical Terms -- Bibliography -- Appendix -- Index.

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Visual Political Communication in Popular Chinese Television Series has been granted the EastAsiaNet 2014 Award ! In Visual Political Communication in Popular Chinese Television Series , Florian Schneider analyses political discourses in Chinese TV dramas, the most popular entertainment format in China today. Schneider shows that despite their often nationalistic stories of glorious emperors and courageous officials, such programmes should not be mistaken for official propaganda. Instead, the highly didactical messages of such series are the outcome of complex cultural governance practices, which are influenced by diffuse political interests, commercial considerations, viewing habits, and ideological assumptions. Schneider argues that these interlinking factors lead to a highly restrictive creative environment and to conservative entertainment content that ultimately risks creating precisely the kind of passive masses that Chinese media workers and government officials are trying so hard to emancipate.