Two Billion Eyes

by Zhu, Ying

• ISBN13: 9781595584649
• ISBN10: 1595584641
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-02
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

As China navigates the murky waters of a "third way" with liberal economic policies under a strict political regime, the surprising battleground for China's future emerges in the country's highest rated television network-China Central Television, or CCTV. With 16 internationally broadcast channels and over 1.2 billion viewers, CCTV is a powerhouse in conveying Chinese news and entertainment. The hybrid nature of the network has also transformed it into an unexpected site of discourse in a country that has little official space for negotiation. While CCTV programming is state sponsored-and censored-the popularity and profit of the station are determined by the people. And as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to exert its own voice on domestic and international affairs, the prospect of finding an amenable audience becomes increasingly paramount. Through a series of interviews with a fascinating cast of power players including a director of a special topic program that incited the 1989 student movement, current and past presidents of CCTV, and producers at the frontline of the network's rapidly evolving role in Chinese culture, celebrated media analyst Ying Zhu unlocks a doorway to political power that has long been shrouded in mystery.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Television as Cultural Control in China	p. 11
A view from the Top: Managing the Commercial Revolution at CCTV	p. 28
Making the News	p. 54
Delivering the News: Profiles of Three News Anchors	p. 75
Rise of the Powerful Nations and the Finance and Economics Channel	p. 104
Xia Jun and Chen Xiaoqing: Documentarians and Critics Alike	p. 120
The Cultivated and the Vulgar: Game Shows and Lectures	p. 143
"Going Out" Via CCTV-International	p. 169
Challenging CCTV's Domestic Dominance: Hunan Satellite Television and Phoenix TV	p. 196
Half the Sky and Women's Programming	p. 219
The New Nationalism: Covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics	p. 240
Conclusion: China Central Television and the Chinese Model	p. 255
Notes	p. 267
Index	p. 279
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