MEDIATING NATIONAL IDENTITY Television, Politics and Audience in Taiwan
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MEDIATING NATIONAL IDENTITY Television, Politics and Audience in Taiwan Shih-Hung Lo A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Media and Communications Media@LSE and the Department of Social Psychology London School of Economics and Political Science University of London May 2001 UMI Number: U150289 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U150289 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 T y\£S£ S f 7915 * OF POLITICAL & AN° P j 'Z&om \z T-£22-£>°\ A b st r a c t This thesis is concerned with the relationship between the mass media and national identity. It uses (methodological triangulation\involving multiple methods and multiple ' sets of data to investigate the ways in which the mass media and television in particular have contributed to the formation of national identity in Taiwan. The Taiwanese casej; markedly points to the inadequacy of a widely heldfassumpfioiTftbout the influence of the media on the formation of national identity: that national media foster national I identity and global media weaken national identity. The thesis argues against this' simplistic assumption, which reflects two dominant perspectives in the study of nationalism and communicationC&he diffusionist view of national identity-formation, and$lhe transmission view of communication. Both perspectives underestimate the complexity of the media-identity relationship and cannot adequately accommodate the Taiwanese case. This thesis provides an alternative perspective that stresses national identity-formation as a conjunctural mediation process between media representation and audience reception, whereby the powerful media and the active audience co-exi t. As a constitutive part of the national discursive space that contains both text and reader, television has helped to create among the Taiwanese audience an imaginable community of solidarity, constituting both the symbolic textures of national identity and the contexts in which that identity is experienced. Through the conjunctural mediations between media representation and audience reception, the respondent families in the present study have subscribed to a national identity that necessarily assumes a hybrid form. Yet despite (or indeed because of) Taiwan's ambiguous statehood, the respondents' hybrid identifications with the 'nation' can best be summed up in the term 'Taiwan-centred identity'. The findings of this thesis extend beyond the Taiwanese case to the broader theorisation of the role of the media, especially television, in the formation of national identity in an age of globalisation. 2 C o n t e n t s A b s t r a c t .......................................................................................................................................................2 L is t o f F ig u r e s .......................................................................................................................................... 6 L is t o f T a b l e s ........................................................................................................................................... 7 A cknowledgements ...............................................................................................................................8 N o t e o n R omanisation a n d T e r m in o l o g y ............................................................................... 9 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 11 1.1 T h e A im o f t h e T h e s is .................................................................................................................. 11 1.2 N a t io n a l is t P o l it ic s in T a iw a n .............................................................................................13 1.3 W h y T e l e v is io n ? W h y T a iw a n ? .............................................................................................17 1.4 T h e S t r u c t u r e o f t h e T h e s i s ................................................................................................. 20 PART I: THEORY, HISTORY AND METHODOLOGY....................................... 22 2. NATIONALISM, NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE MEDIA ......................... 23 2.1 N a t io n a l is m a n d N a t io n a l Id e n t it y .................................................................................23 2.2 N a t io n a l Id e n t it y a n d t h e M e d i a ......................................................................................30 2.3 C u l t u r a l G lobalisation a n d H ybridisation ...............................................................41 2 .4 C o n c l u s io n ....................................................................................................................................... 48 3. NATIONALIST POLITICS AND TAIWAN ..........................................................50 3.1 C h in e s e N a t io n a l is m a n d T a iw a n .......................................................................................51 3.2 T a iw a n e s e N a t io n a l is m a n d C h in a .................................................................................... 60 3.3 C o n c l u s io n ....................................................................................................................................... 74 4. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MEDIA IN TAIWAN........................ 76 4.1 M e d ia M a t t e r s : T h e K m t a s A D ia s p o r ic R e g im e ......................................................76 4.2 M e d ia C o n t r o l S in c e 1 9 4 5 ...................................................................................................... 79 4.3 Id e o l o g y a n d D is s e n t in t h e A g e o f T e l e v is io n ..........................................................88 4 .4 T h e C h a n g in g M e d ia L a n d s c a p e ..........................................................................................91 4.5 C o n c l u s io n ........................................................................................................................................94 5. METHODOLOGICAL TRIANGULATION......................................................... 95 — 5.1 T h e T e x t -R e a d e r R elationship ..........................................................................................95 3 5.2 R e s e a r c h D e s ig n ....................................................................................................... 106 5.3 C o n c l u s io n ......................................................................................................................................118 PART II: EMPIRICAL ANALYSES........................................................................ 119 6. TAIWANESE TELEVISION SERIAL DRAMAS...............................................120 6.1 T e l e v is io n S e r ia l D r a m a s in T a i w a n ............................................................................. 120 6.2 A n a l y s is o f T e l e v is io n D r a m a S y n o p s e s ......................................................................123 6.3 Interpreting t h e R e s u l t s .......................................................................................................129 6.4 C o n c l u s io n ......................................................................................................................................138 7. CINEMATIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOMELAND.................................139 7.1 T a iw a n : E l u s iv e P a s t s , C o n t e s t e d T e r r it o r ie s ...................................................... 139 7.2 C o n t e x t u a l A n a l y s is o f t h e F i l m s ................................................................................. 142 7.3 C in e m a t ic R epresentations C o m p a r e d ......................................................................... 148 7 .4 C o n c l u s io n ......................................................................................................................................162 8. FAMILIES WATCHING TELEVISION..............................................................164 8.1 T h e R e s p o n d e n t F a m il ie s ..................................................................................................... 165 8.2 T e l e v is io n H o u s e h o l d s in T a iw a n ....................................................................................169 8.3 V a r ie t ie s o f C u r r e n t V ie w in g E x p e r ie n c e s ............................................................... 178 8.4 N o t Y e t A F r a g m e n t e d A u d ie n c e .....................................................................................184 8.5 C o n c l u s io n ................................................................................................................................ 190 9. AUDIENCE