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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Governing through reality television in contemporary China The case of Hunan Satellite Television Nauta, A.P.M. Publication date 2021 Document Version Other version License Other Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Nauta, A. P. M. (2021). Governing through reality television in contemporary China: The case of Hunan Satellite Television. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:05 Oct 2021 Chapter 5 – Good Fathers, Real Men, and Proper Citizens: Unpacking ‘Where Are We Going, Dad’ 5.1 Introduction 128 5.2 Conceptions of Fatherhood in China: Between Tradition and 130 Modernity? 5.3 ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Comparing ‘Chinese’ and ‘Foreign’ 137 Fatherhood: Lin Yongjian and Chris Downs 5.4 ‘Confessional Mode’ and Editing Techniques 143 5.5 “Real Men Don’t Cry”: Urban Metrosexuals vs. Rural ‘Real 155 Men’? 5.6 “You Are Not A Little Emperor!” Confucian Hierarchies and 164 the Nation as Metaphorical Father 5.7 Conclusion 173 132 5.1 Introduction Chapter 5 – Good Fathers, Real Men, and The focus of this dissertation now shifts from the industrial context and the Proper Citizens: Unpacking ‘Where Are We Going, production side to the content itself. After having analyzed the governance of Dad’ television makers within the constraints of the industrial context, and HSTV itself, I now turn to the end product, as to provide a complementary analysis of governance in Chinese television. In 2013, Hunan Television debuted a TV series featuring male Chinese celebrities and their children. In this show, Where are we going dad (爸爸去哪 5.1 Introduction 128 儿 [baba qu na’er])—which is a localized version of a Korean-developed format—five 5.2 Conceptions of Fatherhood in China: Between Tradition and 130 dads and their children go to different localities in the countryside to experience rural Modernity? life and jointly complete assignments. The underlying motive for the program is the 5.3 ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Comparing ‘Chinese’ and ‘Foreign’ 137 assumed alienation between Chinese fathers and sons in contemporary life. These Fatherhood: Lin Yongjian and Chris Downs fathers are all busy and have little time to spare for their children. The dads in the 5.4 ‘Confessional Mode’ and Editing Techniques 143 program acknowledge this and say they feel distant from their child and their 5.5 “Real Men Don’t Cry”: Urban Metrosexuals vs. Rural ‘Real 155 upbringing. By going to the countryside for a few days, they try to remedy their lack Men’? of involvement and foster closer relations between the celebrity fathers and their 5.6 “You Are Not A Little Emperor!” Confucian Hierarchies and 164 children. the Nation as Metaphorical Father The show is billed as entertainment; the encounters between fathers and their 5.7 Conclusion 173 children, and amongst the children are endearing and emotionally affective. At the same time, they also serve an educational goal: how to stay in touch with your children while at the same time pursuing your career? This is a very urgent and real question especially for the urban middle classes in China. Which emotional techniques and strategies are effective in raising children and ensuring a ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ relationship? Parents want to make sure that they are doing the right thing as parents, and Where are we going, dad provides techniques for ‘successful’ parenting. TV viewers are thereby invited to envision their own role as parents in a similar process of self- improvement to become better parents. In this respect, Where are we going dad (WAWGD) responds to the anxieties of the urban middle class and illustrates reality TV’s preoccupation with self-improvement. While these functions or reality TV are by no means exclusive to China, and reverberate around the world, they are all the more pertinent in the context of the enormous social-economic changes in the past decades (Sun 2014). 132 133 In this chapter, I assess what images WAWGD presents about ‘good fatherhood’ and what having a good relationship between father and child entails. By asking these questions, I place Where are we going dad within a discourse of masculinity and fatherhood in China, in relation to strategies of governance. Having established the structures of governance of the television industry in previous chapters, I now follow Ouellette and Hay’s approach by examining how this program functions to ‘govern at a distance’ and consider how it seeks to diffuse and amplify the government of everyday life, utilizing the cultural power of television to assess and guide the ethics, behaviors, imaginations, aspirations, and routines of ‘ordinary people’ (Ouellette and Hay 2008a). So, what is successful parenting according to this program? What does it mean to be a good father in China today? Which techniques are employed to construct these particular images? Drawing on a visual and narrative analysis of season three of WAWGD (consisting of 16 episodes of around 90 minutes each) that were broadcast between 10 July and 30 October 2015, I examine how WAWGD presents an important resource for parenting strategies, suggesting the appropriation and implementation of the offered techniques in the management of various aspects of individuals’ (and their children’s) lives (see chapter 1; cf. Andrejevic 2008; Dean 2009). This begs several related questions: how does the show present desired or aspirational modes of conduct? What kinds of citizens does it seek to produce? In order to answer these questions, I first situate this chapter in the growing body of academic literature on (representations of) fatherhood in China. Then, I examine the ideals of fatherhood as espoused in the show, identifying and criticizing its dichotomic undergirding: traditional vs. modern, masculine vs. feminine, Chinese vs. non-Chinese fatherhood, and cosmopolitan urbanity vs. the authentic rural. I show how, although the images of fatherhood and masculinity the show presents appear progressive, emotionally supportive, and affective (often represented as ‘global’) in relation to ‘traditional’ stereotypes of fatherhood, they are still very much based within a conservative gender ideology as well as a Confucian-nationalist rhetoric. Analyzing the ways hierarchy functions in the show confirms these conservative foundations, but simultaneously lays bare the multilayeredness and ambivalence of the underpinning discourses. 134 In this chapter, I assess what images WAWGD presents about ‘good fatherhood’ and what having a good relationship between father and child entails. By asking these 5.2. Conceptions of Fatherhood in China: Between Tradition and Modernity? questions, I place Where are we going dad within a discourse of masculinity and fatherhood in China, in relation to strategies of governance. Having established the “Chinese fathers are too busy with work to really build up an intimate relationship structures of governance of the television industry in previous chapters, I now follow with their children.” According to Xie Dikui, the executive producer of Where are we Ouellette and Hay’s approach by examining how this program functions to ‘govern going dad, this is the starting assumption of the series. Although the explicit goal of the at a distance’ and consider how it seeks to diffuse and amplify the government of series is entertaining the audiences, Xie told me that he thought it would be good to everyday life, utilizing the cultural power of television to assess and guide the ethics, also provide some moral inspiration for audiences and show them how to be a good behaviors, imaginations, aspirations, and routines of ‘ordinary people’ (Ouellette and father. Hence the program should not only be regarded as entertainment, but also as Hay 2008a). So, what is successful parenting according to this program? What does it an educational process: the fathers try to build up a more intimate relationship with mean to be a good father in China today? Which techniques are employed to construct their children. This transformation process is the central component of the program, these particular images? Drawing on a visual and narrative analysis of season three of based on the starting assumption that many Chinese fathers do not have a close WAWGD (consisting of 16 episodes of around 90 minutes each) that were broadcast relationship with their children. between 10 July and 30 October 2015, I examine how WAWGD presents an important In this chapter I focus on the third season of Where are we going dad, which was resource for parenting strategies, suggesting the appropriation and implementation broadcast on HSTV from 10 July to 30 October 2016. The season consists of 16 episodes of the offered techniques in the management of various aspects of individuals’ (and of around 100 minutes each (excluding advertisements). As in previous seasons, five their children’s) lives (see chapter 1; cf. Andrejevic 2008; Dean 2009). This begs several fathers and children stay for 3-4 days in six picturesque locations on the Chinese related questions: how does the show present desired or aspirational modes of countryside, with two episodes filmed during each trip.

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