Transcultural aesthetics of love mediated by romantic comedy television shows and their influence on the experience of long- term partner selection for Singaporean Chinese. Nicholas Teo Boon How Faculty of Health, Arts and Design Swinburne University of Technology Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for Swinburne University of Technology 2017 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis, Transcultural aesthetics of love mediated by romantic comedy television shows and their influence on the experience of long-term partner selection for Singaporean Chinese is the result of my work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration. Nicholas Teo Boon How Abstract This project examines values of romantic love and mate selection through the production and consumption of romantic comedy television shows by young, English-speaking and heterosexual members of the Chinese community of Singapore. It is driven by three primary concerns amongst this local, as opposed to immigrant, Chinese population of Singapore: first, to identify their transcultural values of romantic love, marriage and sex between Eastern and Western value sets; second to analyse how these values are aestheticized in television series which are accessed through free-to-air TV, cable television, and internet downloads; and thirdly, to explore if the introduction of a design intervention, specifically a romantic comedy short film, can provide any influence in the experience of love. Within the field of design anthropology, this research brings together the focus on cultural values from anthropology and the analysis of the design of media aesthetics in media studies. Content analysis, ethnographic interviews, participatory design and surveys were used to gather evidence regarding love, media consumption, and mate selection among the selected segment of the Chinese community of Singapore. There were two stages to this research study: (1) an exploratory stage and, (2) an evaluative stage. During exploratory research, the study identified the dating culture, type and amount of television being consumed, values of love, aesthetics of romantic comedy television shows and the impact that television shows have on the experience of love. Based on the exploratory research, it was found that productions that were not of local origin had higher production budgets, which related to a higher overall quality but provided low levels of realism for viewers. This seemed to be related to the high expectations for relationships among Singaporean Chinese. The second evaluative research stage focused on creating and testing a new design intervention and evaluating some of the findings from the exploratory stage. The design intervention was a romantic comedy short film. This study suggests that even locally produced content that does not have high budgets can also be seen as entertaining, of overall positive quality. The aim of this thesis was to identify the levels of realism for viewers which could potentially impact the view of expectations of long term partner selection within the local Chinese community of Singapore. Acknowledgments I would like to thanks my supervisors, Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, Anita Kocsis and Liew Khai Khiun, who never gave up on my research and pushed me to finish this thesis. Also I would like to thank, Charles DaCosta, Michael Wilmore, Anne Prince and Deirdre Barron for their continued support over the years. Thanks to my family and friends who supported me and showed me that I was not alone on this journey. Especially my late father Augustine Teo Hung Chai. Thanks to all the participants of the research. Without you I would not be able to finish this thesis. Contents Transcultural aesthetics of love mediated by romantic comedy television shows and their influence on the experience of long-term partner selection for Singaporean Chinese Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Singaporean Chinese Culture and Expectations of Love ................ 12 Introduction.................................................................................................... 12 The Republic of Singapore ............................................................................ 12 Singapore’s Identity and the Chinese Diaspora............................................. 14 An Aging Population ...................................................................................... 25 Women’s Employment and Changing Attitudes towards Marriage ................ 28 Expectations of Love ..................................................................................... 32 Transcultural Values of Love in Singapore .................................................... 35 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 2: Romantic Comedy Television Series’ and the Influence of Media ... 43 Introduction.................................................................................................... 43 Cultivation Theory and Social Comparison Theory ....................................... 44 Media Influence ............................................................................................. 47 The Romantic Comedy Genre ....................................................................... 55 The Korean Wave ......................................................................................... 59 Media in Singapore ....................................................................................... 68 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 76 Chapter 3: Methodology .................................................................................... 79 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................. 79 Media Studies: Communication and Anthropology ........................................ 81 Design Research and Design Anthropology .................................................. 86 Methods Chosen and Rationale .................................................................... 94 Method 1: Media Content Analysis ............................................................ 96 Method 2: Semi-structured Interviews ....................................................... 97 Method 3: Observations ............................................................................. 98 Method 4: Quantitative questionnaire ........................................................ 99 Recruitment ................................................................................................... 99 Bias Avoidance ............................................................................................ 100 Timeline and processes .............................................................................. 100 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 101 Chapter 4: Values of Love and Romantic Relationships ................................. 104 Introduction.................................................................................................. 104 Values of love .............................................................................................. 104 Cultural Values ........................................................................................ 107 Values that define ideal partners ............................................................. 118 Gender Differences .................................................................................. 124 Relationships and dating culture in Singapore ............................................ 126 Pickiness within the Singaporean Chinese community ............................ 126 Expectations ............................................................................................ 129 Dating Culture .......................................................................................... 130 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 136 Chapter 5: Exposure to Romantic Comedy Television Series ........................ 138 Introduction.................................................................................................. 138 Television Consumption in Singapore ......................................................... 139 Television’s Influence on Romantic Relationships ....................................... 150 Content Analysis of Romantic Comedies .................................................... 157 Culture in Media .......................................................................................... 162 Physical Intimacy ..................................................................................... 163 Levels of Realism with Lifestyle ............................................................... 165 Family ...................................................................................................... 167 Technical elements .................................................................................. 169 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 172 Chapter 6: Impact of romantic comedy television series alternative ............... 174 Introduction.................................................................................................