Producing Chinese Reality Television: Power, Precarity and Working Cultures (Global East Asian Screen Cultures)

Producing Chinese Reality Television: Power, Precarity and Working Cultures (Global East Asian Screen Cultures)

This study examines the production of popular Chinese reality television, complemented by interviews with a broad range of practitioners including newcomers, contractors, and migrant workers, all of whom form the industry's backbone. Tianyu Zhang draws on first hand experiences across six television productions, providing exclusive insights into institutional dynamics and interpersonal relationships. She examines popular television series like Win the Bill (2013-) and Waiting For Me (2014-), uncovering concealed narratives of precarious production that shape Chinese television. She goes on to examine regulations impacting the broader labour market, including unsupportive national policies, social welfare systems, unhealthy work values, and the absence of trade unions, considering how these impact the television industry. Spanning a spectrum of media landscapes, from state-owned giants like China Central Television (CCTV) to provincial outlets and independent production houses, this comprehensive study captures the essence of Chinese reality TV production. Tianyu Zhang is Assistant Head of Creative Media at Liverpool Media Academy, UK. She has worked as a Film lecturer at London South Bank University and was awarded her PhD in Media Arts from the University of Royal Holloway in January 2022. She has work experience in China's state-owned television and private TV production companies. Her research interests include film and TV industries, with a special interest in ethnography and mental health. Mark Gallagher is co-editor, with Yiman Wang, of Bloomsbury's Global East Asian Screen Cultures series and co-editor, with Chi-Yun Shin, of East Asian Film Noir (2015). He is the author of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (2018), Another Steven Soderbergh Experience: Authorship and Contemporary Hollywood (2013) and Action Figures: Men, Action Films and Contemporary Adventure Narratives (2006). Yiman Wang is Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is author of Remaking Chinese Cinema: Through the Prism of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Hollywood (2013). She is a NEH (National Endowment for Humanities) awardee in 2019-20. She has guest edited a special issue for Feminist Media Histories on Asian feminist media (2019), and has published numerous articles in journals and edited volumes on the topics of Chinese cinema studies, independent documentary, star studies, ecocinema, race gender and early cinema, film remakes and adaptation.