Situating Taiwanese identities: social transformations, young people and television drama

This thesis examines the recent production and consumption of television dramas in Taiwan in the context of Taiwan's complicated modem history, rapid social transitions, budding self-assertiveness and changing relationships with regional and global players. The detailed analysis in this subject matter contributes to wider debates in the media globalisation theory, reaffirming the continuing development of an East Asian cultural trading block and pointing to a formation of the distinctive regional popular culture that is more effective in shaping up the local production and consumption activities. The rising regional dynamism in Taiwan's television drama production and consumption since the late 1990s has been encapsulated in this thesis in three main points: 1. The findings from detailed content analysis on programming schedules of seven locally-run channels has shown that regional programming is more integrated with local business while global programming (mostly American) has shifted to be produced and distributed single-handedly by the transnational media corporations. 2. The first-hand audience interviews revealed a subtle difference in young people's viewing experiences of the global and the regional programming. Situated in a broader social context, their experience of the former has primarily crouched on a fantasy of liberal individualism while the latter provided a desirable template for emulation in everyday life. 3. The thesis also discussed the emergence of a new drama genre on Taiwanese television-Idol drama, which can be seen as the reactions to the widespread regional television deregulation, commercialisation and growing intra-regional cultural trade. Its late development has also epitomised An inevitable negotiation of local characteristic with regional forces.