Many years ago I studied the work of Roberto Mangabeira Unger for a dissertation I was writing. I liked his work a lot, partly because of his irrepressible optimism, it made a nice change, and also because he wrote in relatively intelligible prose, also a nice change. He had a dry wit too. After a general discussion on how to assess a country’s culture he put a reference. Rather puzzled I turned to the back of the book to check it. I found three words, ” See TV guide “. This wasn’t just funny, it was true as well. So with that thought some observations on Chinese TV.
I watch channel 62 a lot. A Government news channel in English. Needless to say there are no Jeremy Paxmans but a lot worth watching. A general Guardianish acceptance that if we don’t sort the environment out, we will have terrible problems. Learned Economics Professors debate, but never argue the problems and the solutions. There’s a thoughtful interviewer who asks slightly tricky questions of Junior Ministers and the odd American Secretary of State. At times it’s very World Serviceish. Coverage of the USA is a little crabby but only a little, the coverage of Europe normally revolves around the EU and I’ve yet to see anything about that important chap Mr. Cameron. From my paucity of background knowledge of The Middle East and Africa, the coverage seems fair, and China of course has a lot of interests in Africa now.
The other couple of hundred channels range from the truly awful to the hugely entertaining. They seem to have adapted every format known in the West. Or perhaps we adopted some of theirs. A cook whose name is not Jamie Wang but should be does slightly bizarre things like cook half a pig over an open fire, just pausing now and again to admire the scenery and patronise the locals. A man in a strange bow tie values *Antiques*. There’s Chinese Play School and CBeebies. Old Movies are shown featuring evil Japanese soldiers ( The Chinese version of The Great Escape will turn up sooner or later ) and there is even something that’s like Dads Army. China’s got talent is there although the judges seem kinder, and there are variations on the Themes of Minder and The Sweeney.
My apologies to some of you if this is too should we say Brit TV centric. Anyway I’ve got to go, Jamie’s on……