Chinese popular culture - Essay Example

Speaking about Chinese television, the 20th century is deservingly considered to be revolutionary in the field. In the 20th century you could hardly find a person who did not watch TV and now with the development of internet, television still does not loose its popularity. Then with the development of technology new opportunities appeared for people providing the chance to listen to the music and watch films every day, every moment, every second. Moreover, art became something very prestigious and musicians turned into the most influential people in the society.

Braester points out “with the rise of “cultural economy” (wenhua jingji) in the mid-1990s, cultural capital and economic capital became exchangeable. Cultural references could be cashed in to enhance the monetary value of a commercial project, and the brokers of culture became powerful elite. Under these circumstances, ?lmmakers – like their counterparts in music distribution, art exhibition and literary promotion – could bene?t from their skills as producers of artifacts of wide appeal and their proximity to intellectual circles to become in?

uential middlemen” (Braester, 2006, p. 551). The 20-21st centuries brought the new opportunities to make experiments. The popularity the television gained attracted young generations to the field of art. Now the number of musicians is growing every day as the youth is fond of music very much. With the elimination of many prejudices the Chinese society has been always full of, new opportunities to make different experiments appeared, thus new waves appeared and the development of the music accelerated.

The development of technology does not bring benefits to all the fields of media. Some fields became less popular, because other fields appeared. One field that simply could not benefit from this development is the newspaper industry. It is no need to say that the development of technology made newspapers and journals useless. However, China can be called an exception. Chinese people still consider newspapers and journals to be the main sources of information. There are five types of popular newspapers that people like very much: evening newspapers, business issues, weekly informative newspapers and law newspapers.

Speaking about the evolution of newspapers since 1978, it is essential to mention that the newspapers and journals changed much, became bright and informative. The number of newspapers and journals has also increased. In 1980 there were 80 newspapers in the country and now their number increased to 2,200. The whole number of journals and newspapers in China now grew to many millions due to new economic opportunities, which allow to open private publishing houses. Now Chinese people do not want the government to control media too strictly.

The government is implementing the full control only over the news. Chinese population received more opportunities for self-expression. Globalization brought many changes to all the areas of media. Kloet states: “over the past decades, disjunctive ?ows of capital, people, technologies, media and ideologies have been subject to profound changes that have deeply intensi?ed processes of globalization” (Kloet, 2005, p. 610). Television and newspapers are two fields, which shape the life of people in today’s Chinese society.

Sometimes the influence of media is even considered to be harmful, for example, media is accused in