Melodrama for Change
This paper uses recent TV serial dramas about laid-off female workers as an example to demonstrate the often neglected affective dimension of Chinese TV drama and its ambivalent televisual discourse on the economic reforms and the new dominance of capital in Chinese society. Based mainly on close generic analysis of settings, characters, plotlines, and audio-visual language, supplemented by audiences’ viewing experiences, I explore the affective strategies and emotional meanings of these dramas, in particular, the social implications and emotional impact of these melodramatic narratives in the context of the public discourse on retrenchment (xiagang), which has been one of the most divisive and painful consequences of China’s economic reforms. I argue that the plight and potential salvation of laid-off women, and by extension, of other less privileged social groups, has been used as a powerfully affective dramatic form by various social agents with their own agendas. Such agendas include promoting the government’s re-employment project ; voicing social discontent and emotional distress ; and attempting to make sense of the enormous changes taking place in China today.