television magazines

The television magazine format has become a feature of Chinese television schedules, offering a window on to contemporary society. Magazine shows can be broadly classified as investigative news/current affairs or info-tainment formats. The first daily national TV magazine in China was Oriental Horizon (Dongfang shikong). This began broadcasting on CCTV 1 as a forty-minute morning programme on 1 May 1993, and was revamped in 2000 to a two and a half hour format to compete with increasing competition from imitators.

Oriental Horizon was followed on 1 April 1994 by the harder-edged, primetime evening news magazine show Focus (Jiaodian fangtan), which has consistently achieved ratings of between 20 and 30 per cent. Focus follows the CCTV (Chinese Central Television) national news (Xinwen lianbo) and features a style of investigative reporting that has been called ‘watchdog journalism’ in China. The programme closely monitors social problems in China, including environmental vandalism, local government corruption and consumer protection issues. Despite its image of ruthless investigating, it has a normative function of promoting the Chinese Communist Party line on social reform.

Zhengda zongyi, an info-tainment magazine programme sponsored by the Thailand-based Zhengda Fertilizer Company, began production in April 1990.

It features participants from different backgrounds interacting with audiences drawn from ‘work units’. Throughout the 1990s it maintained consistently high ratings and gained fulsome praise from China’s leaders for its innovative travelogue-style format that provided information about other cultures and societies, not to mention its traditional celebration of socialist values. By the late 1990s its audience share had faltered with increasing competition from its many imitators.

Further reading

Chan, A. (2002). ‘From Propaganda to Hegemony: Jiaodian fangtan and China’s Media Policy’. Journal of Contemporary China 16.30:35–51.

Li, Xiaoping (2002). ‘“Focus” (Jiaodian fangtan) and the Changes in the Chinese Television Industry’. Journal of Contemporary China 16.30:17–34.

MICHAEL KEANE