Mediating nationalism and modernity : the transnationalization of Korean dramas on Chinese (satellite) TV

This chapter shows how Hunan Satellite TV, a regional station in the People Republic of China (PRC), succeeds in using Korean media as a vehicle to establish its footprint in the competitive national TV media space. The case of Hunan Satellite TV throws light on the dynamics that mediate the local with the national via the transnational, in an increasingly intensified “globality” where the development of communication technologies and the rise of East Asian media flows enable “local” or “regional” players to escape subordination to the national center. It then investigates how the local media plays a role in the transnationalization of the Korean wave, in the process of struggling for survival and success in a complex national and geo-political context where multiple political, economic and cultural forces converge. The case of importing Korean dramas revealed the process of how the local “transnationalizes” foreign media products to enhance its local national status: exploiting the indigenous, negotiating the political and the national, and fabricating the modern.