Cultural Bifocals on Chinese TV Series and Diaspora Fiction - Sheng-mei Ma

The book explores how Chinese TV series and Asian Diaspora fiction are consumed, experienced, and adapted by and for audiences worldwide, particularly those of the Chinese diaspora.

It focuses or ‘zooms in’ on well-known exceptional Chinese TV series such as Reset and The Bad Kids and ‘zooms-out’ to explore a wider panorama of lesser-known TV dramas and films. It also explores Asian American representations of ‘bespoke immigrants’, the Nobelist Kazuo Ishiguro and other ‘1.5-generation novelists’, a Canadian missionary’s memoir, a Taiwanese Canadian young adult fantasy author, among others. Through the analysis of this material, it reveals how some Asian American writers are themselves liable to portraying stereotypes of Asian immigrant communities, reinforcing familiar tropes of the white gaze. It also features an insightful analysis of Taiwan’s films and culture, highlighting how Taiwanese identity is represented and moreover shaped by cross-strait tensions.

Exploring a diversity of content and media consumption, this book will appeal to students and scholars of media studies, Cultural studies, Chinese studies and Asian studies.