ABSTRACT
In the time of the first television drama, 'A Mouthful of Vegetable Pancakes' to 1966, approximately 180 television dramas were produced in China. When the Cultural Revolution broke out ten years after the first television drama was broadcast, production slumped to a virtual stop, save for propaganda purposes. The Chinese government seeks to impress upon television drama workers that they are not only art workers. They should understand that they are Chinese Communist Party information workers first, and second television media art workers. During the transitional period the vitality of television content was subject not only to governmental control and the disbursement of capital within the television industry, but also to the needs and preferences of the public and the critique of intellectuals. The regulation of television drama production includes the main central and regional drama production organizations television stations and television drama production centres, which are directly administered by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
