ABSTRACT
This chapter examines screen entertainment in Brazil, Russia, India and China after their economic liberalization. It focuses on popular Television (TV) dramas and films. Numerous researchers highlight the important role of the Chinese television drama as a social and cultural interpreter. Janice Hua Xu argues that television is a symbol of modernity in China: ‘television ushers in a new cultural order that challenges long-standing habits and ideologies. State media, such as China Central Television (CCTV), are forced to compete for advertising revenue and viewers. Cell Phone articulates the work and lives of the media elite and young migrants from the countryside, and, through the different characters reflecting the diversity of national topography, age, social class and gender, it provides an insight into Chinese society in flux. In entertainment, the aesthetics and forms, as well as the content itself have been inspired by telecommunication and digital technology.
