ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current wave of domestically-themed Chinese TV
dramas, considering their focus on family dynamics and romance against the backdrop of contemporary Chinese society and politics. It covers the
leading subgenres – contemporary urban drama, Republican era family
saga drama, pink drama, and idol drama – and argues that just as dynasty
drama evokes the Confucian ideal of sage leadership and good governance,
Chinese domestic drama both conforms to and updates Confucian princi-
ples in its depiction of gender roles and sexual propriety. Finally, it com-
pares the institutional and textual strategies of Chinese domestic drama
serials against their closet antecedents from Latin America and Korea.
