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DOI: 10.1177/17427665070030030404
2007 3: 335 Global Media and Communication
Hu Zhengrong
The Chinese model and paradigm of media studies

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Takahashi, T. (2003) Media, Audience Activity and Everyday Life The Case of
Japanese Engagement with Media and ICT. Doctoral Dissertation. The London
School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.
Takahashi, T. (forthcoming) Japanese Young People, Media and Everyday Life:
Towards the de-Westernizing of Media Studies, in S. Livingstone and K. Drotner
(eds) International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture. London: Sage.
The Chinese model and paradigm of media studies
Hu Zhengrong
Communication University of China, Beijing, China
huzhr@bbi.edu.cn
Uniqueness of the Chinese model
Since the 1900s, Chinese history has been marked by an incessant quest
for modernization, championed since 1949 by the Communist Party of
China. In the 1980s, the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping launched
market reform in China and its leadership has adopted, as the most
effective Western model of modernization, the combination of a market
economy and a constitutional democracy. The last 30 years have
witnessed the successful transition from a rigid planned economy to a
vibrant market one, but politically, the transition to a democracy is slow
and has sometimes stalled. At a societal level, the highly centralized
social system is gradually disintegrating, while Chinese society is
becoming increasingly diversified and stratified. All these are
characteristics of a unique Chinese model.
The tenet for the Chinese economy in the past three decades has
been capitalism and economic liberalism. When China started the
reform, the state jump-started a massive campaign of privatization. Most
of the former state-owned enterprises were either sold or listed in the
stock market. Although the state is still in control of some key
industries, private investment has been welcomed in most economic
sectors. However, the government has even withdrawn from the public
sector, which was supposed to be the responsibility of the government.
Tens of thousands of workers were laid off and forgotten; farmers were
kicked out of the way of urban development without decent
compensation; market forces have dominated education and housing;
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and the health care system is on the brink of collapse. People have
started joking that education, health care and housing are the three new
big mountains on the back of ordinary Chinese people.
The Cultural Revolution was a watershed in the history of the Peoples
Republic of China. During the upheaval, Chairman Mao smashed what
he had nurtured a dream of a communist utopia and a large part of
the population became disillusioned. But communism is still the official
ideology and its status in the Chinese constitution is unshakable. How-
ever, the government needs some new glue to reunite the people. That is
pragmatism. Deng Xiaoping once said, The good cat is the one who can
catch the mouse, be it white or black. This famous saying officially
breached the ideological line and hailed the function of the market
economy in economic development. The CPC, and the political system
under its control, are harnessing pragmatism to strengthen its control of
society, while fending off any potential challenges to its power.
In the field of culture, Confucianism has re-emerged as a contributor
to a harmonious society, and traditional values are once again
promoted by the government. Some local governments have even
authorized a standard Confucius Statue. Meanwhile, Chinese culture is
becoming more diversified, reflecting an increasingly stratified and
diverse society. In the media industries a more diverse audience leads to
diversification in programming. Firstly, programme genres and formats
are becoming more varied: there are not only news and commentaries in
China, but game shows, talk shows, and reality TV, etc. Secondly, the
content is diversified: some 20 years ago, political content was dominant
today, there is more and more entertainment on Chinese media.
The distinctive nature of the Chinese media system
The Chinese media system has three main distinct characteristics:
Single ownership, dual system. Chinas media are currently still state-
owned. With regard to property, all media in China are state
property, but in practice some areas of the media industries, such as
content production and advertising, are open to private capital. The
aims of a typical media operation are to compete and make profit,
on the one hand, and, on the other, to implement the will of the
party, with the financial gains from the market. Although private
investment is allowed, the government always has the final say.
However, the drawbacks of this model have become more and more
obvious. For example, the media may lease its power to interest
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groups. The government and the commercial entities may also use
media to infringe upon the public interests because the media are
part of the government and are not independent.
The contradictory role of media in society. In China, the media are pre-
eminently political propaganda machines, then they are competitors
in the media marketplace and lastly they are the provider of a public
service. The Chinese media actually have roles that would be
separate in state-owned, commercial and public-owned media
systems. Since the market reforms, the Chinese media landscape has
dramatically changed: as a result some media are becoming more
mainstream, while others are being marginalized. When looking at
financial benefits, political objectives are sometimes on a collision
course with commercial reality. In recent years, local media like
Hunan TV and Jiangsu TV have become stronger and have started to
challenge the monopoly of China Central Television.
Uncertainty in media policy and media institutions. The media in China
are neither companies nor corporations, but government organ-
izations. The government manages the media on behalf of the
Communist Party. Kenneth Liberthal describes Chinese political
governance as a matrix muddle (Liberthal, 2004), which features
both vertical and horizontal structures (see Figure 1).
With economic reform, central media and media in the coastal areas
are getting more resources, while other media can barely make ends
meet, and the government is still executing a highly centralized and
monolithic policy despite the diversified media landscape nationwide.
Chinas transition is still moving on, and the transformation of the
Internationalizing media studies 337
Figure 1
Media
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political system, which is closely related to media, still has an uncertain
future. So how should we evaluate the role of media? Currently, all
media are state property; could we expect a breakthrough in media
ownership, say in burgeoning private media organizations? These
questions need to be answered.
Obstacles for the Chinese paradigm of media studies
In the Chinese model, there are always situations that established
paradigms cannot fully explain. The Anglo-American paradigm of media
studies is not always compatible with Chinese social and media reality.
At a conceptual level, concepts like liberalism, conservatism, political
right, middle and left, public interests, democracy, rights, freedom and
individualism are very different from a Chinese perspective. In his book
China Shakes the World James Kynge states, China owes its emergence as
a global power to the free market system pioneered by the US, but has
very different values from those in most countries that have grown up
under the Pax Americana (Kynge, 2006). Politically, China has more
than 2000 years of imperial history, and a highly centralized nation state
is the common form of the Chinese nation. Since the Han dynasty,
every emperor attached great importance to the teachings of Confucius.
For the ruling class, Confucianism is a set convenient philosophy that
can be used to maintain social stability, emphasizing family values,
obedience and moral discipline. There is also a long tradition of patri-
archic politics. Even in the ordinary Chinese family today, the opinions
of senior members are always of significant influence and Chinese
people have an integrated view of world, state and family. They cherish
their tradition of collectivism, as opposed to individualism.
According to the Western experience, the market economy cannot
exist without democracy, but in the last two decades, the Chinese
government has managed to develop a market economy without
democracy, and Chinese society on the whole is stable. Chinas unique
historical and cultural background means that established Western
paradigms are not fully applicable to the Chinese reality and thus a
Chinese paradigm is necessary for researchers to conduct media studies.
In the transformation of global political and media institutions, it is
clear that there is a clash of paradigms, reflecting different cultural
contexts. Chris Patten said, For any liberal pluralist the comparative
performances of India and China in the future will be a test of the
correctness of our political philosophy (Patten, 2006). Which direction
will China head for? We shall wait and see.
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Chinese scholars never stop their efforts to learn from the West; at
the same time Chinese academia is attempting to build up Chinese
paradigms. Since the late Qing dynasty, intellectuals have been
instrumental in introducing Western knowledge and technology to this
ancient nation. Most of the social science and humanities disciplines in
modern China have been imported from the West: disciplines such as
sociology, psychology, political science, economics, etc. Even the source
of the ideology of China Marxism is the brainchild of a German and
Chairman Mao is renowned for localizing the theory of Marxism into
the Chinese political system. After that, Deng Xiaoping introduced
capitalism to the socialist state to develop its economy. Chinese
communication scholars have also recognized the necessity for a
Chinese paradigm to work in parallel with its Western counterpart in a
unique Chinese context.
The purpose of establishing a Chinese paradigm is not to abandon
Western concepts because they do apply to common characteristics of
human society, but in order to use Chinese concepts and methods to
understand and explain Chinese realities. Traditional Chinese
approaches, such as macro thinking and induction need to be further
developed in Chinese media studies and it is also clear to Chinese
communication scholars that understanding different cultures should
also promote diversity in communication research.
References
Kynge, James (2006) China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Liberthal, Kenneth (2004) Governing China, From Revolution through Reform. Norton,
W.W, & Company Inc.
Patten, Chris (2006) Chinese Puzzle. URL (consulted May 2006): http://news.ft.com/
cms/s/e9275bec-bfba-11da-939f-0000779e2340.html.
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