Japan has always aroused strong nationalistic sentiments in China. Many university students resist studying Japanese as a second language. China's metropolitan wage-earners on the other hand are in the grip of a fever for Japanese TV shows featuring pop idols, also known as "idol plays"
The Japanese shows popular in China are well-known to Taiwan's "Japan junkies"
Of all the developed countries, the US has the strongest economic influence on Taiwan, but Japan is the most influential in terms of cultural affinity. That is why Japanese cultural products, including the idol plays, have stirred up such whirlwinds.
But there are significant differences between the idol play fevers sweeping Taiwan and China. Apart from brand names like Sony, Japanese products have not won much attention in China for historical reasons. So what do the idol plays mean to China's middle-class people who are in love with them?
One key factor is the self-identity of the middle-class. China's middle-class emerged during the reforms and liberalization of the 1980s, when many young graduates started joining the foreign and joint-venture companies (which have largely been the origin of the Chinese middle class). Comparatively high salaries placed these people on an economically superior plane as they took on the characteristics of a middle class. A collective middle class identity, however, did not take shape. One important reason was that, due to structural and cultural factors in the transition from socialism to a market economy, a job at a foreign company remained just a "good job." No collective identity was forged on the basis of employment in such jobs.
The formation of a collective middle-class identity has to do with both economic and social status. Changes in social status are in turn influenced by the cultural industries. With the continued development of China's economy and a limited easing of restrictions on freedom of speech, massive advertising campaigns targeting the middle class have appeared in the mass media, as if the status of the middle class has only now been recognized. In these ads, the middle-class lifestyle is increasingly presented as a worthy goal to pursue.
The Chinese middle class's path to self-identity has been rocky. Taiwanese pop star Lo Ta-yu's (羅大佑) recent concert in China may be viewed as a collective catharsis on the part of this class. The audience is said to have been the oldest to attend any rock concert in China. The show attracted a considerable number of middle-class people, for whom Lo is a landmark of the times. His music invaded China at the beginning of the economic reforms -- a time when blue and black were still the dominant colors ifor clothing worn in China. The young people who were to become the middle-class were still studying at the universities or had just joined the foreign and joint-venture corporations. It could hardly have occurred to them at the time that China's economic reforms would undergo such dramatic changes, and that they would be the only lucky ones to taste success following all the reforms of recent Chinese history.
The love for idol plays is indicative of the ongoing process of formation of a middle-class identity and middle-class values. It also explains the influence of cultural industries in moulding the social status of a particular group. What are the social foundations that support these ads, brimming with middle-class lifestyles? Someone has raised an interesting analogy for the distribution of middle-class people across China: Beijing is like a bone in that the two ends of the wealth spectrum -- the rich and those on low incomes -- are more visible in that city, the middle class accounting for a much smaller number. Shanghai, meanwhile, where the middle class constitutes the majority, is compared to a date stone.
In fact, China's social structure is like a bone -- very much like Beijing's. This analogy tells us that middle-class identity has taken shape in China, but the distribution of its members is as uneven as the country's economic reforms. The social power of the middle class is still extremely limited.
Local cultural critics have used the term "high-class gray" (高級灰) to describe China's middle class. In many countries, gray is a very popular color among fashion designers and people who have professional knowledge, stress rationality and are slightly rigid. The metaphor is a further indication that a middle-class identity is emerging in China. Whether the middle class will begin to have a political and social influence like their counterparts in developed countries remains to be seen.
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer currently residing in Beijing.
Translated by Francis Huang
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