Makeup Assignment: Article Review--MTV China

MTV China: A (New) Cultural Revolution

“’Think Globally, Act Locally’ China’s Rendezvous with MTV” by Anthony Fung of the Chinese University of Hong Kong discusses the extraordinary success of MTV China, a case study of transnational achievement. MTV China profitably pierced the Chinese market through MTV Asia (consisting of MTV Southeast Asia, MTV India, and MTV Mandarin), and has since worked with the Chinese government to create a revolutionary new youth culture. The enormously popular global music video channel succeeds in China, says Fung, because it worked with – not against -- governmental regulations, creating a contemporary fusion of traditional Chinese folk culture laden with Western hip hop music and imagery. It’s not globalization that will increase economic opportunity and quality of life in China, Fung asserts, but a creative interplay between old school state ideology and MTV’s popular youth culture.

MTV’s triumphant turn in China is predicated by more than mere kowtowing to powerful party politics, however. Fung maintains this international success story can be credited to an organizational fusion between “red” capital and MTV’s distinct brand name appeal; moreover, the music channel’s focus on localization – producing local content in the country of broadcasting-- is key to success. By producing programs with distinctly Chinese characteristics, complete with Chinese VJs, and glittering Hong Kong superstars, content remains both local and distinctly modern. As foreign capital is forced to retreat from the state if content is deemed subversive, MTV China continues to ensure appropriate programming, primarily by employing an 85 percent Chinese workforce.

While it’s no secret that investment in China is a smart financial move by anyone’s standards, MTV’s strategy of sticking to localization while selling western symbolism is puzzling. Does the state fail to see the irony here, or do Chinese leaders simply put meager measure in capitalist symbolism, as long as everyone living and doing business in China totes the party line? Fung, too, questions the rationale behind the Chinese government’s decision to allow the marketing of MTV: a music channel founded on an attitude as similarly subversive as the music it plays.

Chinese leaders embraced western materialism, Fung says, by realizing “hardcore communist tenets” need to be revamped in order to attract – not repel-- millions of young Chinese. Prepackaging a state sanctioned new youth culture that’s attractive and apolitical is a strategic effort to embrace youth while producing an innovative popular Chinese culture. While the state still monitors party control and education, officials’ decision to lead culture and symbolism, with massive foreign interests, is a calculated move of national interest that speaks to the next—and future—generations.

Fung is never explicit in his acceptance or criticism of the Chinese government; like the localized version of MTV in China, Fung is creative in his dealings, choosing to work within the system. Realizing restrictions are a different sort of game, businesses succeeding in China have learned to play by a different set of rules. For those businesses and professionals born in China such rules are second nature, but to western based transnational media giants such as Viacom’s MTV, meandering through a slew of restrictions becomes just another exercise in creative problem solving. Such is the case of MTVs internationally popular award shows; largely restructured for Chinese appeal (i.e. stripped of politics and subversive lyrical content), the program is still a visual spectacle of Hong Kong movie stars and Hollywood glamour: a sanitized, prepackaged concoction of the American music industry’s most popular artists, Asian style. Some might still wonder why Chinese allow such events, along with the proliferation of MTV music channel on television and the World Wide Web, When the government insisted awards shows were not aligned with party principles, MTV reclassified the show as a ceremony of honors, and with a distinctly Asian feel, the show benefits the local artists and singers who receive the awards. As compelling as any palpable mass marketed product, complete with target market and brand name appeal, MTVs sugar-coated creation combining traditional Chinese culture with a MTV brand name production is marketing genius. Such a move can only improve party’s image in China and abroad – after Tiennemann massacre absent from history books and press, all local media only party sanctioned.
Viacom’s geographical departmentalization in China through MTV or China’s alliance with Viacom remains a smart move for both entities. Although the organizational chain of command undoubtedly stems from party rule, Viacom manages to expose the MTV brand to millions more of their 18-34 year old demographic by becoming a boundaryless organization in one of the world’s largest—and oldest--cultures. Although Fung doesn’t mention Yifei Li, the 39-year-old CEO of MTV China, research reveals she is instrumental in intermingling communist ideology and capitalist imagery. Like many contemporary Chinese leaders, Li was educated in the United States; she believes her calling is building cultural bridges. She’s an effective leader due to her Chinese heritage, she says, along with MTV China’s focus on localization (www.baylor.edu). But how do MTV’s values align with Chinese, especially in terms of organizational culture? Fung doesn’t say, but localizing the organization ensures a work force that’s both highly structured and respectful of party principles.

Just as Madame Mao transformed 5000 years of culture with the Cultural Revolution in the mid to late ‘60s, today’s Chinese leaders are creating a pop culture even Andy Warhol would love. An American pop cultural icon of the late twentieth-century, Warhol capitalized on popular cultural imagery by creating an art form (his ubiquitous Campbell’s soup can silk-screens were innovative precursors to the controversial Chairman Mao “wallpaper,” an ironic interpretation of the Chinese leader, arguably one of the most well-known figures of the twentieth-century). Warhol’s prominence in the art world resulted from redefining traditional notions of art through unconventional subject matter, while mass marketing paintings for widespread appeal. Warhol’s creation of capitalist art out of communist imagery remains an unexpected harbinger to China’s current pop cultural climate; art imitates life for Warhol, although for contemporary Chinese it’s the other way around. Xers shaped by MTV and globalization is reflected in Hofstede's framework (Robbins, 21) and MTV’s demographic. As purveyor of popular culture, MTV with the sanction of the state—creates contemporary popular culture for millions of Chinese consumers. The art, in this case the entire MTV brand, imitates life, or at least what officials deem acceptable in creating new youth culture.

Although China’s current cultural climate through MTV’s effective span of control that’s more about marketing a brand than a musical mission.

Warhol’s dictates about art, culture, and consumerism are not unlike current Chinese climate. Savvy Chinese leaders learned how to make capitalism work for them while staying true to communist ideals. MTV, conversely, benefits from innumerable Chinese viewers, which ensures the primacy of the MTV brand for generations. While critics may question whether the channel is selling out —whether in New York or Mumbai, MTV is as prefab as studio pop art or a Warhol screen print. Maybe that’s the point.