Managing compassion
The affective dynamics of rural representation in the Chinese reality TV show X-Change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12756002 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wei Dong (0000-0002-7632-2386, Chongqing University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 41-56 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Television & New Media (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1527-4764 • E-ISSN: 1552-8316 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/15274764231162915 |
| OpenAlex | W4362634813 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 35 |
Unlike Western reality shows that are often criticized as devaluing and delegitimizing lower-class people, the Chinese reality show X-Change claims to recruit social attention, compassion, and support for rural people, especially children who have been left behind. This article examines this claim by conducting a multimodal interpretative analysis of the show, focusing on the employment of narrative, discursive and audiovisual strategies that register compassion in the representations of rural identities, bodies, and rural-urban encounters. I argue that the show offers a nuanced emotional repertoire of compassion, which simultaneously empowers and disempowers rural people by integrating a humanitarian tender-hearted sympathy with a socialist positive empathy, and a neoliberal philanthropist pity. In so doing, I reveal the ways in which reality television is embroiled in the intricate interplay between state ideology, sociocultural psychology, and neoliberal logic in post-socialist China
Aesthetics · Compassion · Empathy · Ideology · Media studies · Narrative · Pity · Political science · Politics · Reality television · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Sympathy · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
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| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |