Like the West, it’s a warped window on culture. But the view through that window is worth your attention.

Throughout this site we advocate for you to get to know the Chinese people by doing everyday activities - walking in the park, shopping at the supermarket, going out for dinner (even if only for fast food.) There’s no better way to get to know a place and a culture than by rubbing elbows.

Yet your new child needs her naptime, too. And sometimes it’s too hot outside for us Westerners. Perhaps you’re still adjusting to the time difference.

The advice we’re about to give is something you’d probably never say back home: watch some TV.

Traveling in the States, a big complaint is that you often can’t tell what city you are in by the programming on your hotel TV. Usually they give you only 20 channels - the same national networks everyone has. Local TV news looks the same everywhere; they just change the place names and hairstyles. If you’re lucky, you’ll get Comedy Central. You’d never want to stay in your room and watch TV...

...whereas in China, you might seriously consider it. (But that would be silly; you need to go downstairs for breakfast.) With the many dozens of channels - at the White Swan, nearly 100 - at your disposal, it is tempting.

Regardless of the city you’re in, your TV will have a few English-language channels available. Most of the time you’ll also have other international programming - Japanese often, French, even German channels. Plenty of sports coverage too, so you won’t miss the scores and highlights from back home. In Guangzhou, you’ll get Hong Kong programming - plenty of reruns of American shows.

The fascinating bits, however, come from the national and local stations. The central government still owns the broadcast stations, of course, and sets the rules. Yet there is also a competition going on among stations.

How China organizes its TV

There is one “national” network - CCTV. Each province has its own local network. And each major city also has its own network, too. So someone watching TV with only a terrestrial antenna (“rabbit ears”) will typically pick up six to eighteen channels. But for viewers on cable or sanctioned satellite systems (you can’t own your own private dish), the choices bloom.

Backing up a bit, when we use the term “network”, what we mean is the European sense of the term, not the American. In the States, there is only one CBS, but in Britain, there is BBC1, BBC2, etc. Actually, we’re getting there in the US: we have NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, ShopNBC all under the Peacock logo.

Likewise, in China, you’ll have CCTV-1, CCTV-2, CCTV-3, going on up to

CCTV-12, plus CCTV in Spanish & French, a kids’ channel, a 24-hour news channel, a music channel, and an HD channel, 18 streams in all.

The provincial and city networks likewise occupy multiple channels. Beijing TV (BTV), for instance, has 12 different selections.

Usually in your hotel room, you’ll get most of the CCTVs, most of your local province and city stations, and the flagship channels from many other provinces (HLJ-1, Hunan-1, Sichuan-1, etc.)

What you’ll be watching

Assuming you aren’t fluent in Mandarin, you won’t be watching Chinese TV for the dialogue. (If you are trying to learn the language, notice that almost every show is subtitled with Chinese characters.)

Can you follow most Western TV shows with the sound off? The same principle applies in China; you’ll just happen to have the sound on. You’ll be surprised at how much plot and character you can pick up with strictly visual cues.

Shows you’ll see a lot of:

1. •“Costume Dramas” - historic epic dramas with many episodes, lavish sets and location shots and large casts - the programming most identified with China.
   

2. •Talent shows / “Idol” competitions - using the same formula you know and love from home. Every network seems to be running one.
   

3. •Musical variety hours - a genre effectively lost to America. If you’re over 35, you’ll get swept up in nostalgia. There are often comedy sketches in these programs, too... the “vaudeville” acts are still popular here. The most popular show is the annual New Year’s Festival.
   

4. •News programs - the CCTV 7pm national news is typically simulcast on the provincial networks too. Regional stations tend to focus heavily on local issues & let CCTV handle the national / international reporting.
   

5. •Infomercials - often posing as news programs. Frustrating when you’ve spent five minutes trying to figure out what the plot is. Then, you see the same people pop up on stations around the country. Often pushing medical products.
   

6. •Commercials. Some are very, very good; pay close attention to how the multinational companies spin their products to local needs & tastes. Also notice how Chinese high-end brands define their products. You’ll see an abundance of medical advertising - weight loss schemes, vitamin supplements, even hospitals promoting various surgical procedures, some of which you’ll wish you hadn’t just seen. Commercials seem to take more minutes per hour than in the USA.
   

Shows you’ll see some of:

1. •Imported, dubbed anime and some locally-produced animation - the government is trying to develop Chinese animation to counter the heavy Japanese influence in this genre. If you’re an anime fan, you won’t see anything new here.
   

2. •Home-grown movies, mostly 70s era - patriotic flicks, a little Hong Kong action. Interrupted with frequent commercials!
   

3. •Licensed game shows - you’ll drop everything to watch The Price is Right, beautifully replicated. Many other shows are cloned as well.
   

Shows you won’t see much of:

1. •Sitcoms - whether native or imported - unless you’re watching Hong Kong. The genre just doesn’t seem to have taken hold in China yet, and the variety shows with humor still are dominant.
   

2. •Full-length sporting events - don’t know why; if you want soccer the European channels do show a lot of that. The NBA is followed madly in China, but the government has had hot and cold relations with them. There’s also that pesky time difference; who wants to watch a taped sporting event?
   

3. •Dubbed current-run hit shows from the West - allegedly Lost, 24, CSI, and several other top shows run on CCTV, but the pirated DVD market puts broadcasts into fans’ hands within days of airing in the West. Regional networks just can’t compete on cost or timeliness.
   

4. •Weather forecasts. You’ll get the highs and lows in about 15 seconds before a commercial break. No meteorologist with the Super Doppler X-5000 StormBlaster Radar, no animated five-day forecasts, not even a cheap map with dry-erase markers. (Refer to our Tools page for forecasts in the main adoption towns...)
   

Breaking the rules

While the government technically owns the broadcast media, you’ll notice every channel is keen to earn as much kuai as possible. Watching the different strategies used by the broadcasters does feel like stepping into a time machine:

1. •Some channels try to pursue an ‘all things to all people’ programming philosophy, much like the US Big 3 networks
   

2. •Others are going down the road of specialization - either in subject matter (sports, action, youth, etc) or with explicit regionality (many shows in the local dialect, locally produced)
   

3. •Stations overloading on infomercials of dubious merit, especially for medical quackery and investment schemes
   

4. •Innovative ideas like ‘broadcast bulletin boards’ where kids can post text messages and play games for the whole city to watch. (Real-time texting to TV shows - especially for “Idol” contests - has been stopped, so that message filtering can take place.)
   

There is a tension between the national government’s objectives of country unity, standardization of language, and unified political viewpoint - and each channel’s objectives of identifying / creating niche markets and strengthening & expanding them to earn better advertising revenue. How it plays out will impact the evolution of Chinese society.

Far from being a source of mindless entertainment during your trip, watching TV in China - with a critical eye - will help you learn much more about the country and its people. So where’s that remote?