SPECIAL REPORT
T
he turn of the 21st century saw a blossoming of anti-corrup-
tion novels and television series and a growing list of authors
considered masters of the genre. Novelists and scriptwriters
stepped into the field of public discourse on corruption, filling the
void left by the media as it shied away.
Three writers of the genre – Lu Tianming, Zhou Meisen and Zhang
Ping – are dubbed the “Golden Triad of the Chinese anti-corruption
television series.” Their famous anti-corruption works, such as Fatal
Decision (2000), Traceless Snow (2001) and Absolute Power (2003), be-
came national hits with huge audiences.
Anti-graft dramas, along with crime dramas, dominated both the
television industry as well as the public’s discourse in the early 2000s,
to the extent that it was hard to dissociate the public’s consciousness
of corruption issues from the representations of the issue via TV pro-
grammes. Despite its popularity, nonetheless, the genre was suddenly
banished by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio,
Film and Television (SAPPRFT) from primetime slots for 10 years
starting in 2004.
As In the Name of the People has swept the country (see page 43),
media exclaimed that the revival of anti-graft drama has come. How-
ever, when questioned about the prospect of anti-graft dramas, writ-
ers such as Lu Tianming and Zhou Meisen remain only “cautiously
optimistic” about the genre’s future.Treading on Eggshells
Lu Tianming was the first to dip his toes in the water.
As a prolific author famous for his political writing, Lu wrote the
first anti-graft TV series in China in 1995, which also became one ofAnti-Graft Drama
HAS SPRing COME?
Is the anti-corruption television series, after a decade of silence, enjoying a revival?
By Xu TianProcurators
seize a great
amount
of cash in
the villa of
a corrupt
official of a
State-owned
enterprise
in the TV
drama In
the Name of
the People